Shop  •   Avatar  •   FAQ  •   Search  •   Memberlist  •   Usergroups  •   Profile  •   Log in to check private messages  •   Log in  •  Register 

Polishing the King's Iron with Your Eyebrows
Post new topic   Reply to topic     Forum Index -> Tavern Goto page Previous  1, 2
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Salty Dog
Sailing Master
Posts: 10060



191991 Gold -

PostPosted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 10:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Notes:
1. “Jail” first appeared in written English around 1300, during the Middle English period. It came from the Old French “jaiole,” which meant “a jail, prison, or a birdcage,” but was originally derived from the Latin term for “cage.” Scribes in England often used a variant spelling, “gaole” – the word used by French Normans and pronounced like “gale.” Over time the hard “g” softened. Today, Americans favor the spelling of “jail,” while the British prefer “gaol”; both words are pronounced the same.

Early in the twelfth century English documents contained the word “prison.” It came from “prisun,” another Old French word meaning captivity. Its Latin roots lay in an informal noun associated with forcibly taking someone or something.

2. Imprisoning people who owed money often created a paradox. In order to pay off a debt, debtors needed a job to make money to pay creditors. Locking them away prevented them from achieving this and actually increased their debt, since the Keepers of prisons also expected payment during the debtors’ incarceration. Abolishing debtors’ prisons didn’t begin until the nineteenth century.

3. In Britain and her colonies, convicted pirates usually danced a hempen jig and once the tightened noose strangled your last breath, the tide washed over your body three times before your remains were buried. The bodies of the most notorious pirates, especially captains, were tarred, gibbeted, and put on display as a warning to others. Spain and its territories garroted convicted pirates.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Salty Dog
Sailing Master
Posts: 10060



191991 Gold -

PostPosted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 10:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

4. Marshalsea comes from the Anglo-Norman word “mareschalcie,” which had a variety of spellings. The knight marshal oversaw the court where justice was meted out to the king’s domestic staff.

5. Daniel Defoe, once an inmate of Newgate and considered by some to be the author of A General History of Pyrates, believed London had more places of incarceration in the 1720s than anywhere else in Europe: 22 “public gaols,” 5 “Night Prisons, called Round Houses,” and 119 “Spunging Houses” (for debtors). (White, “Pain,” 73) There was also an assortment of private establishments, where prospective prisoners (those pending release on bail or placement in a real prison), and houses for arrested political prisoners or conscientious objectors) Sailors under arrest were imprisoned in the homes of Admiralty Officers.

6. Historical documentation does mention an earlier prison, but provides negligible information about it.

7. This device worked in the same manner as the pirates’ “rosary of pain.” This was a “length of knotted cord wrapped around a victim’s head at the forehead and temples, tightened either by pulling the ends in opposite directions or more often by inserting a long, thin, hard object (e.g., a rigid stick . . .) into the space between the rope and the head and twisting it, thus causing intense pain and possibly forcing the victim’s eyeballs out of his skull.” (Choundas, 347-348) This act of torture was called “woodling.”

8. This is the only detail, as regards James Couzins, included in the summary of the trials. For whatever reason, he either kept his own counsel or was unable to testify.

9. Fifty-two of the French pirates were found guilty. Twenty-four were hanged at three locations around London at the same moment in time.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic     Forum Index -> Tavern All times are GMT
Goto page Previous  1, 2
Page 2 of 2

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group