Both church and state had important actions they wanted to conduct and messages they wanted to convey, but central to it all, and viewed by those present and described for those not there, was the condemned whose message, if delivered, thereby also could be of great importance. When the condemned first started to speak more formally before the execution is hard to know, but it is known to have happened in London in1612.366 The condemned might talk about her own situation, or about Jesus Christ and the salvation to be found in Him, or point to herself as an example to be warned by.367 From descriptions of executions in Toulouse in the period 1738–1780 we know of several condemned that in their last utterances fits in the disturbing and yet longed for pattern – they showed their regret, asked God for forgiveness, asked the attending crowd for prayers, and warned them not to follow their bad example, or, as in one case, declare ”that ’he was going straight to heaven which he saw opening above him’”.368 Such speeches given by women are harder to find information about, but one example is how Kristin Jacobsdotter before her execution for infanticide at Loimijoki in Finland in 1732 gave a long speech, in which according to the short surviving summary warned the crowd with her example. She was described as well prepared and candid.369 If we look over the Atlantic to Massachusetts we find for example Esther Rodgers, who was hanged in 1701 for killing her infant child. She conveyed that she had been looking forward to the day of her execution and her meeting with Jesus Christ. At the gallows she spoke to the crowd The delivery of messages by the condemned the execution and its message 366 Cockburn 1994 p 165. 367 Brenner 1841, Modeer 1817, Sjöberg 1831 p 2 sqq, Ersson 1835, Brehm 1829. See also the description by Johnson 1893 p 72 sq of five men all giving longer or shorter comments before their execution. They made confessions and in two cases denied part of the crimes they were sentenced for. One of them, John Dennis, also put them forward as an example of warning. 368 Schneider 1995 p 93 sq, 102 (quotation p 94). 369 Rautelin 2009 p 199 sq. 109
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