162 ANECDOTES OF FEUDAL TIMES IN ENGLAND. 



prison for three weeks, until the sitting of the next court. Then, 

 says the record, the aforesaid Henry came and acknowledged the 

 robbery, and he was hanged by the judgment of the court in the 

 absence of the coroner. And the aforesaid William (the criminal) 

 is still living.* One would naturally suppose that the principal 

 charge against the mayor or corporation, in this case, was the exe- 

 cution of the wrong person, of the innocent bail, instead of the 

 thief; but, on the contrary, the mayor was required to account for 

 having exercised the liberty of utfangthef, without possessing any 

 charter which conferred that privilege upon the borough. If the 

 former charge had been made against the mayor, probably his 

 defence would have been Crowe's singular and unexpected confes- 

 sion, which is so obscurely stated, that it does not appear whether 

 he declared himself to be the felon, or merely admitted that a 

 robbery had taken place. In either case, the anecdote does not 

 redound very greatly to the credit of Master Adam, the mayor, or 

 the king's attorney, by whom he was prosecuted. 



Daniel Defoe has left an extremely interesting account of the 

 " Halifax Gibbet Law," but its great length forbids extraction, and 

 as to the law itself, or rather custom, it is well known by the cele- 

 brity which the Halifax instrument of punishment has acquired as 

 the model of the Maiden, introduced into Scotland by the Regent 

 Morton, who was the first to fall under its axe. An anecdote from 

 Defoe must conclude these notices of our ancient criminal adminis- 

 tration in reference to the ultimum supplidum : 



" They tell us of a custom which prevailed here, in the case of a 

 criminal being to be executed, viz. that if after his head was laid 

 down, and the signal given to pull out the pin, he could be so 

 nimble as to snatch out his head between the pulling out the pin and 

 the falling down of the axe, and could get upon his feet, jump off 

 the scaffold, run down a hill that lies just before it, and get through 

 the river before the executioner could overtake him, and seize upon 

 him, he was to escape ; and, though the executioner did overtake 

 him on the other side of the river, he was not to bring him back, at 

 least he was not to be executed. 



" But as they showed me the form of the scaffold, and the weight 

 of the axe, it was, in my opinion, next to impossible any man should 

 be so quick-eyed as to see the pulling out the pin, and so quick with 

 his head as to snatch it out. Yet they tell a story of one fellow 

 that did it, and was so bold after he had jumped off the scaffold, and 

 was running down the hill, with the executioner at his heels, to turn 

 about and to call to the people to give him his hat ; that having 

 afterwards jumpt into the river, which is but a little one, and not 

 deep, he stopped, intending to drown the executioner, if he had come 

 up to him ; at which the poor fellow stopped too, and was afraid to 

 go into the water to seize him. But this story is said to be too 



J " Et tune venit prsedictus Henricus, et cognovit latrocinium, et fuit 

 suspensus per judicium in absentia coronatoris," &c. Placita de Quo War- 

 janto, 20 Edw. I. p. 372. 



