Hello all, I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to add my latest findings. I tracked down her confession, as printed in the Gloucestershire Chronicle on Apr 16th 1836. Here is an exert, if you want the whole transcript, please ask.
EXECUTION OF HARRIET TARVER.
In nearly the whole of our last impression we inserted a notice of the execution of Harriet Tarver, convicted at our late assizes of the crime of poisoning her husband, which look place in front of the county gaol, about 12 o’clock on Saturday. Owing to the unfortunate woman turning her head after the executioner had placed her on the drop, the knot went rather out of place, in consequence of which she died hard. After hanging the usual time, she was cut down and buried within the precincts of the prison.
We are now enabled to lay before our readers a few additional particulars respecting her. We are informed that for some time preparatory to her trial she paid considerable attention to earnest instructions given her for her spiritual benefit. Immediately subsequent that event on her return to the prison, she expressed a desire for her dissolution, stating that she should prefer death than life, since she felt convinced that if she lived she should never be in a better state of preparation. Since her conviction, she applied herself with great assiduity to those solemn duties, which the awful certainty of her immediate doom so imperatively imposed upon her. On being questioned as to the motive for the committal of such an atrocious crime, she at first alleged, that she had long cherished a vindictive feeling towards her husband, in consequence of his supposed severity; but being pressed much further on that point, she at length confessed that she had an attachment to another person which had at first alienated her affection from her husband. This influenced her conduct towards him, and finally urged her on to that malignant feeling which terminated in a desire for his death. Having thus unburdened her conscience of the crime and its motives, and having long evinced active symptoms of compunction, she was admitted to the Holy Sacrament.
It would appear then, that her husband was indeed abusive. I wonder though, about this lover urging her on. I wonder if the paper didn't move the focus on to her being an adulteress rather than a victim, as it makes for a more morally palatable resolution.
