BYGONE SUSSEX - online book

Essays, Sketches and Illustrations of bygone Sussex

	I N the golden days of Elizabeth, when the ancient town of the Cinque Ports was still " Rye Royal," there happened a strange tragedy, the particulars of which are commemorated in a tract, written by L. B.—whose full name remains unknown—and which the title page states to be "printed by Felix Kingston for R. W., and are to be solde in Paternoster Row at the signe of the Talbot" in 1598. This account is noteworthy, not only in relation to forensic medicine, but to the methods of criminal law as administered in the days of the Tudors. The facts are in a small compass. Henry Robson, a fisherman of Rye, was for a long time well thought of by his neighbours, but a taste for lavish expenditure led him into debt, and being unable to satisfy his creditors, he was, as the result of several suits, cast into prison as a debtor, and remained there without any prospect of release. He had a faithful, honest wife, but she was unable to pay