Escape from the Tower of London

 For centuries the Tower of London was used to hold important prisoners. The first was Ranulf Flambard the Bishop of Durham. When King William Rufus was killed in 1100 his brother became Henry I. The new king promptly arrested the bishop for simony (selling positions in the church for money).

However, the bishop escaped. He was allowed certain privileges such as being able to buy his own food and wine. On 2 February 1101, the bishop generously invited his guards to a feast. When the guards became drunk he managed to squeeze through a window and climb down a rope. However, the rope was not long enough and he had to drop the final distance. The bishop was met by friends who rowed him across the river and he then rode a horse to the coast where he escaped on a ship.

Teacher killed a student

 In 1860 a teacher named Thomas Hopley beat a boy to death. The boy was 14-year-old Reginald Chancellor and he had a learning disability. Among other things, the teacher hit him with a candlestick because he could not repeat the multiplication table.

The teacher was charged with manslaughter, not murder because the intent to kill could not be proved. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison. Discipline in the 19th century was brutal but even by their standards beating a child to death was going a bit too far.

A Pauper's Funeral

 In the 18th century if you died poor the local authorities had to pay for your funeral. In the village of Buriton in Hampshire, an old woman was sick. Realising she was dying the authorities put her on a cart and took her to the town of Petersfield. They dumped her in the street. Legally if she died in Petersfield they would have to pay for her burial. Thank you so much. Petersfield refused to pay and they took the case to court. They won.

Selling Your wife

 In the 18th century and 19th century men sometimes sold their wives. (There were also cases where women sold their husbands). This strange custom arose because poor people could not divorce. (Until 1857 it took an act of parliament to dissolve a marriage so divorce was only possible for the rich).

However the wife had to consent to the sale and often she was sold to her lover. Selling your husband or wife was not actually legal but in the early 19th century it was tolerated, especially in rural communities.

However divorce became easier after 1857 and the police began to prosecute men who sold their wives. The last known case of a man selling his wife in Britain was in Leeds in 1926. He sold her for £10 (a large amount of money at that time). The woman consented to being sold but the man was prosecuted.

Dr Guillotin

 When I was a boy my dad told me that Dr Guillotin invented the guillotine and he was the first person executed by it. He was executed for inventing such an inhumane machine. I thought that was really funny, but of course, it isn’t true. Mechanical beheading devices were used long before the French Revolution. (One was recorded in Dublin in 1307). But in 1790 Joseph-Ignace Guillotin argued that such a device should be used as a humane method of executing people. (And it was humane compared to most methods!) His idea was adopted and the device was named after him. Dr Guillotin died of natural causes in 1838.

Whipping

 In Britain whipping women was banned in 1820 but for men, it went on well into the 20th century. From 1862 the courts could order whipping with the cat o'nine tails or birching (which meant hitting a man on the bare backside with a bundle of birch rods). Birching gradually replaced whipping, although cases of the latter were recorded in Britain until 1947. In 1948 whipping or birching civilian men was abolished but it was legal in prisons until 1967.

Arsenic

 In the 19th century, it was common to adulterate foodstuffs by adding cheap substances. Calcium sulphate was added to peppermints. In 1858 a sweet maker in Bradford, England sent somebody to obtain some from a druggist. However, by mistake, the druggist's assistant picked up some arsenic thinking it was calcium sulphate. The arsenic was added to the sweets. As a result, 200 people became seriously ill and 20 died.