Letter CLX. (p. 239), is as follows:—

From a Country Gentleman in Town to his Brother in the Country, describing a publick Execution in London.

DEAR BROTHER,—I have this day been satisfying a Curiosity I believe natural to most People, by seeing an Execution at Tyburn. The Sight has had an extraordinary Effect upon me, which is more owing to the unexpected Oddness of the scene, than the affecting Concern which is unavoidable in a thinking Person, at a Spectacle so awful, and so interesting, to all who consider themselves of the same Species with the unhappy Sufferer.

That I might the better view the Prisoners, and escape the Pressure of the Mob, which is prodigious, nay, almost incredible, if we consider the Frequency of these Executions in London, which is once a Month; I mounted my Horse, and accompanied the melancholy Cavalcade from Newgate to the fatal Tree. The Criminals were Five in Number. I was much disappointed at the Unconcern and Carelessness that appeared in the Faces of Three of the unhappy Wretches: The countenances of the other Two were spread with that Horror and Despair which is not to be wonder’d at in Men whose Period of Life is so near, with the terrible Aggravation of its being hasten’d by their own voluntary Indiscretion and Misdeeds. The Exhortation spoken by the Bell-man, from the Wall of St. Sepulchre’s Church-yard, is well intended; but the Noise of the Officers, and the Mob, was so great, and the silly Curiosity of People climbing into the Cart to take leave of the Criminals, made such a confused Noise, that I could not hear the Words of the Exhortation when spoken, though they are as follow:

All good People, pray heartily to GOD for these poor Sinners, who are now going to their Deaths: for whom this great Bell doth toll.

You that are condemn’d to die, repent with lamentable Tears. Ask Mercy of the Lord for the Salvation of your own Souls, thro’ the Merits, Death, and Passion of Jesus Christ, who now sits at the Right-hand of God, to make Intercession for as many of you as penitently return unto him.

Lord have Mercy upon you! Christ have Mercy upon you!

Which last Words the Bell-man repeats three times.

All the way up to Holborn the Croud was so great, as at every twenty or thirty Yards to obstruct the Passage; and Wine, notwithstanding a late good Order against that Practice, was brought to the Malefactors, who drank greedily of it, which I thought did not suit well with their deplorable Circumstances: After this, the Three thoughtless young Men, who at first seemed not enough concerned, grew most shamefully daring and wanton; behaving themselves in a manner that would have been ridiculous in Men in any Circumstances whatever: They swore, laugh’d, and talk’d obscenely, and wish’d their wicked Companions good Luck, with as much Assurance as if their employment had been the most lawful.

At the Place of Execution, the Scene grew still more shocking; and the Clergyman who attended was more the subject of Ridicule, than of their serious Attention. The Psalm was sung amidst the Curses and Quarrelling of Hundreds of the most abandon’d and profligate of Mankind: Upon whom (so stupid are they to any Sense of Decency) all the Preparation of the unhappy Wretches seems to serve only for Subject of a barbarous Kind of Mirth, altogether inconsistent with Humanity. And as soon as the poor Creatures were half dead, I was much surprised, before such a number of Peace-Officers, to see the Populace fall to halling and pulling the Carcasses with so much Earnestness as to occasion several warm Rencounters, and broken Heads. These, I was told, were the Friends of the Persons executed, or such as, for the sake of Tumult, chose to appear so, and some Persons sent by private Surgeons to obtain Bodies for Dissection. The Contests between these were fierce and bloody, and frightful to look at: So that I made the best of my way out of the Crowd, and, with some Difficulty, rode back among a large Number of People, who had been upon the same Errand as myself. The Face of every one spoke a kind of Mirth, as if the Spectacle they had beheld had afforded Pleasure instead of Pain, which I am wholly unable to account for.

In other Nations, common Criminal Executions are said to be little attended by any beside the necessary Officers, and the mournful Friends; but here, all was Hurry and Confusion, Racket and Noise, Praying and Oaths, Swearing and singing Psalms: I am unwilling to impute this Difference in our own to the Practice of other Nations, to the Cruelty of our Natures; to which Foreigners, however to our Dishonour, ascribe it. In most Instances, let them say what they will, we are humane beyond what other Nations can boast; but in this, the Behaviour of my Countrymen is past my accounting for; every Street and Lane I passed through, bearing rather the Face of a Holiday, than of that Sorrow which I expected to see, for the untimely Deaths of five Members of the Community.

One of the Bodies was carried to the Lodging of his Wife, who not being in the way to receive it, they immediately hawked it about to every Surgeon they could think of; and when none would buy it, they rubb’d Tar all over it, and left it in a Field hardly cover’d with Earth.

This is the best Description I can give you of a Scene that was no way entertaining to me, and which I shall not again take so much Pains to see. I am, dear Brother, Yours affectionately.

Mandeville, writing some years earlier, gives an account, even more unfavourable, of the behaviour of the crowd.[212]

The batch of convicts whose execution is described by Richardson did not happen to include a highwayman. Here is a portion of Swift’s account of “Clever Tom Clinch, going to be hanged,” a piece written in 1727:—

His waistcoat, and stockings, and breeches, were white; His cap had a new cherry ribbon to tie’t. The maids to the doors and the balconies ran, And said, ‘Lack-a-day, he’s a proper young man!’ But, as from the windows the ladies he spied, Like a beau in the box, he bow’d low on each side.

Richardson’s long description may be supplemented by the chaplain’s account of the last scene:—

The rev. Paul Lorrain, Ordinary of Newgate, as has been said elsewhere, was in the habit of printing an account of the behaviour of criminals, after condemnation. He gives long accounts of his sermons. In the broadsheet relating to an execution at Tyburn on March 22, 1704, he describes the proceedings at Tyburn. The Ordinary exhorts the criminals to clear their consciences by making a free confession. The malefactors then address the people praying them to take warning from the example before them. Then the Ordinary proceeds to prayer: afterwards to the rehearsal of the Articles of the Christian faith: then comes the singing of penitential hymns[213]: then prayer again. “And so, taking my leave of them, I exhorted them to cry to God for Mercy to the last Moment of their Lives, which they did, and for which they had some time allow’d them. Then the Cart drew away, and they were turn’d off, as they were calling upon God.”

=1743-1745.= At the Old Bailey sessions, September 7-12, were indicted James Stansbury and Mary his wife, for the robbery of Mr. or Captain George Morgan. The case is very interesting, as having furnished to Hogarth the motive of one of his prints in the series of “The Effects of Industry and Idleness.” Captain Morgan, going home in the early hours of the morning of July 17, seeing a lady in the street, feared for her safety, and gallantly offered to escort her home. He was taken into a house where he was robbed and assaulted. The house, in Hanging-Sword Alley, Fleet Street, bore an execrable reputation, in virtue of which it was known as “Blood-Bowl House.” At the trial Mary Stansbury asked a witness, “Have I not let you go all over the house, to see if there were any trap-doors as it was represented?” The witness, Sharrock, replied that he had looked all over the house and saw no trap-door. It will be recollected that in Hogarth’s print the body of a murdered man is being thrust through a trap-door. The same witness spoke of the house as “Blood-Bowl House.” Stansbury asked him how he came to know of the Blood Bowl, to which Sharrock replied that he had seen it in the newspapers. (I have been less fortunate: I have not found accounts in contemporary newspapers referring to the name or to the trap-door). Stansbury was acquitted: his wife was sentenced to death, the sentence being afterwards commuted to one of transportation.

Stansbury was afterwards convicted of burglary. He described himself as a clockmaker, living in Whitechapel, from which we may infer that Hanging-Sword Alley had become too hot for him. It would seem too that he had not retired from Blood Bowl House with a fortune.

Mr. Nicholls in his notes on the print gives the name of Blood-Bowl to the Alley, but there is no evidence that it was ever officially known by this name. The alley is Hanging-Sword Alley in Rocque’s map of 1746; it bears the same name in Hatton’s “New View,” 1708, and in Stow’s “Survey of London” we read: “Then is Water Lane, running down by the west side of a house called the Hanging Sword, to the Thames.” The alley appears under this name in various books giving the names of streets: it was Hanging-Sword Alley when Dickens wrote “Bleak House,” and it is Hanging-Sword Alley to-day.

=1749.= _February 20._ Usher Gahagan was executed at Tyburn. Gahagan was a scholar. He edited Brindley’s edition of the classics, and translated into Latin verse Pope’s Essay on Criticism. He also, while in prison, translated into Latin verse Pope’s “Temple of Fame,” and “Messiah”—“with a Latin Dedication to his Grace the Duke of Newcastle.” His offence was filing gold money. These verses were addressed to him:—

Who without rapture can thy verses read, Who hear thy fate, and sorrow not succeed, Who not condole thee betwixt fear and hope, Who not admire thee, thus translating Pope? Translating Pope in never-dying lays, Bereft of books, of liberty and ease: Translating Pope, beneath severest doom, In numbers worthy old Augustan Rome: Whose ablest sons might glory in thy strains, Tho’ sung in Massy, Dire, incumb’ring chains.

The catalogue of the library of the British Museum includes ten works by Usher Gahagan.

=1749.= _October 18._ Fifteen malefactors were executed at Tyburn. There had been a riot in the Strand, where a number of sailors had wrecked a house in which a sailor had been maltreated. There exists a well-known print of the riot. The _London Magazine_ gives the following account of the execution:—

About nine in the morning the criminals were put into the carts. Mr. Sheriff Janssen, holding his white wand, and on horseback, attended the execution, accompanied by his proper officers. At Holborn-bars Mr. Sheriff dismissed very civilly the party of foot-guards, who otherwise would have marched to Tyburn. The multitude of spectators was infinite. Though a rescue had been threatened by many (on account of Wilson and Penlez, the two ill-fated young rioters, both of whom were expected to suffer) there yet was not the least disturbance, except during a moment at the gallows, where a vast body of sailors, some of whom were armed with cutlasses, and all with bludgeons, began to be very clamorous as the unhappy sufferers were going to be turned off, which Mr. Sheriff perceiving, he rode up to them and enquired in the mildest terms the reason of their tumult. Being answered that they only wanted to save the bodies of their brethren from the surgeons, and the Sheriff promising that the latter should not have them, the sailors thanked the above magistrate, wished every blessing to attend him, and assured him that they had no design to interrupt him in the execution of his office. The criminals seemed very penitent, and were turned off about twelve.

It would appear that in 1750 the immemorial custom of halting at St. Giles’s, for “the bowl,” was abolished:—

=1750.= _February 7._ The criminals on their way to Tyburn were under double guard. The procession closed with the two under-sheriffs, who did not permit the carts to stop for the malefactors to drink by the way. There were thirteen criminals.

=1750.= _May 16._ Thirteen executed at Tyburn.

=1750.= _July 6._ Three women were executed at Tyburn. They were drunk, contrary to an express order of the Court of Aldermen against serving them with strong liquor.

=1750.= _August 8._ Six executed at Tyburn. “It is remarkable that the above six malefactors suffered for robbing their several prosecutors of no more than six shillings” (_London Magazine_).

=1750.= _October 3._ Twelve malefactors executed at Tyburn. One of them was the celebrated “Gentleman Highwayman,” Mr. Maclean. Another was William Smith, the son of a clergyman in Ireland. Smith was convicted of forgery. The _Universal Magazine_ of October, 1750, gave long accounts of these worthies, and printed an ode by Smith on his melancholy condition. This is one stanza:—

Justice has ranked me with the dead: I bow, and own the just decree; Yet, e’er each sense, each thought is fled, How shall I front the fatal tree?

Hope, faith, the Christian world, inform me how With resignation to embrace the blow. But ah, Eternity! tremendous word! There, there, I sink, I tremble! Help me Lord!

Smith had in an advertisement “entreated contributions for his decent interment, and that his poor body might not fall unto the surgeons, and perpetuate the disgrace of his family.” According to a newspaper of the time the surgeons got possession of one body only (not Smith’s): the rest were delivered to the friends. Smith edited several volumes of “Classicks.” The publisher seized the opportunity to advertise them.

We have a full account of James Maclean, “The Gentleman Highwayman,” given by Horace Walpole, who was robbed by him (Letters, ed. 1857, i. lxvi. to lxvii., ii. pp. 218-9, 224, and in the _World_, No. 103, December 19, 1754). This is the account in the _World_:

An acquaintance of mine was robbed a few years ago, and very near shot through the head by the going off of the pistol of the accomplished Mr. Maclean: yet the whole affair was conducted with the greatest good breeding on both sides. The robber, who had only taken a purse _this way_, because he had that morning been disappointed of marrying a great fortune, no sooner returned to his lodgings than he sent the gentleman two letters of excuses, which, with less wit than the epistles of Voiture, had ten times more natural and easy politeness in the turn of their expression. In the postscript, he appointed a meeting at Tyburn at twelve at night, where the gentleman might _purchase again_ any trifle he had lost, and my friend has been blamed for not accepting the rendezvous, as it seemed liable to be construed by ill-natured people into a doubt of the _honour_ of a man who had given him all the satisfaction in his power, for having unluckily been near shooting him through the head.

The first Sunday after his condemnation three thousand people went to see him. He fainted away twice with the heat of his cell. He was only twenty-six when executed.

A long account of his behaviour in prison was given in a pamphlet by the Rev. Dr. Allen. The rev. gentleman was greatly concerned to know whether Maclean, by his association with “licentious young People of Figure and Fortune,” who affected to despise “all the principles of Natural and Revealed Religion, under the polite Name of Free-thinking,” had not “fallen into the fashionable way of thinking and talking on these Subjects.” Maclean was able to give his reverend monitor satisfactory assurances on this point. Maclean’s brother was the minister of the English church at The Hague. Maclean lived in fashionable lodgings in St. James’s Street, and frequented masquerades, where he at times won or lost considerable sums. The skeleton of Maclean appears in the fourth plate of Hogarth’s “Stages of Cruelty,” showing the interior of Surgeons’ Hall.

=1750.= _December 31._ Fifteen executed at Tyburn.

=1751.= _February 11._ Three boy-burglars executed at Tyburn.

=1752.= In this year the State made a determined effort to “put down” murder. It was a question that had long exercised the academic mind. So far back as 1701 a writer, known only as “J. R., M.A.,” had published a tract, “Hanging not Punishment enough for Murtherers, High-way Men and House-Breakers.” J. R. inquired why, since at the last Great Day there will be degrees of torment, we should not imitate the Divine Justice? He invoked, not only the Divine example, but the practice of our own laws. “If Death then be due to a Man, who surreptitiously steals to the Value of Five Shillings (as it is made by a late Statute) surely he who puts me in fear of my Life, and breaks the King’s Peace, and it may be murthers me at last, and burns my House, deserves another sort of Censure: and if the one must die, the other should be made _to feel himself die_.”

J. R. therefore proposed hanging alive in chains, the victim being left to starve, or he might be broken on the wheel, or whipped to death.

About 1730 J. R., M.A., was followed by a writer who had no scruple in revealing his name. George Ollyffe, M.A., published “An Essay humbly offer’d for an Act of Parliament to prevent Capital Crimes, and the Loss of many Lives, and to promote a desirable Improvement and Blessing in the Nation.” Ollyffe argued that a swift death has no terrors. “An execution that is attended with more lasting Torment, may strike a far greater Awe, much to lessen, if not to put a stop to, their shameless Crimes.” He, like J. R., speaks with approval (somewhat modified, indeed) of the ancient practice of hanging men alive on gibbets. This plan has, however, its disadvantages; it is “tedious and disturbing,” more than “the tender and innocent part of mankind” can bear—as spectators. He recommends breaking on the wheel, “by which the Criminals run through ten thousand thousand of the most exquisite Agonies, as there are Moments in the several Hours and Days during the inconceivable Torture of their bruised, broken, and disjointed Limbs to the last Period.” Or the twisting of a little cord hard about the arms or legs “would particularly affect the Nerves, Sinews, and the more sensible Parts to produce the keenest Anguish.”

Ollyffe recommended that these things should be done on gibbets about twenty poles from the usual places of execution, so that “their cries may not much disturb the common Passengers.”

The State followed J. R. and Ollyffe—at a distance—in the Act 25 George II. (1752), c. 37, An Act for better preventing the horrid Crime of Murder. The preamble runs: “Whereas the horrid Crime of Murder has of late been more frequently perpetrated than formerly, and particularly in and near the Metropolis of this Kingdom, contrary to the known Humanity and natural Genius of the British Nation; and whereas it is thereby become necessary, that some further Terror and peculiar Mark of Infamy be added to the Punishment of Death now by Law inflicted on such as shall be guilty of the said heinous Offence.…”

The Act directs that persons condemned for murder shall be executed on the next day but one after sentence, unless Sunday intervenes, when the execution shall take place on Monday.

Bodies to be given to the Surgeons’ Company at their Hall or where else the Company may appoint, with a view to dissection; or the judge may appoint that the body be hanged in chains (not alive as proposed by J. R. and Ollyffe). In no case whatsoever is the body of a murderer to be buried except after dissection. Incidentally, the Act mentions that hanging in chains was already practised in case of “the most atrocious Offences.”

In one point only did the State go beyond its two advisers. The words of the Act show clearly that the interval between the passing of the sentence and its execution was purposely abridged. The interval had been allowed so that, with the aid of the ordinary, or other minister of religion, the condemned man might have time to repent, and to make his peace with Heaven. The abridgment of the interval must therefore be regarded as intended to lessen the chances of repentance, and to send the criminal to judgment still unrepentant. Thus regarded, the action of the State denoted a daring attempt to prejudice the final award of the Day of Doom; it was a distinct invasion of the jura regalia of the Most High.

The first to suffer under this Act was Thomas Wilford, a one-armed lad of seventeen, who married on a Wednesday, and murdered his wife through jealousy on the following Sunday. If we may trust the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, Wilford, sentenced on June 30, was hanged, not on the next day but one after sentence, but on the very next day, July 1: “Wilford to be executed the next morning, and then his body to be dissected and anatomised, according to the late Act.”

The fourth plate of Hogarth’s “Stages of Cruelty” shows the dissection of a criminal at Surgeons’ Hall, but as the print was published in 1751, Hogarth did not take the idea from the Act. Of course, the bodies of criminals frequently found their way to Surgeons’ Hall before the passing of this Act, but was the enactment suggested by Hogarth’s plate?

In 1725 Mandeville proposed that the bodies of the hanged should be given to the surgeons for dissection, not as an aggravation of capital punishment, but in order to supply a want felt by anatomists; Mandeville was a doctor. He says: “Where then shall we find a readier Supply; and what Degree of People are fitter for it than those I have named? When Persons of no Possessions of their own, that have slipp’d no Opportunity of wronging whomever they could, die without Restitution, indebted to the Publick, ought not the injur’d Publick to have a Title to, and the Disposal of what the others have left?” (“An Enquiry into the Causes of the Frequent Executions at Tyburn,” 1725, p. 27.)

=1752.= _July 13._ Eleven executed at Tyburn.

=1753.= _June 7._ Dr. Archibald Cameron, condemned for high treason for being concerned “in the late rebellion,” and not surrendering in time. It might have been expected that vengeance would have been satiated by the numerous executions that had already taken place: then, too, “the late rebellion” was eight years old. Dr. Cameron was nevertheless sentenced to be drawn, hanged, and quartered. The quartering was omitted. He was, moreover, suffered to hang for twenty minutes, so that the burning of his bowels was done before eyes closed in death. Dr. Cameron met death, not so much with fortitude, which implies, in a way, an effort, as with perfect equanimity.

=1754.= _February 4._ Twelve executed at Tyburn.

=1757.= _October 5._ Twelve executed at Tyburn.

=1758.= _December 18._ Some surgeons attempting to carry off the body of a man executed at Tyburn, the mob opposed, a riot ensued, in which several persons were wounded. In the end the mob was victorious, and carried off the body in triumph.

=1759.= Between June 18 and October 3 in this year the old triangular gallows, in use for nearly two hundred years, was removed, and the new “movable” gallows took its place (see pp. 69, 70).

=1760.= _May 5._ Earl Ferrers had more than one relative of unsound mind: he himself had given many proofs of madness. Without any cause, he shot his steward, who had been for thirty years in his service. He was undoubtedly a homicidal lunatic who would to-day be confined in an asylum. On his trial by the House of Lords he produced witnesses to prove his insanity, but “his lordship managed this defence himself in such a manner as showed perfect recollection of mind, and an uncommon understanding.” The plea was not accepted, the earl was sentenced to death. Under the ferocious Act of 1752 the execution should have taken place the next day but one, but, in consideration of the earl’s rank, the execution was deferred to May 5. The sentence, however, bore that the body should be anatomised.

On the appointed day the earl rejected the mourning coach provided by his friends, and obtained permission to make the journey from the Tower to Tyburn in his own landau, drawn by six horses. He was dressed in a suit of light-coloured clothes, embroidered with silver, said to be his wedding suit. To the sheriff he said: “You may perhaps, sir, think it strange to see me in this dress, but I have my particular reasons for it.”

The procession was the grandest that had ever made that fatal journey. First came a very large body of Middlesex constables, preceded by one of the high constables: then a party of horse grenadiers, and a party of foot soldiers.

Mr. Sheriff Errington in his chariot, accompanied by his under-sheriff.

The landau, escorted by two other parties of soldiers.

Mr. Sheriff Vaillant’s chariot, carrying the sheriff and under-sheriff.

A mourning coach and six, with some of his lordship’s friends.

A hearse and six, provided for the conveyance of his lordship’s corpse from Tyburn to Surgeons’ Hall.

The procession was two hours and three quarters on the way, which gave time to the chaplain to worry the earl about his religion—the world would naturally be very inquisitive concerning the religion his lordship professed. His lordship replied that he did not think himself accountable to the world for his sentiments on religion. He greatly blamed my Lord Bolingbroke for permitting his sentiments on religion to be published to the world. But he did not believe in salvation by faith alone.

He gave his watch to Sheriff Vaillant, and intended to give five guineas to the hangman. By mischance it was to the hangman’s assistant that the earl handed the money, whence arose a dispute between these officers of the State. The enjoined dissection was performed perfunctorily; the body was publicly exposed in a room for three days, and then given up to friends. There exists an engraving showing the body as exposed in the coffin.

Walpole gives a long account of the execution. It was remarkable, among other things, for the introduction of a new device. “Under the gallows was a new-invented stage, to be struck from under him.… As the machine was new, they were not ready at it: his toes touched it, and he suffered a little, having had time by their bungling to raise his cap: but the executioner pulled it down again, and they pulled his legs, so that he was soon out of pain, and quite dead in four minutes.” The “drop” was no more used at Tyburn, but it became a feature of the new gallows of Newgate.

Walpole says that “the executioners fought for the rope, and the one that lost it cried.”

There is a story that Ferrers was hanged by a silk rope, or, in another version, that he desired to be hanged by such a rope. Timbs, in his “Curiosities of London,” even asserts that the bill for this rope of silk is still in existence; he does not say where. The legend must have arisen later. It is a detail which would have delighted Walpole; he mentions the rope, as we have seen; his silence as to its particular character seems conclusive. But the curious in the matter may consult an article by M. Feuillet de Conches (“Causeries d’un Curieux,” 1862, ii. 333-40); Abraham Hayward, “Biographical and Critical Essays,” ii. 30; an article in the _Quarterly Review_, lxxxv. 378, and the account of Earl Ferrers in the “Dictionary of National Biography.”

The experience gained by the State during six centuries of hanging enabled it to make two immense advances in the art. To the great Elizabethan era we owe the invention of a machine on which a number of victims, up to at least twenty-four, could be simultaneously choked out of life. This enabled the spectators to concentrate their attention on one spot, and therefore to lose not one jot of the moral lesson inculcated with so great pains.

What was behind the invention of the “drop” is not so clear. On first sight we are inclined to deem it the whim of some “faddist”: indeed, it exhales a strong and disagreeable odour of humanitarianism. As such we are naturally inclined to condemn it. Our conservative instincts are also against the daring innovation. Here was a new principle: the fall would dislocate the neck, and the victim would die otherwise than by strangulation. The “fall,” resulting in immediate death, would deprive the public of what was regarded as the most diverting episode of the piece—the tugging by friends at the legs of the suspended man, the thumping him on the chest, rough methods of accelerating his death. But on consideration it seems probable that the State began to have a real concern as to the effect of mere hanging. We have seen (pp. 221-3) how “half-hanged Smith” was brought back to life—a life which, thus prolonged, did indeed prove useful to the State. But awkward questions arose as to the proper way of dealing with such cases: the mob, indeed the public, and the legal experts took different views. Moreover, a new art was arising, based on these cases of recovery. Bronchotomy, as applied to victims of the scaffold, did not, for all I have been able to find, become recognised as a branch of the healing art till some years later than 1760. But so early as 1733, Mr. Chovet had made such progress in “preventing the fatal consequences of the Halter” that the State may well have trembled. Here was a new development of smuggling. On the whole it seems safer to conclude that the “fall” was adopted as a means of bringing to naught these ingenious attempts to rob the State of its due.

=1767.= Mrs. Brownrigg, the wife of James Brownrigg, at one time a domestic servant, was the mother of a large family. To support the household Mrs. Brownrigg learnt midwifery, and received an appointment as midwife to women in the workhouse of St. Dunstan’s-in-the-West. She had the character of being skilful and humane: she was reputed to be a faithful wife and an affectionate mother. About 1763 Brownrigg took a house in Fetter Lane, and in February, 1765, Mrs. Brownrigg took as apprentice a poor girl of the precinct of Whitefriars: a little later another girl was bound apprentice to her by the governors of the Foundling Hospital. Mrs. Brownrigg treated these poor girls with unimaginable cruelty. She tied them up naked, and flogged them with a horse-whip, made her husband and son do the same: starved them and gave them insufficient clothing. This went on for two years. At last the neighbours, constantly hearing groans in the Brownriggs’ house, watched, and at last caught sight of one of the poor creatures in a most deplorable condition. Information was given and the girls were rescued. But relief came too late to save Mary Clifford, who died of the most terrible wounds inflicted on her by these monsters. On September 12, father, mother, and eldest son were tried for the murder of Mary Clifford: only Elizabeth Brownrigg was found guilty. She was executed on September 14, her body was carried to Surgeons’ Hall to be anatomised. Afterwards “her skeleton has since been exposed in the niche opposite the first door in the Surgeons’ Theatre, that the heinousness of her cruelty may make the more lasting impression on the minds of the spectators.” The _Gentleman’s Magazine_ adds to a full account of the story an engraving showing the “Hole” under the stairs in which the poor wretches were confined, and the kitchen in which one of the girls is shown tied up to be flogged. The case made a profound impression on the public, and to this day remains the most shocking case of its kind on record.

=1767.= _October 14._ William Guest, a teller in the Bank of England, was convicted of filing guineas. Guest’s crime was high treason: he was therefore drawn to the gallows in a sledge. “After the three others were tied up, he got into the cart: he was not tied up immediately, but was indulged to pray upon his knees, attended by the ordinary, and another clergyman of the Church of England. He joined in prayers with the clergymen with the greatest devotion, and his whole deportment was so pious, grave, manly, and solemn as to draw tears from the greatest part of the spectators.” There exists a print showing Guest in the sledge on the way to Tyburn.

=1768.= _March 23._ James Gibson, attorney-at-law, convicted of forgery, and Benjamin Payne, footpad, were executed at Tyburn. For a long time, as has been shown, the “respectability” of criminals had been recognised by permitting them to be carried to their doom in a mourning coach, instead of in the ordinary cart. To Gibson, as the erring member of an honoured profession, this indulgence was granted. Gibson desired that the footpad might be allowed to accompany him in the coach. There is something pathetic in this practical recognition of the truth that death makes all men equal. The authorities might well have granted the request, but it was refused.

=1769.= The manufacture of silk fabrics was highly protected, but protection did not bring prosperity to the workers. The condition of the weavers of Bethnal Green and Spitalfields was deplorable, leading to constant disturbances. The destruction of looms, and the cutting of woven silk—capital offences—became frequent.

On December 20 three men were executed at Tyburn for destroying silk-looms. Their execution had been preceded on the 6th by that of two others, hanged at Bethnal Green for cutting woven silk. In connection with this execution at Bethnal Green a grave question arose. The sentence passed on the condemned men was that they should be taken from the prison to the usual place of execution, but the Recorder’s warrant for the execution directed they should be hanged at the most convenient place near Bethnal Green church. The variation of place was directed by the King. A long correspondence ensued between the Sheriffs and the Secretary of State. The point raised was whether the King had power thus to vary the sentence. The condemned men were respited in order that the opinion of the judges might be taken. It was unanimous that the King had the power of fixing the place of execution, and the men were executed at Bethnal Green, as directed. There was great apprehension of tumult, and not without cause, for in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ we read: “The mob on this occasion behaved outrageously, insulted the Sheriffs, pulled up the gallows, broke the windows, destroyed the furniture, and committed other outrages in the house of Lewis Chauvette, Esq., in Spitalfields.” The mob dispersed only on being threatened with military execution.

It was observed that when the Recorder next passed sentence of death, he omitted direction as to the place of execution.

=1771.= On October 16, Mary Jones was executed at Tyburn for stealing from a draper’s shop on Ludgate Hill some pieces of worked muslin. The annals of Tyburn contain the record of no more poignant tragedy than this. It is a story so piteous that, once heard, it ever after haunts the memory. Mary Jones was a young woman whose age is variously given as nineteen and twenty-six: all accounts tell of her great beauty. She was married, lived in good credit, and wanted for nothing till her husband was carried off by a press-gang. Then she fell into great straits, having neither a bed to lie on, nor food to give to her two young children, who were almost naked. On her trial her defence was simple: “I have been a very honest woman in my lifetime. I have two children: I work very hard to maintain my two children since my husband was pressed.” Her beauty and her poverty prove Mary’s averment that she had been a very honest woman. But when the jury gave in a verdict of guilty, Mary cursed judge and jury for a lot of “old fogrums.” It was really for this that she died on the gallows. The theft had not been completed: she was arrested in the shop and gave up the goods. It was her first offence. Her neighbours in Red Lion street, Whitechapel, presented a petition in her behalf, but there was against her the record of her “indecent behaviour.” One of the two children was at her breast when she set out in the cart on the journey from Newgate to Tyburn. Her petulance had gone: “she met death with amazing fortitude.”

So perished Mary Jones, whose husband had been torn from her side, who was now, in her turn, torn from her helpless babes. Poor Mary Jones! Beautiful Mary Jones, with your great crown of auburn hair! Our hearts are wrung as we seem to see you setting out on your last journey in this world, with your little one at your breast. Your last prayer was for your babes, your last thoughts of your husband, to whom, as honest as beautiful, you remained true in spite of the temptation to stay your children’s hungry cries with bread earned by your shame.

History does not tell us more. Did the husband return from fighting the battles of his country—or rather of its politicians—to find that his true wife had perished on the gallows? Better far that he should have met his death in some glorious victory or inglorious defeat, reddening with his blood some distant sea. And the little ones, robbed by the cruel State of father and mother—what became of them? These are things it behoves us to know, for they are one side of glory, of imperialism. How many Mary Joneses, how many broken hearts and ruined lives are behind the naval victories celebrated by painting, by song, by sculptured tombs in temples dedicated to the Prince of Peace? Or are we to dry our tears, comforting ourselves with the reflection that “the suffering is irrelevant”?

Mary Jones did not die wholly in vain. Six years later, after “John the Painter” had been hanged on a gallows sixty feet high, for setting fire to the rope-house in Portsmouth Dockyard, ingenuity discovered a chance of adding one more capital offence to the two hundred or so already on the Statute-book. A Bill was promoted for making it a hanging matter to set fire to private dockyards. Sir William Meredith, a “faddist” of his day, inveighed against the Bill and the atrocious cruelty of the laws. He cited the case of Mary Jones. “I do not believe,” he said, “that a fouler murder was ever committed against law, than the murder of this woman by law.”[214] A girl of fourteen had lately been sentenced to be burnt for hiding, at her master’s bidding, some white-washed farthings. The faggots had been laid, the cart was setting out, when a reprieve, granted at the instance of the Lord Mayor, saved this poor child from the flames. “Good God, Sir,” he cried, “are we taught to execrate the fires of Smithfield, and are we lighting them now to burn a poor harmless child, for hiding a white-washed farthing?” This speech, delivered in Parliament, was printed by the Society for the Diffusion of Knowledge upon the Punishment of Death, founded by Basil Montague in 1808, and was also printed separately in several editions down to 1833.

=1771.= _January 1._ John Clark and John Joseph Defoe executed at Tyburn, for robbery of a gold watch and money. Defoe was said to be a grandson of the immortal author of “Robinson Crusoe.”

=1773.= _September 13._ Mrs. Herring was thus executed for murdering her husband:—

She was placed on a stool something more than two feet high, and, a chain being placed under her arms, the rope round her neck was made fast to two spikes, which, being driven through a post against which she stood, when her devotions were ended, the stool was taken from under her, and she was soon strangled. When she had hung about fifteen minutes, the rope was burnt, and she sunk till the chain supported her, forcing her hands up to a level with her face, and the flame being furious, she was soon consumed. The crowd was so immensely great that it was a long time before the faggots could be placed for the execution.

=1773.= _October 27._ The two sheriffs and under-sheriff attended the execution of five malefactors on horseback, and two persons clothed in black walked all the way before the prisoners to the place of execution, where they were allowed an hour and a half in their devotions, a circumstance not remembered for a great many years past.

A vivid picture of the manners of the times is given in these two extracts from the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ of 1774.

The first passage shows the extraordinary prevalence of highway robbery, which at this time seems to have become a recognised form of out-door sport among young men:—

“As lord Berkeley was passing over Hounslow Heath in the dusk of the evening [of November 11] in his post-chaise, the driver was called to stop by a young fellow, genteelly dressed and mounted, but the driver not readily obeying the summons, the fellow discharged his pistol at the chaise, which lord Berkeley returned, and, in one instant, a servant came up, and shot the fellow dead. By means of the horse, which he had that morning hired, he was traced, and his lodgings in Mercer-street, Long-Acre, discovered; where Sir John Fielding’s men were scarce entered, when a youth, booted and spurred, came to enquire for the deceased by the name of Evan Jones. This youth, upon examination, proved to be an accomplice, and impeached two other young men belonging to the same gang, one of whom was clerk to a laceman in Bury-street, St. James’s, after whom an immediate search being made, he was traced along the road to Portsmouth, and, at three in the morning, was surprised in bed at Farnham, and brought back to London, by Mr. Bond and other assistants. The other accomplice was also apprehended, and all three were carried before Sir John Fielding, when it appeared, that these youths, all of good families, had lately committed a number of robberies in the neighbourhood of London: that their names were Peter Holtum, John Richard Sauer, and William Sampson: that Sampson in particular, had 50 guineas due to him for wages when he was apprehended, and that he had frequently been intrusted with effects to the amount of 10,000_l._ An evening paper says, that there are no less than seven of these youths in custody, from 18 to 20 years of age, some of whose parents are in easy, some in affluent circumstances, all of them overwhelmed with sorrow by the vices of their unhappy sons.”

Here is a batch of executions:—

=1774.= _November 30._ The six following malefactors, were executed at Tyburn, pursuant to their sentence, viz., John Coleby and Charles Jones, for breaking into the dwelling-house of Lancelot Keat, and stealing goods: William Lewis, for publishing a forged draught upon Mess. Drummond and Co. for 48_l._ 18s.: John Rann, alias Sixteen-string Jack, for robbing the rev. Dr. Bell, near Gunnerbury-lane: and William Lane and Samuel Trotman, for robbing the Knightsbridge stage-coach.

Lewis, the unhappy sufferer for forgery, was a most ingenious copyist, and could counterfeit copper-plate writing to astonishing exactness. He was far from an abandoned character, and died an example of penitence, which, in some measure, atoned for the injury he had done the public. He composed a prayer in the cells, which does credit to his understanding.

The friends of Coleby and Jones, in passing the house of Mr. Keat, their prosecutor, in order to the interment of their bodies, committed the most outrageous acts of violence that have been known in any civilised country, by breaking the windows, attempting to set the house on fire, and threatening the life of Mr. Keat.

=1776.= _January 17._ Robert and Daniel Perreau executed at Tyburn.

They were twin brothers, natives of St. Kitts. Robert was an apothecary “in high practice” in Golden Square, then a fashionable quarter. Daniel lived “a genteel life” with his mistress, Mrs. Rudd. Robert Perreau sought a loan of Drummonds, the bankers, on bonds, afterwards found to be forged. The evidence made it probable that the actual forgery was by Mrs. Rudd, but that all three were acting in concert. The brothers were both found guilty on their trials, but a strong feeling existed that the sentence on Robert was harsh. A petition to commute the sentence to one of transportation was presented on behalf of seventy-eight “capital Bankers and Merchants” of the City. The king was, however, obdurate, and after the acquittal of Mrs. Rudd let the law take its course. The execution was witnessed by 30,000 persons. The brothers, born together, were not divided in death. They fell from the cart with their four hands clasped together.

Mr. Bleackley has told the story at length in “Some Distinguished Victims of the Scaffold,” 1905.

=1777.= _June 27._ Execution of Dr. Dodd.

William Dodd, born in 1729, was the popular preacher of his day. He came, a young man of 21, from Cambridge to London in 1750. He hesitated between adopting literature as a profession and the Church, but took orders in 1751. He still dabbled in literature, and is said to have been the author of a work, “The Sisters,” which gave no very favourable idea of the purity of his mind. In 1758 he became chaplain of the Magdalen Hospital, and fine ladies came to hear his sermons “in the French style.” In 1763 he was made one of the king’s chaplains, an appointment he lost when, in 1774, Mrs. Dodd wrote to the wife of the Lord Chancellor, offering a bribe for the living of St. George, Hanover Square. Dodd got into debt: he had to sell a proprietary chapel in which he had sunk money: it is said that he even “descended so low as to become the editor of a newspaper.” He fell still lower: in his need he forged the signature of his patron, Lord Chesterfield, to a bond for £4,200. The forgery was discovered, and warrants were issued against Dodd and his broker. Dodd made partial restitution, offered security for the remainder, and the affair might have been settled had not the Lord Mayor, who had issued the warrants, refused to let the case be hushed up. Dodd was tried on February 22, 1766. The evidence was irresistible. Only a legal point stood in the way of sentence. This point was decided adversely to Dodd, and on May 26 sentence of death was passed. “They will never hang me,” said Dodd, and indeed everything possible was done to save him. “The exertions made to save him were perhaps beyond example in any country. The newspapers were filled with letters and paragraphs in his favour. Individuals of all ranks and degrees exerted themselves in his behalf: parish officers went from house to house to procure subscriptions to a petition to the king, and this petition, which, with the names, filled twenty-three sheets of parchment, was actually presented. The Lord Mayor and Common Council went in a body to St. James’s, to solicit mercy for him, but all this availed nothing; government were resolved to make an example of him.” Foremost among those who pleaded for Dodd was Dr. Johnson. There was nothing in common between the shallow flippancy of Dodd, and the great, rough, earnest nature of Johnson; being once asked whether Dodd’s sermons were not addressed to the passions, “They were nothing, Sir,” growled the lexicographer, “be they addressed to what they may.” But to misery Johnson’s heart was more tender than a woman’s; he was agitated when application was made to him on behalf of Dodd; he paced up and down the room, and promised to do what he could. He wrote the speech delivered by Dodd before the passing of the sentence and more than one petition in his behalf.

All was in vain: “If I pardon Dodd, I shall have murdered the Perreaus.” So the king is reported to have said—and, indeed, although Dodd’s partisans fell foul of court and jury, it is not easy to see how, if Dodd had been pardoned, the punishment of death for forgery could ever after have been inflicted. There is a pathetic touch in the fact that, many years before his fall, Dodd preached a sermon, afterwards printed, deprecating the frequency of capital punishment. In “Prison Thoughts” he foretold the abolition of the procession to Tyburn, or perhaps of public executions:—

“… yes, the day— I joy in the idea—will arrive When Britons philanthropic shall reject The cruel custom, to the sufferer cruel, Useless and baneful to the gaping crowd!”

On June 27 the fatal procession set out from Newgate. On this occasion “there was perhaps the greatest concourse of people ever drawn together by a like spectacle.” “Just before the parties were turned off Dr. Dodd whispered to the executioner. What he said cannot be known; but it was observed that the man had no sooner driven away the cart, than he ran immediately under the gibbet, and took hold of the doctor’s legs, as if to steady the body.” Another account says that the executioner, gained over by Dodd’s friends, had arranged the knot in a particular manner, and whispered to him as the cart drew off, “You must not move an inch!” When cut down the body was conveyed to the house of an undertaker in Goodge Street, where a hot bath was in readiness. Under the direction of Pott, a celebrated surgeon of the day, every effort was made to restore animation. But in vain. The crowd was so enormous that there had been great delay in the transport of the body, and this was fatal. Nevertheless, there were not wanting people who believed that Dodd had been resuscitated and carried abroad.

=1779.= _April 19._ The Rev. James Hackman executed at Tyburn for the murder of Miss Martha Ray.

As the spectators were leaving the performance of “Love in a Village” at Drury Lane, on the night of April 7, a gentleman, seeing Miss Ray, with whom he had some little acquaintance, in difficulty in getting to her coach, stept forward and offered his assistance. When close to the coach he heard the report of a pistol, and felt the lady fall. For a moment he thought that she had fallen in fright at the report, but on stooping down, to help her to rise, he found his hands covered with blood. With the aid of a light-boy, he got the lady into the Shakespeare tavern. She was dead. The murdered woman was Miss Martha Ray, the mistress of Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty; her murderer the Rev. Mr. Hackman.

Hackman was born in 1752. He was apprenticed to a mercer, but, disliking the business, his friends bought for him a commission in a foot regiment. While with a recruiting party at Huntingdon, he was invited to the country house of Lord Sandwich, and fell violently in love with the Earl’s mistress. In 1776 he left the army, took orders, and in 1779 was presented to the living of Wiverton, in Norfolk. It is doubtful whether he ever officiated there. He had not been able to forget Martha Ray. He continued his attentions, and offered her marriage. On the fatal day, having written a letter to a friend, announcing his intention to destroy himself, he went to the theatre armed with two pistols. After discharging one at the lady, he shot himself and fell at the lady’s feet, beating his head with the butt-end of a pistol and calling on the bystanders to kill him. On his trial his only defence was that a momentary frenzy overcame him. The letter contained nothing to indicate an intention to kill Miss Ray. He was executed on April 19.

Boswell records a stormy discussion between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Beauclerk on the subject of the murder. Did the fact that Hackman carried two pistols indicate an intention to kill Miss Ray as well as himself? Johnson held that it did; Beauclerk maintained the contrary, citing the case of a man inordinately fond of muffins, which disagreed with him. Determined to enjoy a last repast, he ate his muffins and then shot himself. He had ready two pistols for the purpose. As too often happens, neither disputant could convince the other (ed. Hill, iii. 383-5).

Here is a portion of a Grub Street ballad on the tragedy:—

A Sandwich favourite was this fair, And her he dearly loved: By whom six children had, we hear: This story fatal proved.

A clergyman, O wicked one, In Covent Garden shot her: No time to cry upon her God, Its hop’d he’s not forgot her.

Martha Ray bore several children to the Earl. One of them, Basil Montagu, is in our days remembered, if at all, by a savage snarl of Carlyle at the man and his parentage (“Reminiscences,” i. 224), “considerably a humbug if you probed too strictly.” Basil has already been mentioned in this book as the founder of the Society for the Diffusion of Knowledge upon the Punishment of Death. By his numerous writings on this subject he did perhaps more than any other man to bring home to the public the frightful cruelty of our criminal law. He may at least be credited with sincerity in this matter. On one occasion, in 1801, he posted through the night to Huntingdon, arriving with a respite just in time to save the lives of two men.

Lord Sandwich gave to the world a thing and its name. He was an inveterate gambler, and, in order that he might continue this diversion uninterruptedly, he caused to be served to him thin slices of meat placed between bread. Hence the “sandwich,” known to all civilised men.

=1779.= _August 25._ Four malefactors were carried to Tyburn for execution, and had been tied up for near twenty minutes when a report was spread that a reprieve was come to Newgate for one of them. They were all untied and left in the cart while one of the sheriffs went to Lord Weymouth to learn the truth. No reprieve having been granted, the execution took place at near one o’clock.

=1779.= _October 27._ Isabella Condon, condemned for coining, was at Tyburn first strangled, and then burnt.

=1780.= _April 12._ A man was executed at Tyburn for robbing the house of Jeremiah Bentham. This was the father of Jeremy Bentham. One wonders whether this execution directed his thoughts to the question of capital punishment.

=1781.= _July 27._ Francis Henry de la Motte, executed at Tyburn for giving to the French Government information as to the movement of British ships. The sentence was in the usual form for high treason, that he should be hanged “but not till you are dead,” but he was allowed to hang for nearly an hour. The head was severed from the body, four incisions made in the body, and part of the entrails thrown into a fire. Then the body was delivered to an undertaker, and was buried in St. Pancras churchyard.

=1783.= _August 29._ William Wynne Ryland executed at Tyburn for forgery. Ryland was an engraver of repute in the manner of Bartolozzi. He is the subject of a careful study, perhaps too sympathetic, by Mr. Bleackley, in his “Some Distinguished Victims of the Scaffold,” 1905.

=1783.= _November 7._ On this day took place the last execution at Tyburn. The occasion requires us to give in full the account, not otherwise particularly interesting. It is quoted from the _Gentleman’s Magazine_:—

This morning was executed at Tyburn, John Austin, convicted the preceding Saturday of robbing John Spicer, and cutting and wounding him in a cruel manner. From Newgate to Tyburn he behaved with great composure. While the halter was tying, his whole frame appeared to be violently convulsed. The Ordinary having retired, he addressed himself to the populace: “Good people, I request your prayers for the salvation of my departing soul: let my example teach you to shun the bad ways I have followed: keep good company, and mind the word of God.” The cap being drawn over his face, he raised his hands and cried, “Lord have mercy on me: Jesus look down with pity on me: Christ have mercy on my poor soul!” and, while uttering these words, the cart was driven away. The noose of the halter having slipped to the back part of his neck, it was longer than usual before he was dead.

The transference of executions to Newgate involved the suppression of the processions which for six hundred years had been a feature of the city’s life. The change did not receive the approval of Dr. Johnson. “The age,” he said, “is running mad after innovation: all the business of the world is to be done in a new way: Tyburn itself is not safe from the fury of innovation!” It having been argued that this was an improvement—“No, Sir (said he eagerly), it is not an improvement: they object that the old method drew together a number of spectators. Sir, executions are intended to draw spectators. If they do not draw spectators, they don’t answer their purpose. The old method was most satisfactory to all parties: the public was gratified by a procession: the criminal was supported by it. Why is all this to be swept away?”

From the “moral lesson” point of view Dr. Johnson was quite right. But the procession was abolished simply because the best quarter of the town had extended to Tyburn.

On December 9, 1783, the first executions took place in front of Newgate prison, on the new gallows, with a “drop.” The illustration shows

THE DAWN OF THE NEW ERA.

The ten persons seem to fill the stage, but it would be doing an injustice to the designer of this national monument to assume that he had not taken into account the possible demands of the State.

On February 2, 1785, twenty men swung in a batch in front of the debtors’ door. Of these, five—FIVE—were hanged for assaulting a man and robbing him of two glass drops, set in metal, value 3d.; a one-inch rule, value 2d.; two papers of nails, value 1d.; one knife, value 1d.; two shillings, and a counterfeit half-penny.

Tyburn gallows was in full vigour when the claims of a “genteel” neighbourhood demanded its abolition. In the last year of its existence one hundred and eight persons were condemned to death at the Old Bailey sessions—fifty-eight in a single sessions. Most of the condemned were reprieved: the crimes of these must have been light, for John Kelly was actually hanged for robbing another of sixpence-farthing.

Within view of the accursed spot Catholics have instituted an Oratory of the English Martyrs. It is well: the world cannot afford to forget the example of those who, whether at Tyburn or Smithfield, gladly faced the most horrible of deaths rather than be false to themselves.

But in honouring them, let us not forget the thousands of martyrs for whom no one has claimed the crown of martyrdom—the martyrs to ferocious laws, not seldom put in force against the innocent, the martyrs to cruel injustice, to iniquitous social conditions. Thousands have had the life choked out of them at Tyburn on whom pity might well have dropped a pardoning tear: to whom compassion might well have stretched out a helping hand.

If not a sparrow falls unheeded, these obscure martyrs may not have died in vain.

FOOTNOTES

[1] “My opinion is that we have gone too far in laying it [capital punishment] aside, and that it ought to be inflicted in many cases not at present capital. I think, for instance, that political offences should in some cases be punished with death. People should be made to understand that to attack the existing state of society is equivalent to risking their own lives” (“Hist. of the Criminal Law of England,” 1880, i. 478).

[2] Spelman, “Glossarium” (_s.v._ Furca) gives a notable instance of the drowning of a woman about A.D. 1200.

[3] Walsingham, Gesta Abbatum Monas. S. Albani, ed. Riley, i. 39-41.

[4] Chron. of the Reigns of Stephen, &c., ed. Howlett, ii. Preface p. 1.

[5] Matthew Paris, Chron. Maj., ed. Luard, v. 56-60, 369. The “Statute of Winchester,” 13 Edward I. (1285), enacted that trees and brushwood should be cut down for 200 feet in width on either side of highways between market towns.

[6] “De Corona,” book iii. Second Treatise, chap. i.

[7] “Subito enim et sine certa causa, quasi lymphatico metu correpti, de villa in villam cum cornuum strepitu, quod Anglice Uthes dicitur, fere per totam Angliam deduxerunt” (“Hist. Coll. of Walter of Coventry,” ed. Stubbs, ii. 206).

[8] “Hist. of the Norman Conquest,” ii. 34.

[9] “De sorte qu’on a long-temps douté si un ecclésiastique pouvoit, sans hazard d’irrégularité, faire exercer Justice de sang en sa terre; estant chose étrange qu’on puisse commettre à autruy, ce qu’on ne peut faire soi-mesme” (Loyseau, Œuvres, ed. 1701, p. 4).

[10] Placita de Quo Waranto, p. 479.

[11] Chron. William of Malmesbury, ed. Stubbs, i. 171.

An interesting story is told of the rescue by a bishop of a man in the year 1184. One, Gilbert Plumpton, actually had the rope round his neck when the bishop passed by. He ordered the executioners to let the man down, alleging that the day was Sunday, and besides the feast of St. Mary Magdalene. But he had heard the people crying out that Plumpton was innocent, and he believed them. On threat of excommunication the executioners loosed the rope. The bishop prevailed with the king to spare Plumpton’s life. Plumpton remained in prison till the death of the king (Chron. Roger de Hoveden, ed. Stubbs, ii. 286).

[12] Annales de Waverleia (in Annales Monastici), ed. Luard, ii. 395. Waverley Abbey, which, by the way, has nothing to do with Scott’s “Waverley,” was founded in 1218, being the first Cistercian Abbey in England. The abbey is, of course, in ruins, but the abbat’s mill still exists, and the place retains more of the character of a monastery than any I have seen. Cobbett, who was born at Farnham, not far distant, speaks of the ruins, which probably inspired one of the best passages in his writing. (“Hist. of the Protestant Reformation,” pars. 184, 155.) In one of the abbey’s charters mention is made of the oak of Tilford as existing in the time of Stephen. It is to-day one of the sights of this part of Surrey.

[13] Rot. Hund., i. 407, 417, 418, 422, 425, 429; Plac. de Quo War., pp. 478, 480.

[14] Spelman, “Glossarium,” _s.v._ Trailbaston. Rot. Parl. i. 178, 218-9; ii. 174; iii. 24.

[15] Annals of Tewkesbury, in Annal. Monas., ed. Luard i. 511-6.

[16] Dugdale, Monast. Anglic., ed. in 8 vols., vi. 240.

[17] Annals of Dunstable, in Annal. Monast., ed. Luard, iii. 261.

[18] Rot. Parl., i. 45.

[19] Ducange, “Glossarium,” _s.v._ Furca.

[20] Loyseau, “Traité des Seigneuries,” ed. 1610, p. 46.

[21] Camden’s “Britannia,” ed. Gough, 1789, ii. 238.

[22] Thorpe, “Ancient Laws and Inst. of England,” fo. ed., p. 125.

[23] Chron. Roger de Hoveden, ed. Stubbs, iii. 36.

[24] Borough Customs (Selden Soc.), pp. 73, 74.

[25] Boys’ “Hist. of Sandwich,” p. 465.

[26] Liber Custumarum, ed. Riley. i. 150.

[27] Harrison, in Holinshed’s Chron. An instance is recorded in Machyn’s Diary: “1557. The vj day of Aprell was hangyd at the low-water marke at Wapyng be-yond santt Katheryns vij for robyng on the see,” p. 131. According to Hentzner, who visited England about 1598, 300 pirates were hanged yearly in London.

[28] Borough Customs (Selden Soc.), pp. 73, 74.

[29] Fortescue, “De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, with the Summs of Sir Ralph de Hengham.” Notes by Selden, 1741, p. 33, _note_.

[30] Borough Customs (Selden Soc.), pp. 73, 74.

[31] The Act making poisoning high treason was repealed by 1 Edward VI., c. 12, sec. 12, which made poisoning wilful murder, to be punished as murder. Harrison was therefore mistaken in writing of the punishment as if it still existed. Curiously enough Bacon, on the trial of the Earl of Somerset, eulogised Henry’s Act, without hinting at its repeal.

[32] “The Christian Prudence of this Customary Law” is defended in a little work, “Hallifax and its Gibbet-Law Placed in a True Light,” 1708, containing an illustration copied in Gough’s edition of Camden’s “Britannia,” and in the enlarged “Magna Britannia,” ed. 1731, vi. 384. In “Hallifax and its Gibbet-Law” it is stated, with every appearance of probability, that the custom goes back to a date before the Norman Conquest. It appears that the last persons executed were Abraham Wilkinson and Anthony Mitchell in 1650 for stealing 9 yards of cloth and two colts.

[33] Thorpe, “Anc. Laws and Inst. of England,” fo. ed., p. 252.

[34] Chron. Benedict of Peterborough, ed. Stubbs, i. 122-3.

[35] “Gleanings from Westminster Abbey” (Sir Gilbert Scott), 1863, pp. 282-90, where the original authorities are mentioned.

[36] Chrons. of the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward II., ed. Stubbs, i. 132.

[37] “Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey,” 1868, pp. 384-5.

[38] Chron. Walter of Coventry, ed. Stubbs, ii. 251-2; Gregory’s Chron. (Camden Socy.), p. 63; Chron. Grey Friars, in Mon. Francisc., ed. Howlett, ii. 146; Capgrave, ed. Hingeston, p. 151. Coggeshall, Chron. Angl., ed. Stevenson, p. 11.

[39] “Tractus” is the usual form; for the other forms see, for example, Chron. Angliæ, ed. Thompson, p. 2; Chron. Barth. Cotton, ed. Luard, pp. 132, 159, 164, 166.

[40] See illustration in Annals, under year 1242.

[41] Annals, under year 1196.

[42] “Et super corium bovinum tractus, ne concito moreretur” (Annales de Vigornia, in Annales Monastici, ed. Luard, iv. 523).

[43] “Liber Assisarum, Le Livre des Assises et Pleas del’ Corone,” &c. Sir Robert Brook, 1679. This sentence contains the first mention of the hurdle in this connection. In the Popish Plot sentences “sledge” and “hurdle” are used indifferently as names for the same thing.

[44] Chronicles: Waverley, ed. Luard, ii. 378; Flores Hist. ed. Luard, iii. 24-6; Osney (in Annales Monastici, ed. Luard, iv. 251); Cotton, ed. Luard, p. 148; an account unfavourable to the prior is found in Liber de Antiq. Leg., Riley’s translation, pp. 150-3.

[45] Matthew Paris, Chron. Majora, ed. Luard, iii. 497, 498.

[46] Chrons. Osney, Worcester, in Annales Monas. ed. Luard, iv. 294, 488. Between the executions for high treason of Prince David and Sir William Wallace, comes that, in 1295, of Sir Thomas de Turberville. His crime was undoubtedly high treason, but the punishment was abnormal; he was drawn to the gallows, and there hanged, no doubt alive, by a chain of iron. See Annals, under the year. A passage in “Fleta,” written about 1285, seems to indicate that at the time the character of the punishment was not rigorously fixed: “If he is found guilty, he shall undergo the last punishment (ultimum supplicium) with aggravation of the corporeal penalty” (book i., chap. xxi).

[47] “Primo per plateas Londoniæ ad caudas equinas tractus usque ad patibulum altissimum sibi fabricatum, quo laqueo suspensus, postea semivivus dimissus, deinde abscisis genitalibus et evisceratis intestinis ac in ignem crematis, demura absciso capite ac trunco in quatuor partes secto, caput palo super pontem Londoniæ affigitur; quadrifida vero membra ad partes Scotiæ sunt transmissa” (“Flores Hist.,” ed. Luard, iii. 124).

Another chronicler expressly states “ultimo decollatur,” and a third, “demum decollatus est.” Walsingham, Ypodigma, ed. Riley, p. 235; Chron. Rishanger, ed. Riley, pp. 225, 226.

[48] Hawkins (William), “A Treatise of the Pleas of the Crown,” 1771, c. 48, p. 443. See for details, Sir William Stanford, “Les Plees del Coron.,” 1560, fol. 182, 182b. Sir Matthew Hale, “Hist. Placit. Coronæ,” i. 350-1. “Les Reports de Henry Rolle,” 1675, i. 185-7, containing a good example of law-French of the time of James I., the most exquisite jargon ever invented by man. Coke, “Institutes,” part iii., 1644, p. 210, where Coke gives scriptural authority for all the horrors of the sentence. In passing sentence on the Gunpowder Plot men Coke gave an elaborate justification of each part of the sentence (“State Trials,” ii. 184).

[49] “State Trials,” xviii. 350-1.

[50] Ellis, “Original Letters,” 1st series, ii. 261.

[51] “Constitut. Hist.,” ed. 1854, i. 148.

[52] “A Declaration of the favourable Dealing of her Majesties Commissioners appointed for the Examination of certaine Traytours, and of Tortures unjustly reported to be done upon them for Matters of Religion, 1583.” Reprinted in “Harleian Miscellanies,” iii. 565-8, and in “Somers’s Tracts,” i. 209-12. In the latter the tract is ascribed to Burghley. I think that the only non-official defence of torture published in England is contained in a pamphlet published in 1656, under the Commonwealth, by Sir R. Wiseman (the title belongs to the Restoration). He writes: “So that to bring men to the rack in such cases [where there was only one witness] for trials sake is not to be censured for cruelty.… This rigour of the Law (if it be any) is recompensed with advantage to the whole Commonwealth; for by the terror hereof it is free from the machinations of wicked and lewd men.” (“The Law of Laws,” 1656.) It was written when Cromwell’s power and life were the object of numerous plots, but there is nothing in the book to connect this defence of torture with current affairs. The last _recorded_ case of torture in England, and the last that a careful inquirer could discover, was on May 21, 1640, Jardine, David, “A Reading on the Use of Torture in England,” 1837, pp. 57, 58, 108, 109.

[53] Ed. Oxford, 1865, i. 26-7.

[54] Book i. c. 34, § 33.

[55] Chron. Barth. Cotton, ed. Luard, p. 228.

[56] Chron. Year Books of Edward I., years 30-31, p. 499.

[57] Rymer, “Fœdera,” vi. 13.

[58] Year Book, 8 Henry IV., Michaelmas term.

[59] Holinshed, i. 185.

[60] Mr. John Mush’s Life of Margaret Clitherow, in “The Troubles of Our Catholic Forefathers,” by Father John Morris, 3rd series, 1877, p. 432.

[61] “The Unhappy Marksman,” in Thomasson Tracts, Brit. Mus. (E. 972), reprinted in “Harleian Mis.,” vol. iv.

[62] “Et sic nota que il ne dit co̅e Britton ad dit deuant, s. que ceo serra son diet ta̅que il voet doner direct respons, mes que ceo serra son diet tanqz il soit mort absolutement: sans ascun condition en le iudgement expresse ou implie, s. que a tel te̅ps que il voile responder, il serra release de son penance. Car tiel releas nad estre view a nul te̅ps. & ne serroit reason que per tiel repentance: le roy serroit tolle del forfaiture de les biens le felon, a quel il est intitle per le dit iugem̅t du pain fort et dure” (Fols. 150b, 151).

[63] See Annals, 1721, February 8th and December 22nd.

[64] A Report of Divers Cases, &c., collected by Sir John Kelyng Knight, ed. 1708, p. 27.

[65] See in Annals, under 1538, July, and 1556, July 2nd.

[66] “State Trials,” ii. 335.

[67] Blount, “Glossogr.,” 1656: “Deric … is with us abusively used for a Hang-man.”

[68] George Lord Carew, to Sir Thomas Roe, in “Cal. of State Papers,” Domestic series, 1611-8, p. 428.

[69] See in Annals, under 1649.

[70] Luttrell, i. 271.

[71] “Autobiography of Sir John Bramston” (Camden Society), p. 192.

[72] _Gentleman’s Magazine_, 1750, pp. 233, 425.

[73] Ibid., 1767, p. 276.

[74] Stow’s “Survey,” ed. Thoms, p. 161.

[75] Grey Friars’ Chron., ed. Howlett, pp. 199, 200.

[76] Ellis, “Original Letters,” 1824, ii. 298.

[77] Challoner’s “Memoirs of Missionary Priests,” 1842, pt. ii. p. 37.

[78] Laws of Alfred, in Thorpe’s “Anc. Laws and Inst. of England,” fo. ed., p. 42.

[79] Thorpe, p. 97.

[80] Laws of William the Conqueror, De Suppliciorum modo: “Interdicimus eciam ne quis occidatur vel suspendatur pro aliqua culpa, sed enerventur” (other texts have “eruantur”) “oculi, et abscindantur pedes, vel testiculi, vel manus, ita quod truncus remaneat vivus, in signum prodicionis et nequicie sue: secundum enim quantitatem delicti debet pena maleficis infligi. Ista precepta non sint violata super forisfacturam nostram plenam. Testibus, &c.” (Thorpe, “Ancient Laws and Institutes of England,” fol. ed., p. 213).

[81] Chron. Roger de Hoveden, ed. Stubbs, i. 165.

[82] Chron. Benedict of Peterborough, ed. Stubbs, ii. 59.

[83] “En France … nous voyons aujourd’huy, qu’il n’y a presque si petit Gentil-homme, qui ne prétend avoir en propriété la Justice de son village ou hameau; tel même qui n’a ni village, ni hameau, mais un moulin ou une basse court près sa maison, veut avoir Justice sur son meusnier, ou sur son fermier: tel encore qui n’a ni basse court ni moulin; mais le seul enclos de sa maison, veut avoir Justice sur sa femme et sur son valet: tel finalement qui n’a point de maison, prétend avoir Justice en l’air sur les oyseaux du Ciel disant en avoir eu autrefois.” Loyseau, Charles, “Discours de l’abus des Justices de Village,” p. 1 (in Œuvres).

[84] Stanley, “Hist. Mem. of Westminster Abbey,” ed. 1882, p. 354; Brayley, “Londiniana,” iv. 215; “Arch. Cantiana,” vii. 96, 97.

[85] Placita de Quo Waranto, p. 479.

[86] Maitland, “History of London,” ii. 1363; Parton, “Some Account of the Hospital and Parish of St. Giles,” p. 38.

[87] Thus Sir John Oldcastle was executed here in 1417, and those implicated in Babington’s conspiracy in 1586, but in each case there were special reasons for the selection of St. Giles’s.

[88] Placita de Quo Waranto, p. 479.

[89] Burnings in Smithfield for heresy took place in the following years: 1401, 1410, 1415, 1422, 1431, 1438, 1441, 1494, 1499. The writ in the first case is given in Rot. Parl., iii. 459: “Item, mesme ceste Mesquerdy, March 2, 1400-1, un Brief feust fait as Meir & Viscontz de Londres, par advis des Seigneurs Temporelx en Parlement, de faire execution de William Sautre, jadys Chapelein Heretic, dont le tenure s’ensuyte.” Then follows in Latin the text of the writ, Henry to the Mayor and Sheriffs of London. It recites that the Archbishop of Canterbury, with the consent and assent of the bishops and the whole of the clergy of the province assembled in his provincial council, condemned William for heresy, degraded him, and decreed that he be left to the secular court, and Holy Mother Church has no more to do in the premises. The writ orders that in some public and open place within the liberty of the said city they shall cause, for the reason set forth, Sawtre to be publicly, before the people, committed to the fire and to be burnt.

Smithfield, long established as a place of execution, was naturally selected by the civic authorities; hence the evil celebrity of Smithfield as the place of burning of heretics. The fires of Smithfield, associated in the popular mind with “bloody Mary,” were kindled long before her time, and continued long after her.

[90] “Henricus Dei gratia et cetera Vicecomiti Midilsex’ salutem. Precipimus tibi quod sine omni dilatione in loco ubi furche prius erecte fuerunt videlicet ad ulmellos fieri facias duos bonos gibettos de forti et optimo mæremio ad latrones et alios malefactores suspendendos et custum quod ad hoc posueris per visum et testimonium legalium hominum computabitur tibi ad scaccarium. Teste H. de Burgo Justiciario nostro apud Sanctum Albanum xxij die Maii. Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum, 1833” (Records Commission, i. 419).

[91] Stow’s “Survey of London,” ed. Strype, book iii., p. 238; “Liber Custumarum,” ed. Riley, i. 147-51; Stow’s “Survey,” ed. Thoms, pp. 24, 25. By the last two “Humeaus” is correctly understood to mean “The Elms” of Smithfield, in the jurisdiction of the City of London.

[92] Chron. Avesbury, ed. Thompson, p. 285.

[93] Loyseau (Charles), “Traité des Seigneuries,” ed. 1601, p. 46; ed. 1704, p. 24.

[94] Smith (Thomas), “A Topographical and Historical Account of the Parish of St. Marylebone,” 1833, pp. 38, 39; Loftie (W.J.), “Hist. of London,” ii. 228-9.

[95] Matthew Paris, Chron. Majora, ed. Luard, iv. 196; Gregory’s Chron., p. 65.

[96] Chron. Murimuth, ed. Thompson, pp. 36, 43.

[97] “Mémoires d’un Protestant condamné aux Galères de France,” ed. 1881, p. 432.

[98] Maillard (Firmin), “Le Gibet de Montfaucon,” 1863, pp. 16 and 17, and frontispiece.

[99] Harleian Misc., iii. 100-8.

[100] Martin Marprelate, “Pappe with an Hatchet,” 1589.

[101] Shakespeare Socy., 1844, p. 73. This has been repeatedly quoted (following Cunningham) as from “Tarlton’s Jests,” published in 1611, twenty-one years later.

[102] Act. IV. sc. 3. The play is allotted to the period 1590-4.

[103] I am indebted to Mr. Herbert Sieveking for knowledge of this map. He has described it in an article which has not appeared at the time when this is written.

[104] In Mr. Croker’s translation we find the following: “It really requires the concurrent testimony of all writers to make us believe that the queen of England was forced by ‘those meddling priests’ to walk in penance to Tyburn, and there on her knees, under the gibbet, glorify the blessed martyrs of the Gunpowder Plot” (pp. 3, 4). The passage contains several inaccuracies. In the first place, the testimony of all writers was not concurrent, as is shown in the text; next, it was not charged that the Queen “glorified” the martyrs, but that she prayed for their souls; finally, “the blessed martyrs of the Gunpowder Plot” do not come into the story, as not one of them was executed at Tyburn.

There exists a rare print, often reproduced, of the supposed scene. It is of much later date and has no value whatever as evidence.

[105] In the _Athenæum_, August 17, 1907.

[106] In Annals under date.

[107] Ibid.

[108] Quoted by Mr. John W. Ford in the _Athenæum_, August 31, 1907.

[109] The testimony of maps is not wholly either in favour of a triangular gallows, or of the site as indicated by the maps of Mackay and Rocque. In a few the gallows is shown as consisting of three pieces. In one map such a gallows is shown at some distance to the west of Edgeware Road. But the maps are small and unimportant with one exception—John Seller’s map of the county of Middlesex, 1710 and 1742. In these the gallows of three pieces is placed just within the angle formed by the junction of the roads. But the evidence that at these dates, 1710-42, the gallows was triangular, and that it stood in the centre of the open space is too clear to be upset by the evidence of this map.

[110] Mr. Alfred Robbins, in _Notes and Queries_, November 9, 1907.

[111] Strype, writing in 1720 about Hanover Square then partly built, says: “And it is reported that the common Place of Execution of Malefactors at Tyburn, shall be appointed elsewhere, as somewhere near Kingsland; for the removing any Inconveniences or Annoyances, that might thereby be occasioned to that Square, or the Houses thereabouts.”

[112] Middlesex County Records, 4 vols., 1897-1902.

[113] Chrons. of Benedict of Peterborough, ed. Stubbs, i. 155, 56; Roger of Hoveden, ed. Stubbs, ii. 131.

Ordeal of water was of two kinds: In one the person undergoing the ordeal was thrown into deep water; if, without swimming, he floated, he was deemed guilty; if he sank, innocent. In this case the ordeal was probably of boiling water, in which the person plunged his arm into boiling water; the arm was bound up, and on its appearance after a certain time judgment was given.

[114] Chronicles: Matthew Paris, Chron. Maj., ed. Luard, iii. 71-3; “Hist. Anglor.,” ed. Madden, ii., 251-2; “John of Oxenede,” ed. Ellis, 147; Chron. Dunstable (in Annales Monastici) ed. Luard, iii. 78-9.

Evidently, what was at first a riot had developed into a revolt, for “Montjoie!” was the cry of the French prince, Louis, who, brought over by the barons, had but recently given up his pretensions to the English crown. The alleged violation of the king’s oath afterwards furnished Louis with a pretext for refusing a restitution demanded by the English king.

“The Elms,” mentioned as the place of execution, was certainly The Elms of Tyburn, as shown by Sir J. H. Ramsay, in the _Athenæum_ of September 7, 1907.

[115] Chron. Matthew Paris, Chron. Maj., ed. Luard, iii. 370. Tyburn is not mentioned as the place of execution.

[116] Chron. Matthew Paris, Chron. Maj., ed. Luard, iii. 543-5; “Flores Hist.,” ed. Luard, ii. 231. Tyburn is not expressly mentioned as the place of execution.

[117] Matthew Paris, Chron. Maj., ed. Luard, iv. 193-6. Matthew of Westminster, “Flores Histor.,” ii. 253. The names of William’s captors, William Bardulf and Richard de Warenne, are given in “Liber de Antiquis Legibus,” Riley’s translation, p. 9.

The place of Marsh’s execution is not given in the great chronicles, but we are able to supply it from Gregory’s Chronicle (Camden Society, 1876): “Henry III., Anno xxv. Ande that yere dyde Saynt Roger, Byshoppe of London. And Wylliam Marche was drawe and hangyd at Tyburne,” p. 65. This may make us less doubtful in allotting to Tyburn executions the place of which is not specially mentioned.

[118] See “The Jews of Angevin England,” by Joseph Jacobs, pp. 19-21, 75.

[119] Matthew Paris, Chron. Maj., ed. Luard, v. 516-9, 552. A full list of authorities is given by Mr. Albert M. Hyamson, “A History of the Jews in England,” (1908), p. 87.

[120] “Liber de Antiquis Legibus,” translated by H. T. Riley, 1863, pp. 104, 105. Tyburn is not mentioned as the place of execution.

[121] Annals of Dunstable, in Annales Monastici, ed. Luard, iii. 279. Tyburn is not expressly mentioned.

[122] Chronicles: Annals of Dunstable, in Annal. Monas., ed. Luard, iii. 314; Ann. de Wigornia, in Annal. Monas., iv. 489, 490; the French Chronicle of London, Riley’s translation, 248; Stow’s “Survey of London,” ed. Thoms, 96. (Stow gives the number hanged as sixteen.) Tyburn is not expressly mentioned.

[123] Chron. Bartholomew Cotton, ed. Luard, pp. 304-6. The passage in Norman French in the Chronicle is here given as translated by Mr. Riley in the French Chronicle of London, 1863, p. 295.

[124] Chron. Rishanger, ed. Riley, p. 194.

[125] The authorities for the trial, sentence, and execution of Wallace are the following:—

Chron. of the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward III., ed. Stubbs, i. 139.

Year Book of Edward III., years 11 and 12, 170-3.

Matthew of Westminster, “Flores Hist.,” ed. Luard, iii. 124.

Chron. Knighton, ed. Lumby i. 404.

Walsingham, “Ypodigma Neustriæ,” ed. Riley, p. 235.

Chron. of William Rishanger, ed. Riley, pp. 225-6.

Maitland Club, Chron. de Lanercost, p. 203; and Documents illustrative of Sir William Wallace.

[126] Annales Monastici, ed. Luard, iv. 294, 489. The treatment under Edward I. of “the Celtic fringe” was severe. We see here how Scotch and Welsh were dealt with. In Ireland, in 1301, it was accounted no offence to kill “a mere Irishman.”

[127] Matthew of Westminster, “Flores Hist.,” ed. Luard, iii. 134-5.

[128] Chrons. of the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward II., ed. Stubbs, i. 150, 255. Tyburn is not mentioned in either case.

[129] Stow, Annals, ed. Howes, 1615, pp. 229, 230. The editions of Stow’s Annals quoted throughout are this, and the continuation to 1631.

[130] Several Chronicles mention Tyburn in connection with the execution of Mortimer: “Drawn from the Tower to the Elms and there hanged with contumely,” Chron. of the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward II., ed. Stubbs, i. 352. “Drawn from the Tower of London to the gallows at the Elms, about a league outside the City of London, and there hanged,” Chron. Avesbury, ed. Thompson, p. 285. “Hangyd and drawne at Tyburn for tresoun,” Chron. Grey Friars, ed. Hewett, p. 152. “Hanged at the Elms on the common thieves’ gallows, where he hung two days,” Chron. Murimuth, ed. Thompson, p. 62. Murimuth was a canon of St. Paul’s in 1325; he died in 1347. In another text (Cotton MS. Nero D. x., in the British Museum) quoted in the Chronicle, it is said: “He was drawn by horses, on the common ox-hide, from the Tower of London to the Elms of Tybourne and there hanged.”

This last passage is interesting: the expression “the common ox-hide” indicates that the ox-hide was now regularly used in drawing.

The interesting indictment of Mortimer, in Norman French, is given in Chron. Knighton, ed. Lumby, i. 454-8.

[131] Chron. Murimuth, ed. Thompson, p. 171.

[132] Chron. Murimuth, ed. Thompson, p. 253; Rymer, “Fœdera,” v. 549-50.

[133] Walsingham, “Hist. Anglic.,” ed. Riley, i. 326; Chron. Angliæ ed. Thompson, p. 399. Tyburn is not expressly mentioned.

[134] Gregory’s Chronicle, p. 93.

[135] Stow, Annals, 303, 304; Chronicles of London, C. L. Kingsford, 1905, pp. 16, 17; Chron. Knighton, ii. p. 293; Walsingham, Hist. Ang., ii. 173-4.

[136] Chrons. of London, Kingsford, 1905, p. 55.

[137] Authorities: Chronicle of London (1827), p. 36; I. Julius B II. in Chronicles of London (C. L. Kingsford, 1905), pp. 62-3; Gregory’s Chron. (Camden Society, 1876), p. 102; Grey Friars Chron., ed. Howlett, p. 161; Chroniques de Waurin, ed. Hardy, vol. ii. pp. 41-3; Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits, &c., tome i, Paris, 1787. English translation, 1789.

[138] Hall’s Chronicle, ed. 1809, p. 26.

[139] Walsingham, “Hist. Anglic.,” ed. Riley, ii. 249.

[140] Stow, Annals, 330. Here again Gregory’s Chronicle supplies the place of execution—Tyburn (p. 104).

[141] Stow, Annals, p. 365; Hall’s Chronicle, ed. 1809, p. 128.

Stow evidently took his account of Mortimer from a chronicle which has been printed only quite lately in Chronicles of London. C. L. Kingsford, 1905, pp. 282-3, 341-2.

[142] Stow, Annals, ed. Howes, 1615, pp. 381-2.

The “Swan” in Thames Street became the “Old Swan” (it is so called in Braun and Hogenberg’s map), and still retains the name.

[143] Gregory’s Chron., p. 188. Stow adds, “but yᵉ yeoman of yᵉ crowne had their liuelode, and the hangman had their cloths, or wearing apparrell. The Pardon for liues was obtained through the earnest sute and labor of master Gilbert Worthington, then parson of S. Andrewes in Holborn a doctor of Diuinity a famous man and a greate preacher in those daies” (p. 386).

[144] Gregory’s Chronicle, pp. 234-5. Here again it is to the citizen of London that we owe this curious illustration of the life of the times.

[145] Gregory’s Chronicle (“Camden Soc.,” 1876), pp. 236-7. Lord Wenlock was killed in the battle of Tewkesbury.

[146] Smith, Sir Thomas, “De Republica Anglorum,” ed. 1583, pp. 83, 84.

[147] Lettres et Voyages, 1725-9, (Lausanne, 1903), p. 129.

[148] Wriothesley’s Chronicle (Camden Soc.), i. 17. Holinshed supplies the date, December 4, and gives the names as Sir Rees Griffin and John Hewes (iii. 928). Pennant, a Welshman, corrects these names to Sir Rhys ap Gryffydd, and John Hughes. He gives particulars of the family of Sir Rhys.

[149] This was the inner gate, still standing, of the London Charterhouse.

[150] Calendar of State Papers, Henry VIII., ed. Gairdner, xi. No. 780; xii. (1), No. 479.

[151] Chron. Jocelin of Brakelond (Camden Society), p. 28.

[152] As, for example: In 1175, William of Waterville, Abbat of Peterborough, designed to pledge with the Jews the arm of St. Oswald. The monks objecting, the abbat took with him ten armed knights, and forced his way into the cloisters and the church, inflicting mortal wounds on some monks and servants of the monastery who resisted him. For this he was deposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Chron. Benedict of Peterborough, ed. Stubbs, i. 106.

[153] Fortescue, “The Governance of England,” ed. Plummer, 1885, pp. 137-41.

[154] Latimer’s Seven Sermons, ed. Arber, pp. 40-1.

[155] A Godly Sermon, 1552. And again:—“It is myne owne; whoe shall warne me to do wyth myne owne as me selfe lysteth?” Select Works of Robert Crowley (E. Engl. Text Soc., 1872), p. 157.

[156] “Complaynt of Roderyck Mors,” (E. Engl. Text Soc., 1874), p. 9.

[157] Latimer’s Seven Sermons, pp. 121, 149.

[158] In “Who Killed Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey?” I have given a list of fifty-two of the captains of these hosts. Four thousand of the people are said to have been butchered in Devon, and five thousand in Norfolk.

[159] “English Gilds” (E. Eng. Text. Soc., 1870).

[160] Bernard Gilpin, _op. cit._

[161] Statute 1 Edward VI. c. 3.

[162] “Rogeri Aschami Epistolarum libri quatuor, Oxoniæ,” 1703 p. 294. The date is about 1547. The comment is that of Mr Jamieson in Barclay’s “Ship of Fools.”

[163] “The Four Supplications” (E. Eng. Text Soc., 1871), p. 98.

[164] Ibid., pp. xvii-xviii.

[165] Ibid., p. 102. It is true that the “decay of husbandry” existed in a less intense form before the Dissolution. There were several Acts against pulling down “towns,” and for keeping up houses for husbandry, the first being 4 Henry VII. (1488-9), c. 19.

[166] Latimer’s, Seven Sermons, p. 120.

[167] Holinshed, i. 186.

[168] Opera Omnia, 1663, v. p., 508.

[169] Hist. MSS. Comm. Welsh MSS. of Lord Mostyn (1898) p. x.

[170] Wriothesley’s Chron. (Camden Society), pp. 63, 64.

[171] Hall, p. 827-8; Grey Friars Chron., p. 202; Wriothesley’s Chron. i., 101-2.

[172] Holinshed’s Chronicle iii. 954. Hall says that “greate moane was made for them al, but moste specially for Mantel, who was as wittie, and as towarde a gentleman, as any was in the realme, and a manne able to haue dooen good seruice” (p. 842).

[173] This gallows is shown in Braun & Hogenberg’s map of London (_Athenæum_, March 31, 1906: “A Neglected Map of London”).

[174] “I played the fool after my customable manner.”

[175] Rymer, “Fœdera,” xv. 181-3, 250-2. At this very time the reformers contended “that there is no church in earth that erreth not as well in faith as manners.” Strype, “Life of Cranmer,” p. 203.

[176] Fourth Sermon, 1549, ed. Arber, p. 116.

[177] Cal. State Papers, Domestic, 1547-80.

[178] This was the tract defending the manner in which torture had been used (see pp. 35 _and note_, 161-2). The treatise printed by Carter condemned Catholics for going to Protestant churches.

[179] This was also published in Latin and in Dutch. It is reprinted in the Harleian Mis., vol. iii. Throckmorton was put on the rack but made no admissions. Threatened again with the rack, he “voluntarily” made a confession which he afterwards withdrew. But this sufficed. The crime charged against him was “bringing in of Foreigners into England, and deposing the Queen” (Camden, in Kennett’s “Complete History,” ii. 497-8).

[180] This case brings to our notice a third pamphlet issued by the Government in defence of its proceedings. This was entitled, “The Execution of Justice in England, for Maintenance of publique and Christian Peace, against certeine Stirrers of Sedition, and Adherents to the Traytours and Enemies of the Realme, without any Persecution of them for Questions of Religion, as is falsely reported and published by the Fautors and Fosterers of their Treasons: xvii. December, 1583.” Reprinted in Harleian Mis., ii. 137-55, and in Somer’s Tracts, i. 189-208.

This also has been ascribed to Lord Burghley. It is a defence of the penal laws against Catholics. A recent Act, 23 Eliz. (1581) c. 1, made it high treason, punishable with drawing, hanging, and quartering, to convert any one to the Church of Rome, or to be converted.

It is proverbially dangerous to argue with the master of legions; it was equally dangerous to argue with the mistress of the rack, the gallows, and the ripping-knife. Alfield and Webley had circulated copies of an answer to “The Execution of Justice in England.” They experienced this “Justice” in consequence; were tortured in prison and afterwards hanged.

[181] For an account of Lopez see “A History of the Jews in England,” by Mr. Albert M. Hyamson, 1908, pp. 136-9.

[182] Camden’s “History of Q. Elizabeth,” in Kennett’s “History,” ii. 632. Lingard says: “No man who will read a report of his trial can entertain a doubt of his innocence.”

[183] =1618.= _March 1._ Touching the News of the Time: Sir George Villiers, the new Favourite, tapers up apace, and grows strong at Court: His Predecessor the Earl of Somerset hath got a Lease of 90 years for his Life, and so hath his _Articulate_ Lady, called so, for articling against the frigidity and impotence of her former Lord. She was afraid that Coke, the Lord Chief Justice (who had used such extraordinary art and industry in discovering all the circumstances of the poisoning of Overbury) would have made white _Broth_ of them, but that the _Prerogative_ kept them from the _Pot_: yet the Subservient Instruments, the lesser Flies could not break thorow, but lay entangled in the Cobweb; amongst others Mistress Turner, the first inventress of _yellow Starch_, was executed in a Cobweb Lawn Ruff of that colour at Tyburn, and with her I believe that _yellow Starch_, which so much disfigured our Nation, and rendered them so ridiculous and fantastic, will receive its Funeral. (Howell’s “Familiar Letters,” ed. Jacobs, 1890, p. 20).

[184] Journals of the House of Lords, iv. pp. 662, 723.

[185] A vivid picture of the tyrant in 1654 is drawn in a few words by a foreign ambassador. The Protector, he says, was living in fear with redoubled precautions, grudging to be approached by any sort of person (Gardiner, “Hist. of Commonwealth,” ii. p. 463, _note_). He had just issued a proclamation ordering a return to be made by all housekeepers of London, Westminster, and Southwark of persons lodging in their houses. This was followed by the arrest of more than 500 persons.

[186] Clarendon’s “Hist. of the Rebellion,” ed. 1888, v. 295-7.

[187] “Hist. MSS. Comm.,” Report v. pt. i. p. 174.

[188] “Journals of the House of Commons,” viii. 202.

[189] John Evelyn, “Diary,” ed. 1850, i. 345.

[190] Sir George Wharton, “Gesta Britannorum,” 1662.

[191] “Harleian Miscellany,” ii. 285-7.

[192] Neal’s “History of the Puritans,” iv. 317-9.

[193] Pepys’ “Diary,” ed. Wheatley, ii. 180-1.

[194] “State Trials,” vi. 67-120.

[195] “State Trials,” vi. ed., pp. 225-74.

[196] _London Gazette_, No. 259, May 7-11, 1668.

[197] Fuller particulars of the trials and executions are given in the author’s “Who Killed Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey?” 1905.

[198] This is, I think, the first case recorded in which a criminal was allowed to make the journey to Tyburn in a coach. It became a common practice: “Il y a des Gentlemen qui obtiennent la permission de faire ce voyage en carosse” (Henri Misson, “Mémoires,” &c., 1698, p. 24).

[199] Mr. Pike, however, in his “History of Crime in England,” contends that “it is not by any means certain that there was any serious legal objection to the punishment inflicted on Oates, except, perhaps, so far as it related to his canonical habits.” He thinks the sentence was justified by law and precedent (ii. 232-3).

[200] Hist. MSS. Comm., Manuscripts of the Marquess of Ormonde. New series, vol. iv., 1907.

[201] “A Short History of the Life of Major John Bernardi,” written by himself in Newgate, 1729.

[202] Clarendon’s “History of the Rebellion,” ed. Oxford, 1849, vi. 105.

[203] On few subjects has there been so profuse an expenditure of insincere writing as on this. Thus Hallam writes: “That writ [of habeas corpus] rendered more actively remedial by the Statute of Charles II., but founded upon the broad basis of Magna Carta, is the principal bulwark of English liberty; and if ever temporary circumstances, or the doubtful plea of political necessity, shall lead men to look on its denial with apathy, the most distinguishing characteristic of our constitution will be effaced” (Hist. of Mid. Ages, ch. viii., pt. ii.). Hallam was, of course, perfectly well acquainted with the facts of repeated suspension.

[204] It is said that in 1818 a “Tyburn ticket” was sold (as a curiosity) for £280.

[205] Turnpike levelling was made a capital offence by 8 Geo. II. (1735) c. 20.

[206] Hanging on the triangular gallows at Tyburn was effected by placing the sufferer, with the rope round his neck, on a cart. This being drawn from under him, he was left hanging. Elsewhere the usual way was to make the sufferer mount a ladder, which was turned, so leaving him suspended. When several persons were executed in this way, they were hanged, not simultaneously, but one after the other.

[207] 48ᵒ Regis Henrici Tertii.

Pardonatio concessa Ivettæ de Balsham eo quod suspense fuit pro quadam felonia ab hora nona die Lunæ usque ortum solis diei Martis sequent et tamen viva evasit, apud Cantuar 16ᵒ Augusti. Cal. Rot. Patentium (1802), p. 34.

[208] The punishment of the pillory for fraudulent bankruptcy was previously enacted by 1 James I. c. 15, s. 4.

[209] According to Monsieur César de Saussure, who was in England in 1726, the weight was increased every four hours (“Lettres et Voyages,” pp. 126-7).

[210] Villette, (“Annals of Newgate,” i. 16-24). An account of the origin and development of this practice has been given on pp. 36-43.

[211] Swift wrote some verses on Blueskin.

[212] “An Enquiry into the Causes of the frequent Executions at Tyburn,” 1725.

[213] Pope, in his “Dunciad” speaks of “⸺hymning Tyburn’s elegiac lines” (i. 41).

[214] In 1810 the Archbishop of Canterbury and six Bishops voted against Romilly’s Bill to abolish capital punishment for stealing privately in a shop to the value of five shillings (“Life of Romilly,” ii. 130).

[215] This is the Shoplifting Act. It is also frequently cited as 10 & 11 Will. III., c. 23.

INDEX

Abbey lands, 157

ab Ulmis, John, an imported preacher, 142

a Lasco, John, an imported preacher, 142

Æthelstan, laws of, 19, 56

Alfred, laws of, 55

Aliens Act of 1905 anticipated, 147

Amos, Andrew, his “Great Oyer of Poisoning,” 178, 181

Anabaptists— Commission to try, 158 Latimer jeers at their constancy, 158 burnt, 177

Anglo-Saxon penal legislation, 55

Arians burnt, 177

Ascham, Roger, on destruction of Yeomanry, 140

Assassination Plot, 215-16 strange sequel to, 216-19

Athol, Earl of, hanged on a high gallows, 101

Bacon, Francis, in trial of Robert Carr, 181, 22 _note_

Bagshot Heath, gibbet on, 211

Ball, John, and revolt of the peasants, 106

Barclay, Alexander, “Ship of Fools,” iv, 140 _note_

Barkworth, Mark, manner of his death, 173

Barton, Elizabeth, “The Holy Maid of Kent,” 133

Bassompierre, Maréchal de, 66

Bedloe, William, perjurer, dies, 202

Beheading, 31-4

Bentham, Jeremy, 78 his father robbed, 266

Bernardi, Major John— imprisoned without trial for forty years, 216 Dr. Johnson on, 217 dies in prison, 218

Bethnal Green— weavers of, riotous, 254-55 two weavers hanged near church, 255 constitutional question arises, 255

Bigamy— a bar to benefit of clergy, 127-29 old meaning of word, 129 provisions as to, 131-32 bigamist put on footing of others, 132

Black Death, 49

Blake, Admiral, his body removed, 192

Bleackley, Horace— tells story of the Perreaus, 261 of W. W. Ryland, 266

“Blood-Bowl House”— in Hanging-Sword Alley, 241 figures in print by Hogarth, 241

Boiling to death, _see_ Executions

Boleyn, Anne, 132-33

Bones discovered at corner of Edgware Road, 53

Borough Customs, 19-20

Bosgrave, James, condemned to death, 160-61

Bow Church, 80-1, 97-8

Bowel-burning— remarkable case, 109 at Charing Cross, 190 And _see_ Treason

Boy martyr— of Lincoln, 91-4 of Norwich, 91

Brabant, merchants of, robbed, 9-10

Bradshaw, John, his dead body hanged on Tyburn gallows, 190

Breaking on the wheel— not in use in England, 23-4 adoption recommended, 246

Bréauté, Fawkes de, hangs Constantine Fitz-Athulf 85-6

Brembre, Nicholas, his misdeeds and fate, 107

Brentford, gallows at, 15

Brinklow Henry, on rapacity of landlords, 139

Briton, Ralph— a priest, imprisoned on false accusation, 87 released, 87-8

Bronchotomy, 225, 252

Brownrigg, Mrs., her cruelty to apprentices, 253-54

Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of, 181 _note_ assassinated by Felton, 182

Bucquinte, Andrew, a burglar, 82-3

Buffer, Peter de, a robber, 86

Bunyan “Pilgrim’s Progress,” 156

Burgh, Hubert de, justiciar, 85-6

Burghley, Lord— defends use of torture, 35-6, 161-62, 162-63 and _note_ pamphlets ascribed to, 35, 161, 163, 164 _note_

Burial of persons executed— in Pardon churchyard, 49-50 refused in St. Sepulchre’s, 50 corpses thrown into pits, 51, 177

Burnet, Dr. Gilbert, 204, 207

Burning— in hand 130-31 in cheek enacted in 1699, repealed in 1706, 221 of women, 4, 105, 207, 230, 235-36, 257

Bury St. Edmund’s— boy-martyr of, 91 monastery of, 137

Butler, Samuel— mentions Dun, the hangman, 46 Ode on Duval, 197-98

Camden, William, historian— “Britannia,” 23 _note_, 65 “History of Elizabeth” quoted, 161, 164 _note_, 168, 170-71

Cameron, Dr. Archibald— executed long after rebellion, 249 behaviour, and manner of death, 249

“Can I not do as I like with my own?” 139 and _note_

Canterbury, Archbishop of, votes against repeal of Shoplifting Act, 257 _note_

Capital offences, number of, 6, 257

Capital punishment— abolished by William the Conqueror, 56 re-instituted by Henry I., 56

Cardan, Jerome, misquoted by Harrison, 142-43

Carlyle, Thomas, on Basil Montague, 265

Carr, Robert, Viscount Rochester and Earl of Somerset— friendship with Overbury, 178 makes conquest of Countess of Essex, 179 marries her after her divorce, 180 refuses to plead guilty to charge of murdering Overbury, 180-81 condemned and pardoned, 180 in possession of some secret, 180-81 Was he guilty? 180 means devised to silence him, 181

Carter, William, drawn and hanged for printing a book, 162-63

Catur, William, slain in single combat, 115

Caursins, rivals of the Jews as money-lenders, 94

“Celtic fringe,” 100 _note_

Chains and manacles, ordered to be brought to Tower, 99

Challoner, Dr. Richard, historian, quoted, 52, 167, 176, 177, 182, 185

Charing Cross— Station on site of Hungerford House, 125 gallows set up at, 152 and _note_ Pillory at, 202

Charles I.— and Henrietta Maria, 65-6 executions under, 76-7 conflict with Parliament as to execution of priests, 184, 204

Charles II.— his court almost pure compared with that of James I., 178 proclamations, 194-5 supposed design to assassinate, 200 unjustly blamed for Popish Plot executions, 204-5 and Rye House Plot, 205

Charterhouse— of London, 49, 133 Prior of, 134 of Beauvale, 134 of Axholmes, 134 Priors of Beauvale and Axholme, 134 execution of the three Priors, 134-36 three Monks of London House executed, 136 Horne, William, a lay brother of, executed, 147

Chaucer— his Prioress, 7 her story, 91

Chauncy, Maurice, his account of the martyrdom of the Carthusians, 133-36

Chelsea, gallows at, 15

Chidley, Samuel, 79 writes against “over-much justice,” 186-87

Children burnt or hanged, 78, 246, 257-58

Chiltern Hundreds— origin of stewardship of, 8-9 forests, 11

“Christ’s poor,” 141 become “paupers,” 142

Church, no church that erreth not, 158 _note_

Churches robbed, 118

Ciltria, _see_ Chiltern

Clergy, benefit of— right to claim barred by bigamy, 127 could be claimed by murderer till 1531, 129 what it was, 129, 130-31 extended in 1351-52 to all clerks, 129, 130 constantly narrowed, 131 in 1726, 131 abolished in 1827, 131

Clitherow, Margaret, manner of her death, 39

Cobbett, William— on “Histories of England,” 4 on “rooks and daws,” 5 on Waverley Abbey, 15 _note_

Cobham, Dame Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, 113-15 her penance, 114-15

Cock tavern in Cheapside, murder of landlord, 105, 111

Coin— debased state of, 214 men in royal dockyards paid in clipped money, 215

Coining— became a common offence, 214, 219, 220 legislation as to coin, 214-15 in Newgate prison, 221

Coke, Lord Chief Justice— on punishment for high treason, 32, 33 _note_ on torture, 36 busy in discovery of murder of Overbury, 181 _note_

Collier, Jeremy— outlawed for absolving Friend and Perkins, 216

Common Prayer, Book of— Commission to try those who reject, 158 death to write against, 177

Commonwealth, executions under, 77, 187-88

Cony— refuses to pay illegal tax, 186 Cromwell imprisons him, 186

Cornelius, John, story of his head, 51-2

Cornishmen, revolt of, 121-22

Cotell, John, murdered by his wife, afterwards Lady Hungerford, 126-27

Courts— multiplicity of, 16-19 conflicts between, 16-19 petty, in France, 57 _note_

Cranmer, Thomas— pronounces divorce of Catherine, 132 of Anne Boleyn, 136-37

Crimes— extraordinary accumulation of, 213

Criminal begged of the King by 18 maids, 208

Cromwell, Oliver— bones found (?), 53 guilty of the blood of Southworth, 185 Why has he a statue? 185-86 his military despotism, 186, 187 and _note_ throws into prison Cony, and his counsel, 186 removes judge from bench, 186 greatest recorded number of executions at one time during Commonwealth, 187-88 arrests 500 persons, 187 _note_ and Don Pantaleon Sa, 189 his last executions, 190 his body hanged on Tyburn gallows, 190-92 legends on this subject, 192 body of his mother and of others removed from Westminster Abbey, 192 his mother’s body removed, 192

Cromwell, Thomas, calls Tyburn “Thyfbourne,” 137

Cunningham, Peter, “Handbook of London,” 45, 46, 47, 64 _note_

Dangerfield, Thomas, perjurer— pilloried and whipped, 202 killed by Francis, 202

Daniel, P. A., on references to Triple Tree, 64

David, Prince of Wales, execution of, 31

David II., of Scotland, 104

David III., of Wales, head exposed on Tower of London, 100

Death— Penalty of, for relieving a priest, 166 for being reconciled to Roman Church, 165-66

“Decay of England,” 141 and _note_

Defoe, Daniel, 67 biographer of Jack Sheppard, 233 his grandson, 258

Derrick, a kind of crane, said to be named after a hangman, 45

Dickens, Charles— against public executions, 4 Dennis, the hangman in Barnaby Rudge, 48 in Hungerford Street, 126 Hanging-Sword Alley, 242

Dictionary of National Biography, 44

Disembowelling, _see_ High Treason

Dissection— enacted, to add terror to death-sentence, 247 of Earl Ferrers, 251 of Mrs. Brownrigg, 253-54

Dodd, Dr., 261-63 intercession of Dr. Johnson, 262

Dow, Master Robert, makes provision for tolling bell of St. Sepulchre’s, 175-76

“Drawing”— what it was, 27 several kinds of, 27-30 simple dragging to gallows, 27 on an ox-hide, 28, 29 on a hurdle, 29 on a sledge, 29 _note_ dragging to death, 29-30 dragging to pieces, 30

“Drop”— introduced at execution of Earl Ferrers, 251 a feature of the gallows at Newgate, 251 its object, 252-53

Dryden— “On Tyburn,” 74 on Jack Ketch, 46

Ducket, Laurence, story of, 97-8

Dunning, a noted robber, 11, 17

Dunstable— district around, infested by robbers, 17 Priory, 17-18

Duval, Claude— a famous highwayman, 194, 195-98 William Pope’s “Memoirs,” not to be taken too seriously, 197

Ecclesford, gallows at, 16

Ecclesiastics— ought not to shed blood, 13 but have gallows, 13 power to stay execution, 13

Edgar, King, 13

Edward I., 11, 14, 16, 18, 24 Year Book of, 38

Edward II., 101

Edward III., 101, 104

Edward IV., 119

Edward VI., 77, 137, 139, 142, 150, 153 Slave Act of, 140 revolt of peasants, 150-51 death of, 151

Effigy to be hanged, 18

Elizabeth, Queen, 140, 155 executions under, 76-7 penal laws of, 164 and _note_ last of her victims, 175 and the Pope, 156 torture in constant use under, 35-6, 161-62 does not believe in charges on which priests were executed, 161

Elm— symbol of justice among Normans, 57 famous elm cut down, 57 “Judges under the elm-tree,” 57

“Elms, The,” 81, 85, 86 _note_ of Tyburn, 57, 60 and _note_ of Smithfield, 57, 60 and _note_ of Westminster Abbey, 57-8 of Covent Garden, 58 of Canterbury, 58 of Westbourne, 58 confusion between Tyburn and Smithfield, 58-9 new gallows ordered for, 60 first indication of site of, 61 Longbeard executed here, 81 Mortimer erroneously said to have been the first, 103 and _note_ Constantine, Fitz-Athulf, 85, 86 and _note_ and execution of Turberville, 99 of Wallace, 100

Elms Lane (now Mews), Bayswater, 58

Ementulation— part of the punishment for high treason, 32 but not always forming part of sentence, 32, 33

Essex (Robert Devereux) Earl of, 168, 170-71, 174

Essex (Robert Devereux), Earl of Essex (son of the foregoing), marries Frances Howard, and is divorced, 179-80

Execution— various ways of, 19-26 by breaking neck, 19 by throwing into sea, 19 by burial alive, 19-20 must be carried out by prosecutor, 20 by tying to a stake at low water, 20 by throwing into a well, 20 by “infalistation,” 20 by throwing into harbour, 20 by burning, 20 by boiling, 21, 22 by hanging alive in chains, 22, 31 _note_ by being built into a sea-wall, 22 by beheading, 23 by flaying alive, 24-5 by enclosing within walls, 25 by crucifixion, 26 by drawing, _i.e._, dragging to death, 30 by dragging to pieces, 30 place of, question arises as to, 255

Execution Dock, 63

Executions— Adams, John, 165 Ainger, Richard, 169-70 Alfield, Thomas, 164 and _note_ Alice atte Bowe, 97-8 Allen, Sir John, 144 Almond, John, 177 Anderson (or Richardson), William, 175 ap Gryffydd, Sir Rhys, 132 and _note_ Armstrong, Sir Thomas, 206 Arundell, Humfrey, 151 Ashbey, ⸺, 150 Ashton, Col., 190 ⸺, Roger, 167 Athol, Earl of, 101 Austin, John, 266-67 Awater, John, 121 Axtell, Daniel, 190 Babington, Arthur, 58 _note_ Barkstead, Col., 190 Barkworth, Mark, 171-74 Barney, Kenelme, 159 Barrow, Henry, 167 Barton, Elizabeth, 133 Beasley, Richard, 193-94 Bedell, John, 154 Bel, ⸺, a Suffolk man, 151 Bell, Arthur, 184 Benson, ⸺, 188 Bernes, Sir John, 107 Berry, Henry, 201 Bery, ⸺, 151 Bestely, ⸺, 190 Bigott, Sir Francis, 144 Billings, Thomas, 235-36 Bird, Robert, 147 Blake, John, 107 Blount, Sir Thomas, 108, mythical details, 109 “Blueskin” (Joseph Black), 234 Booking, Edward, 133 Bolinbrooke, Roger, 115 Bolner (or Bulmer), Sir John, 144 Bosgrave, Thomas, 52 Bradford, ⸺, 154 Brembre, Nicholas, 107 Brian, Alexander, 161-62 Bridlington, Prior of, 144 Brocas, Sir Bernard, 108 Bromholme, Edmund, 147 Brownrigg, Elizabeth, 253 Bullaker, Thomas, 184 Bullocke, Peter, 174 Campion, Edmund, 160-61 Carey, Terence, 52 Carter, William, 162-63 Charnock, Robert, 215 Cheyney, Margaret, 144 Clarendon, Sir Roger, 109 Clark, John, 258 Claxton (or Clarkson), James, 165-66 Clifford, Edward, 145 Clinch, Tom, 240 Clitherow, Margaret, 39 Cokerell, Dr., 143, 144 Coleby, John, 260 Coleman, Edward, 33, 201 Collins, ⸺, a priest, 145 Condom, John, 208 Condon, Isabella, 266 Coningsbey, Edmond, 145 Conspirators of 1236, 86-7 Constable, William, _alias_ Fetherstone, 153 Constantine, nephew of Constantine Fitz-Athulf, 86 Cooke, Laurence, Prior of Doncaster, 147 Copin, a Jew of Lincoln, 94 Corbet, Miles, 190 Corby, Ralph, 184 Cornelius, John, 52 Cottam, Thomas, 160-61 Cotton, Edward, 193-94 Cranburne, Charles, 216 Cratwell, the hangman, 145 Croftes, ⸺, a priest, 145 Cuffe, Henry, 174 Culpeper, Thomas, 150 Dacres, Lord (of the South), 148 Daniel, John, 154 David III., 100 David, Prince of Wales, 32 David, John, 115 Davy, Margaret, 22 Deane, W., 165-66 de Bereford, Sir Symon, 103 Dedike (or Dethyke), John, 154 Defoe, John Joseph, 258 de la Motte, F. H., 266 de Marisco, William, _see_ Marsh Derham, Francis, 150 Dering, John, 133 Dibdale, Richard, 165 Dickenson, Margaret (who revives), 226 Dingley, Thomas, and others, 146 Dodd, Dr., 263 Drury, Robert, 176 Duckett, John, 184 Duel (who revives), 223-24 Duval, Claude, 196 Dyer, Clement, 149 Egerton, Ralph, 147 Elks, Henry, 165 Ellys, James, a great pickpurse, and seven others, 151 Elwes, Sir Gervase, 180 Empson, Thomas, 146-47 Exeter, Marquis of, 145 Exmew, Thomas, 136 Felton, John, 156 ⸺, John, 182-83 ⸺, Thomas, 165-66 Fenn, James, 163 Fenwick, John, 201 Fereby, Sir William, 108 Fernley, ⸺, 207 Filby, William, 162 Filcock, Roger, 171-74 Fitz-Athulf, Constantine, 83, 85-6 Fitz-Harris, Edward, 33, 201 Fitz Osbert (or Osborn), William, 79-81 Flamock, Thomas, 123 Flower, Richard, 166 Ford, Thomas, 162 Fortescue, Sir Adrian, 145 Fountains, former Abbat of, 143-44 Francis, ⸺, 202 Franklin, James, 180 Fraser, Simon, 63, 100 Friend, Sir John, 215 Frowds, John, 148 Gahagan, Usher, 242 Gardner, Garmaine, 150 Garet, ⸺, 144 Garnet, Henry, 176 ⸺, Thomas, 176-77 Gascoign, Richard, 227 Gaunt, Elizabeth, 206 Gavan, John, 201 Gening, Darby, 147 Genings, Edmund, 166 Geoffrey, one so called, 86 Geoffrey “de Beverley,” and twelve others, 96 Gerard, ⸺, 188-90 Gervase (or Jarvis), George, 176 Greenwood, John, 167 Gibbs, Nathaniel, 193 Gibson, James, 254 Gold, Henry, 133 Golden Farmer, the (William Davis), 211 Goodgrom, William, 112 Gordon (who revives), 224 Green, Robert, 201 Greene, Anne (who revives), 225-26 ⸺, Thomas, 160 Grey Friars, eight, 109 Grove, John, 32, 201 Guest, William, 254 Gunter, William, 165-66 Gurdemaine, Margery, a witch, 114 Hacker, Francis, 190 Hackman, Revd. James, 264 Hackshot, Thomas, 174, 175 Hall, John, 108 ⸺, John, 159-60 ⸺, John, 227 Hamerton, Sir Stephen, 144 Hanse, Everard, 160 Harcourt, William, 201 Harford, Henry, 144 Harington, William, 167 Harman, Thomas, 147 Hawes, Nathaniel, 230 Hawley, Oliver, 208 Haydock, George, 163 Hays, Catherine, 235-36 Heath, Henry, 184 Hemerford, Thomas, 163 Herring, Mrs., 258 Hever, Thomas, 145 Hewet, Dr., 190 Hill, Lawrence, 201 Hinde, James, 194 Hodson, Sydney, 166 Holande, ⸺, a mariner, 145 Holford (or Acton), Thomas, 165-66 Holland, Thomas, 184 Holmes, Thomas, 151 Hone, William, 205 Home, Giles, 147 ⸺, William, 147 Houghton, Father, Prior of the Charterhouse, 134-36 Hughes, John, 132 and _note_ Hungerford, Lady Alice (Agnes), 124, 127 Hungerford, Lord, 128 Inges, William, 127, 128 Ireland, William, 32, 201 Ivetta de Balsham (who revives), 226, 227 and _note_ James, John, 193 Jervaulx, Abbat of, 143, 144 Johnson, Robert, 160-61 Johnson, a confederate of Sadler, 199 Jones, Charles, 260 ⸺, Mary, 256 Jonston, Sir John, 210-11 Joseph, Michael, 123 Kelly, John, title page (back), 268 Kerbie, Lucas, 160-61 Keys, Thomas, 215 King, Edward, 215 Lacy, Bryan, 166 Lane, William, 260 Langhorn, Richard, 32, 201 Larke, ⸺, Parson of Chelsea, 150 Larkin, for coining in Newgate prison, 221 Laund, Prior of, 110 Lawrence, Father, Prior of Beauvale Charterhouse, 134-36 Lea, Thomas, 171 and _note_ Lech, bailiff of Louth, his brother Edward, and a priest, 150 Leigh, ⸺, 149 Leigh, Richard, 166 Lewis, William, 260 Limerick, Thomas, 193-94 Line, Anne, 171-74 Llewellyn, brother of David III., 100 Loisie (Louis), Emanuel, 168 Lomeley, George, 144 “Longbeard,” _see_ Fitz Osbert Lopez, Roderigo, 168 Lowe, John, 165 Lowick, Major, 216 Maclean, James, 244-45 Mantell, John, 148 Marsh, William, 62-3, and 16 of his band, 90-1 Martin, Richard, 166 Mason, John, 166 Master, Richard, 133 Mather, Edmund, 159 Mathewe, William, 127, 128 Maudelyn, parson, 108 Maxfield, Thomas, and thirteen criminals, 182 Maynvile, Anthony, 132 Menstreworth, Sir John, 105 Menteith, Earl of, 104-5 Mercer, John, and 23 others, 187-88 Merrick, Sir Gilly, 174 Messenger, Peter, 193-94 Middlemore, Humfrey, 136 Milksop, John, 17 Mitchell, Anthony, 23 _note_ Monmouth, Duke of, 47 Moore, Hugh, 165-66 Morgan, Edward, 184 Morse, Henry, 184 Mortimer, John, 111 ⸺, Roger, 61, 101-3 Morton, Robert, 165-66 Moudrey, David Samuel, 42 Mountagew, Lord, 145 Munden, John, 163 Nelson, John, 160 Nevell, Sir Edward, 145 Newdigate, Sebastian, 136 Newport (or Smith), Richard, 177 Norton, Christopher, 155 ⸺, Thomas, 155 Nutter, John, 163 Okey, Col., 190 Oldcastle, Sir John, 58 _note_ Oxburgh, Col., 227 Page, Francis, 174-75 Palleotti, Marquis de, 228 Patenson, William, 167 Paul, Rev. William, 227 Payne, Benjamin, 254 Paynes, a desperate character, 213 Peckham, Henry, 154 Percy, Sir Thomas, 144 Perkins, Sir William, 215 Perreau, Robert and Daniel, 260-61, 262 Perrott, John, 227 Philip, Clement, 147 Philippe, Francis, 132 Phillips, George, 193 Pickering, Thomas, 32, 201, 204-5 Plasden, Polydore, 166 Plunket, Dr. Oliver, 32, 201 Powel, Philip, 184 Price, John, hangman, 228 Proctor, ⸺, 155 Pykeryng, Christopher, 132 ⸺, John, 143, 144 Redmond, Patrick (who revives), 225 Reynolds, a Brigittine monk, 136 ⸺, Thomas, 183 ⸺ (who revives), 224 Richardson, Lawrence, 162 Risby, Richard, and another, 133 Roberts, John, and sixteen felons, 177 Roch, John, 166 Roe, Bartholomew, 183 Roidon, George, 148 Rolfe, Henry, 159 Rookwood, Brigadier, 216 Rose, Richard, 21, 22 Rossey, William, 154 Rouse, John, 205 Russell, Lord William, 47, 206 Ryland, Wm. Wynne, 266 Sa, Don Pantaleon, 188-90 Sadler, Thomas, 198-99 Salisbury, Sir John, 107 Salmon, Patrick, 52 Sawtre, William, 59 Scot, John, and four others, 119-20 ⸺, William, 177 Senex, John, 83 Sergeant (or Lea), Richard, 165 Serle, William, 110 Shelley, Sir Bennet, 108 ⸺, Edward, 166 Sheppard, Jack, 233 Shert, John, 162 Sherwine, Ralfe, 160-61 Sherwood, Thomas, 160 Singleton, ⸺, 150 “Sixteen-string Jack,” 260 Slingsby, ⸺, 190 Smith, Captain John, 63 Smith, John, known as “half-hanged,” 221 ⸺, William, 244 Somer, ⸺, and three vagabonds, 146 Somers (or Wilson), Thomas, and sixteen felons, 177 Southwell, Robert, 169 Southworth, John, 185 Spiggott, 229 Squire, Edward, 170 Stacy, ⸺, 190 Stafford, Thomas, 154 ⸺, Viscount, 33, 201 Strancham, Edward, 165 Stansbury, James, 241-42 Stanton, William, 154 Stayley, William, 32, 200 Story, Dr. John, 64, 157, 159 Strangewayes, Major, 39-40 Stretchley, ⸺, 154 Stubbs, Francis, 193 Tatersall, ⸺, 149 Tempeste, Nicholas, 144 Thistlewood, Arthur, 33, 34 Thomas, William, 152 Thompson (or Blackborne), William, 165 Thornton, ⸺, 149 Throckmorton, Francis, 163 ⸺, John, 154 Thwing, Thomas, 201 Tichburn, Nicholas, 174, 175 ⸺, Thomas, 174-75 Tonge, Thomas, 193 Town, Richard, 227 Townley, Francis, 33 Tresilian, Chief Justice, 106-7 Trotman, Samuel, 260 Turberville, Sir Thomas, 98-9 Turner, Anthony, 201 ⸺, Mrs. 180 Tyrell, Sir James, 123 Uske, Thomas, 107 Walcott, Thomas, 205 Wallace, John, 101 ⸺, Sir William, 31, 32 and _note_, 99-100, 101 Warbeck, Perkin, 121 Ward, Margaret, 166 Ward, William, 183 Watkinson, Robert, 174-75 Wawe, Wille, 111-12 Webley, Henry, 165-66 ⸺, Thomas, 164 and _note_ Webster, Father, 134-36 Wells, Swithin, 166 Weston, Richard, 180 White, Eustachius, 166 Whitebread, Thomas, 201 Whitney, James, 213 Wild, Jonathan, 235 Wilford, Thomas, 248 Wilkinson, Abraham, 23 _note_ ⸺, Oswald, 159-60 ⸺, ⸺, 213 William, a messenger of the King, 88 William “Longbeard,” _see_ Fitz Osbert Wilson, Penlez, and 13 others, 243 Winslowe, ⸺, 151 Woodall, Richard, 154 Woodfen (Wheeler, or Devereux), Nicholas, 164-65 Woodhouse, Thomas, 160 Wright, Peter, and 13 malefactors, 184 Wyndham, Sir John, 123 Wyntreshull, Thomas, 108 Yorke, Edmund, Williams, Richard, and an Irish fencing-master, 168 Various, of unnamed persons⸺ 1238, “a learned squire,” 30 1255, 18 Jews of Lincoln, 94 1267, 13 rioters, 96 1271, 33 rioters, 30 1278, 280 Jews in London, and a very great multitude elsewhere, 97 1284, 7 (or 16?) for murder of Duket, 97-8 1293, 13 persons, 37 1345, 4 servants of Sir John, 104 1386, wife and 3 (4?) servants, of landlord of the “Cock,” 105-6 1455, 2 or 3 for riot in London, 117 1467, 4 men, a fellowship of church robbers, 119 1483, 4 yeomen of the Crown, 120 1495, 150 adherents of Perkin Warbeck, 120 1502, a shipman, 123 1532, certain traitors, 132 1537, 7 men of Lincolnshire, 143 1540, several, in London, 146 1549, 3 out of the West, 150-51 1550, 9 felons, 151 1552, 3 tall men and a lacquey, 151 1553, 2 felons, 151 1554, 58 after Wyatt’s rebellion, 152 1556, “hangman with the stump-leg,” 155 ” 10 thieves, 153 1557, a woman of 60 and a lad, 155 1570, 2 coiners, 156 1590, 16 felons, 166 1598, 19 felons, 170 1640, 24 felons, 187-88 1679, 8 priests, 201 1680, 12 men and 3 women, 205 1690, 6 persons, 209 ” 13 ” 211 1693, 14 ” 213 1694, 18 ” 213 ” 14 ” 213 1696, 14 ” 219 1697, 14 ” 219 1732, 13 ” 236 1733, 12 ” 236 ” 13 ” 236 1736, 2 men at Bristol (who revive), 224 1737, 12 persons, 236 1738, 13 ” 236 ” 11 ” 236 1739, 11 ” 236 ” 11 ” 236 1750, 13 ” 243 1750, 13 persons, 243 1750, 3 women drunk, 244 1750, 6 for robbing of 6s., 244 1750, 11, and Maclean, 244 1750, 15 persons, 246 1751, 3 boys, 246 1752, 11 persons, 249 1754, 12 ” 249 1757, 12 ” 249 1769, 5 weavers, 255 1773, 5 persons, 258 1780, man for robbing Jeremiah Bentham, 266 1785, 20, 5 for one robbery, 268 frequency of, in 1539, 141-42 under Henry VIII., 142-43 5,000, in Wales, 143

Eye— gallows at, 15 a witch of, 114

Eyes, tearing out of, 56

Farleigh Castle, 124-29

Ferrers, Earl of, murdered (1177), 82

Ferrers, Earl— a homicidal lunatic, 249 his splendid procession, 250 “drop” introduced at his execution, 251 legend of the silk rope, 251

Fielding, Henry,— law reformer, iv, 78 “Jonathan Wild, the Great,” 234

Fielding, Sir John, 259

Fife, Earl of, 104

Fifth-Monarchy men, outbreak of, 193

Fisher, John, Bishop of Rochester— attempt to poison, 21-2 and Elizabeth Barton, 133

Fitz-Athulf, Constantine, 83-6, 103

Fitz Osborn (or Osbert), William, known as “Longbeard,” his execution the first recorded at Tyburn, 79, 103

Flaying alive, 24-5

Fleet Street, gallows set up in, 152

“Fleta” quoted, 31 _note_, 37

Forests bordering on highways— cleared, 8, 10 _note_ in England, 7-9

Fortescue, Chief Justice, quoted, iv, 138

France— etiquette of the gallows, 19 hanging on trees, 19 the elm, as a symbol of justice, 57 petty courts, 57 _note_

Franchises— granted by the Crown, 7 value of franchise of furca et fossa, 18

Freeman, Edward Augustus, historian, “Norman Conquest” quoted, 13, 56

French Peasantry, miserable condition of, as compared with English yeomen, 138

Friars— mitigate punishment, vi minorite, plead for Jews of Lincoln, 94-5 lose favour thereby, 95

Froude, James Anthony, historian, “We cannot blame the Government,” 136

Fry, Mrs., quoted, iv

“Furca et fossa,” 7

Gahagan, Usher, edits Latin authors, translates Pope into Latin, hanged for filing gold, 242

Gallows— great number of, in 13th century, 7 prioresses have, 7 ordinary form of, 63 triangular, 63-4, 249 how many could be hanged at a time? 64 new, erected at “The Elms” in 1220, 60, 103 at “The Elms” in 1170, 60 great number set up in London in 1554, 152 and bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw, 191 movable, introduced, 249 at Bethnal Green, 255 high gallows, 99, 100-1, 257 And _see_ Tyburn gallows

Gascoigne, Chief Justice, on peine forte et dure, 38

Gaunt, Elizabeth, last woman burnt in England for political offence, 207

Geninges, Edmund— “Life and Death” of, 65 manner of his death, 166-67

George I., 217, 219, 227

George II., 218, 219

George III., 219, 262

Gibbet— always remote from towns, and why, 62-3 scanty information as to, 62 term used loosely, 62 of Montfaucon, 63 mention of, 86-7, 88, 100

Gibbets on Kennington Common (illustration)

Gilpin, Bernard, “Apostle of the North,” on rapacity of landlords, 139

Glastonbury Abbey, Charter of, 13

Gloucester, Duke of, murdered, 108, 116

Gloucester, statute of, 14

Godfrey, Sir Edmund Berry, 178 probably self-murdered, 200 supposed murder used politically, 200 three men hanged for his murder, 201

Goodman, Thomas— Parliament petitions for his execution, 184 dies in Newgate, 184

Governing classes, ferocity of, 78, 246-48, 257-58

Governments, under temptation to appeal to ignorance of people, 156-57

Green, J. R., historian, quoted, 56

Greenford, gallows at, 15

Gregory’s Chronicle, 63, 91 _note_, 110 _note_, 111-12

Grey, Lady Jane, 151

Guilds— older than King Alfred, 140 destroyed, 140

Guillotine, machine resembling, in use in England before the Conquest, 23

Gunpowder Plot, 66 _note_ does not come into Annals of Tyburn, 176

Habeas Corpus— not suspended by Charles II., 218 nor by James II., 219 suspended by William III. four times, 219 suspended by Anne once, 219 suspended by George I. thrice, 219 suspended by George II. four times, 219 suspended by George III. twenty times, 219 insincere writing about, 219 _note_

Halifax, machine resembling guillotine in use at, 23

Hallam, Henry, historian, on habeas corpus, 219 _note_

Halliford, gallows at, 16

Hampstead, gallows at, 16

“Hanged, drawn and quartered,” _see_ “Drawing”

Hanging— at Spalding, 19 on trees, 19, 137 in chains, 80, 99, 236, 246, 247 from a ladder, 135, 225 from a cart, 225 not enough, essays on the question, 246-47 revival after, _see_ Revival

Hanging-Sword Alley, 241-42

Hangman— several hanged, 3, 45-8 public ingratitude towards, 44 Cratwell, 45, 145 “Hangman with the stump-leg,” 45, 155 Bull, 45 Derrick, 45 Brandon, Gregory, 45, 46 Brandon, Richard, 46 Lowen, 46, 188 Dun “Esquire,” 46 Ketch, Jack, 46, 47, 207 his name became generic, 47 Rose, Pascha, 46, 207 Price, John, 47, 228 Meff, John, 47 Thrift, John, 48 Dennis, Edward, 48 and Jonathan Wild, 235

Hanover Square, 69 _note_

Harington, William, manner of his death, 167

Harrison, William, historian— his “Description of England,” 21-4, 22 _note_, 38-9, 40 misquotes Cardan, 142-43

Hawes, Nathaniel, put in the Press, 41

Hay Hill, Hyde Park, gallows set up at, 152

Hays, Catherine— murders her husband, 235-36 inspires Thackeray’s “Catherine, A Story,” 236

Heads, strange discovery of, 51-2

Heiress— stealing one made a felony, 209 case of Mary Wharton, 209-11

Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I., visit to Tyburn, 65, 66 and _note_, 67, 182 print representing of no historical value, 67 _note_

Henry I., 17, 24, 56-7

Henry II., 24

Henry III.— Attempt to assassinate, 30, 88, 89, 90 orders new gallows, 60 and _note_, 63 mentioned, 93-4 pardons woman who revives after hanging, 226-27 and _note_

Henry IV., 108, 109 Year Book of, 38

Henry VI., 112-15 pardons murderers of Duke of Gloucester after drawing and hanging, 116, 117

Henry VII., 119, 121, 122, 123, 141 _note_

Henry VIII., 77, 126, 132 divorces Catherine, 132 invests himself with supremacy of the Church, 133, 134 divorces Anne Boleyn, 136 procures dissolution of monasteries, 136 his order to kill man, woman, and child, 137 and Cardan, 142-43 his executions, 142-43, 146 and Catherine Howard, 150

Heretics— Protestant, burnt under James I., 177

Heytesbury, a seat of the Hungerford family, 124, 125, 126

Highwaymen— era of, 78 proclamations as to, 194-95 Hind and Hannum, 195 Duval, 195-98 rewards for capture of, 195 rob mail of £2,500, 195 Manchester carrier of £15,000, 195 mail of £5,000, 207 excellent account given by Macaulay, 198 The Golden Farmer, 211 Witney, James, 211-13 seven executed, 212 20 in Newgate (1693), 213 8 executed (1694), 213 “The Gentleman Highwayman,” 244 strange story of, 259

Highway robbery, an out-door sport, 258-59

Hinde, James, a noted highwayman, 194, 195

Hogarth, William— representation of Tyburn gallows, 68, 72 print of Idle Apprentice, 241 “Blood-Bowl House,” 241 “Stages of Cruelty,” 245, 248

“Homors” of Canterbury Cathedral, corruption of “Ormeaux,” 58

Hope, A. J. B., on discovery of bones, 53

Hospitals seized, 140

Hounslow Heath, 151, 259

Howard, Catherine, 150

Howard, Frances— Countess of Essex, 179 passion for Carr, 179 poisons Overbury, 179 procures divorce from Earl of Essex, 179-80 marries Carr, 180 pleads guilty to charge of murdering Overbury, 180 is condemned and pardoned, 180 her end, 180

Howell, James, quoted, 177, 181 _note_

Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, 80-1

Hue and Cry— described by Bracton, 12 raised in a panic, 12 raised, 17

“Humeaux,” 60 _note_ And _see_ “The Elms”

Hungerford, Lady Alice (Agnes)— murders her first husband, John Cotell, 124, 126-27 hanged at Tyburn, 124 buried in Grey Friars Church, 125 second wife of Sir Edward Hungerford, 125 inherits all his goods, 126 indicted in Somerset, 126 trial removed to Westminster, 127 sentenced to be hanged, 127

Hungerford, Sir Thomas, 124 Sir Edward, 125, 126, 128, 129

Hungerford— House, 125 Market, 125 Stairs, 125 Bridge, 126 Street, 126

Hurdle— mitigates punishment of drawing, vi first mention of, 29 and _note_ “hurdle” and “sledge,” words used indifferently, 29 _note_, 192

Hyde Park Corner, gallows erected at, 152

Ickneild Street, 17

Ina, Law of, 7

Ireton, Henry, body hanged at Tyburn, 190

Isabella, wife of Edward II., 101

Iveney, gallows at, 16

James I., 176 executions in reign of, 76 his “favourites,” 178, 181 _note_ correct attitude towards the “Bishop of Rome,” 178 gross immorality of his Court, 178 Was he an accomplice in the murder of Overbury? 181 or guilty of the death of Prince Henry? 181

Jardine, David, on torture, 36 _note_

Jeaffreson, John Cordy, “Middlesex County Records,” 76-7

Jeffreys, Lord Chancellor, 106

Jews accused of murder of boy at Lincoln, 91-5 eighteen hanged, 94 280 hanged in London and a multitude elsewhere, 97 lend money on relics, 138 and _note_

Johnson, Dr. Samuel— on procession to Tyburn, 146 on Bernardi’s imprisonment, 217 and Dr. Dodd, 262 on murder of Miss Ray, 264-65

Johnson, Samuel (Rector of Corringham)— writes against the Duke of York, 208 and the Government, 208 sentenced to be whipped to Tyburn, 208 degraded, 209 sentence annulled, 209

“John the Painter” hanged on gallows 60 feet high, 257

Jones, Mary— her piteous story, 255-58 Sir W. Meredith on, 257-58

Judges, ferocity of, 28, 36, 40, 42, 166, 207

Judicial error, terrible in 1386, 105

“Juges sous l’orme,” 57

Jura regalia, 7 of the Most High, 248

Kennington Common— execution on, 33, 48 gibbets on, (illustration)

Ketch, Jack, 207 a famous hangman, 46-7 beheads Lord William Russell and Duke of Monmouth, 47 his name becomes generic, 47 For other hangmen _see_ under Hangman

Knightsbridge, gallows at, 15

Laleham, gallows at, 16

Landlords, rapacity of, 139

Latimer, Hugh— his father a typical yeoman, 138-39 his sermons quoted, 138-39, 141-42 on frequency of executions, 141-42 jests at the burning of Friar Forest, 158 and _note_ on commission to try heretics, 158 jeers at burning of Anabaptists, 158

Law-French, an exquisite jargon, 33 _note_

Lawyers, the object of resentment, 19

Leofstan, Abbat, founds Wardenship of Chiltern Hundreds, 8-9

Limbs, lopping off of, 56, 86

Lincoln— Jews of, accused of murder of boy, 91-5 18 hanged, 94 Cathedral and Little St. Hugh, 93

Lingard, Dr. John, historian, quoted, 168, 171 _note_

Lipsius, Justus, his “De Cruce,” v, 62

Llewellyn, brother of David III., head exposed on Tower of London, 100

Loftie, W. J., quoted, 62

Lombards, attack on, 116

London to be called “Little Troy,” 107

London Bridge, first heads exposed on, 100-1

Lopez Roderigo— accused of designing to poison Elizabeth, 167-68 probably innocent, but executed, 168

Lorrain, Paul— Ordinary of Newgate, 67 his loyalty, 227 his broadsheets, 228 his “saints,” 228 account of last scene, 240-41

Lundy Island, William Marsh establishes himself as a pirate there, 88-9

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, historian— gives excellent account of highwaymen, 198 on Elizabeth Gaunt, 207 on Jeremy Collier, 216 on Major Bernardi, 216 on habeas corpus, 218-19

Machiavelli, Niccolò, his “Prince” quoted, 157

Machyn, Henry, value of his Diary, 151

Maclean, James— “The Gentleman Highwayman,” 244-45 robs Horace Walpole, 244-45 not a free-thinker, 245 his skeleton in Surgeons’ Hall, 245

Magna Carta— a conception of the thirteenth century, 218 derided by Cromwell, 218 the basis of habeas corpus, 218

Mails robbed, 195, 207

Manacles, a form of torture, 170

Mandeville, Bernard de, 78 describes an execution at Tyburn, 240 on supply of bodies for dissection, 248-49

Maps of London and of Middlesex, 65-8

Marble Arch— gallows did not stand here, 61 improvements, 70

Marteilhe, Jean, 63

Martyrdom, held to atone for errors of persecutors, 158-59

Mary, Queen, 77, 151, 159, 177 Wyatt’s Rebellion, 151-52 conspiracy to rob Exchequer, 153-55

Menteith, Earl of, 104

Mercenaries, Foreign, 140 and _note_, 141

Meredith, Sir William— law reformer, 78 on case of Mary Jones and another, 257-58

Middlesex County Records, 76

Mildmay, Sir Henry, drawn to Tyburn on a sledge, 192-93

Milksop, John, a thief, strange case of, 17

Milton, “Comus” quoted, 178

Minorite Friars— plead for imprisoned Jews, 94-5 lose favour thereby, 95

Misson, Henri— “Mémoires” quoted, 202 _note_

Monasteries— Dissolution of, 136 results of, 137-43 destroys yeomanry, 139

Monks— power to release thieves, 13-14 good landlords, 138, 139, 142 maintained the poor, 141

Monmouth, Duke of— execution, 47 rebellion of, 206

Monson, Lord, drawn to Tyburn on a sledge, 192-93

Montague, Basil— law reformer, 78 founds Society for the Diffusion of Knowledge upon the Punishment of Death, 258 son of the Earl of Sandwich, 265 Carlyle on, 265

More, Sir Thomas— quoted on title page on punishment for theft, 79 and Elizabeth Barton, 133 on numbers hanged, 142

Mortimer, Edmund— invades the franchise of Montgomery, 18

Mortimer, Roger— said in error to be the first executed at Tyburn, 103 his indictment, 104 _note_

Mourning-coach— allowed to “gentlemen” on their way to Tyburn, 202 and _note_ first recorded case, 202 _note_ a seat in one refused to a foot-pad, 254

Mute, prisoners standing— to be treated as guilty, 42 to be taken to plead “not guilty,” 43 And _see_ Peine forte et dure

Necromancy, a story of, 112-15

Newbury, hundred of, fifteen gallows in, 7

Newgate— heads set on, 104, 107 the “drop,” 257, 267 transfer of executions to, 267 capacity of new gallows, 268 20 men hanged at a time, 268

Norden, map of Middlesex, 65, 67

Norwich, riot at, 29, 30

Oates, Titus— and Tonge invent the Popish Plot, 199-200 pilloried, whipped, and imprisoned, 202 last appearance in pillory, 203 re-established as Protestant champion, 203-4 his services rewarded, 204

Ordeal of water, 83 and _note_

Orton, Henry, condemned to death, 160-61

Overbury, Sir Thomas— murder of, 178-79 a poet, 178

Ox-hide used for “drawing,” 28, 99 “The common,” 104

Paddington, gallows at, 15

Pardon Churchyard, burials in, 49-50

Parliament— petitions for execution of priests, 157, 184 conflict on subject of Oates, 203 and _note_, 204 petitions for execution of Pickering, 205

Paston Letters, 10

Peasants, revolt of, in 1381, 106; in 1549, 150

Peine forte et dure— judge-made, 36 successive stages of growth, 36-40 writers mistaken as to results of, 36, 41 originally severe imprisonment to make accused plead, 37, 38 Clitherow, Margaret, 39 Strangewayes, Major, 39, 40 Harrison on, 38, 39 became a punishment worse than hanging, 40 Stanford, Sir William, on, 41 and _note_ Spiggott’s case, 41, 229-30 Hawes’s case, 41, 230 abolished in 1772, 42 Thorely’s case, 42 Mercier’s case, 42 Chidley’s remonstrance, 187

Penal Laws, defended by Elizabeth’s Government, 164 _note_

Pepys, Samuel— sees head of Cromwell and others on Westminster Hall, 192 sees Lord Monson and Sir H. Mildmay being drawn to Tyburn, 193

Perreau, Robert and Daniel— and Mrs. Rudd, 260-61 Mr. Bleackley’s account of, 261 and Dr. Dodd, 262

Persecution, religious, considered a duty by the Reformers, 157-58

Peterborough, Abbat of, kills some of his monks, 138 _note_

Philip, husband of Queen Mary, 154

“Piers Plowman” quoted, 130

Pike, Luke Owen, “History of Crime” quoted, 203 _note_

Pirates, numerous, where and how executed, 20 and _note_

Pits for burial at Tyburn, 51

Placita de Quo Waranto, 14, 15

Poaching affray, 148-49

Poisoning made high treason, 21-2 Act so making it repealed, 22 “Great Oyer of Poisoning,” 178-81

Poisons, administered to Overbury, 179

Pope— advises Richard I., 81 Elizabeth’s quarrel with, 156-57 Bunyan describes his impotent railing, 156

Pope, Alexander— his epitaph on Trumball, 216 “Tyburn’s elegiac lines,” 240 _note_

Pope, William, Memoirs of Du Val, 195-97

Popish Plot, 199-205 Sixteen persons executed for, 201

Population of England— under Henry VIII., estimated at 5,000,000, 141

Prance, Miles, a perjurer, his punishment, 202-3

Preachers of new doctrines imported, 139-40, 142

Predatory Classes, civilisation has improved their opportunities of plunder, 11, 12-13

Pretenders, adherents of, executed— in 1715, 227 in 1718, 228 in 1746, 33 in 1753, 249

Pride, Thomas, 191

Princes Street, Hanover Square, gallows in, 42-3

Procession to Tyburn— halts at St. Giles’s hospital, 4 great concourse, 145, 215, 243, 250, 261 Dr. Johnson on, 146, 267 not allowed to stop for drink, 243 grandest, 250 greatest known, 263 Dr. Dodd on, 263

Pym, John, his body removed, 192

Quartering, _see_ Treason

“Rageman,” statute so called, 14

Ray, Miss Martha— murdered by Hackman, 263-64 mistress of Lord Sandwich, 264, 265 mother of Basil Montague, 265 Grub Street ballad on, 265

Rebellion— of 1745, 33, 249 in Cornwall (1497) 121-22 in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire (1536), 137; (1541), 149 in the West and Norfolk (1549), 150-51 in favour of Lady Jane Grey (1553), 151 Wyatt’s (1554), 151-52 in the North (1569), 155 Great, 185 Monmouth’s (1685), 206

Regicides, execution of, 190

Religious liberty not understood in the 16th century, 157-58

Reprieve, story of, 266

“Resources of civilisation,” 217-19

Revival after hanging, 221-27 John Smith, 221-23 Duel, 223-24 Chovet studies the question, 224 Gordon, 224 Reynolds, 224 two men at Bristol, 224 Patrick Redmond, 225 Anne Greene, 225-26 Margaret Dickenson, 226 Ivetta de Balsham, after hanging 12 hours, 226-27 and _note_ planned by Jack Sheppard, 233 of Dr. Dodd attempted, 263

Richard I.— punishment ordered by, 19 his crusade, 79 imprisonment and ransom, 79-80 removes the justiciar, 81

Richard II., 106, 108, 109, 110

Richardson, Samuel, describes an execution at Tyburn, 50-1, 236-40

Riley, Henry Thomas, quoted, 60 _note_

Riots— in London in 1222, 84-6 in London in 1267, 95-7 in Norwich in 1271, 29-30 in London in 1668, 193-94 in Strand in 1749, 242-43 in Bethnal Green in 1769, 255

Rishton, Edward, condemned to death, 160-61

Robbery— ancient forms of, crude and limited, 10, 13 modern improvement and extension, 10, 11

Rochester, Bishop of, attempt to poison, 21-2

Rocque, John, his maps, 68

Romilly, Samuel, law reformer, vi, 78, 257 _note_

Rose, Richard, boiled to death, 21, 22

Rotuli Hundredorum, 14, 15, 16

Royal Exchange, pillory at, 202, 203

Russell, Lord William,— executed for Rye House Plot, 47, 206 and execution of Pickering, 205

Rye House Plot— executions for, 205-6 and Elizabeth Gaunt, 206

Sadler, Thomas, steals Chancellor’s mace, 198-99

St. Alban’s— Leofstan, Abbat of, _see_ Leofstan highwaymen at, 211

St. George, Hanover Square— map of Parish, 68 Dr. Dodd and the living of, 261

St. Giles-in-the-Fields— “St. Giles’s bowl,” 4, 243 supposed site of royal gallows, 58-9, 58 _note_

Tangier tavern, lying in state of Claude Duval, 197

St. Hugh (Little) of Lincoln— story of, 91-5 Chaucer’s “Prioress’s Tale,” 91

St. John of Jerusalem, Priory of, 49, 50

St. Margaret, Westminster, exhumed bodies buried in a pit, 192

St. Mary-le-Bow, occurrences at, 80-1, 97-8

St. Pancras (old church), Jonathan Wild buried at, 235

St. Paul’s Cathedral, 87

St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, 197

Saint Sepulchre’s— burial in, refused, 50 burial in, 150 tolling of great bell established, 175-76

St. Thomas-a-Waterings— gallows of, 61 executions at, 148, 180

Salisbury, a non-juring parson, forges to prejudice the Government, 220

Samson, Abbat of Bury St. Edmund’s, 137

Sandwich, Lord— “protector” of Martha Ray, 264 invents the sandwich, 265

Saussure, César de— quoted, iv on benefit of clergy, 131 on peine forte et dure, 230 _note_

Savoy, custom of, 10

Scots, the first and last, on whom the full punishment for treason inflicted, 33

Sessions— at Newgate every 3 weeks in 1539, 142 at the Marshalsea every fortnight, 142

Shaftesbury, Earl of, directs the Popish Plot, 200-2

Shakespeare quoted, 64-5, 65 _note_, 116, 157, 170

Shard, Justice, strains the law, 28

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, poet, quoted, v

Sheppard, Jack— a great prison-breaker, 230 story of his last escape, 231-33 re-captured and hanged, 233 life written by Defoe, 233 portrait by Thornhill, 233 inspired a sermon, 234

Shepperton, gallows at, 16

“Ship of Fools,” iv, 140 _note_

Shirley’s “Wedding” quoted, 67

Shoplifting Act, vi, 220, 246 denounced by Romilly, 220

Shoreditch, Sir John of, his murder, 103-4

Sidmouth, Viscount, vi

Sieveking, Mr. Herbert, vi, 65 _note_, 68

Sisamnes, story of, 24

“Sixteen-string Jack,” 260

Slavery, re-established in England, 140

Sledge, “sledge” and “hurdle,” words used indifferently, 192

Smith, Sir Thomas— “De Republica Anglorum,” quoted, 35 tortures, 35 on benefit of Clergy, 130-31

Smithfield— “The Elms” of, the civic gallows, 57, 58, 59 burnings here for heresy, 59 and _note_ single combat in, 115 “Fires of Smithfield,” not extinguished by death of “bloody Mary,” 177 Sir W. Meredith on, 257-58 execution of highwayman at, 213 execution of bankrupt at, 227

Society, for the Diffusion of Knowledge upon the Punishment of Death, 258

Sorcery, a story of, 112-15

Southwell, Robert— tortured, 36 poet and martyr, 168-69

Spalding, hanging at, 19

Spaniards, rumour that Philip has brought in 12,000, 154

Spiggott, ⸺, put in the Press, 41, 229-30

Stafford, Thomas, his rebellion and execution, 154

Staines, gallows at, 16

Stanford, Sir William, “Les Plees del Coron,” 33 _note_, 40, 41 and _note_

Stanley, Dean, quoted, 25, 58 _note_

States General— surrender Regicides, 190 and Sir Thomas Armstrong, 206

Statute Book, 200 capital offences on, 6

Statutes cited— 3 Edw. I. (1275), c. 12, 37 4 Edw. I. (1276) (“Rageman”), 14 4 Edw. I. (1276), c. 1, 2, 131 6 Edw. I. (1278) (Statute of Gloucester), 14 13 Edw. I. (1285) (Statute of Winchester), 10 _note_ 18 Edw. III. (1344), St. 3, c. 2, 132 25 Edw. III. (1352), St. 5, c. 2, 30-1 25 Edw. III. (1352), St. 6, c. 4, 129 3 Henry VII. (1487), c. 3, 209 4 Henry VII. (1488-9), c. 19, 141 _note_ 22 Henry VIII. (1530-1), c. 9, 21 and _note_ 23 Henry VIII. (1531), c. 1, 129 26 Henry VIII. (1534), c. 1, 133 27 Henry VIII. (1535-6), c. 25, 143 32 Henry VIII. (1540-1), c. 16, 147 1 Edw. VI. (1547), c. 3 (Slave Act), 140 1 Edw. VI. (1547), c. 12, 22, 132 1 Eliz. (1559), c. 1, 163 23 Eliz. (1581), c. 1, 164 27 Eliz. (1584), c. 2, 175 1 James I. (1603), c. 15, 227 _note_ 21 James I. (1623), c. 6, 77; c. 19, 227 13 Charles II. (1661), c. 15, 192 4 & 5 Will. and Mary (1692), c. 8, 195 7 & 8 Will. III. (1695-6), c. 1, 214; c. 19, 215 8 & 9 Will. III. (1696-7), c. 2, c. 8, c. 26, 215; c. 5, 217 9 Will. III. (1697), c. 2, c. 21, 215; c. 4, 217 10 Will. III. (1698), c. 12,[215] vi, 78, 220-21, 246 10 Will. III. (1698), c. 19, 217 1 Anne (1701), St. 1, c. 29, 217 4 & 5 Anne (1705), c. 4, 227 5 & 6 Anne (1706), c. 6, 221 1 Geo. I. (1714), st. 2, c. 7, 217 1 Geo. II. (1727), st. 1, c. 4, 218 5 Geo. II. (1732), c. 30, 227 8 Geo. II. (1735), c. 20, 224 _note_ 25 Geo. II. (1752), c. 37, 247, 250 12 Geo. III. (1772), c. 20, 42 26 Geo. III. (1786), c. 49, 78 7 & 8 Geo. IV. (1827), c. 27, vi 7 & 8 Geo. IV. (1827), c. 28, 43, 131 5 Edw. VII. (1905), c. 13, 147 Acts suspending habeas corpus cited generally, 219 _See also under_ Æthelstan, Alfred, Henry I., Ina, William the Conqueror.

Stephen, Sir James Fitzjames, opinion that we have gone too far in abolishing the penalty of death, 6 quoted, 12, 18, 36, 57, 129, 227

Stirling Castle, siege of, 99-100

Story, Dr. John— a bitter persecutor, 157 his execution memorable, 157 triangular gallows first used for, 157 his career, 159 kidnapped, 159 executed, 159

Stow, John, burial of executed persons, 49-50

Strangeways, Major, manner of his death, 39-40

Stumphius, an imported preacher, 142

Strype, John, historian, quoted, 51-2, 69 and _note_, 158 _note_

Surgeons and bodies of executed criminals, 239, 243, 244, 248-49, 249

Surgeons’ Hall, 223, 248 Hogarth’s “Stages of Cruelty,” 245 bodies of murderers to be given to, 247, 248-49 body of Earl Ferrers in, 250, 251 body of Mrs. Brownrigg, 253-54

Swift, Jonathan— on “Blueskin,” 234 _note_ on “Clever Tom Clinch,” 240

Tarlton, Richard— his “Jests,” 45, 64 _note_ his “Newes out of Purgatorie,” 64

Teddington, gallows at, 15

Temple Bar, heads exposed on, 33

Thieves and robbers pursued without mercy, 13

Thistlewood and four others, manner of execution, 33, 34

Throckmorton, Francis, alleged treason of, 163-64 and _note_

Thumbs, tying together, 42

Tilford, the oak of, 15 _note_

“Time is money,” 54

Tonge, Dr. Ezrael, 199

Topcliffe, Richard, the English Torquemada, 169

Torture— illegal, but practised, 35, 36 Hallam on use of, 35 use of, denied by Sir Thomas Smith, who practised it, 35 use of, defended by Lord Burghley, 35-6, 161-62, 162-63 and _note_ use of, defended by Sir R. Wiseman, 36 _note_ Jardine on, 36 _note_ last recorded case, 36 _note_ of Edmund Campion, 161-62 of Alexander Brian, 161-62 the Government’s defence of, 161-62 of Francis Throckmorton, 164 _note_ of Southwell, 169 used in ordinary cases, 169-70

Tower of London, place for exposing heads, 100

Townley, Francis, manner of execution, 33

“Trailbaston,” inquisition so called, 16

Travellers, murder of, 9

Treason, high— defined by Statute, 30-1 punishment of, 31-4 form of sentence, 31 later form, 31 last execution for, 33-4

Treason, petty, 28, 104, 105, 129

Treasury of king at Westminster robbed, 11, 24-5

Turberville, Sir Thomas de— drawn to gallows on an ox-hide, 28 _note_, 99 execution of, 31 _note_, 98, 99

Turner, Mrs., inventress of “yellow starch,” 181 _note_

Tyburn Gallows— probable number of persons executed at, 3, 75-8 methods of execution, 3, 4 superstition, 48 slang expressions, 48 burials from, 49-53 site of, 54-70 gallows, when first set up, not before Conquest, 54 probably about 1108, 56-7 first known as “The Elms,” 57 no evidence of supposed changes of site of royal gallows, 58, 60-1 Earl of Oxford has gallows here, 59 gallows in constant use, 61 permanent, 61 movable, 61, 69-70 why so far from city, 61-3 and gibbets, 62 original form of gallows, 63 triangular, 63-4, 67-8, 71 proposals to remove, 69 removed, 69-70 last execution at, 70, 72 chronology of, 71-2 Dryden on, 74 annals of meagre, 75 mention of, sometimes omitted, 91 _note_ first recorded execution, 79 mistake as to Roger Mortimer, 103 said to be hung with garlands, 182 Chidley nails his protest near, 187 whipping from Newgate to, 202, 208, 209 pillory at, 202 said to be hung in mourning, 214 reason of removal to Newgate, 267, 268 martyrs of, 268 Oratory near, 268

Tyburn Gate, 70

Tyburn ticket, 220 and _note_

Villon, François, poet of the gibbet, 63

Wallace— execution of, 31-2, 32 _note_, 99, 100 his head the first exposed on London Bridge, 100

Walpole, Horace— robbed by Maclean, 244-45 his account of execution of Earl Ferrers, 251

Wapping— execution of pirates at, 20 and _note_ Execution Dock, 63

Warbeck, Perkin, pretender, 120-21

Watling Street, 8, 17, 67

Waverley Abbey, reference to, 15 _note_

Weavers of Bethnal Green, 254-55

“Were” and “wite,” 55

Westbourne, gallows at, 16, 58

Westminster, Abbat of— has 16 gallows in Middlesex, 13, 15-16, 58 houses wrecked, 84-5

Westminster Abbey, Dean’s Yard, formerly “The Elms,” 58

Wharton, Mary, stolen, 209-11

Whitney, James, a noted highwayman, 211-13

Wild, Jonathan— director of a great system of robbery, 234-35 exploits celebrated by Fielding, 234 pelted on way to Tyburn, 235

William the Conqueror abolishes capital punishment, 56 substitutes other punishments, 56

William III.— Shoplifting Act, 78 Assassination Plot, 215-17 imprisons Bernardi without trial, 217 the first king who suspends habeas corpus, 218-19

William, the sacrist of Westminster Abbey, 11, 24-5

Winchester— roads near, unsafe, 9-10 Statute of, 10 _note_

Woman burnt for treason— Mrs. Gaunt, in 1685, the last, except for coining, 207 narrow escape of Mrs. Merewether, 207

Wren, Sir Christopher, 225

Wyatt, Sir Thomas— his rebellion, 151-52 beheaded, 152

“Yellow Starch,” 181 _note_

Yeomen, English— a prosperous class, 138 helped to maintain poor, 139, 141 destroyed, 139, 140, 141

Yonge, Justice— his methods, 166

UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON.