Executed
James Bishop
Before he died, James Bishop asked that his young daughter, Polly, be raised and taught virtue and Christianity. He was hanged in March 1843 in the yard of the Elizabethtown jail in Essex County, New York, the first execution in the county, after the death of his wife, Hester, in November 1842. Bishop said her death was an accident, and a later historian's account disputes that. Contemporary newspaper accounts describe him reading from the Bible and speaking calmly on the scaffold.
Cause of death, as reported: Executed by the state
Reported by: news report.