Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/406

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vra. OCT. 26, 1907.

same Day three other of the Malefactors con- demn'd along with him, are to be executed at Tyburn, and the rest are to be transported."

A fortnight later, however, the same newspaper announced that

" This Morning John Price, formerly Hangman of this County, is to be Executed in Bunhill-Fields, for the Rape and Murder committed by him there ; and is afterwards to be hang'd in Chains at Stone- Bridge near Kingsland."

turesque statement :
 * ' Mist's " of 31 May gave a more pic-

" John Price, the old Hangman, is to be executed this Day in Bunhill-Fields, and the late Hangman who was turned of his Place for being arrested in going to Tyburn, by which Means the Criminals escaped being executed, is making Irons for him (he being also a Smith by Trade) to be hang'd in Chains after he is executed at Stonebridge near Kingsland. The said Price is so far from being Penitent for this Crime of the barbarous Murder, that he hath since Sentence of Condemnation been drunk for several Days successively, and committed most horrid outrages."

No copy of " Mist's " for 7 June is pre- served, while " AppJebee's " of the same date, without describing Price's execution, mentions it as a fact in connexion with a peculiarly hideous further charge against him ; but Read's Weekly Journal gave the following account of his end :

" Last Saturday, John Price, the quondam Hang- man, but in his Conversation with Mr. Lorrain, the Ordinary of Newgate, he stil'd himself Finisher of the Law, was hang'd in Bunhill- Fields for the Murder of Elizabeth White there, which he con- fess'd at the Place of Execution, and afterwards he was hang'd at Stone-Bridge at Kingsland in Chains, which were made for him by William Marvel, his Successor in the Place of common Executioner."

If Harrison Ainsworth had known of these facts concerning Marvel, he would have even heightened the lurid portrait he gave of that executioner, notorious for all time as the one who hanged Jack Sheppard. ALFBED F. ROBBINS.

[Additional particulars concerning Marvel next week.]

According to 'D.N.B.,' John Ketch's known career extended over only eight years, namely, 1678-86.

Gent. Mag., 1736, May, p. 291, has the following :

"24, Monday, Jack Catch, on his Return from doing his Office at Tyburn, robb'd a Woman of 3-s. 6U, for which he was committed to Newgate."

R. J. FYNMOBE.

J. SEGALAS (10 S. viii. 251). This gun- maker can scarcely have been of Polish origin, as the surname Segalas is peculiarly French. There is a large region or plateau in the south of France called " Les Segalas.'

[t means a place for the cultivation of rye- [n the Provencal or Southern French dialect segala means rye, corresponding to the "iterary French word seigle.

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

EXETEB HAIX (10 S. viii. 127, 215). The statement (ante, p. 128) that Exeter Hal! was " named after old Exeter House, which brmerly stood on this spot," cannot be accepted without qualification. Aggas's map does not seem to help us much, as, although I think both Bedford House and Cecil or Burleigh House are marked upon it, the gardens behind the houses are plotted out in a conventional manner. In Norden's map, however, Burleigh House is marked very distinctly, and there is a large garden in rear of it, of which a considerable portion was, as we know, leased from the Earl of Bedford. It was in this garden that Gerard, who was its curator, did a large portion of tiis botanical work. In Hollar's map of the West Central Part of London we find that the gardens of Burleigh House, then called Exeter House, have been reduced to their normal size, occupying merely the space in rear of the house, while those of Bedford House are of considerably larger extent. This is confirmed by the Newcourt-Faithorne map. It was not till the time of Charles I. that any thoroughfares were opened out on the northern portion of the Strand between Drury Lane and St. Martin's Lane. The first to be constructed were Brydges Street (circa 1637) and Catherine S*treet> which were named after Catherine, daughter and coheir of Giles Brydges, third Lord Chandos, and wife of Francis Russell, fourth Earl of Bedford. No further building took place till 1677, when Exeter Street was driven westwards from Catherine Street as far as the garden wall of Bedford House. This street was at the back of Exeter House, and remained a cul-de-sac till the following year, 1678, when Burleigh Street was driven northwards on the western side of Exeter House until it met Exeter Street. A few years later Southampton Street was con- structed on the western boundary of Bedford House, and was called after the wife of William, Lord Russell, who was a daughter of the Earl of Southampton. It was in this street that a tablet was erected a few years ago to commemorate the house in which David Garrick resided for two-and-twenty years.

Bedford House was pulled down in 1704, and after the demolition of the garden wall a narrow alley was laid out, part of which