Wikipedia - Benutzerbeiträge [de]

Gibbeting

2007-10-02T05:32:39Z

64.230.5.75: /* Trivia */

[[Image:Gallows at Caxton Gibbet.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The reconstructed [[gallows]] style gibbet at [[Caxton Gibbet]], in [[Cambridgeshire]], England.]]
'''Gibbet''' is a term applied to several different devices used in the [[capital punishment]] of [[Crime|criminal]]s and/or the deterrence of potential criminals.

When used as a verb, gibbeting refers to the public display of executed criminals.

==Execution equipment==
===Gallows===
Gibbet is sometimes used to describe a [[gallows]], a structure used in the [[execution (legal)|execution]] of criminals by [[hanging]].

===Guillotine===

Gibbet is also the name used for an early form of the [[guillotine]], employed in [[Ireland]], [[England]], and [[Scotland]]. The [[British Museum]] has a drawing depicting the execution of one Murcod Ballagh in 1307 in Ireland.

A notable example was the [[Halifax Gibbet]] employed in the [[West Yorkshire]] town of [[Halifax, West Yorkshire|Halifax]], where [[decapitation]] was the penalty for numerous offences, including the theft of cloth (Halifax being a centre of wool cloth manufacture). The device was used from the late [[13th century]] through to [[1648]].

The Halifax model of gibbet was also introduced in Scotland during the [[minority reign]] of James VI (later King [[James I of England|James I of Great Britain]]), where it was known as the [[Maiden (beheading)|(Scottish) Maiden]]. [[James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton]] introduced the maiden, and was later executed by the device, on [[2 June]] [[1581]].

==Display==
[[Image:Fomfr cage.jpg|thumb|A gibbet with a [[Mannequin|dummy]] inside]]

Gibbet usually refers to a gallows-type structure from which the dead bodies of executed criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. It can also be used as a verb, denoting the action of placing criminals in gibbets. This practice is also called "hanging in chains".<ref>http://users.bestweb.net/~rg/execution/gibbeting.htm</ref>

Gibbeting was [[common law]] punishment, which a judge could impose in addition to execution. This practice was regularised by the Murder Act [[1752]], which empowered Judges to impose this for murder. It was most often used for [[traitor]]s, [[murderer]]s, [[highwayman|highwaymen]], and sheep-stealers, to discourage others. The structures were therefore often placed adjacent to public highways. There are many places named Gibbet Hill in England. One is between [[Coventry]] and [[Kenilworth]] in [[Warwickshire]], and others are found at [[Frome, Somerset]], near [[Haslemere]] in [[Surrey]], and [[Mary Tavy]] in [[Devon]].

Although the intention was deterrence the public response was complex. [[Samuel Pepys]] expressed disgust at the practice. There was Christian objection that persecution of criminals should end with their death. The sight and smell of decaying corpses was offensive, and regarded as "pestilential", so a threat to public health.

[[Pirate]]s were sometimes executed by hanging on a gibbet erected close to the low-water mark by the sea or a tidal section of a river. Their bodies would be left dangling until they had been submerged by the tide three times. In [[London]], 'Execution Dock' is located on the north bank of the [[River Thames]] in [[Wapping]]; after tidal immersion, particularly notorious criminals' bodies could be hung in cages a little further downstream at either [[Cuckold's Point]] or [[Greenwich peninsula|Blackwall Point]], as a warning to other waterborne criminals of the possible consequences of their actions (such a fate befell Captain [[William Kidd]] in May [[1701]]). There was objection that these displays offended foreign visitors and did not uphold the reputation of the law.

In some stories a gibbet is a small cage where slaves were hung for a month (depending on their "crime") without food, water or any other thing needed for survival. Early plantation owners in [[Jamaica]] would put them in a gibbet and let the local animals eat the slave while they were still alive.{{Fact|date=May 2007}}

===Variants===
In some cases, the bodies would be left until their clothes rotted or even until the bodies were almost completely decomposed, after which the bones would be scattered.

In cases of [[drawing and quartering]], the body of the criminal was cut into five portions, each of which was often gibbeted in different places.
[[Image:Corciano-door-tower.jpg|thumb|left|Modern hanging cage at the main gate to [[Corciano]], [[Province of Perugia]], Italy]]
So that the public display might be prolonged, bodies were sometimes coated in tar and/or bound in chains. Sometimes, body-shaped iron cages were used to contain the decomposing corpses. For example, in March 1743 in the town of [[Rye, East Sussex]], Allen Grebell was murdered by John Breads. Breads was imprisoned in the Ypres Tower and then hanged, after which his body was left to rot for more than 20 years in an iron cage on Gibbet Marsh. The cage and Breads's skull are still kept in the Town Hall.<ref>http://www.jeakeshouse.com/Rye_Area_and_Tourist_Information.htm</ref>

Another example of the cage variation is the ''gibbet iron'', on display at the [[Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia|Atwater Kent museum]] in [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]], [[United States|U.S.]] The cage, created in [[1781]], was intended to be used to display the body of convicted [[pirate]] [[Thomas Wilkinson (pirate)|Thomas Wilkinson]] so that sailors on passing ships might be warned of the consequences of piracy. As Wilkinson's planned execution never took place, the gibbet was never used.

An example of an iron cage used to string up bodies on a gibbet can still be seen in the Westgate Museum at [[Winchester]].<ref>http://www.southernlife.org.uk/</ref>

Another example can be seen in Moyse's Hall Museum [http://www.moyseshall.org][[Bury St Edmunds]] which was found in 1938, still with the skeleton of John Nichols - executed in 1794 - inside. It is not known what happened to the skeleton.

Public [[crucifixion]] with continued display of the body after death can be seen as a form as gibbeting.

==Last recorded uses of gibbet==
===England===
The last two men gibbeted in England were William Jobling and James Cook, both in [[1832]]. Their cases are good examples of the different attitudes to the practice.

William Jobling was a miner hanged and gibbeted for the murder of Nicholas Fairles, a colliery owner and local [[magistrate]], near [[Jarrow]], [[Durham]]. After being hanged the body was taken off the rope, and loaded into a cart and taken on a tour of the area before arriving at Jarrow Slake where the crime had been committed. Here the body was placed into an iron gibbet cage. The cage and the scene was described thus:

:"the body was encased in flat bars of iron of two and a half inches in breadth, the feet were placed in stirrups, from which a bar of iron went up each side of the head, and ended in a ring by which he was suspended; a bar from the collar went down the breast, and another down the back, there were also bars in the inside of the legs which communicated with the above; and crossbars at the ankles, the knees, the thighs, the bowels the breast and the shoulders; the hands were hung by the side and covered with pitch, the face was pitched and covered with a piece of white cloth."

The gibbet was a foot in diameter with strong bars of iron up each side. The post was fixed into a one-and-a-half ton stone base, sunk into the Slake. <ref>http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/durham.html</ref> The body was soon removed by fellow miners and given a decent burial.

James Cook was convicted of a gruesome murder in [[Leicester]]. He was executed on Friday [[10 August]] [[1832]] in front of Leicester prison. Afterwards:
:"The head was shaved and tarred, to preserve it from the action of the weather; and the cap in which he had suffered was drawn over his face. On Saturday afternoon his body, attired as at the time of his execution, having been firmly fixed in the irons necessary to keep the limbs together, was carried to the place of its intended suspension."
His body was to be displayed on a purpose-built gallows 33ft high in Saffron Lane near the Aylestone Tollgate. According to ''The Newgate Calendar'':
:"thousands of persons were attracted to the spot, to view this novel but most barbarous exhibition; and considerable annoyance was felt by persons resident in the neighbourhood of the dreadful scene. Representations were in consequence made to the authorities, and on the following Tuesday morning instructions were received from the Home Office directing the removal of the gibbet."<ref>http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ng614.htm</ref>

===Australia===
In 1837, five years after the practice ceased in England, the body of John McKay was gibbetted on a tree near the spot where he murdered Joseph Wilson near [[Perth, Tasmania|Perth]].<ref>http://www.law.mq.edu.au/sctas/html/1837cases/RvMcKay,1837.htm</ref> There was great outcry, but the body was not removed until an acquaintance of Wilson passed the spot, and, horrified by the spectacle of McKay's rotting corpse, pleaded with the authorities to remove it. The place where this occurred was just to the right (when travelling towards Launceston) of the Midlands Highway on the northern side of Perth, and is marked by a sign proclaiming 'Gibbet Hill'. Though the place is not visible from the present road, the tree upon which McKay was hanged still stands. Local legend maintains that animals will not pass the tree and dogs raise their hackles and growl{{Fact|date=May 2007}}. It is the last case of gibbetting in a British colony.

==Timeline==
*[[1843]]: [[England]] outlawed gibbeting.

==Trivia==
The corpses of murderers were buried at crossroads so that their spirits would be “bound” there, and for this reason, as well as other more practical purposes such as the increased traffic, gallows were often erected at them. The living took pains to prevent the dead from wandering the land as lost souls – or even as animated corpses, for the belief in [[Medieval revenant|revenants]] was widespread in mediæval Europe.

The song ''"Almost Medieval"'' by the UK pop band [[The Human League]] contains the lyrics:-

''Jump off the tarmac there's no stagecoach speed limit - Outside the office hangs the man on the gibbet''. <REF>http://www.lyricsfreak.com/h/human+league/almost+medieval_20066390.html</REF>

{{sectstub}}

==References==
{{cite book | first=V. A. C. | last=Gatrell | authorlink= | coauthors= | year=1996 | title=The hanging tree: execution and the English people, 1770-1868 | edition= | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=Oxford | id=ISBN 0-19-820413-2 }} pp.266-9
<references/>

== See Also ==
* [[Dule Tree]]

[[Category:Execution methods]]
[[Category:Death customs]]

Gibbeting

2007-10-02T05:31:39Z

64.230.5.75: /* Australia */ unsourced but likely "true" as far as "local legends" go, changed wording so it is not as literal, but still gives information

[[Image:Gallows at Caxton Gibbet.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The reconstructed [[gallows]] style gibbet at [[Caxton Gibbet]], in [[Cambridgeshire]], England.]]
'''Gibbet''' is a term applied to several different devices used in the [[capital punishment]] of [[Crime|criminal]]s and/or the deterrence of potential criminals.

When used as a verb, gibbeting refers to the public display of executed criminals.

==Execution equipment==
===Gallows===
Gibbet is sometimes used to describe a [[gallows]], a structure used in the [[execution (legal)|execution]] of criminals by [[hanging]].

===Guillotine===

Gibbet is also the name used for an early form of the [[guillotine]], employed in [[Ireland]], [[England]], and [[Scotland]]. The [[British Museum]] has a drawing depicting the execution of one Murcod Ballagh in 1307 in Ireland.

A notable example was the [[Halifax Gibbet]] employed in the [[West Yorkshire]] town of [[Halifax, West Yorkshire|Halifax]], where [[decapitation]] was the penalty for numerous offences, including the theft of cloth (Halifax being a centre of wool cloth manufacture). The device was used from the late [[13th century]] through to [[1648]].

The Halifax model of gibbet was also introduced in Scotland during the [[minority reign]] of James VI (later King [[James I of England|James I of Great Britain]]), where it was known as the [[Maiden (beheading)|(Scottish) Maiden]]. [[James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton]] introduced the maiden, and was later executed by the device, on [[2 June]] [[1581]].

==Display==
[[Image:Fomfr cage.jpg|thumb|A gibbet with a [[Mannequin|dummy]] inside]]

Gibbet usually refers to a gallows-type structure from which the dead bodies of executed criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. It can also be used as a verb, denoting the action of placing criminals in gibbets. This practice is also called "hanging in chains".<ref>http://users.bestweb.net/~rg/execution/gibbeting.htm</ref>

Gibbeting was [[common law]] punishment, which a judge could impose in addition to execution. This practice was regularised by the Murder Act [[1752]], which empowered Judges to impose this for murder. It was most often used for [[traitor]]s, [[murderer]]s, [[highwayman|highwaymen]], and sheep-stealers, to discourage others. The structures were therefore often placed adjacent to public highways. There are many places named Gibbet Hill in England. One is between [[Coventry]] and [[Kenilworth]] in [[Warwickshire]], and others are found at [[Frome, Somerset]], near [[Haslemere]] in [[Surrey]], and [[Mary Tavy]] in [[Devon]].

Although the intention was deterrence the public response was complex. [[Samuel Pepys]] expressed disgust at the practice. There was Christian objection that persecution of criminals should end with their death. The sight and smell of decaying corpses was offensive, and regarded as "pestilential", so a threat to public health.

[[Pirate]]s were sometimes executed by hanging on a gibbet erected close to the low-water mark by the sea or a tidal section of a river. Their bodies would be left dangling until they had been submerged by the tide three times. In [[London]], 'Execution Dock' is located on the north bank of the [[River Thames]] in [[Wapping]]; after tidal immersion, particularly notorious criminals' bodies could be hung in cages a little further downstream at either [[Cuckold's Point]] or [[Greenwich peninsula|Blackwall Point]], as a warning to other waterborne criminals of the possible consequences of their actions (such a fate befell Captain [[William Kidd]] in May [[1701]]). There was objection that these displays offended foreign visitors and did not uphold the reputation of the law.

In some stories a gibbet is a small cage where slaves were hung for a month (depending on their "crime") without food, water or any other thing needed for survival. Early plantation owners in [[Jamaica]] would put them in a gibbet and let the local animals eat the slave while they were still alive.{{Fact|date=May 2007}}

===Variants===
In some cases, the bodies would be left until their clothes rotted or even until the bodies were almost completely decomposed, after which the bones would be scattered.

In cases of [[drawing and quartering]], the body of the criminal was cut into five portions, each of which was often gibbeted in different places.
[[Image:Corciano-door-tower.jpg|thumb|left|Modern hanging cage at the main gate to [[Corciano]], [[Province of Perugia]], Italy]]
So that the public display might be prolonged, bodies were sometimes coated in tar and/or bound in chains. Sometimes, body-shaped iron cages were used to contain the decomposing corpses. For example, in March 1743 in the town of [[Rye, East Sussex]], Allen Grebell was murdered by John Breads. Breads was imprisoned in the Ypres Tower and then hanged, after which his body was left to rot for more than 20 years in an iron cage on Gibbet Marsh. The cage and Breads's skull are still kept in the Town Hall.<ref>http://www.jeakeshouse.com/Rye_Area_and_Tourist_Information.htm</ref>

Another example of the cage variation is the ''gibbet iron'', on display at the [[Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia|Atwater Kent museum]] in [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]], [[United States|U.S.]] The cage, created in [[1781]], was intended to be used to display the body of convicted [[pirate]] [[Thomas Wilkinson (pirate)|Thomas Wilkinson]] so that sailors on passing ships might be warned of the consequences of piracy. As Wilkinson's planned execution never took place, the gibbet was never used.

An example of an iron cage used to string up bodies on a gibbet can still be seen in the Westgate Museum at [[Winchester]].<ref>http://www.southernlife.org.uk/</ref>

Another example can be seen in Moyse's Hall Museum [http://www.moyseshall.org][[Bury St Edmunds]] which was found in 1938, still with the skeleton of John Nichols - executed in 1794 - inside. It is not known what happened to the skeleton.

Public [[crucifixion]] with continued display of the body after death can be seen as a form as gibbeting.

==Last recorded uses of gibbet==
===England===
The last two men gibbeted in England were William Jobling and James Cook, both in [[1832]]. Their cases are good examples of the different attitudes to the practice.

William Jobling was a miner hanged and gibbeted for the murder of Nicholas Fairles, a colliery owner and local [[magistrate]], near [[Jarrow]], [[Durham]]. After being hanged the body was taken off the rope, and loaded into a cart and taken on a tour of the area before arriving at Jarrow Slake where the crime had been committed. Here the body was placed into an iron gibbet cage. The cage and the scene was described thus:

:"the body was encased in flat bars of iron of two and a half inches in breadth, the feet were placed in stirrups, from which a bar of iron went up each side of the head, and ended in a ring by which he was suspended; a bar from the collar went down the breast, and another down the back, there were also bars in the inside of the legs which communicated with the above; and crossbars at the ankles, the knees, the thighs, the bowels the breast and the shoulders; the hands were hung by the side and covered with pitch, the face was pitched and covered with a piece of white cloth."

The gibbet was a foot in diameter with strong bars of iron up each side. The post was fixed into a one-and-a-half ton stone base, sunk into the Slake. <ref>http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/durham.html</ref> The body was soon removed by fellow miners and given a decent burial.

James Cook was convicted of a gruesome murder in [[Leicester]]. He was executed on Friday [[10 August]] [[1832]] in front of Leicester prison. Afterwards:
:"The head was shaved and tarred, to preserve it from the action of the weather; and the cap in which he had suffered was drawn over his face. On Saturday afternoon his body, attired as at the time of his execution, having been firmly fixed in the irons necessary to keep the limbs together, was carried to the place of its intended suspension."
His body was to be displayed on a purpose-built gallows 33ft high in Saffron Lane near the Aylestone Tollgate. According to ''The Newgate Calendar'':
:"thousands of persons were attracted to the spot, to view this novel but most barbarous exhibition; and considerable annoyance was felt by persons resident in the neighbourhood of the dreadful scene. Representations were in consequence made to the authorities, and on the following Tuesday morning instructions were received from the Home Office directing the removal of the gibbet."<ref>http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ng614.htm</ref>

===Australia===
In 1837, five years after the practice ceased in England, the body of John McKay was gibbetted on a tree near the spot where he murdered Joseph Wilson near [[Perth, Tasmania|Perth]].<ref>http://www.law.mq.edu.au/sctas/html/1837cases/RvMcKay,1837.htm</ref> There was great outcry, but the body was not removed until an acquaintance of Wilson passed the spot, and, horrified by the spectacle of McKay's rotting corpse, pleaded with the authorities to remove it. The place where this occurred was just to the right (when travelling towards Launceston) of the Midlands Highway on the northern side of Perth, and is marked by a sign proclaiming 'Gibbet Hill'. Though the place is not visible from the present road, the tree upon which McKay was hanged still stands. Local legend maintains that animals will not pass the tree and dogs raise their hackles and growl{{Fact|date=May 2007}}. It is the last case of gibbetting in a British colony.

==Timeline==
*[[1843]]: [[England]] outlawed gibbeting.

==Trivia==
The corpses of murderers were buried at crossroads so that their spirits would be “bound” there, and for this reason, as well as other more practical purposes, gallows were often erected at them. The living took pains to prevent the dead from wandering the land as lost souls – or even as animated corpses, for the belief in [[Medieval revenant|revenants]] was widespread in mediæval Europe.

The song ''"Almost Medieval"'' by the UK pop band [[The Human League]] contains the lyrics:-

''Jump off the tarmac there's no stagecoach speed limit - Outside the office hangs the man on the gibbet''. <REF>http://www.lyricsfreak.com/h/human+league/almost+medieval_20066390.html</REF>

{{sectstub}}

==References==
{{cite book | first=V. A. C. | last=Gatrell | authorlink= | coauthors= | year=1996 | title=The hanging tree: execution and the English people, 1770-1868 | edition= | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=Oxford | id=ISBN 0-19-820413-2 }} pp.266-9
<references/>

== See Also ==
* [[Dule Tree]]

[[Category:Execution methods]]
[[Category:Death customs]]