THE SCARBOROUGH WARNING
The seaside town of Scarborough in the North
Riding of Yorkshire was also gaining quite a reputation for its firm
implementation of the law back in the thirteenth century, when the town’s
judicial privileges and immunities were confirmed and enlarged by Henry 111’s
charters. Scarborough’s justices were
given broader rights and soon gained notoriety for dealing with offenders,
giving rise to the saying, ‘Scarborough
warning,’ meaning a blow delivered without warning. The result was that offenders soon found
themselves severely punished and the town gallows were in constant use. The
borough’s own magistrates had been given wide-ranging powers to deal with
offenders, amongst which were infangthief
meaning jurisdiction over thieves caught in the act; gallows,
the power to pass and carry out the death sentence; pillory, the right to punish offenders by exposing them to public
ridicule; and tumbril, the right to
have offenders whipped through the streets, and used them well.
SCARBOROUGH |
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