Simnel.
"Simnel.—Siminellus from the Latin Simila, which signifies the Finest Part of the Flour. Panis similageneus, Simnel Bread. It is mentioned in 'Assisa Panis;' and is still in use, especially in Lent. Bread made into a Simnel shall weigh two shillings less than Wastell Bread." Stat. 51 Henry III.
The Statute, intituled Assisa Panis et Cervisiæ, made Anno 51 Hen. III. Stat. I.; and Anno Dom. 1266. Cotton MS. Claudius, D. 2.
... Panis verò de siminello ponderabit minus de Wastello de duobus solidis, quia bis coctus est.
For the Ordinance for the Assise and Weight of Bread in the City of London, see Stowe's Survey, p. 740, Edit. 1633.
It was sometime called Simnellus, as in the Annals of the Church of Winchester, under the year 1042. "Rex Edwardus instituit, et cartâ confirmavit, ut quoties ipse vel aliquis Successorum suorum Regum Angliæ diadema portaret Wintoniæ vel Wigorniæ vel Westmonasterii; Præcentor loci recipiet de fisco ipsâ die dimidiam marcam, et conventus centum Sumnellos et unun modium vini." But, indeed, the true reading is Siminel.
The English Simnel was the purest White Bread, as in the Book of Battle Abbey. "Panem Regiæ Mensæ aptam, qui Simenel vulgò vocatur[379]."
Simula.—A Manchet, a White Loaf. Among the Customs of the Abbey of Glastonbury: "In diebus solemnibus, cum Fratres fuerunt in cappis, Medonem habuerunt in Justis, et Simulas super mensam, et vinum ad caritatem, et tria generalia." Chartular. Abbat. Glaston. MS. fol. 10.
For the use of Saffron, now used for colouring the Crust of the Simnel, see Shakespear's Winter's Tale; where the Clown (Act iv.) says, "Then I must have Saffron to colour the Warden Pyes."
Origin of Thirteen Pence Halfpenny,
AS
HANGMAN'S WAGES;
In a Letter to Edward King, Esq. President of the Society of Antiquaries.
The vulgar notion, though it will not appear to be a vulgar error, is, that Thirteen Pence Halfpenny is the fee of the Executioner in the common line of business at Tyburn[380], and therefore is called Hangman's Wages. The sum is singular, and certainly there is a reason for its having obtained so odious an appellation, though it may not be very obvious.
We find that anciently this Office was, in some parts of the Kingdom, annexed to other Posts; for the Porter of the City of Canterbury was the Executioner for the County of Kent, temporibus Hen. II. and Hen. III. for which he had an allowance from the Sheriff, who was re-imbursed from the Exchequer, of Twenty Shillings per annum[381].
Though this is an Office in great and general disesteem, yet the Sheriffs are much obliged to those who will undertake it, as otherwise the unpleasant and painful duty must fall upon themselves. They are the persons to whom the Law looks for its completion, as they give a Receipt to the Gaoler for the Bodies of condemned Criminals whom they are to punish, or cause to be punished, according to their respective Sentences. The business is of such an invidious nature, that, in the Country, Sheriffs have sometimes had much difficulty to procure an Executioner, as, in the eyes of the lower people, it carries with it a Stigma, apart from any shock that it must give to Humanity and Compassion. I remember a very few years ago, if the News-papers said true, the Sheriff of one of the Inland Counties was very near being obliged to perform the unwelcome Office himself.
So that in fact the Hangman is the Sheriff's immediate Deputy in criminal matters, though there is always, at present, an Under-Sheriff for civil purposes. But, before I bring you to the point in question, it will not be amiss to lead you gradually to it, by inquiring into the nature and dignity of the Office in some particulars, and into the Rank of the Officer, for we have all heard of Squire Ketch. These will be found to be supportable matters, as well as the Fee of Office, which is our ground-work.
The Sheriff is, by being so styled in the King's Patent under the Great Seal, an Esquire, which raises him to that Rank, unless he has previously had the Title adventitiously. None were anciently chosen to this Office, but such Gentlemen whose fortunes and stations would warrant it; so, on the other hand, Merchants, and other liberal branches of the lower order, were admitted first into the rank of Gentlemen, by a grant of Arms, on proper qualifications; from the Earl Marshal, and the Kings of Arms, respectively, according to their Provinces. After a Negotiant has become a Gentleman, courtesy will very soon advance that rank, and give the party the title of Esquire; and so it has happened with the worthy Gentleman before us, for such I shall prove him once with ceremony to have been created. This remarkable case happened in the year 1616, and was as follows. Ralph Brooke, whose real name was Brokesmouth, at that time York Herald, not content with being mischievous, was the most turbulent and malicious man that ever wore the King's Coat. After various malversations in Office, not to the present purpose, he put a trick upon Sir William Segar, Garter King of Arms, which had very nearly cost both of them their places. The story is touched upon in Mr. Anstis's Register of the Order of the Garter[382]; but is more fully and satisfactorily related in the Life of Mr. Camden, prefixed to his "Britannia," to this effect. Ralph Brooke employed a person to carry a Coat of Arms ready drawn to Garter, and to pretend it belonged to one Gregory Brandon, a Gentleman who had formerly lived in London, but then residing in Spain, and to desire Garter to set his hand to it. To prevent deliberation, the messenger was instructed to pretend that the vessel, which was to carry this confirmation into Spain, when it had received the Seal of the Office and Garter's Hand, was just ready to sail[383]. This being done, and the Fees paid, Brooke carries it to Thomas Earl of Arundel, then one of the Commissioners for executing the Office of Earl Marshal; and, in order to vilify Garter, and to represent him as a rapacious negligent Officer, assures his Lordship that those were the Arms of Arragon, with a Canton for Brabant, and that Gregory Brandon was a mean and inconsiderable person. This was true enough; for he was the common Hangman for London and Middlesex. Ralph Brooke afterwards confessed all these circumstances to the Commissioners who represented the Earl Marshal; the consequence of which was, that Garter was, by order of the King, when he heard the case, committed to Prison for negligence, and the Herald for treachery. Be this as we find it, yet was Gregory Brandon the Hangman become a Gentleman, and, as the Bastard says in King John, "could make any Joan a Gentlewoman."
Thus was this Gregory Brandon advanced, perhaps from the state of a Convict, to the rank of a Gentleman; and though it was a personal honour to himself, notwithstanding it was surreptitiously obtained by the Herald, of which Gregory Brandon, Gentleman, was perhaps ignorant, yet did it operate so much on his successors in office, that afterwards it became transferred from the Family to the Officer for the time being; and from Mr. Brandon's popularity, though not of the most desirable kind, the mobility soon improved his rank, and, with a jocular complaisance, gave him the title of Esquire, which remains to this day. I have said that Mr. Brandon was perhaps a Convict; for I know that at York the Hangman has usually been a pardoned Criminal, whose case was deemed venial, and for which the performance of this painful duty to fellow-prisoners was thought a sufficient infliction. It seems too as if this Office had once, like many other important Offices of State, been hereditary; but whether Mr. Brandon had it by descent I cannot say, yet Shakspeare has this passage in Coriolanus[384]:
"Menenius.—Marcius, in a cheap estimation, is worth all your Predecessors, since Deucalion; though, peradventure, some of the best of them were Hereditary Hangmen."
This looks as if the Office of Executioner had run in some Family for a generation or two, at the time when Shakspeare wrote; and that it was a circumstance well understood, and would be well relished, at least by the Galleries. This might indeed, with regard to time, point at the ancestors of Mr. Brandon himself; for it was in the Reign of King James I. that this person was, as we have seen, brought within the pale of Gentility. Nay, more, we are told by Dr. Grey, in his Notes on Shakspeare[385], that from this Gentleman, the Hangmen, his Successors, bore for a considerable time his Christian name of Gregory, though not his Arms, they being a personal honour, till a greater man arose, viz. Jack Ketch, who entailed the present official name on all who have hitherto followed him[386].
Whether the name of Ketch be not the provincial pronunciation of Catch among the Cockneys, I have my doubts, though I have printed authority to confront me; for that learned and laborious Compiler, B. E. Gent. the Editor of the Canting Dictionary, says that Jack Kitch, for so he spells it, was the real name of a Hangman, which has become that of all his successors. When this great man lived, for such we must suppose him to have been, and renowned for his popularity or dexterity, Biographical History is silent.
So much for this important Office itself; and we must now look to the Emoluments which appertain to it, and assign a reason why Thirteen Pence Halfpenny should be esteemed the standard Fee for this definitive stroke of the law.
Hogarth has given a fine Picture of the sang-froid of an Executioner in his Print of the London Apprentice; where the Mr. Ketch for the time being is lolling upon the Gallows, and smoaking his Pipe; waiting, with the utmost indifference, for the arrival of the Cart and the Mob that close the melancholy Procession. But Use becomes Nature in things at which even Nature herself revolts.
Before we proceed to matters of a pecuniary nature, having said so much upon the Executioner, permit me to step out of the way for a moment, and add a word or two on the Executioné, which will explain a Yorkshire saying. It was for the most unsuspected crime imaginable, that the truly unfortunate man who gave rise to the adage suffered the Sentence of the Law at York. He was a Saddler at Bawtry, and occasioned this saying, often applied among the lower people to a man who quits his friends too early, and will not stay to finish his bottle; "That he will be hanged for leaving his liquor, like the Saddler of Bawtry." The case was this: There was formerly, and indeed it has not long been suppressed, an Ale-house, to this day called "The Gallows House," situate between the City of York and their Tyburne; at which House the Cart used always to stop; and there the Convict and the other parties were refreshed with liquors; but the rash and precipitate Saddler, under Sentence, and on his road to the fatal Tree, refused this little regale, and hastened on to the Place of Execution—when, very soon after he was turned-off, a Reprieve arrived; insomuch that, had he stopped, as was usual, at the Gallows House, the time consumed there would have been the means of saving his life; so that he was hanged, as truly as unhappily, for leaving his liquor.
The same compliment was anciently paid to Convicts, on their passage to Tyburne, at St. Giles's Hospital; for we are told by Stowe[387], that they were there presented with a Bowl of Ale, called "St. Giles's Bowl;" "thereof to drink at their pleasure, as their last refreshing in this life." This place (Tyburne) was the established scene of Executions in common cases so long ago as the first year of King Henry IV; Smithfield and St. Giles's Field being reserved for persons of higher rank, and for crimes of uncommon magnitude; such as treason and heresy: in the last of these, Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, was burnt, or rather roasted, alive; having been hanged up over the fire by a chain which went round his waist[388].
The Execution of the Duke of Monmouth (in July 1685) was peculiarly unsuccessful in the operation.
The Duke said to the Executioner, "Here are Six Guineas for you: pray do your business well; do not serve me as you did my Lord Russell: I have heard you struck him three or four times. Here" (to his Servant); "take these remaining Guineas, and give them to him if he does his work well."
Executioner.—"I hope I shall."
Monmouth.—"If you strike me twice, I cannot promise you not to stir. Pr'ythee let me feel the Axe." He felt the edge, and said, "I fear it is not sharp enough."
Executioner.—"It is sharp enough, and heavy enough."
The Executioner proceeded to do his office; but the Note says, "it was under such distraction of mind, that he fell into the very error which the Duke had so earnestly cautioned him to avoid; wounding him so slightly, that he lifted up his head, and looked him in the face, as if to upbraid him for making his death painful; but said nothing. He then prostrated himself again, and received two other ineffectual blows; upon which the Executioner threw down his Axe in a fit of horror; crying out, "he could not finish his work." but, on being brought to himself by the threats of the Sheriffs, took up the fatal weapon again, and at two other strokes made a shift to separate the Head from the Body." [Lord Somers's Tracts, vol. I. pp. 219, 220; the Note taken from the Review of the Reigns of Charles and James, p. 885.]
As to the Fee itself, which has occasioned me to give you so much trouble, I incline to think this seeming singular sum must have been of Scottish extraction, though not used for the like purpose; for, I presume, from the value of money there, a man might formerly be hanged at a much cheaper rate, and that we have it by transplantation. The Scottish Mark (not ideal or nominal money, like our Mark) was a Silver Coin, in value Thirteen Pence Halfpenny and Two Placks, or Two-Thirds of a Penny; which Plack is likewise a Coin. This, their Mark, bears the same proportion to their Pound, which is Twenty Pence, as our Mark does to our Pound, or Twenty Shillings; being Two-Thirds of it. By these divisions and sub-divisions of their Penny (for they have a still smaller piece, called a Bodel or Half a Plack) they can reckon with the greatest minuteness, and buy much less quantities of any article than we can[389]. This Scottish Mark was, upon the Union of the two Crowns in the person of King James I. made current in England at the value of Thirteen Pence Half-penny (without regarding the fraction), by Proclamation, in the first year of that King; where it is said, that "the Coin of Silver, called the Mark Piece, shall be from henceforth currant within the said Kingdom of England, at the value of Thirteen Pence Halfpeny[390]." This, probably, was a revolution in the current money in favour of the Officer of whom we have been speaking, whose Fee before was perhaps no more than a Shilling. There is, however, very good reason to conclude, from the singularity of the sum, that the odious title of Hangman's Wages became at this time, or soon after, applicable to the sum of Thirteen Pence Halfpenny. Though it was contingent, yet at that time it was very considerable pay; when one Shilling per diem was a standing annual stipend to many respectable Officers of various kinds.
After having discovered the pay of an Office, one naturally inquires for Perquisites and other Emoluments; for all posts, from the High Chancellor to the Hangman, carry some; and which, in many cases, as well as this, often exceed the established pay itself. Nothing can well vary more than the Perquisites of this Office; for it is well known that Jack Ketch has a Post-obit interest in the Convict, being entitled to his Cloaths, or to a composition for them; though, on the other hand, they must very frequently be such Garments that, as Shakspeare says, "a Hangman would bury with those who wore them[391]."
This emolument is of no modern date; and has an affinity to other Droits on very dissimilar occasions, which will be mentioned presently. The Executioner's perquisite is at least as old as Henry VIII.; for Sir Thomas More, on the morning of his Execution, put on his best Gown, which was of Silk Camlet, sent him as a present, while he was in the Tower, by a Citizen of Lucca with whom he had been in correspondence; but the Lieutenant of the Tower was of opinion that a worse Gown would be good enough for the person who was to have it, meaning the Executioner, and prevailed upon Sir Thomas to change it, which he did for one made of frize[392]. Thus the antiquity of this obitual emolument, so well known in Shakspeare's time, seems well established; and, as to its nature, has a strong resemblance to a fee of a much longer standing, and formerly received by Officers of very great respectability: for anciently Garter King of Arms had specifically the Gown of the Party on the creation of a Peer; and again, when Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, and Priors, did homage to the King, their upper garment was the perquisite even of the Lord Chamberlain of the Household. The fee in the latter case was always compounded for, though Garter's was often formerly received in kind, inasmuch as the Statute which gives this fee to the Lord Chamberlain, directs the composition, because, as the words are, "it is more convenient that religious men should fine for their upper garment, than to be stripped[393]." The same delicate necessity does not operate in the Hangman's case; and his fee extends much farther than either of them, he being entitled to all the sufferer's garments, having first rendered them useless to the party. Besides this perquisite, there has always been a pecuniary compliment, where it could possibly be afforded, given by the Sufferer to the Executioner, to induce him to be speedy and dexterous in the operation, which seems to be of still greater antiquity; for Sir Thomas More tells us that St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, gave his Executioner thirty pieces of gold; and Sir Thomas himself gave (according to his Historian, his Great Grandson), on the like occasion, an angel of gold, being almost the last penny he had left. These outward gifts may likewise be understood as tokens of inward forgiveness.
Upon the whole, Sir, I conceive that what I have offered above, though with much enlargement, is the meaning of the ignominious term affixed to the sum of Thirteen Pence Halfpenny; and cannot but commiserate those for whom it is to be paid.
I am, Sir,
Your faithful humble Servant,
SAMUEL PEGGE.
CUSTOM
OBSERVED BY THE
LORD LIEUTENANTS OF IRELAND.
On the great road from London to West Chester, we find, at the principal Inns, the Coats of Arms of several Lord Lieutenants of Ireland, framed, and hung up in the best rooms. At the bottom of these Armorial Pictures (as I may call them) is a full display of all the Titles of the Party, together with the date of the year when each Viceroyship commenced. I have often inquired the reason of this custom, but never could procure a satisfactory answer. I do not reprobate the idea of this relique of ancient dignity, as these Heraldic Monuments were doubtless intended to operate as public evidences of the passage of each Lord-Deputy to his delegated Government. They now seem only to be preserved for the gratification of the vanity of the capital Inn-keepers, by shewing to Humble Travellers that such and such Lord-Lieutenants did them the honour to stop at their houses; and yet I will not say, but that for half-a-crown handsomely offered to his Excellency's Gentleman, they might likewise become part of the furniture of every alehouse in Dunstable.
After fruitless inquiry, accident furnished me with the ground of this custom, which now only serves to excite a little transitory curiosity. Having occasion to look into Sir Dudley Digge's "Complete Ambassador," published in 1654, I was obliged to the Editor for a solution, who, in the Preface (signed A. H.), speaking of the reserve of the English Ambassadors, in not making public their Negotiations, has this observation:—"We have hardly any notion of them but by their Arms, which are hung up in Inns where they passed."
This paragraph at once accounts for the point before us, and is sufficient, at the same time, to shew that the custom was anciently, and even in the seventeenth century, common to every Ambassador, though it now only survives with those who go in the greater and more elevated line of Royal representation to Ireland.
SAMUEL PEGGE.
THE END.
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