Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/129

 9" s. vii. FEB. IB, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

121

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1901.

CONTENTS. No. 164.

NOTES Executions at Tyburn and Elsewhere, 121 Jesse and Selwyn, 122 -Father of Eustace fitz John, 123 " Bandy-legged "=" Knock-kneed," 124 " Billycock" "Better to have loved and lost "" Manurance "Fore- court at Ashburnham House, 125 -Human Remains at Machen Memorial to Ruskin Relic of Handel Book of Common Prayer Heads or Tails, 12tf-Lodge and White, Lord Mayors of London Mint Price of Gold, 127.

QUERIES : "Le trecento cariche "Serjeant Bettesworth, 127 -' The Thirteen Club ' " Put a spoke in the wheel " Stanbury of Devon and Cornwall " Bull and Last" Mohun of Wollaston Hamilton High and Low: Con- servative and Liberal Forth Family and Arms Mackin- tosh-Journalistic Errors, 128 Byfield Family Daven- port -Hulme "So long" Waurom Friar's Crag, Derwentwater Duration of Life in Seeds Huitson Family J. J. Morier Chinese Discovery of America - Waller Family, 129-"Nunty," 130.

BEPLIES : Nature Myths " Shimmozzel " Chavasse Family, 130 Lamb and 'The Champion ' " Smous " Welsh MS. Pedigrees, 131 Losses in the American Civil War Seneca and Galen : Translations, 132 Achill Island Early Steam Navigation" Pin and Bowl," 133 Woore, in Salop "Thackeray's bed books" Sir W. F. Carroll, 134 Broken on the Wheel Ancient Marriage Custom- National Nicknames Healing Stone Wine in the Early Church " Roker " Wyvill Baronetcy, 135 Easter Magiant- Quaint Custom Boulder Stones, 13 " In the swim" Beardshaw School-Teachers in Kent Corpse on Shipboard " Bijou " as a Christian Name, 137 Definition of Gratitude, 138.

NOTES ON BOOKS: The 'New English Dictionary'

' An English Miscellany ' ' Acts of the Privy Council '

Shuckburjjh's Translation of Cicero's Letters ' History of

Early Italian Literature.'

Notices to Correspondents.

gaits.

EXECUTIONS AT TYBURN AND ELSEWHERE.

UNCERTAINTY exists as to the period when executions first took place at Tyburn, and as to the actual site of the gallows. The subject was before the readers of 'N. & Q.' in I 8fc S. ii., 2 nd S. iii., and 4 th S. ii., and on the second of these occasions reference was made to the execution of William Fitz Osbert, called " Longbeard," at Tyburn, in 1196. This being an early period in London history, during which the usual place of death was at the Elms of Smithfield, I have carefully examined all mention of the execution by chroniclers and historians, and think it may be well to record the evidence in ' N. <fe Q., rather than leave it to oblivion in my note book.

First, as to the site in Tyburn. The area of the ancient Domesday manor is undeter mined, and its extension along the old Roman Way (now Oxford Street) is still an unsettlec question. Its eastern boundary, correspond ing with Tottenham Court Road, is accepted but its western limit is disputed. For al though another Domesday manor, viz., Lile-

tone,* may be proved to have reached down
 * o the same Roman Way, and to have ex-
 * ended along it from the bourn, where is now

Stratford Place, to the other Roman Way corresponding with Edgware Road, yet there s very good reason to believe that Tyburn manor stretched westward across the West- xmrne (or Bayswater) district. Could this DC established, it would appear that Lilestone was an intersecting manor, and that Tyburn manor lay both eastward and westward of Milestone. But this difficult question, which awaits further research for its solution, I do not venture to discuss, and refer to it only as affecting the place of the earliest Tyburn xecutions.

In this connexion I suppose it is generally imagined that at the execution of Longbeard and others the gallows were erected in the vicinity of the hamlet which clustered around or at least was not far removed from the little church of St. Johnt by the side of the old road where it was crossed by the Ey Bourn or Ty Bourn. Yet as this place was so far from London (some three miles from the Tower) when we have first mention of Tyburn as the place of execution, it has been suggested that the gallows may have been set up just within the limit of Tyburn manor that is to say, just beyond the walls of St. Giles's Hospital, where it is certainly known a later execution did take place. This would have reduced the distance by a mile. On the other hand, a valued contributor to these pages who allows me to ventilate the idea thinks it possible that at the meeting of the Roman Ways, where is now the Marble Arch, the powerful lords of Tyburn, the De Veres, may have exercised their manorial right of the gallows, and that the place thus established may have become that of execu- tions generally. This, of course, involves the conclusion that the site was in Tyburn manor. Those who do not so hold conjecture that the name which here distinguished the road, the lane, and the turnpike was brought thither by the gallows from the hamlet, whence they were removed as London grew. It may even be thought that "Tyburn" became a name for the gallows, as "The Elms " had formerly been.

It was on 6 April, 1196 (7 Richard I.), that William Fitz Osbert, called Longbeard, the patriot-rebel who suffered for resistance to onerous taxation, was dragged at the tails of horses from the Tower to Tyburn, and there hanged on a gibbet. Whether this inhuman


 * =Lisson.

f The predecessor of Marylebone Church.