Gibbeting

Prior to 1834, where the courts wished to make a particular example of a criminal, e. g. a highwayman, mail robber or murderer, they could order the additional punishment of gibbeting (also known as hanging in chains). After the hanging, the prisoner would be stripped and their body dipped into molten pitch or tar and then, when it had cooled, be placed into an iron cage that surrounded the head, torso and upper legs. The cage was riveted

Together and then suspended from either the original gallows or a purpose built gibbet. The body was left as a grim reminder to local people and could stay on the gibbet for a year or more until it rotted away or was eaten by birds, etc. Gibbets were typically erected either in prominent places such as crossroads or hill tops at or near the site of the crime. One of the earliest recorded instances of gibbeting took place in August 1381. Gibbeting and hanging in chains became increas-

Ingly used in the 17th and 18th centuries. The first recorded hanging in chains in Scotland was in March 1637 when a man called McGregor, who was a robber and murderer, was ordered to stay on "the gallowlee till his corpse rot". Gibbeting was formally legalised in Britain by the Murder Act of 1752 and was regularly used up to 1834.

William Jobling was gibbeted after his execution at Durham on the 3rd of August 1832, for the murder of a policeman during a riot. His gibbet was erected at the place of the crime at Jarrow Slake and is described as being formed from a square piece of oak, 21 feet long and about 3 feet in diameter with strong bars of iron up each side. The post was fixed into a 1-1/2 ton stone base, sunk into the slake. Jobling's body was hoisted up to the top of the post and left as a warning to the populace. Twenty one year old James Cook became the last man to suffer this fate when he was gibbeted at Leicester on the 10th of August 1832 for the murder of John Paas. From the prisoner’s point of view although their death would be no worse, being gibbeted was a major additional punishment as it was believed that one could not go to heaven without a body at this time.