McCanning's Hanging — The Murder That Became a Ballad

In Newfoundland and Labrador, sometimes a crime survives for generations, not in a court record, but in the words of a ballad.

In 1899, Francis Canning was convicted of murdering 21-year-old Mary Nugent, his barmaid at a tavern on New Gower Street in St. John's.

Nugent was shot on May 12 and died eleven days later. Canning was convicted and hanged on July 29. They didn’t waste time in 1899.

But the story didn't end at the gallows.

A Newfoundland ballad called "McCanning's Hanging" was created about the case.

"McCanning's Hanging" is a well-known Newfoundland traditional murder ballad composed by songwriter Garfield Barry of South East Bight, Placentia Bay. The folk song recounts the real-life historical events surrounding the high-profile murder trial and eventual execution of Francis Canning in St. John's in 1899.

While the ballad slightly alters the name from “Canning” to "McCanning," the true story centers on Francis Canning, a ship's purser and tavern owner in St. John's.

The defence argued that Canning was legally insane, a claim backed by the testimony of the head of the local lunatic asylum. His friends and Catholic clergy also petitioned to have his sentence commuted. A prayer vigil was held before his execution.

However, the jury rejected the insanity defence, finding him guilty of murder

The lyrics don’t concentrate entirely on the victim, Mary Nugent; it eventually turns its attention toward Canning, his wife, his children and his execution.

The ballad captured conflicting emotions of the time. Canning was sentenced to death and hanged on July 29, 1899. Notably, his execution took place during a dramatic, severe thunder and lightning storm, which heavily influenced local lore and the imagery of the song. He was buried just 30 feet from the gallows.

The song remembered the crime, but it also created sympathy for the condemned man.

And that's why I find "McCanning's Hanging" so fascinating.

Newspapers recorded the facts as they understood them.

The courts recorded the verdict.

But the people created a song.

In the lyrics, Garfield Barry suggests that Canning was ultimately "commanded by the devil" rather than acting out of pure malice. He also weaves in a critique of local society, contending that earthly justice was blinded by religious prejudice and that Canning would receive true, uncorrupted justice only when judged in heaven.

And more than a century later, that song gives us another way to understand one of St. John's most notorious murders.

Sometimes history doesn't just live in archives. Sometimes it lives in the songs people refuse to forget.