Free Olde London Punishments by David Brandon Page A

churches’, his heart, liver, lungs and all internal organs were thrown into the fire and burned. Finally, he was decapitated and his carcass then cut up. His head was set on a pole on London Bridge.

    Gibbet outside Clink Prison.

    Smithfield today.

    Memorial to William Wallace at Smithfield.
    From the fourteenth century a long history of bloody incidents took place at Smithfield. The leader of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1382, Wat Tyler, was killed in a confrontation at Smithfield when he was stabbed by the Lord Mayor, William Walworth. Tyler had sought refuge in St Bartholomew’s Hospital but was dragged out to be beheaded (it is uncertain whether he was already dead prior to beheading).
    The heady days of execution at Smithfield became fewer as Tyburn and later Newgate became the main sites. In 1674, for example, a woman was burned for the crime of clipping (removing precious metal from the edge of coins to melt down).
    An unintended ‘execution’ occurred in 1756. A gang led by James Egan had been responsible for framing and accusing innocent people in order to claim rewards. Their activities had led to prosecutions and the death of some of their victims. Justice eventually caught up with them and Egan and one of the gang, named Salmon, were sentenced to stand in the pillory at Smithfield. This was to be their last public appearance for some time because they had also been condemned to seven years’ imprisonment. It was only to be expected that the nature of their crime rendered them exceptionally unpopular with the crowd. Even as they arrived, Egan and Salmon were subjected to a torrent of verbal abuse. No sooner had they been secured in the pillory than they were assailed by a rain of missiles, including stones, cobbles, rotting vegetation and dead, putrescent rats, cats and dogs. The constables tried to intervene but the crowd was growing angrier by the minute. Egan and Salmon were powerless to prevent some of these missiles finding their mark. A large one hit Egan with such force on the forehead that he died instantly.
    John Perrot from Newport Pagnell was executed at Smithfield in 1761. He kept a draper’s shop and established a reputation as a merchant, and so had little problem in finding credit. Perrott was in fact a wealthy rogue who reputedly embezzled £25,000 of goods received on credit. It was only a matter of time before Perrott’s activities would be investigated and he paid a heavy price. At 10.15 a.m. on the morning of 11 November 1761 he said farewell to a fellow prisoner and, with some trembling, was immediately put in the cart and led to Smithfield to be hanged.
    Executions at Smithfield ended soon afterwards.
    Newgate
    Executions began outside Newgate Prison in the street called Old Bailey in 1783. On execution days a scaffold was erected close to the Debtors’ Door in the prison wall. Through this door the condemned prisoners were brought for their public swansong. For some this offered a brief moment of celebrity – for once in their lives everybody was interested in them and they were the centre of attention. Later on the scaffold was mounted on wheels and was brought out of Newgate for each execution, drawn by two horses. The first execution in Old Bailey took place on 9 December 1783.
    Prisoners varied in the manner in which they approached their execution. Those who excited most admiration from the crowd and even grudgingly from the authorities were those few who refused to be perturbed by the situation and in some cases whistled, sang and joked as if they did not have a care in the world. One murderer named Jeffreys, for example, ordered and was served roast duck the night before his execution and went to his death with a swagger and a cheery wave to the crowd.
    Although executions now took place literally on the doorstep of Newgate, a strong sense of carnival surrounded these events. Crowds were as drunken, bawdy andirreverent as ever and pickpockets and prostitutes enjoyed rich