Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-11-20
Nlistellaneuns &eadiuq.
EARLY EXECUTIONS.
BURNING CRIMINALS 1T THE STAKE And
OTHER BARBAROUS PUNISHMENTS.
There is something in the very phra

BURNING CRIMINALS At THE STAKE AND
OTHER BARBARoUs PUNIsHMENTs.
There is something in the very phrase
ssburnt at the stake" which fills one with
horror, and the thought that any woman
would brave such a death seems almost in
credible. "The Maid of Orleans" has doubt
less been in the minds Of many persons all
over the civilized world Of late, as well as in
that of every Frenchman, on account of the
monument recently erected in her honor in
her beloved patrie. But, although it seems
absolutely barbarous to make such sugges-
ton if the old records are to be credited,
this burning was by no means the agoniz-
ing death it is generally supposed to have
been. Indeed, in England it was looked
upon as an easy death, and women were
even burnt for the same crimes for which
men were hung, as being the more humane
manner of putting to death. But, and here
lies the whole secret, these same old records
show that the condemned were invariably
strangled to death, or at least into state of
perfect Inconsistencies before the flames
were allowed to touch them, so that in real
ity it was simply the dead body which was
Gevoured by the angry flames.
In proof of this case is mentioned in
an old English book where the executioner
was severely blamed because, his hands be-
coming scorched, he failed to pull the rope
fastened around the neck of the condemned
hard enough to kill her until after the
flames had reached her and caused great
agony, in spite of the efforts Of those about
her. Quite detailed account is given of
the execution of O woman named Eleanor
Elsom in the "Lincoln Date Book" who
was condemned to death for the murder of
her husband and ordered to be burned at
the stake. 1t reads as follows: "She was
saturated with tar, and her limbs were also
smeared with the same inf1ammable SUBJ
stance, while tarred bonnet had been
placed on her head. She was brought out
of prison barefooted, and being put on a
hurdle, was drawn on a sledge to the place
of execution near the galloWs. Upon arri-
val some time was passed in prayer, after
which the executioner placed her on tar
barrel, height Of three feet against the
stake A rope ran through pully in the
stake and was placed around her neck, she
herself fixing it with her hands. She was
probably quite dead before the fire reached
her, as the executioner pulled upon the rope
several times while the irons were being
| fixed. The body was seen amid the flames
for nearly half an hour, though, through the
dryness of the wood and the quantity of
tar, the fire was exceedingly fierce"
long ago, used as punishment for heretics
of both sexes, or any person accused OF
witchcraft. This mode of execution was
kept up all during the middle ages, the first
case on record being that of man named
Alban, who was burned in the year 304, A.
D. Many persons were put to death for
coming, which was, up to late date, re-
garded as an offense meriting death, the
latest case on record of burning at the stake
for this crime being that of a woman named
Christian Murphy, alias Bowman, who was
burned on March 18, 1889.
The last case of burning opposite Newgate
was in 1856, when woman was hanged on
low scaffold, and after life was extinct the
fire was lighted below her and the body was
burnt to ashes.
George III put stop to this barbarous
method of execution and provided that after
June 5, 1890, women should be hanged as
we'll as men.
Still more dreadful than burning at the
stake was the horrible idea of boiling peo-
pie to death, which was at one time legal
punishment for the crime of poisining, the
law putting it into effect being passed by
Henry VIII, in 1881. One of the few cases
recorded was that of a cook in the diocese
of the bishop Of Rochester, named Richard
Roose. This man had put poison in food
causing the death of two persons and the
serious illness of others, and the sentence
was passed on him that he should be boiled
to death without any benefit of the clergy,
which meant without any mitigation of the
sentence such as was commonly accorded to
those in anyway connected with the clergy,
so that he probably really felt the frightful
agonies of being boiled.
| The next person of whom we hear as
meeting this hideous death was woman,
a servant, who had poisoned three families
with whom she had lived. In the chroni-
Gle of the Grey Friars, mention is made of a
| man who was made fast to chain and let
down into boiling water until he was dead.
The expenses attendant on the parboiling
and hanging of Friar Stone, in 1889, are Ger"
| tainly curious. The execution came off at
Canterbury, and the following were the de-
tails Of the expenses: "For ton Of timber
to make pair of gallows for to hang Friar
Stone, two shillings six pence to a carpen-
ter for making the gallows and the dray,
one shilling four pence; to laborer that
| digged the holes, three pence; expenses
setting up the same, one shilling; for load
Of wood and for horse to draw him to a
dungeon, two shillings three pence; paid
two men that sat at the kettle and parboil-
ed him., one shilling; to three men that
carried his quarters to the gates and set
cord and screws, one shilling; for woman
that secured the kettle, two pence to him
that did the execution, three shillings eight
pence; total, fourteen shillings eight pence"
This punishment was not uncommon eth
er in England or on the continent, for coin
ing and the law permitting it was not re-
pealed until the time of Edward VI, in 1917.
Cases where persons were disemboWeled
were not infrequent, but the sentence was
generally mitigated, and, as in the case of
burning at the stake, the condemned were
first strangled.
Mention is made in an old book of man
being pressed to death, but no instance can
| be given of this dreadful mode of killing,
the very idea of which is enough to give
any one of moderately strong nerves the
nightmare for week.
1t is claimed that death by drowning is
one Of the easiest, but we doubt if the idea
of being seWed up in sack and thrown into
the water would be agreeable to any one,
yet such was at one time the not unmerited
doom of parricides; but still more revolving
is the idea Of being put under hurdles into
bogs or ferns, which was the fate reserved
for the meaner criminals at one period in
Germany, while to the greater malefactors
was reserved the infinitely preferable death
of hanging.
The Anglo-Saxons had all women who
were convicted of stealing drowned, and
King Richard the Lion-Hearted made that
the legal punishment for any soldier who
killed a fellow crusader. Criminals were
drowned in England until the early part of
the seventeenth century, and in Edinburgh,
Scotland, man was drowned as late as 1911
"for the stealing ola lamb" In other parts
of Scotland the custom was prevalent until
1865.
ces executions are being not only much less
nainfill but are in many cases altogether dis