EXTINCT FORESTS OF THE NORTHERN COUNTIES, 155 



Mitchell were found guilty of stealing nine yards of cloth 

 and two colts, and on the 30th of the month received sen- 

 tence 'to suffer death, by having their heads severed and 

 cut off from their bodies at Halifax gibbet ;' and they 

 suffered accordingly. These were the last persons executed 

 under Halifax gibbet-law. 



" The execution was in this manner : the prisoner being 

 brought to the scaffold by the bailiff, the axe was drawn 

 up by a pulley, and fastened with a pin to the side of the 

 scaffold. ' The bailiff, the jurors, and the minister chosen 

 by the prisoner, being always upon the scaffold with the 

 prisoner. After the minister had finished his ministerial 

 office and Christian duty, if it was a horse, an ox, or cow, 

 &c., that was taken with the prisoner, it was thither 

 brought along with him to the place of execution, and 

 fastened by a cord to the pin that stayed the block ; so 

 that when the time of the execution came (which was 

 known by the jurors holding up one of their hands), the 

 bailiff or his servant whipping the beast, the pin was 

 plucked out, and execution done ; but if there were no 

 beast in the case, then the bailiff or his servant cut the 

 rope. 



" But if the felon, after his apprehension, or in his going 

 to execution, happened to make his escape out of the 

 Forest of Hardwick, which liberty, on the east end of the 

 town, doth not extend above the breadth of a small river ; 

 on the north, about six hundred paces ; on the south, about 

 a mile ; but on the west, about ten miles ; if such an escape 

 were made, then the bailiff of Halifax had no power to 

 apprehend him out of his liberty; but if ever the felon 

 came again into the liberty of Hardwick, and were taken, 

 he was certainly executed.' 



" One Lacy, who made his escape, and lived seven years 

 out of the liberty, after that time coming boldly within 

 the liberty of Hardwick, was retaken, and executed upon 

 his former verdict of condemnation. 



"The records of executions by the Halifax gibbet before 

 the time of Elizabeth are lost; but during her reign 



