I was reading the Conditional Pardon of an ancestor (posted it at http://thehistoryofmatt.blogspot.com/) and found the Physical Description interesting. Hair, eyes, tattoo, scars etc. One thing amiss was that I know that my ancestor George Bliss was whipped (in England) and have been told that he retained scarring on his back from it. It seemed that this would be a pretty obvous physcal description. I was wonderng if anyone had seen 'whipping scars' (or analogous) as a physical description? Or was it only outward appearance etc. Was there a colonial/military guide to features that should be mentioned? couldn't find one. Just curious cheers matt -- Matthew D. Hall
Matt I am an amateur military historian and I am advised that the scarring from whipping could leave the back either looking like a field ploughed by a madman or worse. Flogging was often performed by pairs and left handers were "valued" by authorities for crossing the T, thus forming almost shallow chevrons. They could reach the ribs with only four to six strokes. Not my idea of fun. Phil -----Original Message----- From: aus-convicts-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:aus-convicts-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Matthew Hall Sent: Sunday, 26 October 2008 2:16 PM To: AUS-CONVICTS@rootsweb.com Subject: [AUS-CON] Physical descriptions I was reading the Conditional Pardon of an ancestor (posted it at http://thehistoryofmatt.blogspot.com/) and found the Physical Description interesting. Hair, eyes, tattoo, scars etc. One thing amiss was that I know that my ancestor George Bliss was whipped (in England) and have been told that he retained scarring on his back from it. It seemed that this would be a pretty obvous physcal description. I was wonderng if anyone had seen 'whipping scars' (or analogous) as a physical description? Or was it only outward appearance etc. Was there a colonial/military guide to features that should be mentioned? couldn't find one. Just curious cheers matt -- Matthew D. Hall ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to AUS-CONVICTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message