Friday 19th October 1660
Office in the morning. This morning my dining-room was finished with green serge hanging and gilt leather, which is very handsome.
This morning Hacker and Axtell were hanged and quartered, as the rest are.
This night I sat up late to make up my accounts ready against to-morrow for my Lord. I found him to be above 80l. in my debt, which is a good sight, and I bless God for it.
19 Annotations
First Reading
vincent • Link
"...This night I sat up late to make up my accounts ready against to-morrow for my Lord. I found him to be above 80l. in my debt, which is a good sight, and I bless God for it...."
it says it all: My laird the Gambler, S.P. the gamboller.
a few quotes come to mind
"Dives sum, si non reddo eis quibus debeo" Plautus Curculio, 377
an other for my Laud.
"Pecuniae imperare oportet,, non servire" Syrus, Maxims
my misquote
Money and friendship do not mix. 'Tis nice to have a better in your debt, 'tis better than the other way around n'est pas.
Eric Walla • Link
It appears Sam expects, if not payment, at least acknowledgement of the debt on the morrow. It will be interesting to see if My Lord pays him off as swiftly and conscientiously as Sam had done for him previously. This might indeed provide a sign of how badly My Lord has caught the gambling bug.
Paul Brewster • Link
Hacker and Axtell were hanged and quartered
L&M: "Of these two only Axtel's body was quartered."
Daily News: Axtel axed; Hacker Not Hacked
Paul Brewster • Link
green serge hanging and gilt leather
L&M: "The serge would be for the curtains and the gilt leather for the walls."
Pauline • Link
Brewster bruised?
"Daily News: Axtel axed; Hacker Not Hacked"
Ohhhh, please, my sensibilities!
John Skilleter • Link
Appalling Pauline!
Don't encourage the punsters!
Gary J. Bivin • Link
They say that punsters should be drawn and quoted...
bruce • Link
1660 seems late to still be hanging, drawing and quartering. Did the practise simply die out or was it specifically outlawed at a certain date, and when was the last recorded instance of its use?
Mary • Link
Hanging, drawing and quartering.
This penalty was finally abolished in 1821. The last instance of it's being carried out that I have been able to find was in 1753, when a Dr. Archibald Cameron was so executed for persistent conspiracy against the British Crown in the Reign of George II.
Alan Bedford • Link
Hanging, drawing and quartering...
appear to have gone out of practice during the Age of Enlightenment (contemporaneously with Rouseau in France, Adam Smith and Edmund Burke in the U.K.) That's probably not coincidental.
Paul Brewster • Link
Drawing
The OED has an interesting take on the meaning of the word which is at variance from the sites that we've had referenced in previous entries:
Draw, v
...
4. To drag (a criminal) at a horse's tail, or on a hurdle or the like, to the place of execution; formerly a legal punishment of high treason.
...
50. To draw out the viscera or intestines of; to disembowel (a fowl, etc. before cooking, a traitor or other criminal after hanging).
In many cases of executions it is uncertain whether this, or sense 4, is meant. The presumption is that where drawn is mentioned after hanged, the sense is as here.
Mary • Link
That death sentence.
There are a couple more gruesome details to be added here.
Firstly, the death by hanging was often a case of slow suffocation, rather than the nicely calculated swift drop, jerk and snapping of the neck that (we are told) was the more recent practice in this and other countries.
Secondly, the sentence could carry the added injuction that the miscreant be cut down 'before he be dead' and then 'his entrails plucked out and burnt before his face'. One hesitates to wonder at what point in this execution the poor devils actually died.
john lauer • Link
... or at least lost consciousness.
Second Reading
Annie B • Link
As Sam recounts his various remodels of his house, I can't help but wonder if all his hard work will survive the fire. I'm no Londoner, so perhaps the geography is clear to those of you who know the area better, but I will really be interested to hear the reports when we get there (but not looking for spoilers- just wondering aloud!). This diary really adds such a human element to the history doesn't it? I've pictured the fire plenty of times, but never have I thought of it in the terms of, what happens to all those books? And those bags of cash lying around? And even if Sam's stuff is fine, there's someone on the other side of town who has as much pride in their home who lost it all. Really makes you think!
Terry Foreman • Link
"To be hanged, drawn and quartered was from 1351 a statutory penalty in England for men convicted of high treason, although the ritual was first recorded during the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272). (Descriptve history follows) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han…
LKvM • Link
Daniel Axtell is one of my ancestors.
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
Taken from The Autobiography of George Fox
CHAPTER XIV.
Labors, Dangers and Sufferings. 1661-1662.
https://ccel.org/ccel/fox_g/autob…
George Fox was confused when he wrote his biography: this story belongs to today. The rest of the excerpt tells of the bad treatment Quakers received during the Interregnum.
'Much blood was shed this year, many of the old King’s judges being hung, drawn and quartered. Amongst them that so suffered, Col. Hacker was one. He had sent me prisoner from Leicester to London in Oliver’s time, of which an account is given before. A sad day it was, and a repaying of blood with blood. For in the time of Oliver Cromwell, when several men were put to death by him, being hung, drawn and quartered for pretended treasons, I felt from the Lord God that their blood would be required; and I said as much then to several.
'And now, upon the King’s return, several that had been against him were put to death, as the others that were for him had been before by Oliver. This was sad work, destroying people; contrary to the nature of Christians, who have the nature of lambs and sheep. But there was a secret hand in bringing this day upon that hypocritical generation of professors, who, being got into power, grew proud, haughty, and cruel beyond others, and persecuted the people of God without pity.
'When Friends were under cruel persecutions and sufferings in the Commonwealth’s time, I was moved of the Lord to write to Friends to draw up accounts of their sufferings, and lay them before the justices at their sessions; and if they would not do justice, then to lay them before the judges at the assize; and if they would not do justice, then to lay them before the Parliament, the Protector and his Council, that they might all see what was done under their government; and if they would not do justice, then to lay it before the Lord, who would hear the cries of the oppressed, and of the widows and fatherless whom they had made so.
'For that for which we suffered, and for which our goods were spoiled, was our obedience to the Lord in His Power and His Spirit. He was able to help and to succour, and we had no helper in the earth but Him. And He heard the cries of His people, and brought an overflowing scourge over the heads of all our persecutors, which brought a dread and a fear amongst and on them all. So that those who had nicknamed us (who are the children of Light) and in scorn called us Quakers, the Lord made to quake; and many of them would have been glad to hide themselves amongst us; and some of them, through the distress that came upon them, did at length come to confess to the Truth.
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
'Many ways were these professors warned, by word, by writing, and by signs; but they would believe none till it was too late.
William Sympson was moved of the Lord to go at several times for 3 years naked and barefooted before them, as a sign to them, in markets, courts, towns, cities, to priests’ houses, and to great men’s houses, telling them, “So shall ye be stripped naked as I am stripped naked!” And sometimes he was moved to put on hair-sackcloth, and to besmear his face, and to tell them, “So will the Lord God besmear all your religion as I am besmeared.”
'Great sufferings did that poor man undergo, sore whippings with horse-whips and coach-whips on his bare body, grievous stoning and imprisonments, in 3 years’ time, before the King came in, that they might have taken warning; but they would not, and rewarded his love with cruel usage. Only the mayor of Cambridge did nobly to him, for he put his gown about him and took him into his house.
'Another Friend, Robert Huntingdon, was moved of the Lord to go into Carlisle steeple-house with a white sheet about him, amongst the great Presbyterians and Independents there, to show them that the surplice was coming up again; and he put an halter about his neck to show them that an halter was coming upon them; which was fulfilled upon some of our persecutors not long after.
'Another, Richard Sale, living near Westchester, being constable of the place where he lived, had sent to him with a pass a Friend whom those wicked professors had taken up for a vagabond, because he travelled up and down in the work of the ministry. This constable, being convinced by the Friend thus brought to him, gave him his pass and liberty, and was afterwards himself cast into prison.
'After this, on a lecture-day, Richard Sale was moved to go to the steeple-house in the time of their worship, and to carry those persecuting priests and people a lantern and candle, as a figure of their darkness. But they cruelly abused him, and like dark professors as they were put him into their prison called Little Ease, and so squeezed his body therein that not long after he died.167'
167 These Friends, in their use of signs and striking symbolisms, were undoubtedly following in the steps of the Hebrew prophets. Both William Sympson and diehard Sale revere squeezed in Little Ease, the latter, being very stout, came to his death as a result.
“Little Ease” was a hole hewed out of a rock; the breadth across 17 inches; from the back to the inside of the great door at the top 7 inches; at the shoulders, 8 inches; at the breast, 9-1/2 inches; from the top to the bottom 1-1/2 yards, with a device to lessen the height for purposes of torture.
Tonyel • Link
In quite a long life I have never been able to come to terms with the cruelty and hatred meted out between people who worship their god(s) in a slightly different way.
You would think that their gods might have done something to stop it by now.....