  Transcriber’s Note: Corrections have been made to a small number of evident typos, but otherwise the text is as printed, with inconsistent spelling, hyphenation, punctuation and general style. TYBURN TREE GIBBET ON KENNINGTON COMMON, ABOUT 1748. Tyburn Tree BY AUTHOR OF “WHO KILLED SIR EDMUND BERRY GODFREY?” 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 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. |
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