In days of yore, (says Aubrey) lords and gentlemen lived in the country
like petty kings, had _jura regalia_ belonging to the seignories, had
castles and boroughs, had gallows within their liberties, where they
would try, condemn, and execute; never went to London but in parliament
time, or once a year to do _homage_ to the king. Justice was
administered with great expedition, and too often with vindictive
severity. Pennant informs us that "originally the time of trial and
execution was to be within three suns!" About the latter end of the
seventeenth century the period was extended to _nine_ days after
sentence; but since a rapid and unjust execution in a petty Scottish
town, 1720, the execution has been ordered to be deferred for forty days
on the south, and sixty on the north side of the Tay, that time may be
allowed for an application to the king for mercy. Stealing was first
capital in the reign of Henry I. False coining, which was then a very
common crime, was severely punished. Near fifty criminals of this kind
were at _one time_ hanged or mutilated. Laws were passed in Henry
VIIth's reign ordaining the king's suit for murder to be carried on
within a year and a day. Formerly it did not usually commence till
after, and as the friends of the person murdered often in the interval
compounded matters with the criminal, the crime frequently passed
unpunished. In 1503, an act was passed prohibiting the king from
pardoning those convicted of wilful and premeditated murder; but this
appears to have been done at the monarch's own request, and was liable
to be rescinded at pleasure. In Henry the Eighth's reign, Harrison
asserts that 73,000 criminals were executed for theft and robbery, which
was nearly 2,000 a year. He adds, that in Elizabeth's reign, there were
_only_ between three and four hundred a year hanged for theft and
robbery. It is said that the earliest law enacted in any country for the
promotion of anatomical knowledge, was passed in 1540. It allowed the
united companies of _Barbers_ and _Surgeons_ to have yearly the bodies
of four criminals for dissection. In the year 1749, were executed at
Tyburn, Usher Gahagan, Terence O'Connor, and Joseph Mapham, for filing
gold money. Gahagan and Connor were papists of considerable families in
Ireland; the former was a very good Latin scholar, and editor of
Brindley's edition of the Classics; he translated _Pope's Essay on
Criticism_, in Latin verse, and after his confinement, the _Temple of
Fame_, and the _Messiah_, which he dedicated to the Duke of Newcastle,
in hopes of a pardon; he also wrote verses in English to prince George
(George III.) and to Mr. Adams, the recorder, which are published in the
ordinary's account, together with a poetical address to the Duchess of
Queensbury, by Connor. In 1752, it was enacted that every criminal
convicted of wilful murder should be executed on the day next but one
after sentence was passed, unless that happens to be on a Sunday: and in
that case, they are to be executed on the Monday following. The judge
may direct the body to be hung in chains, or to be delivered to the
surgeons in order to its being dissected and anatomized; but in no case
whatsoever is it to be buried till after it is dissected. The first
punishment of hanging, drawing, and quartering, occurred in the year
1241. The form of our gallows was adopted by the Roman Furca, when
Constantine abolished crucifixion. In France it had either a single,
double, or treble frame, denoting the rank of the territorial seigneur,
whether gentleman, knight, or baron. The ancient gallows near London,
had hooks for eviscerating, quartering, &c. the bodies of criminals. In
the 15th century, the top, like the beam of a pair of scales, was made
to move up and down; at one end hung a halter, at the other a large
weight, the halter was drawn down, and being put round the criminal's
neck, the weight at the other end lifted him from the ground.