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Authors: Simon Webb
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that a scratching was heard from inside the coffin. It was opened and Margaret Dickson was found to be alive. She went on to live for many more years.
We have seen that within a century or so of the Norman invasion, hanging had become the standard method for inflicting death upon criminals. Beheading was, as a rule, reserved for those of noble birth and burning for heretics and some women convicted of treason. The punishment of hanging, drawing and quartering, which we will look at in detail in Chapter 7, was reserved for commoners found guilty of treason. It was thought indecent to expose to public sight the naked bodies of women found guilty of this offence, and so it was ‘commuted’ to burning. All these types of executions amounted to a handful of exceptional and atypical cases; perhaps 99 per cent of executions in Britain have been by hanging, certainly for the last 1,000 years or so.
As Britain entered the eighteenth century, hanging had become the standard response to any number of crimes. Today, we are used to the idea that the death penalty should be reserved for particularly serious crimes such as murder, but this was not the way of thinking a few centuries ago. The number of offences carrying the death penalty increased year by year, reaching a zenith with the Bloody Code, which remained in force until the early nineteenth century. We shall look at this period, which can aptly be described as the heyday of British hanging, in Chapter 6. Firstly, I want first to look at the curious case of mechanical devices for removing heads; two examples of which were to be found in Britain long before the invention of the guillotine.
M ECHANICAL D ECAPITATION:
A B RITISH I NVENTION
I t is an enduring image of France: the triangular blade of the guillotine speeding down towards the neck of some luckless victim. It evokes the memory of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities or perhaps The Scarlet Pimpernel. However, the guillotine was not a French invention at all, it was a British one. Such devices were in use in this country for centuries before the French Revolution, and versions of them were to be found in two major British cities.
Many of us are familiar with the so-called Beggars’ or Thieves’ Litany, ‘From Hell, Hull and Halifax, Good Lord deliver us’. It is easy enough to see why one would wish to be saved from Hell, but why Halifax and Hull? This little jingle dates from the early seventeenth century and Hull, at that time, had a notoriously harsh prison. It is Halifax which is of interest to us though, because here, at Halifax, was the prototype for the guillotine, which had been operating in that city since the thirteenth century. It was this device and the circumstances under which it was used, which caused Halifax to be included in the Beggars’ Litany. In fact, the next verse of this poem, written by John Taylor and published in 1622, makes everything clear. It says:
At Halifax, the Law so sharp doth deal,
That whoso more than thirteen pence doth steal,
They have a jyn that wondrous quick and well
Sends Thieves all headless unto Heav’n or Hell
(Jyn is short for engine)
We saw earlier that a tradition had grown up in this country, by which only those of noble or royal blood were executed by beheading. For the ordinary murderer or thief, hanging was thought to be the proper mode of execution. In the English town of Halifax and also in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, things were a little different. Let us look first at Halifax, where the first recorded machine for human decapitation was once to be found.
Halifax is in the county of Yorkshire and has, for centuries, been associated with the production of fabrics and clothing. Even today, the nearby towns of Leeds and Bradford still maintain their connection to the textiles industry. The manufacture of woollen cloth in Halifax dates back to at least the medieval period. There are indirect allusions to
We have seen that within a century or so of the Norman invasion, hanging had become the standard method for inflicting death upon criminals. Beheading was, as a rule, reserved for those of noble birth and burning for heretics and some women convicted of treason. The punishment of hanging, drawing and quartering, which we will look at in detail in Chapter 7, was reserved for commoners found guilty of treason. It was thought indecent to expose to public sight the naked bodies of women found guilty of this offence, and so it was ‘commuted’ to burning. All these types of executions amounted to a handful of exceptional and atypical cases; perhaps 99 per cent of executions in Britain have been by hanging, certainly for the last 1,000 years or so.
As Britain entered the eighteenth century, hanging had become the standard response to any number of crimes. Today, we are used to the idea that the death penalty should be reserved for particularly serious crimes such as murder, but this was not the way of thinking a few centuries ago. The number of offences carrying the death penalty increased year by year, reaching a zenith with the Bloody Code, which remained in force until the early nineteenth century. We shall look at this period, which can aptly be described as the heyday of British hanging, in Chapter 6. Firstly, I want first to look at the curious case of mechanical devices for removing heads; two examples of which were to be found in Britain long before the invention of the guillotine.
M ECHANICAL D ECAPITATION:
A B RITISH I NVENTION
I t is an enduring image of France: the triangular blade of the guillotine speeding down towards the neck of some luckless victim. It evokes the memory of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities or perhaps The Scarlet Pimpernel. However, the guillotine was not a French invention at all, it was a British one. Such devices were in use in this country for centuries before the French Revolution, and versions of them were to be found in two major British cities.
Many of us are familiar with the so-called Beggars’ or Thieves’ Litany, ‘From Hell, Hull and Halifax, Good Lord deliver us’. It is easy enough to see why one would wish to be saved from Hell, but why Halifax and Hull? This little jingle dates from the early seventeenth century and Hull, at that time, had a notoriously harsh prison. It is Halifax which is of interest to us though, because here, at Halifax, was the prototype for the guillotine, which had been operating in that city since the thirteenth century. It was this device and the circumstances under which it was used, which caused Halifax to be included in the Beggars’ Litany. In fact, the next verse of this poem, written by John Taylor and published in 1622, makes everything clear. It says:
At Halifax, the Law so sharp doth deal,
That whoso more than thirteen pence doth steal,
They have a jyn that wondrous quick and well
Sends Thieves all headless unto Heav’n or Hell
(Jyn is short for engine)
We saw earlier that a tradition had grown up in this country, by which only those of noble or royal blood were executed by beheading. For the ordinary murderer or thief, hanging was thought to be the proper mode of execution. In the English town of Halifax and also in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, things were a little different. Let us look first at Halifax, where the first recorded machine for human decapitation was once to be found.
Halifax is in the county of Yorkshire and has, for centuries, been associated with the production of fabrics and clothing. Even today, the nearby towns of Leeds and Bradford still maintain their connection to the textiles industry. The manufacture of woollen cloth in Halifax dates back to at least the medieval period. There are indirect allusions to
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