Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber’s Note: Corrections have been made to a small number of evident typos, but otherwise the text is as printed, with inconsistent spelling, hyphenation, punctuation and general style. Italic text is indicated _like this_, bold =like this=.

TYBURN TREE

ITS HISTORY AND ANNALS

TYBURN TREE
ITS
HISTORY AND ANNALS

BY
ALFRED MARKS

AUTHOR OF “WHO KILLED SIR EDMUND BERRY GODFREY?”
“HUBERT AND JOHN VAN EYCK: THE QUESTION OF
THEIR COLLABORATION CONSIDERED,”
ETC., ETC.

Who … began diligently and earnestly to prayse that strayte
and rygorous iustice, which at that tyme was there executed
vpon fellones, who as he sayde, were for the most part xx
hanged together vpon one gallowes.—Sir THOMAS MORE, _Utopia_,
about 1516.

LONDON
BROWN, LANGHAM & CO.
78, NEW BOND STREET, W.

Ther bith therfore mo men hanged in Englande in a yere ffor
robbery and manslaughter, then ther be hanged in Ffraunce ffor
such maner of crime in vij yeres.—CHIEF JUSTICE FORTESCUE,
about 1476.

* * * * *

Than stele they, or Rubbe they. Forsoth they can nat chuse,
For without Londe or Labour hard is it to mentayne,
But to thynke on the Galows that is a careful payne.

But be it payne or nat: there many suche ende.
At Newgate theyr garmentis are offred to be solde.
Theyr bodyes to the Jebet solemly ascende,
Wauynge with the wether whyle theyr necke wyl holde.

ALEXANDER BARCLAY, _The Ship of Fools_, 1509.

* * * * *

Je suis persuadé que dans les treize cantons et leurs alliés,
on pend moins de voleurs dans un an, que l’on ne fait à Londres
dans une seule assise.—CÉSAR DE SAUSSURE, _Lettres et Voyages_,
1725-1729.

* * * * *

Many cart-loads of our fellow-creatures are once in six weeks
carried to slaughter.—HENRY FIELDING, _Enquiry_, etc., 1751.

* * * * *

The following malefactors were executed at Tyburn … John Kelly,
for robbing Edward Adamson in a public street, of sixpence and
one farthing.—_Gentleman’s Magazine_, March 7, 1783.

* * * * *

It is frequently said by them [the prisoners in Newgate] that
the crimes of which they have been guilty are as nothing when
compared with the crimes of Government towards themselves: that
they have only been thieves, but that their governors have been
murderers.—Mrs. FRY, 1818, quoted in _Romilly’s Life_, ii.
486-7.