At 05:56 PM 7/8/2000 -0400, James W Green III wrote: [snip] >Also on this web page it said "convicted at Chester >of high treason; accepted 'transport' rather than >hanging until not dead etc.;"? Could you spend a >little time hanging from a rope & then go free? >I thought hanging almost always broke your neck & >you died quickly. I could see being hoisted off >the ground & shocking a while as a punishment, but >I think this is surely miswritten when it says >"hanging until NOT dead". I thought the sentence >"You shall be hung until dead", was just for >emphasis on this being a death sentence. Is this >like a trial by water, except that trial by water >was a "mo win" situation. James, the reference to "hanging until not dead , etc." is undoubtedly correct. The punishment for treason back then was the same as that inflicted upon William Wallace much earlier, but still as unpleasant: first the unfortunate was strung up to dangle and strangle, with his feet just off the ground; then his torso was cut open . . . and beyond that I will suggest you check a reference work for more details on the punishment of being hung, drawn and quartered, as it gets too gory to really detail much further. So who, in their right mind and given the option, wouldn't have chosen transport over such a horrible end. Bill Jackson