THE HISTORY OF THE DORCHESTER GALLOWS. 63 



removed hither by an unlucky humour of the Sheriff ; since 

 when the parapet at top is on that side much beaten down 

 by the trampling of men and horses at executions." He 

 seems to speak of the gallows as having been recently 

 removed, further on, when he says, " the parapet is now 3 or 

 4 foot high, but much ruined on that side next the gallows, 

 since last year at an execution." However, there is some 

 reason for supposing that the removal was a little earlier than 

 this. The celebrated burning of Mary Channing took place 

 in 1703, and upon the floor of the amphitheatre. Female 

 criminals were frequently burnt alive at that time, and for 

 some years afterwards ; perhaps it was the punishment of 

 the worst, in the place of the drawing, hanging, and quartering 

 which would have been the fate of a man. Had the gallows 

 still been in its old position, she would probably have been 

 burnt on Gallows Hill, and not at the amphitheatre. There- 

 fore it seems most likely that the gallows was removed about 

 the year 1700, from that place to the Wey mouth-road site. I 

 am making rather a point of this date, because it seems pretty 

 evident that the Monmouth rebels suffered on the old site of 

 Gallows Hill, and not on the new site. 



The gallows by the amphitheatre seems to have been in 

 regular use up to the time that the new prison was built, 

 facing North-square, about the year 1795. At that time, or 

 soon after, the humane method of despatching prisoners 

 more rapidly, by giving them a longer drop, was allowed. 

 This seems to have been provided for in executions at the 

 prison. An Execution Bill of 1807 describes the hanging of 

 three men on " the new drop upon the lodge of the Castle at 

 Dorchester." I have a broadsheet giving the sentences 

 of prisoners at the Lent Assizes at Dorchester in 1801. There 

 were 48 cases tried, almost all for thefts. Several were 

 sentenced to transportation for very small offences, ten were 

 condemned to death, one being a woman, Lydia Hiskins, for 

 stealing a banknote. Plainly up to that date harsh measures 

 had not succeeded in curing the poor people of their belief in 

 the right to live by hook or by crook. 



