William Booth

Who was William Booth?

William Booth, one of eight children of a farmer and church warden, John Booth, and his wife Mary, was a farmer and forger, who lived at Great Barr, then in Staffordshire and now in the city of Birmingham. He is the subject of the song "Twice Tried, Twice Hung, Twice Buried" by John Raven.

On 28 February 1799, Booth signed a 25-year lease for what became known as ‘Booth’s Farm’, including a farmhouse and 200 acres of land, part of the Perry Hall estate.

He was accused of murdering his brother John while revisiting Hall End on 19 February 1808, but was acquitted for lack of evidence.

He converted the top floor of the farmhouse into a workshop where he produced forgeries of coins and banknotes. He was caught, tried at Stafford Assizes and sentenced to hang. His accomplices were sentenced to transportation to Australia.

Booth's execution was bungled, and he fell through the scaffold's trap door, to the floor. Within two hours, he was hanged again and died. He was one of, if not the, last people to be sentenced to death in England for forgery.