St Sepulchre-without-Newgate as the "bells of Old Bailey". In 1605, London merchant tailor Mr. John Dowe paid the parish ₤50 to buy a handbell on the condition that it would be rung to mark the execution of a prisoner at the nearby gallows at Newgate. This handbell, known as the Execution Bell, now resides in a glass case to the south of the nave. Between the 17th and 19th centuries, the clerk of St Sepulchre's was responsible for ringing a handbell outside the condemned man's cell in Newgate Prison the night before his execution and announcing the news by repeating the following
The Black Dog of Newgate The Blacke Dogg of Newgate: Profitable for all Readers to Take Heed by" Although believed to have long existed in folklore previously, the earliest recorded account of the legend dates from 1596, and is credited to a prison inmate called "Luke Hutton". A notable copy of the book and its woodcut frontispiece is held at the Guildhall Library, London The story recounts that during a famine in the reign of King Henry III of England, a scholar was incarcerated in Newgate prison who had the reputation of being a sorcerer, a warlock who had "Done much hurt to the Kings