The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-02-12

the most terrible cries. Afterward he
was torn asunder.
In his commentary on the 117th sec
ton of Littleton's "Tenures," Coke
says "The worst tenure l have read of
is to hold lands to be hangman or exc
cutioner. 1t seemeth in ancient times
such officers were not voluntaries, nor
for lucre to be hired, unless they were
bound thereunto by tenure. To Shake
speare the fact of hereditary hangmen
was familiar, probably, as in the Manor
of Stoneley, the seat of a famous abbey,
i'll his native county of Warwick, there
were anciently four bondmen, whereof
each held one messuage and one quar-
toon of Land by the service of making the
gallows and hanging the thieves. Each
of which bondsmen was to weas red
clout betwixt his shoulders upon his up
per garment ; to pillow, reap, make the
lords malt, and DO other servile work.
AT the beginning of the century there
/ yet fingered IA barbaric custom Of hang
ing III chains.
A writer in 1873 says: "Some fifty
/ five or more years ago, but less than
sixty, | made my first trip to Margate,
and saw pirate hanging in chains upon
gallows erected by the side of the
Thames. An idea was prevalent some
years ago that hanging atire in chains
was once recognized legal punishment
in England. But this was not SO it
was rather an extraordinary torture sane
toned by usage. The last execution by
hanging of a nobleman in England was
that of Lord Ferrers for the murder of
his steward AS he was going TO execu-
ton III his landau and six, Mr.. Hum
phries, chaplain of the Tower, where
Lord Ferrers was detained, took occa-
sion to observe that the world would
naturally be very inquisitive concerning
the religion his lordship professed, and
asked him if he chose to say anything
upon that subject. To which his lord
ship replied that he did not think him
self accountable to the world for his sen
timents ON religion, but that he had
always believed III and adored one God,
the Maker of all things that whatever
his notions were he had never propo-
gated them, or endeavored to gain any
persons over to his persuasion that all
countries and nations had form of re-
ligiOn 10y which the people We're gov
erned, and that he looked upon whoever
disturbed them in it as an enemy to
society that he very much blamed my
Lord Bolingbroke for permitting his
sentiments on religion to Toe published to
the world that the many facts and dis
putes which happen about religion have
almost turned mOraii(g out of doors.
He could never believe that faith alone
could save man. His own crime, he
said, was committed when he was beside
L., IL L, t. L..
ment were found, it is said, the lines,
''In doubt liv'd in doubt die,
Yet stand prepared the vast abyss 10 try,
And undismay'd expect eternity"
Up to the close of the last century a
woman who murdered her husband
the crime was termed petty treason
was, in England, sentenced to be burned,
and III the last century girl was burned
at Norwich for the murder of her mis-
tress. Forgery seems TO have been simi
larly dealt with i'll the case of woman.
A London newspaper of the year 17SS
announces that Jeremiah Grace and Mar
garet Sullivan, convicted for feloniously
and traitorously coloring with certain
materials producing the color of silver on
certain pieces of copper, resembling
shillings and sixpence, were brought out
of Newgate about seven o'clock with two
other csSminals. After the men had
been hanging, the woman was brought
out dressed III black, attended by Ro-
man Catholic priest. AS soon as she
came to the stake she was placed on a
stool, which, after some time, was taken
from under her, and after being strangled,
the faggots were placed around her and
she was burned
La the history of the Pinder of Wake
field, of 1882, occnrs curious passage,
describing an anticipation of the gllillo-
tine !: Yorkshire had many privileges,
as (also) the towne of Halifax, in the
same shire, place of great cloathing,
few better in England, yet much sub
jected to robberies and thieves, which
swarmed the more in respect that when
any felony was committed they could not
get any man to play the executioner's
part, though the King had given them,
10y act of Parliament, to use martial law.
A Friar there lived in these days that
was very ingenious; he invented an En-
gin which, by the pulling out of pin,
would fall and so cut off the neck. This
device kept them in awe great while, till
at the last this Friar had committed no.
iCiiOuS uttd, tLiNl lOI Tic sttult wis Tic
first that hanseled the new engin, his
own invention" From other sources it
appears that this instrument was used at
Halifax as early IA the time of Edward
III. 1t was an instrument peculiar TO
that town, and even there restricted
solely to the punishment of felonies COM
nlitted in the neighboring forest of
Hardwick. The Right Hon. j. Wilson
Croker states that the pedestal or stone
scaffold of this instrument WAS discovered
during the present century under long
accumulation of rubbish and soil. The
knife is still in the possession of the Lord
Of the Manor of Wakefield.
DIR. Guillotin revived the interest in
these machines by bringing the subject
Of mn expeditions means of death before
the French Assembly. His speech to
the effect that the instrument whose en-
ployment he advocated, would "strike
off your head in the twinkling of an eve,
and you never feel it." caused great
amusement.
The superiority Of the guillotine over
other Inventions az ita hind xpoo -, tho