llimore, an aged labourer. They stole his silver
watch, but were too frightened to continue their search for money which
they expected to find, and made a hasty retreat; but they were soon
overtaken, and were subsequently, at Reading Assizes, tried and
condemned to be gibbeted on Ufton Common within sight of their homes.
For many years their ghastly remains were suspended to gibbet posts,
much to the terror and annoyance of the people in the district. No
attempt was made to remove the bodies, on account of it being regarded
as unlawful, until Mrs. Brocas, of Beaurepaire, then residing at
Wokefield Park, gave private orders for them to be taken down in the
night and buried, which was accordingly done. During her daily drives
she passed the gibbeted men and the sight greatly distressed her, and
caused her to have them taken down.[13] The ironwork of the gibbets are
in the Reading Museum.

William Lewin, in 1788, robbed the post-boy carrying the letters from
Warrington to Northwich, between Stretton and Whitley. He managed to
elude the agents of the law for three years, but was eventually
captured, tried at Chester, and found guilty of committing the then
capital offence of robbing the mail. He was hanged at Chester. Says a
contemporary account:--"His body is hung in chains on the most elevated
part of Helsby Tor, about eight miles from Chester; from whence it may
be conspicuously seen, and, by means of glasses, is visible to the whole
county, most parts of Lancashire, Flintshire, Denbighshire, Shropshire,
Derbyshire, etc., etc."[14] About this period there were three gibbets
along the road between Warrington and Chester.[15]

Only five months after William Lewin had been gibbeted for robbing the
mails, almost in the same locality Edward Miles robbed and murdered the
post-boy carrying the Liverpool mail-bag to Manchester on September
15th, 1791. For this crime he was hanged, and suspended in chains on
the Manchester Road, near "The Twysters," where the murder had been
committed. In 1845 the irons in which the body had been encased were dug
up near the site of the gibbet, and may now be seen in the Warrington
Museum. Our illustration is reproduced from a drawing in Mr. Madeley's
work, "Some Obsolete Modes of Punishment." It will be observed the irons
which enclosed the head are wanting.

[Illustration: MILES'S GIBBET IRONS, WARRINGTON MUSEUM.]

Spence Broughton was tried at York, in 1792, for robbing the mail
running be