The bellman addresses the condemned souls

artnouveauho was asking about a version of the following rhyme, part of which is being used as a singing text for a new piece of choral music by the composer Benjamin Till, which is having its premiere tomorrow. (It is also being broadcast at the end of the month on BBC London; won't be able to hear it in the Midlands, chiz).

All you that in the Condemn’d-hold do lie,
Prepare you, for to-morrow you shall die.
Watch all and pray, the hour is drawing near,
That you before th’Almighty must appear.
Examine well yourselves, in time repent,
That you may not t’eternal flames be sent:
And when St. ’Pulchre’s bell to-morrow tolls,
The Lord above have mercy on your souls!

Past twelve o’clock!

The Tyburn Chronicle: or, villainy display’d in all its branches (1768) [II, 73]

This is the earliest occurrence of the rhyme I know. In The Tyburn Chronicle it says:

It has long been a custom for the Bell-man of St. Sepulchre’s parish (on the night before the prisoners are to be executed) to come under Newgate and ring his bell, and repeat the following verses to the criminals in the Condemned-hold.

***

It was indeed the custom that the parish of St Sepulchre’s should arrange for a man with a bell to come and ring it through the street-grating of the condemned cell in Newgate on the nights before executions, and deliver a set address to the prisoners within. That began in 1605, when a wealthy merchant called Robert Dove endowed a charity for the following purposes. At midnight before every execution day, the clerk of St Sepulchre’s rang a handbell outside Newgate, within the hearing of the prisoners awaiting execution, and spoke a set speech admonishing them to spend the night in repentant prayers for their own salvation. Next morning the great bell of St Sepulchre’s was tolled for several hours, all the way through the proceedings, just as it would be tolled to mark a death or a funeral. While the preparations for the executions were taking place, the prisoners brought out of their cells, the procession to Tyburn formed up, the bell would already be tolling. When the procession reached St Sepulchre’s churchyard wall, the carts carrying the condemned persons would stop while the clerk rang his handbell and spoke a second set speech. This reminded the onlookers that the bell was tolling for the prisoners, invited them to pray for them, and once again admonished the prisoners to repent. The prisoners were also given a bunch of flowers to carry to the gallows. St Sepulchre's church bell continued to be tolled until the executions were over. It must have been audible over much if not all of the early modern metropolis. The custom continued well into the eighteenth century.

The set speeches in use in the early eighteenth-century, which I imagine were those prescribed by Dove, or very close, are printed in Edward Hatton's New View of London (1708) [II, 707]. They are in prose. This is the first one:

You Prisoners within, who for your Wickedness and Sin:

After many Mercies shew’d you, you are now appointed to be Executed to Death to Morrow in the Forenoon. Give ear and understand, that to morrow morning the greatest Bell of St. Sepulchre’s parish shall toll for you from 6 till 10, in order and manner of a Passing-Bell, which used to be toll’d for those which lie at the point of Death, to the end, that all godly People hearing that Bell, and knowing it is for you going to your Deaths, may be stirred up to hearty prayer to God to bestow his Grace and Mercy upon you, whilst you yet live. Seeing the Prayers of others will do you no good, unless you turn to God in true sorrow for your Sins, and pray with them for your selves also: I beseech you all, and every one of you for Jesus Christ’s sake, to keep this Night in watching and hearty prayer to God for the Salvation of your own Souls, whilst there is yet time and place for Mercy, as knowing that to morrow you must appear before the Judgment Seat of your Creator, there to give an account of all things done in this Life, and to suffer Eternal Torment for your sins committed against him, unless upon your hearty and unfeigned Repentance you obtain Mercy, through the Merits, and Death, and Passion of Jesus Christ your only Mediator and Redeemer, who came into the World to save Sinners, and now sits at the Right Hand of God to make Intercession for you, if you penitently return to him.

So, Lord have mercy upon you, Lord have mercy upon you all.

At which point the rather jaunty rhyming version found in The Tyburn Chronicle was composed I do not know. I am sure, from the use of the expression 'the condemned hold' (earliest instance in OED 1717), it dates from some time in the eighteenth century. Whether the rhymed version was ever really used in place of the speech that was originally composed by Dove is another thing I cannot answer, though I am strongly inclined to doubt it.

For John Strype’s account of Dove and his charities (1720; account based on Anthony Munday’s 1618 revision of Stow’s Survey of London) see the online edition of Strype’s Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster. (Raise a cheer for the magnificent hriOnline team, the people who have also brought us the The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913.) The relevant pages in Strype are here, here, and here.

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The bellman addresses the condemned souls

artnouveauho was asking about a version of the following rhyme, part of which is being used as a singing text for a new piece of choral music by the composer Benjamin Till, which is having its premiere tomorrow. (It is also being broadcast at the end of the month on BBC London; won't be able to hear it in the Midlands, chiz).

All you that in the Condemn’d-hold do lie,
Prepare you, for to-morrow you shall die.
Watch all and pray, the hour is drawing near,
That you before th’Almighty must appear.
Examine well yourselves, in time repent,
That you may not t’eternal flames be sent:
And when St. ’Pulchre’s bell to-morrow tolls,
The Lord above have mercy on your souls!

Past twelve o’clock!

The Tyburn Chronicle: or, villainy display’d in all its branches (1768) [II, 73]

This is the earliest occurrence of the rhyme I know. In The Tyburn Chronicle it says:

It has long been a custom for the Bell-man of St. Sepulchre’s parish (on the night before the prisoners are to be executed) to come under Newgate and ring his bell, and repeat the following verses to the criminals in the Condemned-hold.

***

It was indeed the custom that the parish of St Sepulchre’s should arrange for a man with a bell to come and ring it through the street-grating of the condemned cell in Newgate on the nights before executions, and deliver a set address to the prisoners within. That began in 1605, when a wealthy merchant called Robert Dove endowed a charity for the following purposes. At midnight before every execution day, the clerk of St Sepulchre’s rang a handbell outside Newgate, within the hearing of the prisoners awaiting execution, and spoke a set speech admonishing them to spend the night in repentant prayers for their own salvation. Next morning the great bell of St Sepulchre’s was tolled for several hours, all the way through the proceedings, just as it would be tolled to mark a death or a funeral. While the preparations for the executions were taking place, the prisoners brought out of their cells, the procession to Tyburn formed up, the bell would already be tolling. When the procession reached St Sepulchre’s churchyard wall, the carts carrying the condemned persons would stop while the clerk rang his handbell and spoke a second set speech. This reminded the onlookers that the bell was tolling for the prisoners, invited them to pray for them, and once again admonished the prisoners to repent. The prisoners were also given a bunch of flowers to carry to the gallows. St Sepulchre's church bell continued to be tolled until the executions were over. It must have been audible over much if not all of the early modern metropolis. The custom continued well into the eighteenth century.

The set speeches in use in the early eighteenth-century, which I imagine were those prescribed by Dove, or very close, are printed in Edward Hatton's New View of London (1708) [II, 707]. They are in prose. This is the first one:

You Prisoners within, who for your Wickedness and Sin:

After many Mercies shew’d you, you are now appointed to be Executed to Death to Morrow in the Forenoon. Give ear and understand, that to morrow morning the greatest Bell of St. Sepulchre’s parish shall toll for you from 6 till 10, in order and manner of a Passing-Bell, which used to be toll’d for those which lie at the point of Death, to the end, that all godly People hearing that Bell, and knowing it is for you going to your Deaths, may be stirred up to hearty prayer to God to bestow his Grace and Mercy upon you, whilst you yet live. Seeing the Prayers of others will do you no good, unless you turn to God in true sorrow for your Sins, and pray with them for your selves also: I beseech you all, and every one of you for Jesus Christ’s sake, to keep this Night in watching and hearty prayer to God for the Salvation of your own Souls, whilst there is yet time and place for Mercy, as knowing that to morrow you must appear before the Judgment Seat of your Creator, there to give an account of all things done in this Life, and to suffer Eternal Torment for your sins committed against him, unless upon your hearty and unfeigned Repentance you obtain Mercy, through the Merits, and Death, and Passion of Jesus Christ your only Mediator and Redeemer, who came into the World to save Sinners, and now sits at the Right Hand of God to make Intercession for you, if you penitently return to him.

So, Lord have mercy upon you, Lord have mercy upon you all.

At which point the rather jaunty rhyming version found in The Tyburn Chronicle was composed I do not know. I am sure, from the use of the expression 'the condemned hold' (earliest instance in OED 1717), it dates from some time in the eighteenth century. Whether the rhymed version was ever really used in place of the speech that was originally composed by Dove is another thing I cannot answer, though I am strongly inclined to doubt it.

For John Strype’s account of Dove and his charities (1720; account based on Anthony Munday’s 1618 revision of Stow’s Survey of London) see the online edition of Strype’s Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster. (Raise a cheer for the magnificent hriOnline team, the people who have also brought us the The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913.) The relevant pages in Strype are here, here, and here.


Post Scriptum:

i) library_keeper, in a very interesting post, has traced the bellman’s rhyme back to Hell upon Earth: or The most Pleasant and Delectable History of Whittington’s Colledge, Otherwise (vulgarly) called Newgate (1703).

ii) artnouveauho asked why the condemned were given a nosegay to carry to the gallows?. This is a summary of my answer in a comment to my post on LiveJournal:

• prisoners going to the gallows regularly carried a sprig of rosemary (earliest reference 1618)



• sprigs of rosemary 'for remembrance' were customarily carried by mourners at funerals: the condemned person going to be hanged was effectively taking part in his or her own funeral procession



• there is a mention of a prisoner carrying a nosegay of flowers to execution as early as 1607; in that case, the prisoner is represented as asking his sweetheart to make sure he has the requisite nosegay on the day



• there are lots of later mentions of condemned persons carrying nosegays of flowers; at least one later one (1697) makes it clear that the prisoner had to arrange for his or her own nosegay


It is my guess that originally, at least, the nosegay that every stylish prisoner carried would have contained the traditional sprig of rosemary, made up into a bouquet with seasonal flowers.

Some further thoughts:

The statement that condemned prisoners on their way to Tyburn were given a nosegay when they arrived at St Sepulchre's is confidently asserted in many books from Victorian times onwards. Yet at the moment the earliest source I can find for this custom is the book Nollekens and His Times, by John Thomas Smith, first published in 1828. Smith reminisces about the procession to Tyburn of the famous highwayman John Rann ('Sixteen-String Jack') which he witnessed in 1774 at the age of eight: 'The criminal was dressed in a pea-green coat, with an immense nosegay in the button-holes, which had been presented to him at St Sepulchre's steps.' Smith did not see the ceremony at St Sepulchre's; he is clearly relying on what he remembers being told on that occasion: which took place more than fifty years before he was writing.