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3d. The value of the goods stolen must amount to thirteen pence halfpenny, or more.

4th. The accused was to be executed on the first Saturday after his condemnation, and

5th. When brought to the gibbet he was to have his head cut off from his body, &c.

Forty-nine persons appear to have been executed since a list was kept, of which five were in the six last years of Henry VIII.; twenty-five in the reign of Elizabeth: seven in that of James I.; ten in that of Charles I. and two during the interregnum.

The proceedings at the trials of the last malefactors, viz. Abraham Wilkinson and Andrew Mitchel, who suffered at Halifax gibbet on the 30th of April, 1650, are preserved in an account of Halifax, published by William Bentley, London, 1708; and in the Rev. Mr. Watson's History of Halifax, from which this account is taken, and where much curious matter is to be found, illustrative not only of the gibbet law of Halifax, but of the first gibbets or guillotines used in this country.

Thomas of Reading was printed previous to the year 1600, when it was alluded to by Kemp, but the precise date of the first Edition does not appear. The Marquis of Stafford possesses a copy in 4to. 1623, and in the Roxburgh sale" The pleasant History of Thomas of Reading," 4to. 1636, produced £5. 15s. 6d.

The following entry in the Henslowe MSS. shews that it was made the subject of a dramatic performance:

12 Nov. 1601. The six Clothiers of the West, by Richard Hathway, Wentworth Smith and Wm. Haughton. The second part of The Six Clothiers by the

same.

OF.

READING:

OR,

THE SIXE WORTHIE YEOMEN

OF THE WEST.

NOW THE SIXTH TIME CORRECTED AND ENLARGED

By T. D.

Thov shalt labovr till thov retvrne to dvste.

LONDON,

PRINTED BY ELIZ. ALLDE FOR

ROBERT BIRD.

THE PLEASANT HISTORIE OF THE

SIXE WORTHY YEOMEN

OF THE WEST.

IN the dayes of King Henry the first, who was the first king that instituted the high Court of Parliament, there liued nine men, which for the trade of Clothing, were famous throughout all England. Which Art in those dayes was held in high reputation, both in respect of the great riches that thereby was gotten, as also of the benefit it brought to the whole Common-wealth: the yonger sons of knights and Gentlemen, to whom their Fathers would leaue no lands, were most commonly preferred to learne this trade, to the end, that thereby they might liue in good estate, and driue forth their dayes in prosperity.

Among all Crafts this was the onely chiefe, for that it was the greatest merchandize, by the which our Country became famous thorowout all Nations. And it was verily thought, that the one halfe of the people in the land liued in those dayes therby, and in such good sort,

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