Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/498

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. MAY 21, 1004.


1785 ; 2, William Robert, 1786 ; 3, Thomas, 1788 ; 4, Elizabeth Ann, 1789 ; 5, Bathurst Pye, born 1793, gazetted Lieutenant in the 27th Northumberland Light Infantry Militia in 1812 ; 6, Mary, who died the same day as her husband, A. G. C. D'Arien, at Hamburg, 6 July, 1824 ; 7, Benjamin, born 1796 ; 8, George Pye, 1797 ; and 9, Isabella, born in 1799.

Mr. Watson and his family in July, 1800, settled in Hamburg, where hedied 6 December, 1821. Information relative to any of his children or their descendants will oblige. H. R. LEIGHTON.

East Boldon, Durham.


"HANGED, DRAWN, AND QUARTERED." (10 th S. i. 209, 275, 356, 371.)

ONE lives and learns. When I wrote the article at the last reference, I was only aware of the apparent fact that the phrase " hanged, drawn, and quartered " in which " drawn " means eviscerated was an adaptation of the older phrase "drawn, hanged, and quartered," in which " drawn " meant " dragged along." I now find that the latter phrase is also not original, but was a mere translation of a phrase in Anglo-French, which was the language of England for legal purposes. This phrase occurs more than once, for ex- ample, in the continuation of Higden's ' Poly- chronicon,' vol. ix. p. 151. The sentences passed upon Blake and Usk in 1388 were :

"Que Blake serra traigne del tour deLoundres tanque a Tybourne et illoeqes penduz. Et le dit Uske sera auxint traigne et peuduz et son test coupe et mys sur Neugate."

Or, as we should now say, " that Blake shall be drawn from the Tower of London as far as Tyburn, and there hanged ; and the said Usk shall also be drawn and hanged, and his head shall be cut off and set up over New-

fite." The insular independence of Anglo- rench appears in the masculine test.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

In justice to myself I beg to point out that I quoted the 'N.E.D.' at 9 th S. iv. 162, and gave this reference ante, p. 356. W. C. B.

PROF. SKEAT seems to go too far at the last reference when he suggests that the sentence passed upon Henry Garnett in 1606 was "remarkable" by reason that it included both the drawing to the gallows and the dis- embowelling. There was nothing remarkable in that. The ordinary form of the horrible judgment, as it formerly ran, against a man


onvicted of high treason is given in Coke's 'Institutes' (3 Inst. 210, 211, edition of 1660) thus :

" Et super hoc visis, et per curiam hie intellectis omnibus et singulis pnemissis, consideratum est. quod praedictus R. usque f ureas de T. 1 trahatur, et 2 ibidem suspendatur per collum, et vivus ad terram prosternatur, et 3 interiora sua extra ventrem suum capiant.ur, [4] ipsoque vivente eomburantur, et 5 caput suum amputetur, quodque 6 corpus suum in quatuor partes dividatur ; ac 7 quod caput et quarteria ilia ponantur ubi dominus rex ea assignare vult."*

"And all these severall punishments," says Coke (loc. cit.\ " are found for treason in holy scripture." Whereupon he proceeds to cite the following precedents :

Drawing. 1 Kings ii. 28, &c., " Joab tractus," &c.

Hanging. -^Esther ii. 22, 23, " Bithan suspensus," &c.

Bowelling. Acts i. 18, "Judas suspensus crepuit medius, et diffusa sunt viscera ejus."

While alive. 2 Sam. xviii. 14, 15, " Infixit tres ianeeas in corde Absolou cum adhuc palpitaret," &c.

Beheading. 2 Sam. xx. 22, " Abscissum caput Sheba filii Bichri."

Quarters hanged up. 2 Sam. iv. 11, 12, " Intei- fecerunt Baanan et Rechab, et suspenderunt manus et pedes eorum super piscinam in Hebron."

The form of the judgment was modified by the Treason Act, 1814 (54 Geo. III., c. 146), which abolished both the cutting down alive from the gallows and the disembowelling. It was again modified by the Forfeiture Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Viet., c. 23, s. 31), which abolished the preliminary drawing on the hurdle and also the beheading and quarter- ing after death.

The view expressed by A. H. at the second reference, that the drawing on the hurdle was a " pretence " or substitute for disembowelling, has no historical basis.

H. C.

As an example to which the term "drawn " might be applied in both the senses men- tioned by PROF. SKEAT, I may cite the sen- tence passed on Col. Despard and his accomplices in February, 1803. It was delivered by the judge, Lord Ellenborough, as follows :

"It only remains for me to pronounce the sad and painful sentence of the law upon the crime of which you are convicted ; and that sentence is, and this Court doth adjudge, That you, the several

  • The record of the proceedings, including the

judgment, was drawn up in Latin down to 1733 (see 4 Geo. II., c. 26 ; 6 Geo. II., c. 15) ; but the sentence, as delivered in court, was, of course, in English, and often expressly directed a certain savage indig- nity against the convict's person, which is not specified in Coke's text. See, for instance, the sentence against Thomas Harrison in 1660 in ' State Trials,' v. 1034 (8vo edition, 1810).