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The curse of Jenks' ear

M

mejane

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This tale made the front page of the Oxford Mail yesterday:

More than 60 skeletons have been discovered between Oxford's former prison and its old castle. It is thought that many of them could be related to the fate of Jenks, a 'foul-mouthed and saucy' bookbinder who was convicted in 1577 of supporting the Pope. For his temerity he was sentenced to be nailed by his ears to the local pillory and responded by laying a curse on the courtroom and city.
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Jane.
 
look ear jane , the link doesnt work
 
Blah, mutter, mumble... it worked earlier :(

I can't find the story on the Oxford Mail site now either (http://www.thisisoxforshire.co.uk). Perhaps they worked out that discoveries of bodies in a medieval cemetary isn't really news?

Jane.
 
Re: Fixed it!

EJR said:
Forgive me for being a smartass
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You're forgiven, as is Myth :D

Full story:
Return of the damned after 400 years

Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday January 11, 2004
The Observer

Archaeologists have uncovered a mass grave which may throw lights on one of the strangest and most gruesome events of the Elizabethan age: the curse of Roland Jenks.

More than 60 skeletons have been discovered between Oxford's former prison and its old castle. It is thought that many of them could be related to the fate of Jenks, a 'foul-mouthed and saucy' bookbinder who was convicted in 1577 of supporting the Pope. For his temerity he was sentenced to be nailed by his ears to the local pillory and responded by laying a curse on the courtroom and city.

'It appears to have been a very effective curse,' said archaeologist Dan Poore of Oxford Archaeology, which carried out the dig. Contemporary reports indicate that within several days hundreds of local men - but no women or children - had dropped dead.

Among the victims were two judges, a clerk, the coroner, the sheriff and many jury members who had been standing in the courtroom - which then stood just outside the castle - when Jenks shouted out his curse. The court proceedings become known as the Black Assizes and were reckoned either to be a judgment by God on Protestants, or a fiendish Papish plot, though most archaeologists now believe the deaths were the result of an outbreak of typhus.
The discovery of the skeletons of between 60 and 70 people, many dating from Elizabethan times, provides the first palpable evidence that the story has physical roots and may help in discovering the truth behind the legend of Roland Jenks.

The find was made thanks to development work to provide the area with housing, a hotel and a heritage centre near the site of the old prison. Oxford Archaeology was called in to study the site before building began. 'We dug a test pit and found eight skeletons,' said Poore. A more extensive excavation was launched last year and has uncovered 59 more or less complete skeletons and assorted bones from other bodies. These have been dated from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries. 'The early bodies may well be those from the Black Assizes era,' said Poore.
The skeletons are mostly young men but also include five women in their late forties and fifties. Intriguingly, several of the skeletons also show clear signs of having been dissected. Three skulls had their tops skillfully sawn off and another had been carefully separated from its skeleton.

The most likely interpretation is that these are the bodies of executed criminals which were used by anatomists from nearby Christ Church college or the Old Ashmolean. But this interpretation also raises problems for archaeologists. In those days the dissection of criminals was strictly limited to only four murderers a year throughout Britain. The numbers of bodies at the Oxford Prison site suggests a great deal more illicit dissection may have been going on, though archaeologists remain cautious. 'The trouble is that we do not know if they were executed or not,' added Poore. 'In those days people were strung up and slowly strangled on the gibbet. There is no way to tell from their skeletons what killed them.

'It was not until later in the eighteenth century that the long drop - which snapped a person's neck and killed him or her instantly - was introduced. You can tell from their snapped neck bones what killed them.'
As the current issue of BBC History Magazine also reports, the level of suffering of those hanged was probably considerable. Many victims' hands were tightly clenched - a button and a fragment of clothing were found in two skeletal fists, for example.

Whatever else the numbers of deaths associated with the prison development means, it clearly reveals what a foreboding place it once was, as Poore acknowledges. 'There was a castle, a courtroom and a prison all standing beside each other. Each had a grim function. This was a place of death, so we should not be that surprised about the bodies that we are digging up and the state that some of them are in.'

The Curse of Oxford Gaol, in the BBC2 Meet the Ancestors series, will be shown on 16 February
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What interests me most about this story is that it was printed on the front page of the local paper (almost word-for-word, but without credit).

Jane.

EDIT: forgot to add: the entrance to the jail (used until a few years ago) is on Paradise Street :p
 
Oxford Castle dead

I think what was interesting about it is the fact that the bodies where in the main NOT discovered in a cemetery but in the moat/ditch around the base of the castle mound, not place they would have been expected to be found.
Apart form the fact that archaeology always makes for good copy for news papers (especially on quiet days) this one ties in with a fairly well known local story, so a bonus there.

Oh and the whole oxford castle development has raised some strong feelings over the past few years among many different parties so many people would be aware of it.
 
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