g and other facts that have come down to us
respecting the London apprentices, that they were a power in bygone
times, doing very much as they pleased.
We are enabled, by the courtesy of Messrs. W. & R. Chambers, to
reproduce from their "Book of Days" an excellent illustration of Oates
in the pillory (from a contemporary print). "Found guilty," says the
writer in the "Book of Days," "of perjury on two separate indictments,
the inventor of the Popish Plot was condemned, in 1685, to public
exposure on three consecutive days. The first day's punishment, in
Palace Yard, nearly cost the criminal his life; but his partisans
mustered in such force in the city, on the succeeding day, that they
were able to upset the pillory, and nearly succeeded in rescuing their
idol from the hands of the authorities. According to his sentence, Oates
was to stand every year of his life in the pillory, on five different
days: before the gate of Westminster Hall, on the 9th August; at Charing
Cross on the 10th; at the Temple on the 11th; at the Royal Exchange on
the 2nd September; and at Tyburn on the 24th April; but, fortunately for
the infamous creature, the Revolution deprived his determined enemies of
power, and turned the criminal into a pensioner of Government."
It was formerly a common custom to put persons in the pillory during the
time of public market. We may name, as an example, a case occurring at
Canterbury, in 1524. A man was set up in the pillory, which was in the
Market Place, and bearing on his head a paper inscribed, "This is a
false, perjured, and forsworn man." He was confined in the pillory until
the market was over, and then led to Westgate and thrust out of the
town, still wearing the paper. "If he be proud," says an old writer, "he
may go home and shew himself among his neighbours."
The Corporation accounts of Newcastle-on-Tyne contain, among other
curious items, the following:
1561.--Paid to the Gawyng Aydon, for squrgyn a boye about the
town, and for settying a man in the pallerye, two days 16d.
1562.--Paid for a tre to the pillyre 5s.
1574.--Paid to Charles Shawe, for charges in carryinge the man
to Durham that stode in the pillarye, and was
skrougide aboute the town at Mr. Maior's commandment 3s.
1593.--Paide for a Papist which studd in the pillerie for
abusing Our Majestie by slanderous woordes 14d.
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