Tyburn

   obsolete

   appertaining to death by hanging

   The London gallows were located in the parish named after two burns, or streams, but now called St Marylebone. The Tyburn dance, hornpipe, or jig was a hanging, by the Tyburn tippet, the noose, on the Tyburn tree or triple tree, the gallows. The King of Tyburn, the hangman, used to conduct a Tyburn scragging, a ceremony, at which he would hang a Tyburn blossom, a young convict, who would be said to preach at Tyburn Cross. A Tyburn ticket was a certificate of exemption from payment of all taxes in the parish in which a felony had been committed (or other reward) given to an informer who secured a conviction and hanging. A Tyburn top was a wig worn 'in a knowing style...by the gentlemen pads, scamps, divers, and other knowing hands' (Grose), all of whom might expect to be sentenced to death in the fullness of time:

    He should have had a Tyburn tippet, a halfpenny halter, and all such proud prelates. (Latimer in sermon, 1549, quoted in ODEP)

   That souldiers sterne, or prech at Tiborne crosse. (Gascoigne, 1576, quoted in ODEP) The old Nag and Brewer was crowded like a Tyburn scragging. (Fraser, 1997)