Gibbets & Gibbeting

[maximus otter]

Incidentally I did try and see if there were any gibbetings recorded in Buckinghamshire - we have:

Thomas Marsh and Richard Marshall, Rye Common, Chepping Wycombe, 1736
Benjamin Randall, Loudwater, 1740
George Davis, Holtspur Heath, 1755

All these are in the right sort of area to maybe locate 'Gyb Farm', if it ever really existed.

Chepping Wycombe has been subsumed by modern High Wycombe; a Victorian OS map shows it as ~1,000 yards ESE of Desborough Castle, so in the rough area of the leftmost orange ellipse:

Loudwater is the central ellipse.

The Holtspur area is the rightmost orange ellipse

"The town of Beaconsfield expanded greatly after the Second World War, and, to the west, swallowed up the hamlet of Holtspur."

Interestingly, the Victorian 6" OS map shows in the Holtspur area a "Cut-throat Wood" and one or two place names featuring the word "Glory", e.g. Gloryhill Farm and Glory Mill: "Glory" as in "Hand of Glory", I wonder?

From a brief look at the modern OS map, it seems that the three gibbetings you list took place near the modern A40; perhaps on high ground, readily visible from what was a main road even in the Eighteenth Century?

maximus otter

 

[maximus otter]

The account of the Gyb Farm horror is given in this blog post.

The location of "Gyb Farm" is described as:

"...a small farm-house, the back part of which faced a large unenclosed common (since inclosed), and stood close to four cross-roads, two of which lead to what thereabouts is called “Uphills,” the Chiltern Ridge from Tring to Wycombe and Stokenchurch. The spot is very lonely even now, but was much more so then; for, at that time, there was not a single human habitation within a quarter of a mile of my father’s abode. Our house had always been called “The Gyb Farm,”—why, we did not exactly know—but because, as we afterwards found out, there had been often erected, near the site of it, a gibbet for the punishment of malefactors, and many a person who had taken his own life (let alone the murderers, highwaymen, and sheep-stealers), had been buried at the side of the road there; but the name of the farm, as a law-parchment states, seems to have been altered about the year 1788, when a much less disagreeable name was then adopted for it.

‘In the year, and about the time, that King William the IV. died (i.e. in 1837)..."

maximus otter

 

[Giant R]

Chepping Wycombe has been subsumed by modern High Wycombe; a Victorian OS map shows it as ~1,000 yards ESE of Desborough Castle, so in the rough area of the leftmost orange ellipse:

Chepping Wycombe is more in the area between Wycombe Marsh and Holtspur, it still has a parish council.

The area around Holtspur is higher than Wycombe and the three recorded Gibbetings are within maybe a mile or so of each other so Holtspur would be a likely spot. Very close to the A-40 which was a main route even then.
https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=cbc6....607893~-0.800235&lvl=12&v=2&sV=2&form=S00027

 

[BS3]

I was able to find out a little more about Marsh and Marshall from contemporary news sheets (interestingly their execution was 101 years before the alleged date of the "Gyb farm ghost" - maybe this is significant?). It's an informative story of 18th century attitudes to crime and punishment.

The two men were footpads who had robbed and shot a farmer rejoicing in the name of Edward Pontifex. The local magistrates offered a pardon to anyone involved who identified the murderer; Marsh went to the magistrates and named Marshall, but was then denied a pardon after Pontifex's son, who was present, proved that Marsh was the man who had actually pulled the trigger.

The hanging seems for once to have taken place at the site of the gibbet and apparently in order that spectators might have the "satisfaction" of seeing justice done, an unusually tall gibbet was constructed; 28 feet in one story, 50 feet in another. This point about enabling people to see justice done is mentioned a couple of times in the news accounts, and connected with the fact Pontifex was a respected man locally.

On the day Marsh confessed that he hadn't actually meant to shoot Pontifex, only rob him, but that he had tripped and his pistol went off. A very odd touch was that the dead men were given iron hats - Marsh's "cocked" in the manner he had worn his when "in a most audacious manner" coming into Aylesbury, and Marshall's with the brim shading his face, in the manner he had worn his. This seems to suggest that identifying the dead criminals was a particular concern to the degree it was reflected in the punishment.

 

[BS3]

Chepping Wycombe is more in the area between Wycombe Marsh and Holtspur, it still has a parish council.

The area around Holtspur is higher than Wycombe and the three recorded Gibbetings are within maybe a mile or so of each other so Holtspur would be a likely spot. Very close to the A-40 which was a main route even then.
https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=cbc6....607893~-0.800235&lvl=12&v=2&sV=2&form=S00027

Here is an early 19th century map which gives a flavour of the topography at the time the 'ghosts' were reported. Holtspur Heath and Loudwater are both marked (no "Gyb Farm", sadly, but Lee's informant did claim the name was changed in the 1780s).

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Interesting 16 minute video about the history of gibbetting:

 

[Floyd1]

The last man to be gibbeted in Derbyshire took place in 1815;

'Black Harry was a highwayman on the turnpike roads who troubled travellers on the moors around Wardlow and Longstone. In Stoney Middleton his name lives on in place names like Black Harry Gate and Black Harry House, but it was at Gibbet Field near Wardlow that he met his end when he was hanged and Gibbeted after being arrested by the Castleton Constables'.

'In 1815, on Gibbet field, near Wardlow the last man to be gibbeted in Derbyshire was displayed. The tollkeeper, Hannah Oliver, had been strangled, and the vital clue was her missing red shoes. The local cobbler, Mr Marsden of Stoney Middleton, confirmed that shoes found at the house of 21-year-old Antony Lingard had been made for Hannah. This was the key evidence that led his to being hung in chains near the village. Lingard's body was displayed on April Fools' Day 1815, and remained there for some months. A poem by William Newton, which imagined the anguish of the murderer's father having to gaze on this sight, was given much of the credit for the abolition of gibbeting in 1834'.

'Above Wardlow Mires is an unusual large rocky outcrop known as Peter's Stone. The name is believed to come from its resemblance to St. Peter's in Rome. The other more grisly name for Peter's Stone is Gibbet Rock, for it was here that Lingard's body was displayed for the entertainment of visitors for several months.'

 

[Salmonellus]

A fascinating thread!

I would have thought that Australia arrived a bit late at the party to take part in gibbbeting, but apparently there were a few cases. In fact Australia has the honour of having carried out the last gibbeting in any of the British colonies. In 1837 one John McKay, a bushranger and murderer, was gibbetted at Perth, near Launceston in Tasmania. The spot is still called Gibbet Hill, and the street leading up to it is Gibbet Hill Rise.

Apparently it's something of a tourist attraction.

Here's the entrance to Gibbet Hill Rise taken from Google Maps. It's just possible the sign on the left of the entrance could be an oblique reference to the history of the site.... but I suspect I'm reading too much into it.

 

[maximus otter]

The last man to be gibbeted in Derbyshire took place in 1815;

'Black Harry was a highwayman on the turnpike roads who troubled travellers on the moors around Wardlow and Longstone. In Stoney Middleton his name lives on in place names like Black Harry Gate and Black Harry House, but it was at Gibbet Field near Wardlow that he met his end when he was hanged and Gibbeted after being arrested by the Castleton Constables'.

'In 1815, on Gibbet field, near Wardlow the last man to be gibbeted in Derbyshire was displayed. The tollkeeper, Hannah Oliver, had been strangled, and the vital clue was her missing red shoes. The local cobbler, Mr Marsden of Stoney Middleton, confirmed that shoes found at the house of 21-year-old Antony Lingard had been made for Hannah. This was the key evidence that led his to being hung in chains near the village. Lingard's body was displayed on April Fools' Day 1815, and remained there for some months. A poem by William Newton, which imagined the anguish of the murderer's father having to gaze on this sight, was given much of the credit for the abolition of gibbeting in 1834'.

'Above Wardlow Mires is an unusual large rocky outcrop known as Peter's Stone. The name is believed to come from its resemblance to St. Peter's in Rome. The other more grisly name for Peter's Stone is Gibbet Rock, for it was here that Lingard's body was displayed for the entertainment of visitors for several months.'

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15.7&lat=53.27274&lon=-1.73386&layers=168&b=1

https://derbyshireheritage.co.uk/misc/peters-stone-gibbet-rock-wardlow-mires/

maximus otter

 

[Floyd1]

View attachment 64499

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15.7&lat=53.27274&lon=-1.73386&layers=168&b=1

https://derbyshireheritage.co.uk/misc/peters-stone-gibbet-rock-wardlow-mires/

maximus otter

Yes, that's the place. @Spookdaddy will know it.

 

[Floyd1]

View attachment 64499

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15.7&lat=53.27274&lon=-1.73386&layers=168&b=1

https://derbyshireheritage.co.uk/misc/peters-stone-gibbet-rock-wardlow-mires/

maximus otter

Just remembered, I once ran out of petrol on that road to the NW of 'the stone' and tramped through the field to a petrol station at the T-junction in the NE corner, so I must have gone right past it. I didn't know about the stone then though.

 

[maximus otter]

Just remembered, I once ran out of petrol on that road to the NW of 'the stone'

“It were the sperrits, l tell ‘ee!”

maximus otter

 

[Floyd1]

“It were the sperrits, l tell ‘ee!”

maximus otter

Either that, or me being a tight-wad and only putting a fiver in at a time.
We'll say spirits though.

And that resulted in yet another embarrasing incident that I shall, no doubt, tell everyone about one day.

 

[Spookdaddy]

Yes, that's the place. @Spookdaddy will know it.

Yup.

I posted about Peter's Stone on the Executions & The Executioners Who Perform Them, thread a while back (post #62). Along with a photograph I took some time ago (and my objections to the idea that live gibbeting was a real thing).

 

[Coal]

And that resulted in yet another embarrassing incident that I shall, no doubt, tell everyone about one day.

Yeah, and it's not as if it wasn't something that you hadn't done before eh? Do you ever learn?

 

[Floyd1]

Yeah, and it's not as if it wasn't something that you hadn't done before eh? Do you ever learn?

I think that this was actually a first.