Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-07-28
QUEEN mATCmEs.

malefactor by wedding him under Tyburn
| Tree. The belief that o Condemned felon
| could be thus rescued from the hands of
:, the executioner is placed by Darlington
in the category OF legal vulgar errors. Il
| is one, Of coln Sc; but sneh singular idea
could hardly, one would think, have taken
possession OF the popular mind unless
there bad been some foundation for il.
| Supposing such custom ever prevailed
| anywhere, il is difficult 10 decide If It
| was complimentary or uncomplimentary to
| the saving sex. Women might, indeed,
| claim it a. an Acknowledgements that love
is lord of all, when the professed love Of
/ woman was held powerful enough to over
ride the decree of justice; while on the 9th
er hand it might be argued that the crimi-
nal had only choice of equal punishments.
/ If Mammalian, himself lawyer, gives
| true version Of the condition, the latter view
is the correct one, for marriage in such q
case might well prove worse than hanging.
| He says: sit Is the custom, not the law, in
| France and Italy, that if any notorious pro-
| fessed strumpet win beg for husband man
| who is going to execution he shall be re-
prieved, and she may obtain pardon and
marry him, that both their Ill lives may
be bettered by so holy an action. Hence
grew jest: when seOffiDg gentlewoman
| told gentleman she heard that he was
/ in some danger of being hanged for some
villiany, I've answered, "Truly, madame,
I was afraid of nothing so much as you
would have begged meF7 In England it
hath been used that if a woman will beg
a condemned person for her husband, she
must come in her smock only, and white
wand in her hand, as Sserill said he had
seen.
Among the ballads preserved in the
Roxburghe collection is one dating from the
early part of the seventeenth century, SET
ting forth how a merchant OF Chichester
killed German az Emden Town, and how,
after he had made his last dying speech on
the scaffold, no less than zen goodly maid
ems begged for his hand and life;
This Is our law, quoth they;
we may your death remove,
If YOU, in lieu Of our good will,
VIII grant To US you love-
None of the compassionate virgins, how
ever, were goodly enough for bis taste, and
he quietly asked the executioHer 10 do his
Office (: then another damsel intervened,
and BIZ force of her charms or her elO-
drience, persuaded the merchant to accept
her kind offer; 50
uHand In hand they went
Unto the church that day,
In sumptuous rich array"
And they were married presently
Less impressibe was the fellow whose
obdIr ate uugallantTy is commemorated in
these lines:
"Come marry wife, and save your ilfel"
The Judge aloud did cry.
'oh' why should corrupt my life9'
The Sic.iu, did reply;
tfFOr here's crowd ~ every SOrt,
And why should prevent their sport7
The bargains bad III every part;
The wife is worse; Drive ON the cart"
If the belief in gallows matches was a
strange enc, it was no stranger than the no
ton that il e bride lack modesty as well as
money, she could throw of her debts with
her dress, and by going to church in but
one garment make her creditors shit for
their due; as though Law were lion, los
ing all fsrceness before an unclad Una. A
beauty thus unadOrned once skipped across
Ludsate Hill to change her name by the aid
of q Fleet parsUn4 On the 18th of OctO-
Der, l714, John Bridmore aud Anne Sell
wood, of Chiltern All Saints, Wiltshire,
were made one, and against the record in
tie parish register was written:
1.-The aforesaid Anne ShenwoOd was mar
ried in her shift, without any clothes or
EeAu-SedF Ou.
Some ten years later similar perform
ance took place at Ulcombe, Kent. Kahn,
in his "Travels in North America"
Q747), relates that a poor widow, whose
husband he'd left her nothing but debts,
upon marrying a second time went to
church in her ehemise, thereby relieving
herself and her new partner from all LA
bilities; and in recording the fact Kahn re-
marks that such things often took place.
In 1896 a WhitehaVen bride sought TO
attain the same end by going to church as
became decent woman, undressing her.
self to her undermost garment for the
ceremony, and putting on her clothes again
as soon as the knot was tiedi and some
where between the years of 173S and 1744
Lincolnshire curate officiated at a we'd
ding where the heroine of the occasion
stood before him enveloped in sheet.
Such at empts to eyade the law Of debtor
and creditor evineed laudable desire on
the part of the bold brides to spare the
pockets of the men of their choice, which
Is more than can be said of the means
adopted not long ago by a Staffordshire
woman to evade paying certain monies she
had received on behalf of the turnpike
trustees. She had been sued in the county
court, and ordered to pay the money, and
appearing in answer to summons for con-
tempt, cOolly produced marriage certih'
cate, and pleaded that her husband was
now liable for the debt. She rad married
a travelling tinker the day after judgment
was given against her, and where he was
IN ha found she neither knew nor cared