Execution: A Guide to the Ultimate Penalty by Geoffrey Abbott Page B
Authors: Geoffrey Abbott
Tags: History
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considerable period could elapse pending agreement between the witnesses. And should those on the rope already be convinced of her guilt, all they needed to do would be to hold the rope taut, thereby keeping her on the surface.
So, if not only for irrigation purposes, but also for dealing with thieves, vagabonds and those who cast spells on cattle, crops and people, interference with the course of a river provoked much dispute. In 1313 ‘a presentment was made before the justices at Canterbury that the prior at Christ Church had for nine years obstructed the high road leading from Dover Castle to Sandwich by a water-mill, and the diversion of a stream called Gestlyng, where felons condemned to death should be drowned, but could not be in that manner because of want of water.
‘Further, that he raised a certain gutter by 4 feet and the water that passed that way to the gutter ran to the place where the convicts were drowned and from whence their bodies were floated to the river, but that after the gutter was raised, the drowned bodies could not be carried into the river by the stream as they used to be, for want of water.’
At sea, of course, death by drowning was the obvious method of dealing with those guilty of maritime crimes as early as 1189, when a proclamation issued by the king stated: ‘Richard, by the grace of God, King of England, Duke of Normandy, etc. To all his men going by sea to Jerusalem [to the Crusades], greetings; know ye, by the common council of all good men, we have made the underwritten ordinances.’ And the first one decreed that ‘he who kills on shipboard shall be bound to the dead man and thrown into the sea’.
In Scotland the penal code included drowning as a penalty until it was abolished in 1685, though while it was in force it claimed many lives. Helen Stirk of Perth, accused of heresy, was found guilty. When taken to the river, she handed over her baby to a spectator and was then thrown into the river to die. At Edinburgh in 1611 a man was drowned for stealing a lamb, and on 29 January 1624 Helen Faa, a gypsy, and ten other women were drowned in the Nor’ loch. Four years later, on 2 August 1628, George Sinclair, convicted of incest with his two sisters, and James Mitchell, guilty of bestiality, met a similar death, as did Margaret Wilson, aged 18, and Margaret McLachlan, aged 63, on 11 May 1685, both of whom were overheard to say that James VII of Scotland was not entitled to rule the Church as he wished.
In those years raiders operated on both sides of the border with England, and in 1567 the regent of Scotland made an attempt to restore order. In a surprise raid on the town of Hawick on market-day he captured red-handed 36 border thieves. Thirteen were hanged there and then, and nine were drowned in the nearest pool with heavy stones about their necks.
Nor did Ireland overlook this form of execution. In 1570 large numbers of prisoners captured by the government forces were stripped naked and pushed into the bogs, to drown in the mud. Two years later the Irish caught a number of Scottish prisoners and drowned 400 of them. But even worse was to come in the following century when, in 1641, the Catholics of Ulster, whose estates had been confiscated and who had been oppressed by harsh restrictions, entered into a conspiracy to wipe out the English settlers, with the aid of French troops promised by Cardinal Richelieu. The plot was discovered on the eve of the uprising, and frustrated, but carnage on a wide scale followed. As little or no action was taken by Charles I to quell the insurrection it went on for some years, during which time between 40,000 and 50,000 people lost their lives. One of the countless atrocities that took place before Oliver Cromwell brutally crushed the warring factions occurred when, as described in a book published in 1680, ‘In Tirawly thirty or forty English, who had yielded to go to Mass, were given the choice, whether they would die by the sword or be
So, if not only for irrigation purposes, but also for dealing with thieves, vagabonds and those who cast spells on cattle, crops and people, interference with the course of a river provoked much dispute. In 1313 ‘a presentment was made before the justices at Canterbury that the prior at Christ Church had for nine years obstructed the high road leading from Dover Castle to Sandwich by a water-mill, and the diversion of a stream called Gestlyng, where felons condemned to death should be drowned, but could not be in that manner because of want of water.
‘Further, that he raised a certain gutter by 4 feet and the water that passed that way to the gutter ran to the place where the convicts were drowned and from whence their bodies were floated to the river, but that after the gutter was raised, the drowned bodies could not be carried into the river by the stream as they used to be, for want of water.’
At sea, of course, death by drowning was the obvious method of dealing with those guilty of maritime crimes as early as 1189, when a proclamation issued by the king stated: ‘Richard, by the grace of God, King of England, Duke of Normandy, etc. To all his men going by sea to Jerusalem [to the Crusades], greetings; know ye, by the common council of all good men, we have made the underwritten ordinances.’ And the first one decreed that ‘he who kills on shipboard shall be bound to the dead man and thrown into the sea’.
In Scotland the penal code included drowning as a penalty until it was abolished in 1685, though while it was in force it claimed many lives. Helen Stirk of Perth, accused of heresy, was found guilty. When taken to the river, she handed over her baby to a spectator and was then thrown into the river to die. At Edinburgh in 1611 a man was drowned for stealing a lamb, and on 29 January 1624 Helen Faa, a gypsy, and ten other women were drowned in the Nor’ loch. Four years later, on 2 August 1628, George Sinclair, convicted of incest with his two sisters, and James Mitchell, guilty of bestiality, met a similar death, as did Margaret Wilson, aged 18, and Margaret McLachlan, aged 63, on 11 May 1685, both of whom were overheard to say that James VII of Scotland was not entitled to rule the Church as he wished.
In those years raiders operated on both sides of the border with England, and in 1567 the regent of Scotland made an attempt to restore order. In a surprise raid on the town of Hawick on market-day he captured red-handed 36 border thieves. Thirteen were hanged there and then, and nine were drowned in the nearest pool with heavy stones about their necks.
Nor did Ireland overlook this form of execution. In 1570 large numbers of prisoners captured by the government forces were stripped naked and pushed into the bogs, to drown in the mud. Two years later the Irish caught a number of Scottish prisoners and drowned 400 of them. But even worse was to come in the following century when, in 1641, the Catholics of Ulster, whose estates had been confiscated and who had been oppressed by harsh restrictions, entered into a conspiracy to wipe out the English settlers, with the aid of French troops promised by Cardinal Richelieu. The plot was discovered on the eve of the uprising, and frustrated, but carnage on a wide scale followed. As little or no action was taken by Charles I to quell the insurrection it went on for some years, during which time between 40,000 and 50,000 people lost their lives. One of the countless atrocities that took place before Oliver Cromwell brutally crushed the warring factions occurred when, as described in a book published in 1680, ‘In Tirawly thirty or forty English, who had yielded to go to Mass, were given the choice, whether they would die by the sword or be
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