boiling poisoners to death. The preamble of the statute states that one
Richard Roose or Coke, a cook, by putting poison in some food intended
for the household of the Bishop of Rochester, and for the poor of the
parish in which his lordship's palace was situated in Lambeth Marsh,
occasioned the death of a man and a woman, and the serious illness of
several others. He was found guilty of treason, and sentenced to be
boiled to death, without benefit of clergy, that is, that no abatement
of the sentence was to be made on account of his ecclesiastical
connection, nor to be allowed any indemnity such as was commonly the
privilege of clerical offenders. He was publicly boiled to death at
Smithfield, and the act ordained that all manner of poisoners should
meet with the same doom henceforth.
A maid-servant, for poisoning her mistress, was, in 1531, boiled to
death in the market-place of King's Lynn. Another instance of a servant
poisoning the persons with whom she lived was Margaret Davy, who
perished at Smithfield, in 1542.
This cruel law did not remain long on the Statute Books; shortly after
the death of Henry VIII., and in the reign of the next king, Edward VI.,
it was, in 1547 repealed. The punishment of boiling alive was by no
means uncommon before the enactment of Henry VIII., both in England and
on the Continent.
Beheading.
Beheading, as a mode of punishment, had an early origin. Amongst the
Romans it was regarded as a most honourable death. It is asserted that
it was introduced into England from Normandy by William the Conqueror,
and intended for the putting to death of criminals belonging to the
higher grades of society. The first person to suffer beheading was
Waltheof, Earl of Huntingdon, Northampton, and Northumberland, in 1076.
Since the days of the first Norman king down to the time of George the
Second in 1747, two monarchs, and not a few of the most notable of the
nobility of Great Britain, at the Tower, Whitehall, near the historic
Tolbooth of Edinburgh, and other places have closed their noble, and in
some instances ignoble, careers at the hands of the headsman.
Charles I. is perhaps the most famous of kings that have been beheaded.
On January 30th, 1649, on a scaffold raised before the Banqueting House
at Whitehall, he was executed. Within the Banqueting Hall of the Castle
of Fotheringay, on February 8th, 1587, the executioner from the Tower,
after three blows from an axe, severed the head from the body of Mary,
Queen of Scots. Her earlier years opened in the gay court of France, and
was full of sunshine, but shadows gathered, and she was--
"A sad prisoner, passing weary years,
In many castles, till at Fotheringay,
The joyless life was ended."
Henry VIII. was a great king, but his cruel attitude towards his queens
will ever diminish his glory; two of them were executed at his
instigation at the Tower, namely, Anne Boleyn, on May 19th, 1536, and
Katherine Howard, on February 13th, 1542. In the death at the block of
Lady Jane Grey, "the nine days' queen," the scene is more pathetic and
picturesque. On February 12th, 1553-4, she and her young husband, Lord
Guildford Dudley, were executed at the Tower, the former on the Green
within the ancient stronghold, and the latter on Tower Hill. The story
of her unhappy fate is one of the most familiar pages of English
history. Fuller said of this noble woman: "She had the innocency of
childhood, the beauty of youth, the solidity of middle, the gravity of
old age, and all at eighteen; the birth of a princess, the learning of a
clerk, the life of a saint, and the death of a malefactor for her
parents' offences."
[Illustration: THE TOWER OF LONDON, SHOWING THE SITE OF THE SCAFFOLD.]
Amongst the notable men who have suffered at the Tower, we must mention
John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, beheaded on Tower Hill, June 23rd,
1535. He had nearly reached the age of four score years. The Pope, to
spite Henry VIII., had sent the prelate a cardinal's hat, but the aged
bishop had suffered death before it reached this country. Sir Thomas
More was executed on July 6th, 1535. Like his friend Fisher, he refused
submission to the Statute of Succession and to the King's Supremacy. The
devotion of Margaret Roper to her father, Sir Thomas More, forms an
attractive feature in the life story of this truly great man. After
execution his head was spiked on London Bridge, and she bribed a man to
move it, and drop it into a boat where she sat. She kept the sacred
relic for many years, and at her death it was buried with her in a vault
under St. Dunstan's Church, Canterbury.
George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, was beheaded on May 17th, 1536, two
days before the execution of his sister, Queen Anne Boleyn; and his
wife, Jane, Viscountess Rochford, was beheaded at Tower Hill, with
Katherine Howard, on February 13th, 1542, on the charge of having been
an accomplice in the queen's treason. On July 28th, 1540, Thomas
Cromwell, Earl of Essex, was executed. Margaret Plantagenet, Countess
of Salisbury, opposed the king and his government, and she was condemned
for high treason. On May 27th, 1541, her earthly career closed. "The
haughty old countess," it is recorded, "refused to lay her head upon the
block, and the headsman had to follow her about the scaffold, and to
'fetch-off' her grey head 'slovenly' as he could."[24] She was nearly
seventy years old.
The following are included in the list of notable men beheaded, and in
most instances we are only able to give their names and dates of
execution, but the story of their careers will be found in the pages of
English history. Henry, Earl of Surrey, beheaded January 19th, 1546-7;
Thomas, Lord Seymour of Sudeley, March 27th, 1548-9; Edward Seymour,
Duke of Somerset, January 22nd, 1551-2; Sir Thomas Arundel, February
26th, 1551-2; John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, August 22nd, 1553.
Next comes Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, executed February 22nd, 1553-4.
He was the father of Lady Jane Grey. Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk,
suffered death June 2nd, 1572. On February 25th, 1600-1, Robert
Devereux, Earl of Essex, was beheaded.
Sir Walter Raleigh was a many-sided man, the discoverer of North
Carolina, the defender of his country, an author, a court favourite, and
a man of undaunted courage. In the Tower he was long a prisoner, and
there wrote some notable books, and the following hymn:--
"Rise, O my soul, with thy desires to heav'n,
And with divinest contemplations use
Thy time, where time's eternity is given,
And let vain thoughts no more thy mind abuse;
But down in darkness let them lie;
So live thy better, let thy worse thoughts die.
"And thou, my soul, inspired with holy flame
View and review, with most regardful eye,
That holy cross, whence thy salvation came,
On which thy Saviour and thy sin did die;
For in that sacred object is much pleasure,
And in that Saviour, is my life, my treasure.
"To Thee, O Jesu, I direct my eye;
To Thee my hands, to Thee my humble knees,
To Thee my heart shall offer sacrifice,--
To Thee my thoughts, who my thoughts only sees;
To Thee myself, myself and all, I give;
To Thee I die, to Thee I only live."
On October 29th, 1618, Sir Walter Raleigh was executed at Whitehall
under a sentence which had hung over his head for fifteen years.
[Illustration: AXE, BLOCK, AND EXECUTIONER'S MASK AT THE TOWER OF
LONDON.]
On May 12th, 1641, was executed Wentworth, Earl of Strafford; and on
January 10th, 1644-5, was beheaded Archbishop Laud. William Howard,
Viscount Stafford, a victim of Oates's perjury, was executed on December
29th, 1680. "Having embraced and taken leave of his friends," says Bell,
"he knelt down and placed his head on the block: the executioner raised
the axe high in the air, but then checking himself suddenly lowered it.
Stafford raised his head and asked the reason of the delay. The
executioner said he waited the signal. 'I shall make no sign,' he
answered, 'take your own time.' The executioner asked his forgiveness.
'I do forgive you,' replied Stafford, and placing his head again in
position, at one blow it was severed from his body."[25]
A noted name in history comes next, the Duke of Monmouth. He was
beheaded July 15th, 1685. "Here are six guineas for you," he said to the
executioner, "and do not hack me as you did my Lord Russell. I have
heard that you struck him three or four times. My servant will give you
more gold if you do your work well." Then he undressed, felt the edge of
the axe, and laid his head on the block. The executioner was unnerved,
he raised his axe, but his arm trembled as it fell, and only a slight
wound was inflicted. Several blows were given before the neck was
severed.
[Illustration: LORD LOVAT (_from a drawing by Hogarth_).]
We are now nearing the end of executions at the Tower, and only three
more names occur. The cause of Prince Charlie was supported by not a few
of the best blood of Scotland, but the battle of Culloden ended all
hopes for the Pretender, and brought misery to many of his brave
followers. William, Earl of Kilmarnock, and Arthur, Lord Balmerino, on
August 18th, 1746, were beheaded for their devotion to the Jacobite
cause. Simon, Lord Fraser of Lovat, had passed a shameless life, and
little can be said in his favour. In 1715, he fought against Prince
Charles Edward, but subsequently joined the Jacobites, and took part in
the battle of Culloden. He managed to escape from the field after the
engagement, and it was not until April 9th, 1747, that he was beheaded
on Tower Hill. On reaching the scaffold, he asked for the executioner,
and presented him with a purse containing ten guineas. He then asked to
see the axe, felt its edge, and said he thought it would do. Next he
looked at his coffin, on which was inscribed:--
SIMON, DOMINUS FRASER DE LOVAT,
Decollat April 9, 1747,
Aetat suae 80.
After repeating some lines from Horace, and next from Ovid, he prayed,
then bade adieu to his solicitor and agent in Scotland; finally the
executioner completed his work, the head falling from the body. Lord
Lovat was the last person beheaded in this country.
FOOTNOTES:
[24] Wilson's "The Tower and the Scaffold," 1879.
[25] D. C. Bell's "Chapel of the Tower," 1877.
The Halifax Gibbet.
The mention of the Halifax gibbet suggests a popular Yorkshire saying:
"From Hell, Hull and Halifax, good Lord, deliver us." Fuller says the
foregoing is part of the "Beggars' and Vagrants' Litany," and goes on to
state: "Of these three frightful things unto them, it is to be feared
that they least fear the first, conceiving it the farthest from them.
Hull is terrible to them as a town of good government, where beggars
meet with punitive charity; and, it is to be feared, are oftener
corrected than amended. Halifax is formidable for the law thereof,
whereby thieves, taken in the very act of stealing cloth, are instantly
beheaded with an engine, without any further legal proceedings.
Doubtless, the coincidence of the initial letters of these three words
helped much the setting on foot of the proverb." The Halifax gibbet law
has been traced back to a remote period. It has been suggested that it
was imported into the country by some of the Norman barons. Holinshed's
"Chronicle" (edition published in 1587) contains an interesting note
bearing on this subject. "There is, and has been, of ancient time," says
Holinshed, "a law or rather custom, at Halifax, that whosoever doth
commit any felony, and is taken with the same, or confesses the fact
upon examination, if it be valued by four constables to amount to the
sum of thirteenpence-halfpenny, he is forthwith beheaded upon one of the
next market-days (which fall usually upon the Tuesdays, Thursdays, and
Saturdays), or else upon the same day that he is convicted, if market be
holden. The engine wherewith the execution is done is a square block of
wood, of the length of four feet and a half, which doth ride up and down
in a slot, rabet, or regall, between two pieces of timber that are
framed and set up right, of five yards in height. In the nether end of a
sliding block is an axe, keyed or fastened with an iron into the wood,
which, being drawn up to the top of the frame, is there fastened by a
wooden pin (with a notch made in the same, after the manner of a
Samson's post), unto the middest of which pin also there is a long rope
fastened, that cometh down among the people; so that when the offender
hath made his confession, and hath laid his neck over the nethermost
block, every man there present doth either take hold of the rope (or
putteth forth his arm so near to the same as he can get, in token that
he is willing to see justice executed), and pulling out the pin in this
manner, the head-block wherein the axe is fastened doth fall down with
such a violence, that if the neck of the transgressor were so big as
that of a bull, it should be cut in sunder at a stroke, and roll from
the body by a huge distance. If it be so that the offender be
apprehended for an ox, sheep, kine, horse, or any such cattle, the self
beast or other of its kind shall have the end of the rope tied somewhere
unto them, so that they, being driven, do draw out the pin, whereby the
offender is executed."
In the illustration we give, which is a reproduction of an old picture,
it will be observed that a horse is drawing the rope to loosen the pin,
and to allow the axe to fall and cut off the head of the victim. The
doomed man had doubtless stolen the horse. Near the gibbet are assembled
the jurymen, and the parish priest is engaged in prayer.
[Illustration: HALIFAX GIBBET.]
Before a felon was condemned to suffer, the proof of certain facts
appears to have been essentially necessary. In the first place, he
was to be taken in the liberty of the forest of Hardwick, and if he
escaped out of it, even after condemnation, he could not be brought back
to be executed; but if he ever returned into the liberty again, and was
taken, he was sure to suffer. It is recorded that a man named Lacy
escaped, and resided seven years out of the forest, but returning, was
beheaded on the former verdict. This person was not so wise as one
Dinnis, who, having been condemned to die, escaped out of the liberty on
the day fixed for his execution (which might be done by running in one
direction about five hundred yards), and never returned. Meeting several
people that asked if Dinnis was not to be beheaded on that day, his
answer was, "I trow not," which, having some humour in it, became a
proverbial saying in the district, and is used to this day--"'I trow
not,' quoth Dinnis." In the next place, the fact was to be proved in the
clearest manner. The offender had to be taken either hand-habend or
back-berand, that is, having the stolen goods in his hand, or bearing
them on his back, or, lastly, confessing that he took them.
The value of the goods stolen had to be worth at least
thirteenpence-halfpenny, or more. Taylor, the water-poet, refers to the
subject as follows:--
"At Halifax the law so sharpe doth deale,
That whoso more than thirteenpence doth steale,
They have a jyn that wondrous quick and well
Sends thieves all headless into heaven or hell."
A further condition of the Halifax gibbet law is scarcely so clear as
the preceding. The accused was, after three market or meeting days,
within the town of Halifax, next after his apprehension and being
condemned, taken to the gibbet. This probably means that after he was
delivered to the bailiff, no time further than was necessary was to
elapse before proceeding to the trial, and that the bailiff was to send
speedy summons to those who were to try him, which might be done in two
or three days. If he were found guilty, the day of his execution
depended upon that of his sentence, for he was to be beheaded on no
other day than Saturday, which was the great meeting. Thus, if condemned
on Monday, he would be kept three market days; but if condemned on
Saturday, as some assert, he would be conducted straightway to the
gibbet. The two last persons who suffered death by this engine were
condemned and executed on the same day.
The final ordinance of the law directs that on being led to the gibbet
the malefactor is to have his head cut off from his body. That the
machine was fully capable of this is evident both from Holinshed's
remarks and from the following anecdote given by Wright, the historian
of Halifax, as an extract from "A Tour through the Whole Island of Great
Britain." A country woman, who was riding by the gibbet at the time of
the execution of a criminal, had hampers at her sides, and the head,
bounding to a considerable distance from the force of the descending
axe, "jumped into one of the hampers, or, as others say, seized her
apron with its teeth, and there stuck for some time."
The parish register at Halifax contains a list of forty-nine persons who
suffered by the gibbet, commencing on the 20th day of March, 1541, the
earliest date of which there is a recorded execution, and terminating on
the 30th day of April, 1650. After which latter execution the bailiff of
the town received an intimation that should another case occur, he would
be called to public account. The number of beheadals in each of the
reigns comprised in the above dates are: five in the last six years of
the reign of Henry VIII.; twenty-five in the reign of Elizabeth; seven
in the reign of James I.; ten in the reign of Charles I.; two during
the Commonwealth.
[Illustration: HALIFAX GIBBET, BY HOYLE.]
In the year 1650, John Hoyle made a drawing of the Halifax gibbet, which
is regarded as a faithful representation of it. On the crown of the hill
will be noticed a sketch of the ancient beacon.
An account of the last occasion upon which the services of the Halifax
gibbet were called into requisition is interesting; it is contained in a
rare book: "Halifax and its Gibbet Law placed in a True Light." It was
written by Dr. Samuel Midgley, during an imprisonment for debt, and was
published in 1708. "About the latter end of April, A.D. 1650, Abraham
Wilkinson, John Wilkinson, and Anthony Mitchel were apprehended within
the Manor of Wakefield and the liberties of Halifax, for divers
felonious practices, and brought or caused to be brought into the
custody of the chief bailiff of Halifax, in order to have their trials
for acquittal or condemnation, according to the custom of the Forest of
Hardwick, at the complaint and prosecution of Samuel Colbeck of Wardley,
within the liberty of Halifax; John Fielden of Stansfield, within the
said liberty; and John Cusforth of Durker, in the parish of Sandall,
within the Manor of Wakefield." The Bailiff, according to the ancient
custom, issued a summons to the "several constables of Halifax, Sowerby,
Warley, and Skircoat," charging them to appear at his house on the 27th
day of April, 1650, each accompanied by four men, "the most ancient,
intelligent, and of the best ability" within his constabulary, to
determine the cases. The constables were merely the law officers, the
jurors being the sixteen "most ancient men," and whose names are given
at length. They were empanelled in a convenient room at the Bailiff's
house, where the accused and their prosecutors were brought "face to
face" before them, as also the stolen goods, to be by them viewed,
examined, and appraised. The court was opened by the following address
from the Bailiff: "Neighbours and friends,--You are summoned hither and
empanelled according to the ancient custom of the Forest of Hardwick,
and by virtue you are required to make diligent search and inquiry into
such complaints as are brought against the felons, concerning the goods
that are set before you, and to make such just, equitable, and faithful
determination betwixt party and party, as you will answer between God
and your own conscience." He then addressed them on the separate charges
against the prisoners. From Samuel Colbeck, of Warley, they were alleged
to have stolen sixteen yards of russet-coloured kersey, which the jury
valued at 1s. per yard. Two of the prisoners were alleged to have stolen
from Durker Green, two colts, which were produced in court, one of which
was appraised at L3, and the other at 48s. Also, Abraham Wilkinson was
charged by John Fielden with stealing six yards of cinnamon-coloured
kersey, and eight yards of white "frized, for blankets." After some
debate concerning certain evidence against the above, and "after some
mature consideration, the jury, as is customary in such cases,"
adjourned to the 30th day of April. Upon this day they met, and after
further full examination gave their verdict in writing, and directed
that the prisoners Abraham Wilkinson and Anthony Mitchel, "by ancient
custom, and liberty of Halifax, whereof the memory of man is not to the
contrary, the said Abraham Wilkinson and Anthony Mitchel are to suffer
death by having their heads severed and cut off from their bodies at the
Halifax gibbet, unto which verdict we subscribe our names." The felons
were executed upon the same day.
The stone scaffold or pedestal upon which the gibbet was erected was
discovered by the Town Trustees in 1840, in attempting to reduce what
was known as Gibbet Hill to the level of the neighbouring ground; and
except some decay of the top and one of the steps, it is in a perfect
state. It is carefully fenced round, and an inscription affixed, which
was done at the cost of Samuel Waterhouse, Mayor, in 1852. The gibbet
axe, formerly in the possession of the Lord of the Manor of Wakefield,
is now preserved at the Rolls Office of that town. It weighs seven
pounds twelve ounces; its length is ten inches and a half; it is seven
inches broad at the top, and nearly nine at the bottom, and at the
centre about seven and a half.
The Scottish Maiden.
[Illustration: THE TOLBOOTH, EDINBURGH.]
Towards the middle of the sixteenth century, the Earl of Morton, Regent
of Scotland, during a visit to England, witnessed an execution by the
Halifax gibbet. He appears to have been impressed in a favourable manner
with the ingenuity of the machine, and gave directions for a model of it
to be made, and on his return home, in the year 1565, he had a similar
gibbet constructed. On account of remaining so long before it was used,
so runs the popular story, it was known as "The Maiden." Dr. Charles
Rogers says that its appellation is from the Celtic _mod-dun_,
originally signifying the place where justice was administered.[26] It
is generally believed that the first victim beheaded at the Maiden was
the Earl of Morton himself, but such was not the case, for he did not
suffer death by it until June 2nd, 1581. He ruled Scotland for ten
years, winning the approbation of Queen Elizabeth, but finally he fell a
victim to the court faction. It has been said that probably it could not
have availed against him but for his own greed and cruelty. In trying
to picture the scene of Morton's execution, says a painstaking author,
it must have been a striking sight when the proud, stern, resolute face,
which had frowned so many better men down, came to speak from the
scaffold, protesting his innocence of the crime for which he had been
condemned, but owning sins enough to justify God for his fate.[27] He
died by the side of the City Cross, in the High Street, Edinburgh, and
for the next twelve months his head garnished a pinnacle on the
neighbouring Tolbooth.
[Illustration: THE SCOTTISH MAIDEN.]
It is agreed by authorities that the first time the Maiden was used was
at the execution of the inferior agents in the assassination of Rizzio,
which occurred at Holyrood Palace, on the 9th of March, 1566.
The list of those who have suffered death at the Maiden extends to at
least one hundred and twenty names, not a few of whom Scotland delights
to honour, including Sir John Gordon, of Haddo; President Spottiswood,
the Marquis and the Earl of Argyle.
[Illustration: EXECUTION OF THE EARL OF ARGYLE.]
The unfortunate Earl of Argyle met his doom with firmness; when laying
his head on the grim instrument of death, he said it was "a sweet
Maiden, whose embrace would waft his soul into heaven." The tragic story
of the Earl of Argyle has been ably told by Mr. David Maxwell, C.E., and
his iniquitous death is one of many dark passages in the life of James
II.[28]
In 1710, the use of the Maiden was discontinued. It now finds a place
and attracts much attention in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries
of Scotland, at Edinburgh.
FOOTNOTES:
[26] Rogers's "Social Life in Scotland," 1884.
[27] Chambers's "Book of Days," Vol. I., page 728.
[28] David Maxwell's "Bygone Scotland," 1894.
Mutilation.