Crime -- Great Britain; Criminals -- Great Britain; Executions and executioners; Tyburn gallows (London, England)
=1284.= In this year Bow church, which, as we have seen, witnessed a
great tragedy in 1196, was once more the scene of a terrible affair. It
may be told mainly in the words of Stow:—
In the year 1284, the 13th of Edward I., Laurence Ducket, goldsmith,
having grievously wounded one Ralph Crepin in Westcheape, fled into Bow
church, into the which, in the night time, entered certain evil persons,
friends unto the said Ralph, and slew the said Laurence, lying in the
steeple, and then hanged him up, placing him so by the window as if he
had hanged himself, and so was it found by inquisition: for the which
fact Laurence Ducket, being drawn by the feet, was buried in a ditch
without the City: but shortly after, by relation of a boy, who lay with
the said Laurence at the time of his death, and had hid himself there for
fear, the truth of the matter was disclosed.
Wherefore a certain woman, Alice atte Bowe, the mistress of Crepin, a
clerk, the chief causer of the said mischief, and with her sixteen men,
were imprisoned, and later, Alice was burnt, and seven were drawn and
hanged, to wit, Reginald de Lanfar, Robert Pinnot, Paul de Stybbenheth,
Thomas Corouner, John de Tholosane, Thomas Russel, and Robert Scott.
Ralph Crepin, Jordan Godchep, Gilbert le Clerk and Geoffrey le Clerk were
attainted of the felony and remained prisoners in the Tower. The church
was placed under an interdict by the archbishop: the doors and windows
stopped up with thorns. But the body of Laurence was taken from the place
where it lay, and given burial by the clergy in the churchyard. After a
while, the bishop of Rochester, by command of the archbishop, removed the
interdict.[122]
=1295.= _October 6._ The Treason of Sir Thomas Turberville.
Sir Thomas Turberville, taken prisoner by the French, was released in
order that he might return to England and act as a secret agent for the
French government. He was detected in corresponding with the Provost of
Paris, tried and condemned. This was the manner of his execution: He
came from the Tower, mounted on a poor hack, in a coat of ray, and shod
with white shoes, his head being covered with a hood, and his feet tied
beneath the horse’s belly, and his hands tied before him: and around
him were riding six torturers attired in the form of the devil, one of
whom held his rein, and the hangman his halter, for the horse which bore
him had them both upon it: and in such manner was he led from the Tower
through London to Westminster, and was condemned on the dais in the
Great Hall there: and Sir Robert Brabazun pronounced judgment upon him,
that he should be drawn and hanged, and that he should hang so long as
anything should be left whole of him: and he was drawn on a fresh ox-hide
from Westminster to the Conduit of London in Cheapside, and then back to
the gallows: and there is he hung by a chain of iron, and will hang as
long as anything of him may remain.[123]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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