1756. In Seale’s map, published this year, the triangular gallows is shown in the same position as in Rocque’s maps.[109]
THE TRIPLE TREE IN 1746, FROM ROCQUE’S MAP OF LONDON.
Tyburn had ceased to be “emmy les champs”; the advance of the town is shown by the inclusion of Tyburn in maps of London. So early as 1719 it was proposed to move the gallows to Stamford Hill:—
“We hear the famous and ancient Engine of Justice called Tyburn is going to be demolished: and we hear the Place of Execution is to be removed to Stamford-Hill, beyond Newington, on the way to Ware: the Reason given is said to be, because of the great Buildings that are going to be erected in Maribone-Fields.”[110]
Strype, in his edition of Stow’s “Survey” (book iv. p. 120) mentions another report, but Tyburn defied these threats for many years to come.[111] Only in 1759, after an existence of near six hundred and fifty years, did the permanent gallows of Tyburn give place to a movable gallows, put up on the day of an execution and afterwards taken down. It is not a little strange that a monument of great antiquity, so well known, recalling so many tragedies, so intimately connected with the history and life of the people, should have been allowed to disappear without a word or a curse. I have not been able to find any direct reference to the removal of the triple-tree. The date of its removal must fall between June 18 and October 3, 1759. Under the earlier date we find, in the usual terms, the record of an execution at Tyburn. The Whitehall Evening Post of October 4, 1759, has the following:—
“Yesterday morning, about Half an Hour after Nine o’clock, the four malefactors were carried in two carts from Newgate, and executed on the new Moving Gallows at Tyburn.… The Gallows, after the Bodies were cut down, was carried off in a cart.”
The same account is given in other newspapers. The Gentleman’s Magazine states that “the gallows, which is a movable one, was carried there before them and fixed up for that purpose.”