Chronicles of Newgate, Vol. 1: From the twelfth to the eighteenth centuryGriffiths, Arthur
History
Chronicles of Newgate, Vol. 1: From the twelfth to the eighteenth century
Griffiths, Arthur
Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England); Prisons -- England; Punishment -- Great Britain
"One named Ditche was apprehended at the session holden at Newgate
on 4th December, 1583, nineteen times indicted, whereof he confessed
eighteen, who also between the time of his apprehension and the
said sessions impeached many for stealing horses, whereof (divers
being apprehended) ten were condemned and hanged in Smithfield on
the 11th December, being Friday and horse-market there."[62:1] The
"Remembrancia" gives a letter from Mr. Valentine Dale, one of the
masters of the Court of Requests, to the lord mayor, stating that
the wife of John Hollingshead had petitioned the queen to grant a
reprieve and pardon to her husband, a condemned felon, and directing
the execution to be stayed, and a full account of his behaviour and
offence forwarded to her Majesty. The lord mayor in reply says that
he had called before him the officers of Newgate, who stated that
Hollingshead had been for a long time a common and notorious thief.
This was the fourth time he had been in Newgate for felonies, and
upon the last occasion he had been branded with the letter T (thief).
Coiners were very severely dealt with. The offence was treason, and
punished as such. There are many cases on record, such as—"On the 27th
of January Phillip Meshel, a Frenchman, and two Englishmen were drawn
from Newgate to Tyburn, and there hanged. The Frenchman quartered who
had coined gold counterfeit; of the Englishmen, the one had clipped
silver, and the other cast testers of tin." "The 30th of May Thomas
Green, goldsmith, was drawn from Newgate to Tyburn, and there hanged,
beheaded, and quartered, for clipping of coin, both gold and silver."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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