454 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 237. 



Artzis, Esq., and John Needham, Gent., were con- 

 demned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered ; and 

 hanged they were at Tyburn, let down quick, stript 

 naked, marked with a knife to be quartered ; and then 

 the Marquess of Suffolk brought their pardon, and 

 delivered it at the place of execution, and so their 

 lives were saved." — P. 77. 



The following document from the Patent Rolls 

 of the forty-eighth year of the reign of King 

 Henry III. (skin 5.) affords conclusive evidence 

 of the affirmative : 



" Rex omnibus, etc. salutem. Quia Inetta de Bal- 

 sliani pro receptamento latronum et imposito nuper 

 per considerationem curie nostre suspendio adjudicata, 

 et ab hora non&. diei lune usque post ortum solis diei 

 martis sequen. suspensa, viva evasit, sicut ex testi- 

 monio fide dignorum accipimus. Nos, divinas chari- 

 tatis intuitu, pardonavimus eidem Inetta sectam pacis 

 nostre que ad nos pertinet pro receptamento predicto, 

 et firmam pacem nostrum ei inde concedimus. In 

 cujus, etc. Teste Rege apud Cantuar. xvi°. die Au- 

 gusti. 



" Convenit cum recordo Laur. Halsted, Deput. 

 Algern. May. mil." 



Plot, in his Natural History of Staff or dskii-e, 

 p. 292., quotes this pardon, and suggests that pos- 

 sibly 



" She could not be hanged, upon account that the 

 larynx, or upper part of her windpipe, was turned 

 to bone, as Fallopius (Oper., torn, i., Obs. Anat., 

 tract. 6.) tells us he has sometimes found it, which 

 possibly might be so strong, that the weight of her 

 body could not compress it, as it happened in the case 

 of a Swiss, who, as I am told by the Rev. Mr. Obadiah 

 Walker, Master or University College', was attempted 

 to be hanged no less than thirteen times, yet lived not- 

 withstanding, by the benefit of his windpipe, that after 

 his death was found to have turned into a hone ; which 

 yet is still wonderful, since the circulation of the blood 

 must be stopt, however, unless his veins and arteries 

 were ^likewise turned to bone, or the rope not slipt 

 close." 



Besides the account of Anne Green, Denham, 

 in the 4th book of his Physico- Theology , quotes 

 the following instance from Rechelin (De Aere et 

 Alim. defect., cap. vii.), — 



" Of a certain woman hang'd, and in all appearance 

 dead, who was nevertheless restored to life by a physi- 

 cian accidentally coming in, and ordering a plentiful 

 administration of the spirit of sal ammoniac." 



(See also The Uncertainty of the Signs of Death, 

 and the Danger of precipitate Interments and Dis- 

 sections demonstrated, 12mo., London, 1751.) 



A paragraph, stating that Fauntleroy, the noto- 

 rious forger, had survived his execution, and was 

 living abroad, has more than once gone the round 

 of the newspapers. It is sometimes added that 

 his evidence was required in a Chancery suit, — 

 absurdly enough, as, if not actually, he was at 

 least legally dead. 



The story of Brodie, executed October, 1788, 

 for an excise robbery at Edinburgh, is probably 

 familiar to most. The self-possession and firmness 

 with which he met his fate was the result of a 

 belief in the possibility of his resuscitation : 



" It is a curious fact, that an attempt was made to 

 resuscitate Brodie immediately after the execution. 

 The operator was Degravers, whom Brodie himself 

 had employed. His efforts, however, were utterly 

 abortive. A person who witnessed the scene, ac- 

 counted for the failure by saying that the hangman, 

 having been bargained with for a short fall, his excess 

 of caution made him shorten the rope too much at 

 first, and when he afterwards lengthened it, he made it 

 too long, which consequently proved fatal to the expe- 

 riment." — Curiosities of Biography, 8vo., Glasgow, 

 1845. 



There is a powerfully-written story in Black- 

 wood's Magazine, April, 1827, entitled "Le Reve- 

 nant," in which a resuscitated felon is supposed to 

 describe his feelings and experience. The author, 

 in his motto, makes a sweeping division of man- 

 kind : — "There are but two classes in the world 

 — those who are hanged, and those who are not 

 hanged ; and it has been my lot to belong to the 

 former." Many well-authenticated cases might 

 still be adduced ; but enough at least has now 

 probably been said upon the subject, to show the 

 possibility of surviving the tender mercies of Pro- 

 fessor Calcraft and his fraternity. 



William Bates. 



Birmingham. 



In Atkinson's Medical Bibliography, A. and B., 

 under the head " Bathurst Rodolphus," is the 

 following : 



" Nuremberg, 4to., 1655. On a maid who recovered 

 after being hanged. 



" This is the ^remarkable case of Elizabeth Gren, 

 whom Bathurst and Dr. Willis restored after being 

 executed, i. e. hanged, for infanticide. « Vena incisa 

 refocillata est.' 



" These poor creatures are seldom considered as 

 maids, after being hanged for infanticide. A similar 

 recovery also happened to a man who had been exe- 

 cuted for murder at York. My father had the body 

 for public dissection. Whether the law then required 

 the body to be hung for one hour or not, I cannot say ; 

 but I well remember my father's observation, that it 

 was a pity the wretch had ever been restored, as his 

 morals were by no means improved. Hanging is there- 

 fore by no means a cure for immorality, and it will be 

 needless (in any of us) trying the experiment." — 

 P. 255. 



H.J. 



Sheffield. 



There is a record of a person being alive imme- 

 diately after hanging, in the Local Histojian's 

 Table-book, vol. ii. pp.43, 44., and under the date 

 May 23, 1752. It is there stated, Ewan Mac- 

 donald, a recruit in General Guise's regiment of 



