John Whitfield A6 Ghost

It has been suggested that the ghost of John Whitfield, a highwayman hung in chains by Barrock Fell can be heard crying for help. In his book ‘Bygone Cumberland and Westmorland’ (1899), Daniel Scott gives the following description of Whitfields death. ‘Although there are several Gallows Hills in Cumberland and Westmorland, there only seems to be one place which has retained any particular story, and it is thus told in Mr. William Andrews’ third book relating to punishments* :- “It has been asserted by more than one local chronicler that John Whitfield, of Cotehill, a notorious North-Country highwayman, about 1768 was gibbeted alive on Barrock. He kept the countryside in a state of terror, and few would venture out after nightfall for fear of encountering him. He shot a man on horseback in open daylight; a boy saw him commit the crime, and was the means of his identification and conviction. It is the belief in the district that Whitfield was gibbeted alive, that he hung for several days in agony, and that his cries were heartrending, until a mail coachman passing that way put him out of his misery by shooting him.”

Road and farmland in Hesket area.

There is a contemporary record of the execution to be found in the St. James’s Chronicle, for August 12th, 1768, as follows:- “Wednesday, John Whitfield, for murdering William Cockburn on the Highway, near Armithwaite, was executed at Carlisle, and afterwards hung in Chains near the Place where the Fact was committed.” It will be seen that the record makes no mention of the culprit having been put into his iron cage when alive, and one can only hope that there is nothing beyond tradition to support the assertion.’