HANGMAN’S WAGES
The sum of thirteenpence half-penny has no reference to the payment to the hangman, as is shown in the notes to Butler’s ‘ Hudibras.’ It is doubtful why that sum (thirteenpence halfpenny) was called “hangman’s wages, unless in allusion to the ‘ Halifax Law,’ or the customary law pf the Forest of Hardwick, by which “ every felon taken within the liberty and precincts of the said forest, with goods stolen to the value of thirteenpence half-penny, should, after three market clays in the town of Halifax after his apprehension and condemnation, he taken to a gibbet there and have his head cut off from his body.” The following document tends to rectify the old error that it cost only thirteenpence half-penny to be hanged. It is copied verbatim from a bill prepared by the executioner when Sir John Silvester was Recorder of London : SILVESTER. Executioner’s fees 7s Gd Stripping the body 4s 6d Use of shell 2s Gd 14s 6d
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19340912.2.144
Bibliographic details
Evening Star, Issue 21823, 12 September 1934, Page 12
Word Count
160HANGMAN’S WAGES Evening Star, Issue 21823, 12 September 1934, Page 12
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