‘A virtue beyond all medicine’: The Hanged Man's Hand, Gallows Tradition and Healing in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-century England

Abstract

From the eighteenth century through to the abolition of public executions in England in 1868, the touch of a freshly hanged man's hand was sought after to cure a variety of swellings, wens in particular. While the healing properties of corpse hands in general were acknowledged and experimented with in early modern medicine, the gallows cure achieved prominence during the second half of the eighteenth century. What was it about the hanged man's hand (and it always was a male appendage) that gave it such potency? While frequently denounced as a disgusting ‘superstition’ in the press, this popular medical practice was inadvertently legitimised and institutionalised by the authorities through changes in execution procedure.

Seeking the Physical Remains of the Criminal Corpse

“…during this time, it was popularly believed that the touch or stroke of a hanged man's hand (always male) had the power to cure skin disorders. 19 While the corpse still hung on the gallows, its hand was stroked three, seven, or nine times over the affected area of the individual who stood or was held up, in the case of small children, so the action could be performed. The hanged man's hand was made powerful through a combination of factors.…”

The Spectacle of the Scaffold

“…99 Similarly, Davies and Matteoni investigated the belief in the healing properties of the hanged man's hand if it was rubbed against bodily swellings, a practice that achieved prominence in England in the second half of the eighteenth century. 100 In addition, the essays within a recent edited volume examining the global history of execution and the criminal corpse respectively explored the interplay between power, belief and display in the punishment of the criminal body. 101 McGowen stated that the punishment of a criminal's body was as much to do with the "language of community" as with the "mechanics of pain."…”

How to Hang in Chains: How, Where and When Eighteenth-Century Sheriffs Organised a Gibbeting

“…A newspaper search revealed 27 instances of curative uses of the hanged man's hand between 1758 and 1863. 64 It is mostly the newly hanged man's hand that was sought after, while still hanging from the scaffold on which the execution had taken place. Touching the hand of a gibbeted criminal must have been challenging, given the height of the post and the rigid design of many cages.…”