in the
clearest manner. The offender had to be taken either hand-habend or
back-berand, that is, having the stolen goods in his hand, or bearing
them on his back, or, lastly, confessing that he took them.

The value of the goods stolen had to be worth at least
thirteenpence-halfpenny, or more. Taylor, the water-poet, refers to the
subject as follows:--

"At Halifax the law so sharpe doth deale,
That whoso more than thirteenpence doth steale,
They have a jyn that wondrous quick and well
Sends thieves all headless into heaven or hell."

A further condition of the Halifax gibbet law is scarcely so clear as
the preceding. The accused was, after three market or meeting days,
within the town of Halifax, next after his apprehension and being
condemned, taken to the gibbet. This probably means that after he was
delivered to the bailiff, no time further than was necessary was to
elapse before proceeding to the trial, and that the bailiff was to send
speedy summons to those who were to try him, which might be done in two
or three days. If he were found guilty, the day of his execution
depended upon that of his sentence, for he was to be beheaded on no
other day than Saturday, which was the great meeting. Thus, if condemned
on Monday, he would be kept three market days; but if condemned on
Saturday, as some assert, he would be conducted straightway to the
gibbet. The two last persons who suffered death by this engine were
condemned and executed on the same day.

The final ordinance of the law directs that on being led to the gibbet
the malefactor is to have his head cut off from his body. That the
machine was fully capable of this is evident both from Holinshed's
remarks and from the following anecdote given by Wright, the historian
of Halifax, as an extract from "A Tour through the Whole Island of Great
Britain." A country woman, who was riding by the gibbet at the time of
the execution of a criminal, had hampers at her sides, and the head,
bounding to a considerable distance from the force of the descending
axe, "jumped into one of the hampers, or, as others say, seized her
apron with its teeth, and there stuck for some time."

The parish register at Halifax contains a list of forty-nine persons who
suffered by the gibbet, commencing on the 20th day of March, 1541, the
earliest date of which there is a recorded execution, and terminating on
the 30th day of April, 1650. After which latter execution the bail