Gravestone of Mary Morgan

Gravestone of Mary Morgan, a young girl who was tried and hanged for murder in Presteigne,Powys,1805.

The inscription reads:To the memory of Mary Morgan, who young and beautiful, endowed with a good understanding and disposition, but unenlightened by the sacred truths of Christianity become the victim of sin and shame and was condemned to an ignominious death on the 11th April 1805, for the murder of her bastard child. Rous'd to a first sense of guilt and remorse by the eloquent and humane exertions of her benevolent judge, Mr. Justice Hardinge, she underwent the sentence of the Law on the following Thursday with infeigned repentance and a furvent hope of forgiveness through the merits of a redeeming intercessor. This stone is erected not merely to perpetuate the remembrance of a departed penitent, but to remind the living of the frailty of human nature when unsupported by Religion. Thomas Bruce Brudenell Bruce, Earl of Ailesbury.

Her story has attracted attention for over 200 years, with poems, books and plays written about the case. She was one of the last women to be hanged in Wales.