January 1, 1847 - James Billington
Over seventeen years, he carried out hundreds of judicial executions on behalf of the British state, becoming the principal hangman of his era and the founder of a family line that would continue the work for years after his death. His tenure coincided with the final decades of public and then private hanging in England, placing him at the center of one of the state's most consequential — and contested — functions.
From Wikipedia
James Billington (5 March 1847 – 13 December 1901) was a hangman for the British government from 1884 until 1901. He was the patriarch of the Billington family of executioners. Billington died at home from emphysema in the early hours of 13 December 1901, ten days after having executed Patrick McKenna, a man he knew well.
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