TYBURN, a left-bank tributary of the Thames, England, now having its course entirely within London and below ground. The name, which also occurs as Aye-bourne, is of obscure deriva tion, though sometimes stated to signify Twy-burn, i.e. (the junction of) two burns or streams. The Tyburn rose on the south ern slope of the Hampstead heights in two streams, the more westerly of which rose in the spring known as the Shepherd's Well. It ran south, crossing Regent's Park, its course being marked by Regent's Park Water, and further south by the wind ings of Marylebone Lane and the dip in Piccadilly near the junc tion of Half Moon street. It then crossed the Green Park and entered the flood plain of the Thames near where Buckingham palace now stands. The exact point at which it entered the Thames is doubtful but its water is now drained off by sewer. After 1238 it supplied the city with water for a long time by means of nine conduits. The name is more famous in its application to the Middlesex gallows also called Tyburn Tree and Deadly Never Green, and also at an early period, the Elms, through confusion with the place of execution of that name at Smithfield.
The Tyburn Wows stood not far from the modern Marble arch. Connaught square is said by several authorities to have been the exact site, but it appears that so long as the gallows was a permanent structure it stood at the junction of the present Edgware and Bayswater roads. The site, however, may have varied,
for Tyburn was a place of execution as early as the end of the 12th century. In 1759, moreover, a movable gallows superseded the permanent erection. On some occasions its two uprights and cross-beam are said to have actually spanned Edgware road. Round the gibbet were erected open galleries, the seats in which were let at high prices. Among those executed here were Perkin Warbeck (1449), the Holy Maid of Kent and confederates Haughton, last prior to the Charterhouse (1535), John Felton, murderer of Villiers, duke of Buckingham (1628), Jack Sheppard (1724), Earl Ferrers (1760).
In 1661 the skeletons of Cromwell, Ireton and other regicides were hung upon the gallows. The last execution took place in 1783, the scene being thereafter transferred to Newgate. The Tyburn Ticket was a certificate given to a prosecutor of a felon on conviction, the first assignee of which was exempted by a statute of William III. from all parish and ward duties.
See A. Marks, Tyburn Tree, its History and Annals (London, 1908).