Gentleman who had formerly lived in London, but then residing in Spain, and to desire Garter to set his hand to it. To prevent deliberation, the messenger was instructed to pretend that the vessel, which was to carry this confirmation into Spain, when it had received the Seal of the Office and Garter's Hand, was just ready to sail[383]. This being done, and the Fees paid, Brooke carries it to Thomas Earl of Arundel, then one of the Commissioners for executing the Office of Earl Marshal; and, in order to vilify Garter, and to represent him as a rapacious negligent Officer, assures his Lordship that those were the Arms of Arragon, with a Canton for Brabant, and that Gregory Brandon was a mean and inconsiderable person. This was true enough; for he was the common Hangman for London and Middlesex. Ralph Brooke afterwards confessed all these circumstances to the Commissioners who represented the Earl Marshal; the consequence of which was, that Garter was, by order of the King, when he heard the case, committed to Prison for negligence, and the Herald for treachery. Be this as we find it, yet was Gregory Brandon the Hangman become a _Gentleman_, and, as the Bastard says in King John, "could make any Joan a Gentlewoman." [382] Vol. ii. p. 399. [383] These Arms actually appear in Edmondson's Body of Heraldry, annexed to the name of _Brandon_, _viz_. the Arms of Arragon with a difference, and the Arms of Brabant in a Canton. Thus was this Gregory Brandon advanced, perhaps from the state of a Convict, to the rank of a Gentleman; and though it was a personal honour to himself, notwithstanding it was surreptitiously obtained by the Herald, of which _Gregory Brandon, Gentleman_, was perhaps ignorant, yet did it operate so much on his successors in office, that afterwards it became transferred from the Family to the Officer for the time being; and from Mr. Brandon's popularity, though not of the most desirable kind, the mobility soon improved his rank, and, with a jocular complaisance, gave him the title of _Esquire_, which remains to this day. I have said that Mr. Brandon was perhaps a Convict; for I know that at York the Hangman has usually been a pardoned Criminal, whose case was deemed venial, and for which the performance of this painful duty to fellow-prisoners was thought a sufficient infliction. It seems too as if this Office had once, like many other important Offices of State, been hereditary; but whether Mr. Brandon had it by descent I cannot say, yet Shakspeare has this passage in Coriolanus[384]: "_Menenius._--Marcius, in a cheap estimation, is worth all your Predecessors, since Deucalion; though, peradventure, some of the best of them were Hereditary Hangmen." [384] Act ii. sc. 1.