_For the Table Book._
On the right-hand side of the altar of St. Sepulchre’s church is a
board, with a list of charitable donations and gifts, containing the
following item:--
£. _s._ _d._
1605. Mr. Robert Dowe gave 50 0 0
for ringing the greatest
bell in this church on the
day the condemned prisoners
are executed, and
for other services, _for
ever_, concerning such
condemned prisoners, for
which services _the sexton_
is paid £1. 6_s._ 8_d._
Looking over an old volume of the Newgate Calendar, I found some
elucidation of this inscription. In a narrative of the case of Stephen
Gardner, (who was executed at Tyburn, February 3, 1724,) it is related
that a person said to Gardner, when he was set at liberty on a former
occasion, “Beware how you come here again, or the _bellman_ will
certainly say his verses over you.” On this saying there is the
following remark:--
“It has been a very ancient practice, on the night preceding the
execution of condemned criminals, for the _bellman_ of the parish of
St. Sepulchre, to go under Newgate, and, ringing his bell, to repeat the
following verses, as a piece of friendly advice to the unhappy wretches
under sentence of death:--
All you that in the condemn’d hold do lie,
Prepare you, for to-morrow you shall die;
Watch all, and pray, the hour is drawing near,
That you before the Almighty must appear:
Examine well yourselves, in time repent,
That you may not to eternal flames be sent.
And when St. Sepulchre’s bell to-morrow tolls,
The Lord above have mercy on your souls!
Past twelve o’clock!”
In the following extract from Stowe’s London,[44] it will be shown that
the above verses ought to be repeated by a clergyman, instead of a
bellman:--
“Robert Doue, citizen and merchant taylor, of London, gave to the parish
church of St. Sepulchres, the somme of £50. That after the several
sessions of London, when the prisoners remain in the gaole, as condemned
men to death, expecting execution on the morrow following: the _clarke_
(that is the _parson_) of the church shoold come in the night time, and
likewise early in the morning, to the window of the prison where they
lye, and there ringing certain toles with a hand-bell appointed for the
purpose, he doth afterwards (in most Christian manner) put them in mind
of their present condition, and ensuing execution, desiring them to be
prepared therefore as they ought to be. When they are in the cart, and
brought before the wall of the church, there he standeth ready with the
same bell, and, after certain toles, rehearseth an appointed praier,
desiring all the people there present to pray for them. The beadle also
of Merchant Taylors’ Hall hath an honest stipend allowed to see that
this is duely done.”
Probably the discontinuance of this practice commenced when malefactors
were first executed at Newgate, in lieu of Tyburn. The donation most
certainly refers to the verses. What the “_other services_” are which
the donor intended to be done, and for which the sexton is paid £1.
6_s._ 8_d._, and which are to be “_for ever_,” I do not know, but I
presume those services (or some other) are now continued, as the board
which contains the donation seems to me to have been newly painted.