Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/251

 9*8. VII. MARCH 90, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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ed. Sir E. M. Thompson). Geoffrey Baker, also contemporary, gives no further indica- tion of the place than "apud Elmes," and, like Murimuth, he says that the gibbet was that common to malefactors, which almost leads us to think that ordinary criminals were even then executed at Tyburn as well as at Smithfield. And, again, it must be remarked that Murimuth could not have inadvertently written Tyburn. Other chro- niclers, Walter of Hemingburgh (or Hem- ingford), Knighton, Walsingham, Fabyan, Graf tori, do not help us to fix the locality of Mortimer's execution.

The historian Holinshed has : "He [Mor- timer] was at London drawne and hanged at the common place of execution, called in those daies The Elmes and now Tiborne, as in some books we find." Even making allowance for English 300 years old, Holinshed is here ob- scure, and a stiff argument might be waged as to his meaning. Does he or does he not apply "The Elmes" and "Tiborne" to the same place ? That he does seems to be the general interpretation. Daniel (1706) has : "Mortimer

hanged at the common gallows at the

Elms, now called Tyburn." Speed (1652) has : "Tyburne, the common place of execution, then called the Elmes." Kapin (1732) has: "at Tyburn." Hume (1763) has: "at the Elmes in the neighbourhood of London." Henry (1823): "at a place called the Elms near Tyburn." Lingard (1849): "at Tyburn, the first, as it is said, who honoured with his death that celebrated spot." The honour is questionable, and also the priority, for, as shown, 134 years previously William Fitz Osbert had been put to death at Tyburn ; the " spot," however, may not have been the same. Lastly, the 'Dictionary of National Bio- graphy' adopts the general conclusion that " Mortimer was conveyed through the City from the Tower to Tyburn Elms, and there hanged, drawn, and quartered, like a common malefactor."

Sir Robert Tresilian, Chief Justice of the King's Bench who with Sir Nicholas Brem- bre, past Lord Mayor of London, and other notaoles, had supported the young king, Richard II., in resisting the control of his uncle the Duke of Gloucester and Parliament was by his triumphant enemies put to death at Tyburn, 19 Feb., 1388. His offence, con- demnation and sentence are fully set forth in the quaint official French of the ' Rolls of Par- liament '(iii. 238); the sentence runs thus : "Le

dit Robert Tresilian feust de lui amesner

a la. dite Tour, & d'illeoq'slui treyner p'mye la Citee de Loundres, & avant tan q'as Fourches de Tyboume, & illeoq's lui pendre par le cool."

And Henry Knightou, contemporary, thus

chronicles: "Robertus Tressylian dis-

tractus est de turri Londoniensi per medium civitatis usque ad Tyburne ad furcas et sus- pensus est." Froissart, also of the time, varies as to the mode of execution, and has : "Sir Robert Triuylian was delyured to the hang- man, and so ledde out of Westmynster, and there beheeded, and after ha'ged on a gibet." Here the place is not defined, nor is it by the other contemporaries Thomas of Walsingham and William of Worcester. The latter has : "Robertus Trisilian,JusticiariustociusAnglise, extractus est a sanctuario Westmonasterii per Thomam Wodestoke ducem Gloucestriae, et postea, cum aliis militibus, tractus et sus- pensus erat."

The later chroniclers or historians who mark Tyburn as the place of Tresilian's exe- cution are Graf ton, Holinshed, Stow, Speed, Daniel, and Rapin ; while it is passed un- named by Hume, Henry, Turner, and Lingard. Our latest expositor, the * Dictionary of National Biography,' places it at Tyburn.

The sentence on the unfortunate ex-Lord Mayor, Sir Nicholas Brembre, follows in the

words are repeated, save that the gallows are referred to as "ditz Fourches," i.e., the above- said "Fourches de Tybourne" Yet it is gathered that the execution was not carried out at Tyburn. Knighton has: "Idem Nicholaus apud Tourehill decapitatus est." Froissart says that he was " beheeded without London" perhaps meaning Tower Hill. Walsingham is not careful to name the place, but indicates that Brembre was hung according to the sentence passed on him. William of Wor- cester does not notice his execution. Grafton (who, however, wrote after the lapse of the greater part of two centuries) says that Sir Nicholas was "hedded with his own axe which before he had devised," not mentioning place. Holinshed repeats these words, but errs in saying that the mode of execution was in accordance with the sentence. Stow asserts that the unfortunate knight was " beheaded with the same axe he had prepared for other." And yet again Daniel (1706) repeats the same remarkable circumstance, for which, however, though thus four times related, I have not found contemporary evidence. Rapin (1732) says that the execution was by hanging at Tyburn, where Judge Tresilian and "other knights and gentlemen " met the same fate. Lingard and others, perhaps perplexed by the varying evidence, are discreetly silent as to the place of execution. And finally the
 * Rolls of Parliament ' that of Tresilian. The

Stow, and, quoting the death sentence from
 * Dictionary of National Biography ' corrects