The crime of forgery in English law has been from time to time dealt with in an enormous number of statutes. It was first made a statutory offence in 1562, and was punishable by fine, by standing in the pillory, having both ears cut off, the nostrils slit up and seared, the forfeiture of land and perpetual imprisonment. It was made capital, without benefit of clergy in 1634. The most notable cases of those who have suffered the extreme penalty of the law are those of the Rev. Dr W. Dodd in 1777, for forging Lord Chesterfield's name on a bond, and Henry Fauntleroy, a partner in the banking-house of Marsh, Sibbald & Co., for the appropriation by means of forged instruments of money entrusted to the bank, in 1824. "Anthony Hammond, in the title Forgery of his _Criminal Code_, has enumerated more than 400 statutes which contain provisions against the offence" (Sir J.T. Coleridge's notes to Blackstone). Blackstone notices the increasing severity of the legislature against forgery, and says that "through the number of these general and special provisions there is now hardly a case possible to be conceived wherein forgery that tends to defraud, whether in the name of a real or fictitious person, is not made a capital crime." These acts were consolidated in 1830. The later statutes, fixing penalties from penal servitude for life downwards, were consolidated by the Forgery Act 1861. It would take too much space to enumerate all the varieties of the offence with their appropriate punishments. The following condensed summary is based upon chapter xlv. of Sir J. Stephen's _Digest of the Criminal Law_: 1. Forgeries punishable with penal servitude for life as a maximum are-- (a) Forgeries of the great seal, privy seal, &c. (b) Forgeries of transfers of stock, India bonds, exchequer bills, bank-notes, deeds, wills, bills of exchange, &c. (c) Obliterations or alterations of crossing on a cheque. (d) Forgeries of registers of birth, &c., or of copies thereof and others. 2. Forgeries punishable with fourteen years' penal servitude are-- (a) Forgeries of debentures. (b) Forgeries of documents relating to the registering of deeds, &c. (c) Forgeries of instruments purporting to be made by the accountant general and other officers of the court of chancery, &c. (d) Drawing bill of exchange, &c., on account of another, per procuration or otherwise, without authority. (e) Obtaining property by means of a forged instrument, knowing it to be forged, or by probate obtained on a forged will, false oath, &c. 3. Forgeries punishable with seven years' penal servitude:--Forgeries of seals of courts, of the process of courts, of certificates, and of documents to be used in evidence, &c.