Hepton Brigg, for forty-eight shillings. Likewise, we do find, by the confession of the aforesaid Anthony Mitchell, that Abraham Wilkinson did take the grey colt of Paul Johnson's from off Durker-Green aforesaid, and that John Wilkinson was with his brother Abraham Wilkinson, when he took him, and that the said Anthony Mitchell was present when Abraham did stay and bridle the grey colt: also confesseth, that himself and John Wilkinson did leave the said colt with George Harrison, of Norland, which colt we have seen, and do value and apprize him at three pounds. "THE DETERMINATE SENTENCE. "The prisoners, that is to say, Abraham Wilkinson, and Anthony Mitchell, being apprehended within the liberty of Halifax, and brought before us, with nine yards of cloth, as aforesaid, and the two colts above mentioned, which cloth we apprized to nine shillings, and the black colt at forty-eight shillings, and the grey colt to three pounds. All which aforesaid being feloniously taken from the above said persons, and found with the said prisoners. "By ancient custom and liberty of Halifax, whereof the memory of man is not to the contrary, the said Abraham Wilkinson and Anthony Mitchell are to suffer death, by having their heads severed and cut off from their bodies, at Halifax Gibbet; unto which verdict we subscribe our names, the thirtieth of April, one thousand six hundred and fifty. James Holland. Richard Nicolls. Isaac Hooker. John Exley. Francis Priestley. Henry Ryley. John Ryalls. Michael Wood. James Whitaker. James Ellison. Janes Dobson. Joseph Priestley. Anthony Waterhouse. Thomas Gill." In the Halifax parish register is a list of forty-nine persons beheaded by the gibbet between the 20th day of March, 1541, and the 30th of April, 1650. Of these there were executed : : 5 in the last six years of Henry VIII. 25 in the reign of Elizabeth, 7 in the reign of James I., 10 in the reign of Charles I., After the last execution, the Bailiff received intimation that he would be called to public account if the like were again repeated. In 1840 there was discovered the pedestal, or stone scaffold, which had been concealed under a long accumulation of rubbish and soil forming a grassy mound commonly supposed to be a natural hill, on which the temporary scaffold for the gibbet was from time to time erected; but the town trustees having purchased the Gibbet Hill, and being wishful to reduce it to the level of the surrounding fields, this curious relic of antiquity was brought to light, and is carefully preserved. In the enclosure the following inscription is placed :— The Remains of the Halifax gibbet were discovered in the year 1840 and were enclosed The first on the List This Fence was erected and in the Mayoralty Crabtree, in his "History of Halifax," says: "There is a mistake in the register-book at Halifax, which has John Wilkinson beheaded, instead of Abraham, for if this be right then Abraham Wilkinson was acquitted, though he confessed that he stole the cloth; and John was executed merely on the information of the others, which is directly subversive of the foundation on which this custom is said to stand." At the Rolls Office, Wakefield, may still be seen the ancient gibbetaxe. It weighs seven pounds twelve ounces; its length is ten inches and a half; it is seven inches broad at the top, and very near nine at the bottom; its centre is about seven inches and a half. The Earl of Morton, passing through Halifax about the middle of the sixteenth century, witnessed an execution, and gave instructions for a model to be made of the gibbet, and on his return to Scotland, of which he was Regent, he had a similar instrument constructed, which, remaining so long unused, was called "The Maiden;" but on the 3rd of June, 1581, he was himself executed by it. "The Maiden" is preserved in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, at Edinburgh. The saying of "From Hell, Hull, and Halifax, good Lord, deliver us,” is very common, and according to Fuller is part of the " Beggars' and Vagrants' Litany." "Of these three frightful things unto them, it is feared the first, conceiting it the furthest from them. Hull is terrible unto them as a town of good government, where they meet with punitive charity, and, 'tis to be feared, are oftener corrected than amended. Halifax is formidable unto them, for the law thereof, whereby thieves taken in the very act of stealing cloth, are instantly beheaded with an engine, without any further legal proceedings." Such is the history of a curious law of the olden time, enacted when might, and not right, was the order of the day, and when lords had nearly regal power, and the people were little better than slaves. ΤΗ TOUCHING FOR THE KING'S EVIL. BY REGINALD CORLASS. 'HERE is some interest attaching to a custom which, like the above, held sway in popular superstition in England over a space of seven hundred years. In Stowe's "Annals " we have an account, given by the Abbot of Rivaulx, of the cure of a disease, evidently scrofula, by Edward the Confessor; and Dr. Plot, in his "Natural History of Oxfordshire," gives a drawing of the touch-piece, on a white ribbon, supposed to have been given by that monarch to those who came to be healed. Holinshed says that "he left that virtue, as it were, a portion of inheritance unto his successors, the kings of this realm." Or, as Shakspere has it "Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, Put on with holy prayers; and 'tis spoken, To the succeeding royalty he leaves the healing benediction." The coin, or touch-piece, given at a later date (Henry VII.), was the noble-equal to six shillings and eightpence. It was sometimes called the angel-noble, and according to Fabian Philips, in his "Treatise on Purveyance," the "angels issued by the kings of England on these occasions amounted to a charge of £3,000 per annum. Elizabeth once, when troubled by many persons seeking cure, gave expression, in haste, to the words: "Alas, poor people! I cannot—I cannot cure you; it is God alone who can do that ;”" which caused some to gain the opinion that she did not recognise the efficacy of the royal gift: but it appears that she frequently "touched," nevertheless; and Strype, in his "Annals," mentions her having touched nine persons during her famous visit to Kenilworth. In 1616, dated March 25th, a proclamation was issued, stating that patients would not be permitted to approach the king during the Another proclamation (June 18th, 1626) ordered that no one would be admitted to the king's touch who did not bring a certificate of their not having undergone it before, some having no objection to receive the "golden stamp" more than once! summer. 66 In Oudert's MS. Diary is the following account of a case cured by Charles I.: "A young gentlewoman, Elizabeth Stephens, of the age of sixteen, came to the Presence Chamber in 1640, to be touched for the evil with which she was so afflicted, that by her own and her mother's testimony she had not seen with her left eye for above a month. After prayers read by Dr. Sanderson, she knelt down to be 'touched' with the rest by the king. His Majesty then touched her in the usual manner, and put a ribbon with a piece of money hanging to it about her neck. Which done, his Majesty turned to the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of Southampton, and the Earl of Lindsey, to discourse with them. And the young gentlewoman said of her own accord, openly, 'Now, God be praised, I can see of this sore eye,' and afterwards declared that she did see more and more by it, and could by degrees endure the light of the candle." A proclamation, ordered to be published in every parish, was issued by Charles II. in January, 1683, stating that the "times of public healings shall from henceforth be from the Feast of All-Saints, commonly called Allhallow-tide, till a week before Christmas; and, after Christmas, until the first day of March, and then to cease till the Passionweek, being the times most convenient, both for the temperature of the season, and in respect of contagion which may happen in this near access to his Majesty's sacred Person." In 1684 a work was published by John Brown, sworn chirurgeon to the king, upon "Glandules and Strumæ, or King's-Evil Swellings," with remarks on the "Royal Gift of Healing or Cure thereof." Accounts are also given of about seventy "wonderful and miraculous cures." Touching seems to have been in great favour during this reign; for in the above work a list is given of the number of persons touched from May, 1660, to September, 1664, from the registers of the serjeant of the Chapel Royal, amounting to 25,621; and altogether this king is stated to have touched 92,000 persons. The newspapers of the period state that on the 30th March, 1714, two hundred patients were touched by Queen Anne. Every reader is familiar with the story of Dr. Johnson, who was sent by the advice of Sir John Floyer, then a physician at Lichfield, and who, on being asked many years after if he remembered the Queen, replied that he had "a confused but somehow a sort of solemn recollection of a lady in diamonds and a long black hood." From a dissertation on the subject by Samuel Pegge, F.S.A., we extract the form of ceremony which was used in this reign. It is from a folio Prayer-book, printed in 1710: Prevent us, O Lord, &c. AT THE HEALING. GOSPEL.-From the 16th chapter of St. Mark, beginning at the 14th verse: "Afterwards he appeared," &c., to the end of the chapter: "And confirming the word with signs following." Let us pray Lord have mercy upon us. Christ, &c. Our Father, &c. Rubrick. [Then shall the infirm persons, one by one, be presented to the Queen upon their knees; and, as every one is presented, and while the Queen is laying her hands upon them and putting the gold about their necks, the Chaplain that officiates, turning himself to Her Majesty, shall say these words following]:- |