Genealogy Chat

I wonder why I started this as i don't think i will sleep tonight thinking about it. You have to be sure that the quest you send your ancestors on costs as much as the fortune they discover. thank you for all your coments Caroline

Have a look at the Old Bailey website, transcripts of many cases there. It was normal for women to be burnt at the stake but they were usually strangled before being burnt as in the report quoted. If they were pregnant then execution would be delayed until the baby was delivered. In the TV programme about 'The Floating Brothel', the case of a girl of 10 was sentenced to death for a minor theft was mentioned. She and other women were offered transportation to Australia but many of the women preferred death to Australia. MB

Oh goodie, Olde Crone, let me know when you plan your cruise - we could depart in style together! As for the kids not finding the treasure, I have thought about that. You see, I feel a bit guilty. I am having such a good time hunting down all these long lost ancestors, but by doing so, I am depriving them of the pleasure of doing it (unless of course they make a bonfire of my work and start again from scratch - but then I would definitely come back to haunt them!). So I thought they need a puzzle to solve for themselves. In fact, I might split the booty up and hide it in several different places, so they don't get it all at once. Not good for children having too much dosh too young. Make them work for it I say. And if they are too thick to solve the puzzles then they have no right to call themselves my children - I disown them. Tina

Tina I would of course be visiting Tesco's, having recently docked at Southampton. I just rather like the thought of all the Staff at Tesco's having to pretend they are sorry, whilst secretly cursing me as they put everything back on the shelves. And dont be too sure about your descendants finding your buried treasure, look at Diana Dors - you can be a bit too clever, you know! OC

Oh really, Olde Crone, that's no use at all. All that would happen would be that the checkout girl (or lad - let's not be sexist here) would cancel the whole transaction with one press of a button, and some poor soul would have to trudge round the store again putting everything back on the shelves. You, meanwhile, would be whipped into cold storage to await an ambulance - out of sight so as not to upset the other shoppers. No, no. Not nearly subversive enough. Now me, I plan to give my most treasured items to my children (warning them that if they are not sufficiently respectful to said items I will be back to haunt them). Then I shall sell everything I have, buy gold with it, and bury it somewhere safe (possible g-g-g grandfather's grave, if I ever find it). I shall leave cryptic clues for my children as to where it is buried. I shall then borrow as much as I possibly can on as many credit cards and bank loans as I can get (and believe me, you would be amazed how much you can borrow with absolutely no security) and embark on a year long round the world cruise on a very very posh ship (having previously bought a suitable wardrobe on one of my many credit cards). Naturally I shall pay for this trip on credit. I plan to die just as we dock at Southampton on the return journey. There will be nothing whatsoever in my estate so all my creditors will just have to lump it. Meanwhile, my kids will have to spend the next 10 years trying to work out where I buried the loot. Oh no, they won't forget me in a hurry. Beats your Tesco plan, don't you think? Tina

Tina LOL! I want to die of old age too, preferably in Tesco's, having put a full trolley through the checkout, but not actually having paid... Olde Crone

Actually, nasty though both punishments are, hanging was probably just as bad as being burnt. At least with being burnt you stood a good chance of suffocating from the smoke before the flames really got to you, and failing that, the pain would be so intense you would probably pass out pretty quickly. Hanging, on the other hand, was not usually the quick snap of the neck which we imagine. The hangmen were not that skilled. Most people choked slowly to death - it could take about 20 minutes sometimes. If you were lucky, your friends and relatives were allowed to pull hard on your legs to break your neck and get it over with faster. Personally, I have decided that I want to die of old age. Tina

I haven't found the relationship of this one to my tree yet but some of my other Goughs were blacksmiths so would have the equipment for smelting etc. Caroline

Had a look on history and this is link to that website - has various bits of info. on there I found it fascinating and read most of the old execution methods - but as I say it just list various names of old convicts/prisoners I was just checking out if had any skeletons. http://www.blacksheepancestors.com/uk/ Gill

Gill Sorry to disagree with you, but the punishment of Hung, Drawn and Quartered consisted of Hanging (self explanatory) Drawing - which was disembowelling and 'drawing out' the intestines) Quartering - which was cutting the body into quarters. It had nothing to do with anyone's modesty! OC

Found this on the net.. Coining offences This category includes a number of offences in which coin or paper money (the king's currency) was counterfeited or interfered with, or individuals either used or possessed such false or diminished currency. These include the specific offences of: coining (counterfeiting coins) possessing moulds for the manufacture of coins manufacturing counterfeit paper money, banknotes or bills of exchange filing, milling, colouring or 'diminishing' coins (in order to use the filings to create more coins or to sell the metal) possessing counterfeit money or putting it in into circulation ('uttering')

Olde Crone, Seeing as the church was comprised of men it is hardly suprising that the church considered women were more evil, when in actual fact they must have realised that women, were stronger, more intelligent and downright superior, not much has changed over the years then ladies! Seriously, that was very interesting, knew from sons homework that different punishments were handed out for the same crime depending on which sex you were, but it didn't explain why!

Strange had only just read on an internet site other day about coining - Paul is correct it was a method of shaving off and making new coins from the bits - the reason the woman were burned and not hanged is due to the fact that they were preserving their modesty, as it would be possible to view undergarments as they were left hanging! Also as they often were dragged (the drawn bit in hung drawn and quartered) and again the womans undergarments were likely to be viewed - personally I would have preferred the lack of modesty! I know the site was ancestry related will try to find it and post on here - bit gruesome but interesting I was looking to see if any of my lot had been deported the same site lists names of convicts sent to Aus - it was black something perhaps someone else can help - Gill

thanks Olde Crone, i guess that idea started with Eve giving Adam the apple Caroline

Women were thought by the Church to be far more evil than men, and burning ensured that they had no body left to be resurrected at the 'Second Coming'. (This is one of the reasons that Cremation took so long to find favour with the Church) A far distant ancestor was burned as a Witch in 1637 - she was 25 and the daughter of a local worthy. Olde Crone

eww that was a horrible death, what happened to the children? workhouse perhaps?

I came accross another 'maybe' relative, she was hanged from the church tower for fire starting in 1500s Iwould have thought that being burned alive was a worse punishment than hanging does anyone else keep finding criminals while researching their trees or is it just me? Caroline

Dont know what coining is, but my son has just done a history project and back then if the same crime was committed they handed out a different punishment whether you were a man or a woman!!

Well, youd have to be very stupid or foolhardy (or absolute desperate) when you knew what the consequences could be. But interestingly, where would poor peeps get hold of gold coinage in the first place? I wonder if it were really organised a bit like the drug and fraud criminals now - some guy at the top keeping clean and never caught whilst getting others to do the dirty work for him. Of course, it would have been looked upon as a form of treason, defacing the realms coinage and when you think about it, particularly back then, if they allowed everyone to do this the fragile economy they had then would have collapsed. Interesting about the woman being burned - as when you think about it, very few were hanged were they.

Thankyou Paul, thats what i thought it might be but i was not sure thanks also Heather It seems a harsh penalty but i guess thats how it was in those days, i don't know why the woman was burned and not hanged. Caroline