> > > Well, I have started something! > > I assure you, from the age of about 10, I was marched on more than one occasion into the town square and shown the very window from which his poor victims were led - rather like a kangaroo court in modern times - they were condemned and taken out at once to be despatched. > > The square in Winchester is misnamed. At one time pehaps it was, but a chunk of other building now blocks the way so the square is a road with wide bits at the end. The scaffold/gallows are is in the narrow bit. > Dame Alice Lyle's name is well known even now, 3 1/4 centuries later > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Assizes > > As far as I know the Wiki entry is correct.The Assizes were, and as far as I know still are, travelling courts - and again, as a child, taken along by a parent, would watch the parade on Assize Sunday (held quarterly, I only went sometimes!) which preceded the opening weeks of trials. > > Several judges in red gowns paraded to the Cathedral, with others, and Cathedral personnel in black and liturgical colours. > > This I presume is the origin of circuits, because after (and before) Winchester they were in other cities - hence the Salisbury, Dorchester, Taunton and Wells as listed in Wiki - that sounds like 1 week in each place doesn't it at the time? > > http://www.minehead-online.co.uk/judge.htm > http://www.somersetgateway.com/aboutsom/somermag/june2000/jeffries.htm > The following is an extract from the second, above. > > The Assizes started at Winchester on 25th August 1685. There were five judges - Baron Montagu, Baron Wright, Justice Wythens, Justice Levinz and Sir Henry Polexfen, led by Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys. It was here that the trial of Dame Alice Lyle took place. From Winchester they proceeded to Dorchester and on to Taunton before finishing up at Wells on 23rd September. More than 1400 prisoners were dealt with and although most were sentenced to death about 300 only were hanged or hanged, drawn and quartered. Some 600 were transported to the West Indies where they were worth more alive than dead as a source of cheap labour. Others were imprisoned to await further trial > > > > Anyway, this just followed my remark - probably in dubious taste - about our poor co-lister Chris! > > > > > > Jean > > > > ---------------------------------------- > > From: roy.stockdill@btinternet.com > > To: bristol_and_somerset@rootsweb.com > > Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 17:32:00 +0000 > > Subject: Re: [B&S] Jefferies > > > > On 30 Dec 2010 at 17:10, Brad Rogers wrote: > > > > > On Thu, 30 Dec 2010 16:52:59 -0000 > > > "Roy Stockdill" wrote: > > > > > > Hello Roy, > > > > > > > Surely you mean Dorchester, don't you, Jean? That was where the > > > > Bloody Assizes were held. > > > > > > Wikipedia reckons the trials started in Winchester then moved to > > > Salisbury, Dorchester and on to Taunton. > > > > > > See > > > > Well, even a self-appointed cleverclogs like me can get it wrong sometimes! > > > > I concede you are all correct, but Judge Jeffreys to me has always been most closely > > associated with Dorchester. I don't see anything that says he, personally, actually sat > > at Winchester. As Lord Chief Justice, he certainly presided over the whole affair, but > > there were five other judges beneath him. > > > > -- > > Roy Stockdill > > Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer > > Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html > > > > "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, > > and that is not being talked about." > > OSCAR WILDE > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BRISTOL_AND_SOMERSET-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message