3-021-682 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The temporary courthouse at Morant Bay, Jamaica, 1865. Engraving from a sketch by Quartermaster T. J. Mills '...of the buildings...where the courts-martial held their sittings, with the shed in which the prisoners were confined...[left]...and the house which forms the temporary residence of Major-General O'Connor, the Commander-in-Chief of the troops in Jamaica...in the back of the view. It is here that most of those summary trials and executions have taken place, the justice of which is called in question by many persons in England...The senior Court held its sittings in that part of the double-gabled house...[centre]...the junior Court was in the other part of the building, distinguished by a projecting balcony and step-ladder...The prisoners, amongst whom was Mr. George William Gordon, a member of the Jamaica House of Assembly, who had voluntarily surrendered himself...were ranged on the wharf or pier in front of the Courthouse, with a strong guard of negro troops of the 2nd West India Regiment...The charges against George William Gordon were - 1st, high treason and sedition against her Majesty the Queen; 2nd, inciting to murder and rebellion. After sentence had been passed on him, Gordon was kept about thirty-six hours, and then hanged'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.