She was executed outside Dorchester Prison after being convicted of the murder of her second husband, John Brown, on 5 July, just thirty-five days earlier.
[2] Among the crowd of 3,000–4,000 spectators who watched Brown's execution was the English novelist Thomas Hardy, aged 16 at the time, standing close to the gallows.
"[3] "I remember what a fine figure she showed against the sky as she hung in the misty rain," he wrote elsewhere, "and how the tight black silk gown set off her shape as she wheeled half-round and back.
D Clementson, the prison chaplain, and that she remained composed: This morning (Saturday) a few minutes after 8 o'clock, Elizabeth Martha BROWN, convicted of the wilful murder of her husband was executed on a scaffold erected over the gateway of the new entrance leading to Dorset County Gaol from North Square.
D Clementson, conversed with her on spiritual subjects, and she appeared to engage in fervant [sic] devotion and prayer, with her hands clasped firmly together and upturned eyes.
[6][7] It was the digging of Brown's grave within the Dorchester Prison precinct that led to the discovery of a mosaic from a Roman town house.