Halifax Gibbet

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The Halifax Gibbet in the town of Halifax, West Yorkshire, was an early guillotine. The town had held the right to execute criminals since 1280. Although there is early reference to a gibbet, there is no evidence about the method of execution until the sixteenth century, when the town acquired a fixed machine which cut the head off the condemned criminal. Local law required that “If a felon be taken within the liberty of Halifax...either hand-habend (caught with the stolen goods in his hand or in the act of stealing), back-berand (caught carrying stolen goods on his back), or confess and (having confessed to the crime), to the value of thirteen pence half-penny, he shall after three markets...be taken to the Gibbet and there have his head cut off from his body”.

It was believed that the law against theft was much more strictly enforced to protect the cloth industry, which had grown very important.

The reputation of Halifax for strict law enforcement was noted by Daniel Defoe, who gave a detailed description in his Travels, the antiquary William Camden and by the "Water Poet" John Taylor, who penned the Beggar's Litany From Hell, Hull and Halifax, Good Lord deliver us. The reputation seems to have been greater than the facts, as between 1541 and 1650, the official records show that only 53 men and women were executed by the Halifax Gibbet. The Gibbet was taken down in 1650, perhaps in response to the execution of Charles I, but a replica was erected in 1974.