TY'BURN, previously to 1783, the chief place of execution in London, was situated near the n.e. corner of Hyde park, at the western extremity of Oxford street, and at the point where the Edgeware and Uxbridge roads unite. It took its name from it small stream which ran from Hampstead to the Thames through St. James's park, but which has long since disappeared. The gallows seems to have been 'a permanent. erection, rest ing on three posts, whence the phrase " Tyburn's triple tree." Wooden galleries were erected near it for the accommodation of spectators. Hogarth's Idle Apprentice was executed at Tyburn; and the print which represents the scene, gives a good idea of an execution there. The criminal was conveyed all the way from .iewgate to Tyburn, a distance of about 2 m., by Holborn and the Tyburn road, now Oxford street, but in the 17th c. a " sloughy country road." As Oxford street and London generally spread west ward, the long precession became inconvenient, and the place of execution was, on Dec. 9, 1783, removed to the Old Bailey, or Newgate, where it has since remained.
In early times, the frequency of executions rendered the office of hangman more important than it has since become. Throughout the reign of Henry VIII. (38 years), the average number of persons executed in England was'2,000 annually. In our own time, the corresponding number has sunk to twelve. Formerly, the hangman must have had almost daily work. This fact, taken hi connection with the increase of population, and the employment of the Tyburn hangman in state executions, explains the impor tant place he occupied in popular imagination, and the frequent mention of him in con temporary literature. The first on record was " one Bull," who flourished in 1593. He was succeeded by Derrick, referred to in the Fortunes of Nigel, and mentioned in a political broadside as living in 1647. In the ballad of The Penitent Tailor, published in the same year, reference is made to his successor, Gregory Brandon— I had been better to have lived in beggary.
Than to have fallen into the hands of Gregory.
In Gregory's time, it became the custom to prefix "squire" to the names of the Tyburn hangmen. This is said to have originated in a practical joke played upon the garter king-of-arms. He was induced to certify the authenticity of a coat-of-arms of a gen tleman named Gregory Brandon, who was supposed to reside in Spain, but who turned out to be the hangman. The garter king was committed to prison for his negligence, and hence the popular error, that "an executioner who has beheaded a state prisoner becomes an esquire." Gregory was succeeded by his son Richard. "Squire Don" fol lowed; and after him came Jack Ketch, or squire Ketch, first mentioned in 1678. Ile was
the executioner who beheaded lord Russell and the duke of Momnouth. Lord Macaulay, in speaking of the execution of the latter, says: • He then accosted Jack Ketch, the execu tioner, a wretch whose name has, during a century and a half, been vulgarly given to all who have succeeded him in his odious office. 'Here,' said the duke, • are six guineas for you. Do not hack me, as you did my lord Russell. I have heard that you struck him three or four times. My servant will give you some gold, if you do the work well.' " —See History of England. vol. ii. p. 205. What followed, it is needless to repeat. After this time, the " kings of Tyburn" all received the name of Ketch, and their patronymics seem to have been less noted. Jack Ketch's immediate successor was " one Rose. a butcher;" and the last of the Tyburn hangmen was Edward Dennis, condemned for taking part in the no-Popery riots, but respited, it is believed, on the ground that his services could be ill dispensed with.
Among the most memorable executions at Tyburn were those of Elizabeth Barton, the holy maid of Kent, and her confederates (1534); John Felton, the murderer of the duke of Buckingham (1628); Jack Sheppard, the highwayman (1724); Jonathan Wild, the thief catcher (1725); Mrs. Brownrigg, the murderer of an apprentice (1766); Dr. Dood (q.v.), found guilty of forging a for £4,200 (1777); and the rev. Henry Hackman, murderer of Miss Reay (1779). The associations connected with Tyburn have naturally led to the suppression of the name in the street nomenclature of London; but it survives in that given to the quarter of the metropolis described by Mr. Thackeray as "the elegant, the prosperous, the polite Tyburnia, the most respectable district in the habitable globe."—See Chambers's Book of Days, vol. ii., and _Notes and Queries, 2d series, vol. ii.
Under a statute of William III. (10 and 11, c. 23, s. 2), prosecutors who secured a capital conviction against a,criminal were exempted from all manner of parish and ward "offices within the parish in which the felony had been committed." Such persons obtained what was called a "Tyburn ticket," which was enrolled with the clerk of the peace, and sold like any other property. The privilege the tickets conferred must hr.ve been highly valued, as they sold at a high price. "Last week." says the Stamford item eury of March 27, 1818, " a Tyburn ticket sold in Manchester for £280." The act under which they were granted was, however, repealed a few months later, by 58 Geo. III. c.
70, passed June 3, 1818; and since then they have ceased to be recognized.—See _Votes and Queries, 2d series, vol. xi.