ON August 26, 1597, Anthony Arrowsmith was pressed to death in Durham Market Place for allegedly committing a murder.
He was literally pressed to death: a wooden board was most likely placed across his chest with him lying beneath it and weights would have been put on top until he was crushed to death.
Women often only lasted 30 minutes under the press before they succumbed; men could last four or more hours until enough weights were found to cause their chests to crack so that they suffocated.
In other parts of the country, there are reports of spectators adding their own weight to the board by sitting on it or jumping on it, either to hasten death because they felt sorry for the victim moaning piteously beneath the press, or because they thought it was fun.
Pressing someone to death was an acceptable form of state punishment in Tudor times if the accused refused to enter a plea at their trial.
Anthony, of Coatham Mundeville on the northern outskirts of Darlington, probably was guilty of murder, but when he was called before the court in Durham, he “stood mute” – he refused to enter a plea.
This meant his trial could not go ahead.
READ MORE: THE TWO HALLS OF COATHAM MUNDEVILLE
So he was taken to the Market Place and pressed in the hope that when the pressure became too much, he would confess his guilt. Then he could be executed more conventionally.
More and more weights were added in the hope of squeezing a confession out of him, but he maintained his silence until he was pressed to death.
He would have done this because if he had been executed after admitting murder, the king – or his local representatives – would have seized his land.
By staying mute, he was not convicted which meant that his heirs could still inherit his estate.
Anthony Arrowsmith leased the manor of Eggleston in Teesdale and after he was pressed to death, it was taken on by Ralph Bowes of Streatlam Castle.
The year after Anthony’s death, his son, Thomas, of Coatham Mundeville, sued Ralph Bowes for the return of the manor, pointing out that although his father was executed for murder he was never actually convicted of it.
Being pressed to death – Peine forte et dure (or "forceful and hard punishment") – was very unusual, and Anthony may be Durham’s only execution by it. The last pressing to death in this country was in 1741 and the punishment was abolished in 1772.
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