Wager of Battle.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 143, 16 June 1894, Page 4 (Supplement)

Wager of Battle.

The righb of appeal by wager of battle, although a legal relic of barbarous days, was nob abolished until 1819. Ib applied to civil as well as military and criminal cases, the chief difforenco being thab in civil disputes the battle was wagod by champions and not by the parties themselves. The mode of proceeding was for the defendant to throw down his glove and declaie that he would prove hie right or defend himself with his body. In accepting the challenge the prosecutor took up the glove and replied thab he wap ready to make good his appeal, body for body. Thereupon the parties, holding each other's hands, joined issue before the court with due and formal solemnity. The weapons' used were batons or staves an ell long, and a fourcornered leather target- The battle lasted till the stars appeared in the evening, and the party who by thab time had either killed or gob the better of his opponent waa deemed the successful suitor. In cases o: murder, if the accused waa so far vanquished as to be unwilling to figbb any longer, he was adjudged guilty and ordered to be immediately hanged. The last appeal was made in 1817 by Abraham Thornton, after he had been acquitted of the charge of outraging and murdering a young woman named Mary Ashford. A brother of the young woman was the appellant, but he refused the challenge. The judges in- the Cou\b of King'B Bench, however, decided thab wager by battle was the law of the land, and they mustl pronounce judgment for itV Fortunately the pugnacious Thornton was induced to refrain from'proeaing his claim, and he was discharged April 16th, 1818. When Parliament in the following year proposed to abolish the impious ordeal Sir Francis Burdett objected, on the plea 'that it would deprive the subjecb ef an appeal against what might be an illegal and unjusb extension of the power of the Crown in pardoning criminals in caaes of murder.' Few supporterß were found, and the abused law was swept off the Statute Book.