Heads On Micklegate Bar

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A few centuries back, anyone looking up at the grandeur of Micklegate Bar may have found a pair of lifeless eyes staring back at them. For the main gateway into the city once served as a gruesome gallery for the severed heads of traitors. It was a very brutal and public form of justice. Skewered on a pikestaff high above the city, the silenced heads spoke eloquently of the fate awaiting those who dared plot against rulers of city and country.

The last heads to be placed upon Micklegate Bar were stolen between January 28 and 29, 1754. They had once been attached to two of the Jacobite rebels captured at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The Jacobites were supporters of the deposed Catholic king James II and his grandson, known as Bonnie Prince Charlie. Culloden effectively marked the end of the revolt.

Many of the captured Jacobites were brought to York for trial and convicted of high treason. Twenty-two of them were executed at York Tyburn, by the side of the Knavesmire, ten on 1st November 1746 and eleven on the 8th November 1746 and a further Jacobite, Piper James Reid on the 15th November 1746.

For some reason, three of the rebels' bodies were treated differently to the rest. The head of Captain George Hamilton was packed in a hat box and dispatched to Carlisle, where it was placed on display. George Hamilton of Redhouse, Edinburgh was a Captain in Baggot's Hussars. He was taken captive at Clifton Moor, and was tried at York, found guilty, and executed. It was stated at his trial that he went to the Canongate Church where several English soldiers were confined after the Battle of Prestonpans, and threatened them with death if they refused to enlist in the Prince's army. Evidence was produced that actually he had tended the English wounded, but this was rebutted in court. -PC, 250; Macbeth Forbes, 14; S.P.D., 81-88, 88-42; Scots mag., 1746, 483, 542.

The other two heads, those of William Conolly and James Mayne, were set above Micklegate Bar in accordance with strict orders from the government. William Connolly was an Irish Protestant from Londonderry. He was a deserter from the Scots Fusiliers, and was captured at Carlisle. At his trial it was stated that he had formally been in the Scots Fusiliers and that at Prestonpans he had "advised to kill the redcoats, especially of Lee's Regiment because they would know him again" and also that he had killed an English soldier. S.P.D., 88-42; Scot's mag., 1746, 483, 542.

James Mayne (Main), a Sergeant in Grant's Regiment was a Brewer or tallow Chandler from Alloa, Stirling. He "joined the rebels before Preston battle and went with them to England. London Prisoner". He pleaded guilty at his trial on 6th October 1746, and was sentenced to death. - Scots mag.,1746, 483, 542; S.P.D., 82-42, 81-293; Baga, Ixix.189. This macabre tradition may have been connected to a widespread belief that you had to be buried with your skull and two major bones of your body to go to heaven. Cutting off a traitor's head and displaying it away from their body supposedly punished them in eternity.

The heads were usually left out in the open for years. "The women of York used to complain bitterly about pieces of flesh dropping on them when they were promenading underneath". Somebody had the bright idea of fitting each of the heads with an inverted collar, which was like a feeding trough for birds.

The heads of William Conolly and James Mayne remained on Micklegate Bar for more than seven years. They were the first sight which greeted any visitor from the south. Then, on the snowy morning of January 29, 1754, the duty watchman discovered that the skulls had gone. As soon as he was informed, the Lord Mayor of York, Richard Lawson, went immediately to Micklegate Bar and climbed to the very top to confirm the loss.

Clearly, the authorities had intended to keep the heads on display for much longer. Whoever took them was guilty of treason, it was decided. A few days afterwards the mayor issued a notice which stated how the heads had been "wilfully and designedly taken down and carried away".

"If any person or persons (except the person or persons who actually took down and carried away the same) will discover the person or persons who were guilty of so unlawful and audacious an action, or anywise hiding or assisting therein, he, she, or they shall, upon the conviction of the offenders, receive a reward of ten pounds from the Mayor and Commonality of the City of York." York's leaders, together with the Government and the members of the Rockingham Club, later increased the amount of the reward to £112 10s.

The king, George II, was furious. A message despatched by him to York on February 19 said: "His Majesty is pleased to direct you to make forthwith the strictest inquiry after the person or persons, authors, contrivers, or abettors of this wicked, traitorous, and outrageous proceeding, that the same may be forthwith proceeded against according to law for this their heinous offence".

Soon afterwards a journeyman cooper named Thomas Wake was at a cobbler's shop near the bar when he drunkenly pointed towards the turrets and boasted that he was the man who had taken down the rebels' heads. He was arrested and committed for trial at York Assizes, but proved he was not the chief offender. Subsequently, the king's most gracious pardon was offered to any one of the persons concerned in the "audacious" act who would confess who was the man that actually removed the heads.

After further investigation another man was arrested. At the assizes in July 1754, the jury found a true bill against William Arundel, a tailor of York, "for traitorously and seditiously taking down from Micklegate Bar the heads of two rebels there affixed".

He was fined £5 and imprisoned for two years, and, until he found sureties of £200 for his good behaviour, for two years more. Since then, no one's severed head has been placed on display anywhere in York, including on Micklegate Bar, although it remains to this day the royal entrance to the city.

Towards the end of the 19th Century workmen were digging a drain at the back of the Castle Prison. They discovered about 20 bodies, some of which lacked skulls and the bones were all disjointed. These were thought to be the skeletons of the Jacobite rebels executed in 1746 and buried in a mass grave.

DISCOVERY OF THE REMAINS OF SCOTTISH REBELS:- Within the last few days a curious discovery has been made behind York Castle. A number of excavators were employed there to dig a drain, when they turned up the remains of about twenty bodies: but he skulls of three or four of them were wanting, and the bones appeared mixed together, in such an unusual manner as to excite the curiosity of all who saw the positions in which they were found. The conclusion formed respecting them is, that they are the remains of twenty-one Scottish Rebels who were executed near York, ten of them on Saturday 1st, and the remainder on Saturday 8th of November 1746, when they were hanged, drawn and quartered.

Ref:- Criminal Chronology of York Castle; with a register of the Criminals capitally convicted and executed at the County Assizes. Published by C L Burdekin, No. 2 Parliament Street, London; Simpkin, Marshall & Co. (1867) page 60 - 62.

Ref:- “Damn Rebel Bitches: women of the 45” by Maggie Craig page 97