Author: [Bentley, William: Bentley, John, ed.:]

Title: Halifax, and its gibbet-law placed in a true light. Together with a description of the town, the Nature of the Soil, the Temper and Disposition of the People, the Antiquity of its Customary Law, and the Reasonableness thereof. With An Account of the Gentry, and other Eminent Persons, Born and Inhabiti

Publication: Halifax: printed by P. Darby, for John Bentley, at Halifax, in Yorkshire, and sold by the Bookseller [1761].

Description: Second edition. 12mo., pp.[iv], 95, [I] + engraved frontispiece. Toned and foxed, as is often the case. Contemporary brown speckled calf with blind-tooled roll at joints. Neatly rebacked but with the upper joint now failing and the head-cap, head edges of boards and corners all worn. Title written on the ffep in an old hand. Some pencilled notes to ffep. An extra engraving of a gibbet (clipped from Camden's Britannia, 1695) pasted onto rear free endpaper.

The Halifax Gibbet Law gave the Lord of the Manor of Wakefield, of which the Halifax was a part, the power to execute by decapitation anyone found guilty of the theft of goods to the value of 13.5d or more (equivalent to ?10 in 2023) or more. Thought to have been installed in the 16th century, the Halifax gibbet was a guillotine-type device which remained in use until 1650.

Bibliography: ESTC T33073.

Reference Number: [55047]

Price: £450

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