THE SCARBOROUGH WARNING

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