Ripper-Related Victorian Vocabulary

[Rubyretro]

Bunny -There certainly are Pearly babies. I collected photos of Pearly Families with a view to doing some découpage trays and boxes. You've just reminded me that I should do some next spring !

[Archaic]

Pearly Kings and Queens Crowned In East End

Here's an article (using lots of Cockney Rhyming Slang) about the recent crowning of the Pearly Kings & Queens in the East End:

http://www.london24.co/news/pearly_kings_and_queens_crowned_in_right_old_east_end_cockney_knees_up_1_1372091

I found it pretty interesting that most of those crowned are descended from the original 28 families who were the Pearly Kings in the old days.

- So are there Pearly Babies??

Cheers,
Archaic

[Archaic]

Hi Carol.

Here's an article claiming that Mortimer kept Edward II alive: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.u...orycode=176011

OK, back to Victorian slang!

Cheers,
Archaic

[Archaic]

Funeral Given By Priest In Cockney Rhyming Slang!

Hi guys.

I thought this article was pretty interesting. The funeral only happened 2 weeks ago.

Cockney Rhyming Slang Funeral: http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Hush-Nor...ail/story.html

Have any of you ever attended a ceremony where cockney slang was used, rhyming or otherwise?

Thanks,
Archaic

[Bridewell]

Also intrigued to read that Edward II might NOT have been murdered. I've always thought the story of his death particularly sad and awful.

Hi Carol,

It's certainly awful the way Marlowe depicted it.

Regards, Bridewell.

[Carol]

As I was learning more about Tyburn, I read about the execution there of one of my own ancestors!

Roger de Mortimer, the 1st Earl of March, became the lover of Queen Isabella and together they overthrew King Edward II. (It's not known whether Edward II was murdered; there are also indications that he was kept alive but imprisoned.) When young Edward III came into power, he had Mortimer seized and executed at Tyburn.

Roger de Mortimer was hung on November 29, 1330. He was the first nobleman to be hung at Tyburn. This occurred before the giant gallows known as "the three-legged mare" was erected. In 1330 Tyburn was called "Tyburn Tree" or "The Elms."

What's both interesting and extremely confusing about my family tree (especially for an American!) is that the families of which it are composed were first friends, relations and allies, then arch-enemies and even the murderers of one another, then they reconciled by intermarrying!
I'm descended from the marriage of Edward III's grand-daughter, Princess Philippa of Clarence, Heiress of Ulster, to Roger de Mortimer's great-grandson and heir Edmund de Mortimer, the 3rd Earl of March.
(So the grandfather of the bride put to death the great-grandfather of the groom.)

Execution of Roger de Mortimer at Tyburn: http://edwardthesecond.blogspot.com/...-mortimer.html

I'm curious if any other members know if one of their ancestors was executed at Tyburn?

Best regards,
Archaic

Hi Archaic!

Really interested to read about your ancestors! Also intrigued to read that Edward II might NOT have been murdered. I've always thought the story of his death particularly sad and awful. I'll be very interested to see what the lady academic now comes up with!

As far as I'm aware none of 'my lot' have been executed at Tyburn (or anywhere else for that matter) but I always think 'Watch this space' when it comes to ancestor hunting. My brother found out several surprises when he did some research into our father's family. For a start, the lady we always assumed was our great-grandmother, was not. She was our grandfather Sanders' step-mother - AND - grandfather Sanders' father married her only 8 (eight) days after his mother died of spinal cancer.

Carol

[Archaic]

Tyburn Executions In Film

Hi Magpie. That's the movie about the famous highwaymen, isn't it?

I saw it years ago and enjoyed it. I don't recall the wagon scene, but I remember there were very dramatic depictions of executions at Tyburn.

Scenes from 'Plunkett and MacCleane' are available on YouTube.

Tyburn hanging and escape scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H98Zs0vXTU)

Best regards,
Archaic

[Magpie]

Thanks Robert and Chris. Up the Family Tree!

Here's another slang term apparently derived from the custom of hanging people at Tyburn- the phrase "on the wagon", meaning one is not drinking alcohol.

The story is that condemned prisoners were driven through town in an open wagon, sitting on their own coffins. (Lovely touch, that.) On the way to Tyburn the wagon made a traditional stop for a drop of "charity", an alcoholic beverage to help slake their thirst and steady their nerves. Once the wagon was underway again they were headed straight for execution, never to drink liquor again.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-london/A988833

Makes me wonder who first made the witty remark "He fell off the wagon" when they saw someone imbibing.

Oh, I know- it must have been Robert's great-gr-gr-gr--gr-gr-great-grandpa...

Archaic

Such a scene is depicted near the end of "Plunkett and Mclean".

[Archaic]

"To Flash the Ivories"

"To Flash the Ivories" meant either to show one's teeth, or to be anatomised after execution. I think it must be a meaning along the lines of "to show one's bones" during dissection.

It dates to the days when the bodies of those who were executed were available to surgeons and medical schools who needed bodies for dissection.

People had a much greater horror of "being anatomised" than they did of being executed.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Bridewell]

Kibosh might also be related to kebab.

Is that Albert Kibosh, Chris?

Regards, Bridewell.

[Archaic]

"Hang-Dog" & "Scape-Gallows"

Here are two more execution-related words.

"Hang-dog" is of course an everyday phrase now used to describe a person who is shame-faced or downcast, or one who exhibits a dejected or guilty countenance or a furtive manner. One would think it comes from the image of a dejected or guilty-feeling dog hanging down his head in shame.

In fact, it comes from execution by hanging; people who appeared 'villainous' and likely to be hung were described as "hang-dog". "Hang-dog" could also be applied as an epithet.

Dictionary.com definition: "Hang-dog (adj.) also hangdog, 1670s, "befitting a hang-dog," a despicable, degraded fellow, so called either from notion of being fit only to hang a dog (cf. cutthroat) or of being a low person (i.e. dog) fit only for hanging. As a noun from 1680s."

"Scape-Gallows" was an epithet applied to one who had either escaped being caught for their crimes and hung, or was conducting themselves in such a knavish manner that they were believed likely to be headed for them. It was basically used an insult.

The phrase seems to have originated in print with Charles Dickens; he used the term "scape-gallows" in his novel 'Nicholas Nickelby'.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Archaic]

"Dropped Off The Hooks"

Here's some Victorian slang with a gruesome history-"Dropped off the hooks."

"Hooks, "dropped off the hooks" —said of a deceased person—believed derived from the ancient practice of suspending on hooks the quarters of a traitor or felon sentenced by the old law to be hung, drawn, and quartered, which dropped off the hooks as they decayed."


Archaic

[Archaic]

"Autumn" = Execution By Hanging

Oops; back to the thread topic.

Here's a slang term I've never heard before: "Autumn".

From an 1870 work:

"Autumn, a Slang term for an execution by hanging.When the drop was introduced instead of the old gallows, cart, and ladder, and a man was for the first time "turned-off" in the present fashion, the mob were so pleased with the invention that they spoke of the operation as at Autumn, or the Fall Of The Leaf, (so., the drop,) with the man about to be hanged."


Sounds like someone in the mob attending the execution was of a poetic turn of mind.

Archaic

[Archaic]

Hi Robert.

What's a 'Yeoman of the Mouth', a wise-guy for royalty?

Sounds like your perfect job description.

Cheers,
Archaic

PS: Hmm, if he was a 'Yeoman of the Month' would he be some kind of a Royal "pinup boy"??

[Robert]

Very nice site, Bunny.

I'm still trying to get over the Royal household job title "Yeoman of the Mouth to Her Majesty Queen Mary in the Pantry" which turned up in a Find My Past newsletter.