Tyburn Tree: Its History and Annals

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TYBURN TREE

ITS HISTORY AND ANNALS




[Illustration: GIBBET ON KENNINGTON COMMON, ABOUT 1748.]




                               TYBURN TREE
                                   ITS
                           HISTORY AND ANNALS

                                   BY
                              ALFRED MARKS

            AUTHOR OF “WHO KILLED SIR EDMUND BERRY GODFREY?”
               “HUBERT AND JOHN VAN EYCK: THE QUESTION OF
                    THEIR COLLABORATION CONSIDERED,”
                               ETC., ETC.

        Who … began diligently and earnestly to prayse that strayte
        and rygorous iustice, which at that tyme was there executed
        vpon fellones, who as he sayde, were for the most part xx
        hanged together vpon one gallowes.—Sir THOMAS MORE, _Utopia_,
        about 1516.

                                 LONDON
                          BROWN, LANGHAM & CO.
                         78, NEW BOND STREET, W.




    Ther bith therfore mo men hanged in Englande in a yere ffor
    robbery and manslaughter, then ther be hanged in Ffraunce ffor
    such maner of crime in vij yeres.—CHIEF JUSTICE FORTESCUE,
    about 1476.

       *       *       *       *       *

    Than stele they, or Rubbe they. Forsoth they can nat chuse,
    For without Londe or Labour hard is it to mentayne,
    But to thynke on the Galows that is a careful payne.

    But be it payne or nat: there many suche ende.
    At Newgate theyr garmentis are offred to be solde.
    Theyr bodyes to the Jebet solemly ascende,
    Wauynge with the wether whyle theyr necke wyl holde.

                        ALEXANDER BARCLAY, _The Ship of Fools_, 1509.

       *       *       *       *       *

    Je suis persuadé que dans les treize cantons et leurs alliés,
    on pend moins de voleurs dans un an, que l’on ne fait à Londres
    dans une seule assise.—CÉSAR DE SAUSSURE, _Lettres et Voyages_,
    1725-1729.

       *       *       *       *       *

    Many cart-loads of our fellow-creatures are once in six weeks
    carried to slaughter.—HENRY FIELDING, _Enquiry_, etc., 1751.

       *       *       *       *       *

    The following malefactors were executed at Tyburn … John Kelly,
    for robbing Edward Adamson in a public street, of sixpence and
    one farthing.—_Gentleman’s Magazine_, March 7, 1783.

       *       *       *       *       *

    It is frequently said by them [the prisoners in Newgate] that
    the crimes of which they have been guilty are as nothing when
    compared with the crimes of Government towards themselves: that
    they have only been thieves, but that their governors have been
    murderers.—Mrs. FRY, 1818, quoted in _Romilly’s Life_, ii.
    486-7.




PREFACE


How our fathers lived is a subject of never-failing interest: of some
interest it may be to inquire how they died—at Tyburn. The story has
many aspects, some noble, some squalid, some pathetic, some revolting.
If I am reproached with dwelling on the horrors of Tyburn, I take refuge
under the wing of the great Lipsius, who, in his treatise De Cruce, has
lavished the stores of his appalling erudition on a subject no less
terrible.

But the subject has an interest other than antiquarian. We are to-day far
from the point of view of Shelley—

    “Power like a desolating pestilence
    Pollutes whate’er it touches.”

The general tendency is all towards extending the power of governments.
Some would fain extend the sphere of the State’s activity so as to give
to the State control over almost every action of our daily lives. It may
therefore be not without use to recall how governments have dealt with
the people in the past. The State never voluntarily surrenders anything
of its power. Less than a hundred years ago, ministers stoutly defended
their privilege of tearing out a man’s bowels and burning them before
his eyes. The State devised and executed hideous punishments, sometimes
made still more hideous by the ferocity of its instruments, the judges.
All mitigation of these punishments has been forced on the State by
“idealists.” The State dragged its victims, almost naked, three miles
over a rough road. The hands of compassionate friars placed the sufferer
on a hurdle—not without threats of punishment for so doing. In the end,
the State adopted the hurdle. So it has always been. Not a hundred years
ago, Viscount Sidmouth, the Home Secretary, could see no reason for
altering the law which awarded the penalty of death to one who had stolen
from a shop goods to the value of five shillings.