Sept. 21. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



261 



fourteen of wliorn were ordered for execution ; five of 

 whom were afterwards reprieved." 



The recorder's report in regard to these unfor- 

 tunate persons had been delayed during the inca- 

 pacity of tlie king ; thus the report for four sessions 

 had been made at once. To have decided at one 

 sitting of council upon such a number of cases, 

 musthave almost been enough to overset the 

 strongest mind. Fortunately, these reports are now 

 abolished. 



In the same number of the Gentleman s Ma- 

 gazine, under date the 18th of March, there is this 

 statement, — 



" The nine following malefactors were executed be- 

 fore the Debtors' Door at Newgate pursuant to their 

 sentence, viz., Hugh Murphy and Cliristiau Murphy 

 aliaa Bowman, Jane Grace, and Joseph Walker, for 

 coining. [Four for burglary, and one for highway 

 robbery.] They were brought upon the scaffold, about 

 half an hour alter seven, and turned off about a quarter 

 past eight. The woman for coining was brought out 

 after the rest were turned off, and fixed to a stake and 

 burnt; beuig first strangled by the stool being taken 

 from under her." 



This is the execution at which I was present ; 

 the number of those who suffered, and the burn- 

 ing of the female, attracted a very great crowd. 

 Eight of the malefactors suffered on the scaffold, 

 then known as " ihe new drop." After they were 

 suspended, the woman, in a white dress, was 

 brousrht out of Newgate alone ; and after some 

 time S])ent in devotion, was hung on the projecting 

 arm of a low gibbet, fixed at a little distance from 

 the scaffold. After the lapse of a sulKcient time 

 to extinguish life, faggots were piled around her, 

 and over her head, so that her person was com- 

 pletely covered : fire wa? then set to the pile, and 

 the woman was consumed to aslies. 



In the following year, 1790, I heard sentence 

 passed in the Criminal Court, in the Old Bailey, 

 upon other persons convicted of coining : one of 

 them was a female. The sentence upon her was, 

 tijat she should be " drawn to the place of execu- 

 tion, and there burnt with fire till she was dead." 



The case of this unfortunate woman, and the 

 cruel state of the law in regard to females, then 

 attracted attention. On the 10th of JNlay, 1790, 

 Sir Benjamin ilaminett, in liis place in the ILnise 

 of Connnons, called the attenti(^n of that House to 

 the then slate of the law. He mentioned that it 

 Lad been his official duty to attend on tiie melan- 

 ciioly occasion of tlie burning of the female in the 

 preceding year (it is understood he was then one 

 of tiie sherills of London), he moved for leave to 

 bring in a bill to alter the law, which he charac- 

 terised as — 



" One of tlie savage remains of Norman policy, 

 disgracing our statute book, as tlie practice did the 

 cuininun law." 



He noticed that the sheriff who did not execute 

 the sentence of burning alive was liable to a pro- 

 secution ; but he thanked Heaven there was not a 

 man in England who would carry such a sentence 

 into effect. He obtained leave to bring in a bill 

 for altering this cruel law ; and in that session the 

 Act 30 G. III. c. 48. was passed — 



" For discontinuing tlie judgment which has been 

 required l)y law to be given against women convicted 

 of certain crimes, and substitutmg another judgment in 

 lieu thereof." 



A debt of gratitude is due to the memory of Sir 

 Benjamin Hammett, for his exertions, at that 

 period, in the cause of humanity. Thank God, 

 we now live in times when the law is less cruel, 

 and more chary of human life. Octogenarius. 



A NOTE ON MORGANATIC MARRIAGES. 



Grimm (Deutsche Becfits Alter thtimer, vol. ii., 

 p. 417.), after a long dissertation, in which it ap- 

 pears that the money paid by the bridegroom to 

 the wife's relations (I believe subsequently also to 

 the wife herself) had every form of a purchase, 

 possibly derived also from some symholic customs 

 common to all northern tribes, oilers the following 

 as the origin of this word " moi'ganatic :" — 



" Es gab aber im Alterthum noch einen erlaubten 

 Auswcg fiir die Verbindung vorneluner Miiuner mit 

 geringen (freien uiid selhst unfreien) Frauen, den Con- 

 cubinat, der ohne teierliches Verlobniss, ohne Brautgabe 

 und Mityift eingegangen wurde, mithin keine wahie 

 und volte Elie, dennoch ein rechtniassiges Verhiiltniss 

 war. 



" Da jedoch die Kirche ein solches Verhiiltniss miss- 

 billigte, durch keine Einsegnung weihte, so wnrde 

 es allmiihlich unerlaubt und verboton als Ausnahrae 

 aber bis auf die neueste Zeit f'iir Fiirsten zugelasscn 

 — ja durch Trauung an die linke Hand gefeiert. Die 

 Benennung Morganatische Ehe, — Matrimonium ad 

 Morganaticam (11. Feud. 29.), riihrt daher, dass den 

 Coiicubiiien eine Morgcaigabe (woraus im Mittelalter 

 die l.oniharden ' Mmyanatica' niachten) — bewilligt zu 

 werden pHegte — es wareii Ehcn aiit blosse Morgengabe. 

 Den Beweis liefern Urkunden, die Morganatica fiir 

 Atorgengabe anch in Fallen gebrauchen wo von wahrer 

 Ehe die Rede ist." (See Heinecius, Aiitiq. 3. 157, 158.) 



The case now stands thus : 



It was the custom to give money to the wife's 

 relations on the marriage-day. 



It was not the custom with respect to unequal 

 marriage (iMishcirath): this took place " ohne Braut- 

 gabe und JMitgift," which was also of later origin. 



Tiie cxce[)tiou made by the Church for princes, 

 restored the woman so liir, that the marriage was 

 legally and morally recognised by the Lombard 

 law and the Church, with exceptions as regards 

 issue, ami that the left hand was given for the 

 right. 



With regard to this lal-ter, it would bo desii-- 



