ABSTRACT

At the Old Bailey in January 1720, William Spiggot and Thomas Phillips were tried

for committing several robberies on the highway; but they refused to plead either

‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’, much to the court’s annoyance. No arguments could convince

them of ‘the absurdity of such an obstinate procedure’, as the official record puts it;

so the court ordered that the following should be read, which was the law in such

cases:

That the prisoner should be sent to the prison from whence he came, and put

into a mean room, stopped from the light, and shall there be laid on the bare

ground, without any litter, straw, or other covering, or without any garment

about him, except something to hide his privy members. He shall lie upon his

back, his head shall be covered, and his feet shall be bare. One of his arms

shall be drawn with a cord to one side of the room, and the other arm to the

other side; and his legs shall be served in the like manner. Then there shall be

laid upon his body as much iron or stone as he can bear, and more. And the

first day after he shall have three morsels of barley bread, without any drink;

and the second day he shall be allowed to drink as much as he can, at three

times, of the water that is next the prison-door, except running water, without

any bread; and this shall be his diet till he dies; and he against whom this

judgement shall be given forfeits his goods to the King.