September 14th, 2018
14 Sept 2018 · page 834 of 1306
Sure, it's a high-stress career, but it comes with a free company cart.
Gonna be at Thought Bubble next weekend, and I'll be taking part in a panel on Sunday 23rd at 11am, talking about worldbuilding! Woah!
Cast: George Knott, Vincent Knott
Comments (63)
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This is starting to remind me of Monty Python's Coal Miner Son sketch.
Oof. Not a lawyer like I'd assumed. Were traveling hangmen a thing? I guess it makes sense...if the executioner lived near those they executed, they'd probably rack up a lot of people who may want bloody vengeance on them.
I don't know about hangmen, but I think judges used to do this. Travel around the country being the judge for a specific region for a year or so, then getting reassigned to a new area before too many people they've sentenced try and exact revenge.
It's more about the rarity of crimes in small rural community. Coming for a few days a year was plenty enough. Don't know about the hangmen. I assume the locals just tied their own length of rope to a convenient tree or else one of the guardsmen accompanying the judge could do it if needed.
most places had strict laws about who could and couldn't perform executions. because execution was part of the legal system, and by defining who could do it and under what circumstances, they could ensure that any hangings done were legal punishment, and not just someone deciding to string someone they didn't like up.
hanging someone without fitting those restrictions and the required circumstances would cause you to be brought up on charges of murder. even if the person you hanged was well known to have been a criminal that a court would have executed. the laws about this was less about justice and more about control and ensuring that power rested in the hands that the nobility wanted it to be in.
We solved our lawyer problem a long time ago. However, you could speak for him if you wish. However, be warned: If you lose, you will share the same penalty as the accused.
[https://www.youtube.com/wat...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBc3kAWlfOQ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBc3kAWlfOQ")
It needn't even be about revenge.
A known executioner could be ostracized in the community because of the work they did.
Better to be anonymous or from out of town.
I think He's studying law to help give him clear conscience when it's time for... well the Deed to be Done.
It's probably a lot healthier anxiety-laden activity than Heavy Drinking or Opioid abuse
Outside of London, I doubt there was enough volume of business in most locations to allow a hangman to keep a fixed place of business, as it were. Unless the subjects were shipped to him, but having the work done locally is half the point--set an example for the community, let them see justice at work, etc etc
Criminal laws in England during the early 19th century were draconian in the extreme -- until 1808, it was a capital offense to commit any crime after obscuring your face. Even in the 1830's, theft was a capital offense, although death sentences were frequently commuted by the judge...to transportation.
There was plenty of business for the hangman.
> Even in the 1830's, theft was a capital offense
Well, Wikipedia says, "In 1832, the death penalty was abolished for theft, counterfeiting, and forgery except for the forgery of wills and certain powers of attorney."
So, 1830, 1831, and part of 1832. That counts as being "in the 1830's." Now, if JWLM had said "throughout the 1830's" they'd be wrong. And "into the 1830's" might have been a slightly better choice of words than "in." But "in" is certainly correct.
Perhaps the changing of laws will play a role in this arc. In any case, this universe (obviously) doesn't exactly correspond to ours. :)
As I recall, you could be hanged for impersonating a [Chelsea Pensioner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Pensioner "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Pensioner"). The list of capital offences was long indeed. As for transportation, it was straightforward utilitarian practicality: there were colonies to populate, and, as far as the sentencing authorities could see, transportation got the transportees out of the picture as effectively as hanging them. And I assume that public execution (last performed in 1868 in Britain) is no longer a thing in Widdershins at the time this is set...
Vincent: I-I d-definitely wouldn't be able to do it in front of an audience... >_< whimper
>:=|>
pretty much. most non-royal executioners in Europe were itinerants, working a circuit servicing many towns. often they would also perform various non-lethal punishments, would conduct interrogative torture (when and where it was legal),and would act as knackers (the people who would dispose of dead animal carcasses) as well.
personally i would assume they'd also be odd job men at times, if the above didn't bring in enough funds.
A hangman named Knott. < initiates slow clap >
Their main competitors are called Twiste & de Wynd
That may have been on purpose; speaking names seem silly to us now, but back in the day it was easy advertisement: cooper, brewer, farmer, etc.
It suggests a tradition going back more than one generation. Someone in their family might have been performing these duties for longer than there have been surnames.
Executioner as a family tradition happened in real life, in France and to some lesser extend in the United Kingdom, if I am to believe a book by French author Michel Folco ("Dieu et nous seuls pouvons") and the Wikipedia article about executioners.
In France, it was helped by the ostracism executioners were submitted to. Not many young men were interested in marrying the headman's daughter, except those of other executioners.
I remember hearing that one of France's executioner families was kicked out of the business because the executioner at the time had pawned the guillotine and couldn't afford to buy it back
Well, this raises the question: Are they named for their profession, or did they choose the family business for the surname pun?
Nominative determinism.
I'd assume the former, but of course it is possible their ancestors started out making and selling quality rope.
Were either of them nicknamed "Slip"? Or both of them...? >:=)>
They were Knott
Can anyone make out the book titles? The blue one on top of the pile looks like "Revised Statutes" to me, the green one on the side is "Capital Punishment", and the tan one next to the empty space looks like it ends with punishment as well, but I can not make out the rest.
I see "LAW", "Noteable Executions" and (maybe) "Acts of Parliament". Or possibly "Pets of Punishment".
So, cats then?
Gibbet St Police Station? They sound like a measured and reasonable force.
Have you met Captain Barber? :-)
Measure twice, hang once.
Whoa. I didn't see that coming!
Hang on ...you did knot see that coming? She was dangling all these hints, and yet this is still noose to you?
Ah. I suspected as much.
An executioner need not be cruel or even uncaring... but he or she does need to be resolute in the performance of their duties...
G Knott....Gordian Knott?
And of course this is on Gibbet Street of all places.
Well, I'm sure the police station gave Gibbet Street its name.
And yeah, beat me to it. Gordian/Gordan? Very cute, regardless. :)
As amusing as Gordon Knott would be, the character tag says George Knott.
I think I know why the comments section guessed the Knott family business and Eliza being trans sooner than Kate probably expected us to: it's because our plot-and-character-analyzing brains don't have much to work with yet in this chapter, so they're working overtime on what few clues we do have!
Also: poor Vincent. He's clearly not cut out for this job.
Wait, did I miss something? Who is Eliza and why is he/she/they trans? o_o
Read the comments on the last page. Eliza is the young woman on the cover of this chapter, whom we haven’t met in person yet; a remark Vincent made on Tuesday’s page tipped several people off to that aspect of her background.
Ah, got it. The part of the dialogue slipped right out of my mind >.> (again because I had no idea of the presumed gender of the name "Swift")
It wasn't so much about the gender of the name "Swift" (which is her surname in any case) as Vincent's phrasing when he told his dad that she goes by Eliza now.
I can't help contrasting this poor kid with the hangman from "Kind Hearts and Coronets." XD
his last name is Knott ? hahaha
Seeing the Gibbet Street police station reminds me of something I thought of recently: when the outside team arrived here to deal with Wrath, Vee led the way inside, saying “I know this place like the back of my hand.” [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/october-21st-2016/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/october-21st-2016/") Now I’m wondering if she picked up that knowledge while dating ahem Nicky...
I'd rather take over the family funeral home. That is AWFUL.
Hah! Not really wanting to toot my own horn, but I got it right in the comments for last comic! XD
Itinerant executioners were the norm rather than the exception in the early-to-mid 19th century. Only the really big places (like London or Paris) had fixed places to execute criminals and executioners “in residence”. For the rest, local authorities would call for an executioner when needed.
You did indeed!
You know, it wasn't until you made that announcement that it occurred to me that I don't think I've ever seen an actual thought bubble in this comic.
Does it count: [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/january-23rd-2013/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/january-23rd-2013/") ?
Ooh, I'd forgotten that.
Sid has thought bubbles here: [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/november-12th-2012-18-days-left-to-preorder-books/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/november-12th-2012-18-days-left-to-preorder-books/")
Do they play a word-guessing game before executions?
False...starts?
Egad.
Hopefully the false starts were nothing more alarming than Vincent freezing when he was supposed to pull the lever and his dad having to do it himself...
I would think a "false start" is rather something like "Vincent pulled the lever when the victim wasn't in the noose yet".
But really, I interpreted this line of George as "you went to hang someone, and they got their reprieve at the last moment, and hanging was cancelled".
So...no black hoods or anonymity? They do vehicle advertising?
For respectability, perhaps it should say "Est. 1809" or something.
Oh my goodness. A+ swerve there.
Well that one was the spanish inquistion, we certainly weren't expecting that buisness.
Oh, g knot. what a horrible and clever little pun.
Seems like a nice guy, but wouldn't want to hang with him.