BRANDING (from

See also:

• TEUTONIC
• TEUTONIC (GERMANIC) LANGUAGES

Teutonic brinnan, to

See also:

• BURN, RICHARD (1709-1785)

burn)  , in criminal law a mode of punishment; also a method of marking goods or animals; in either case by stamping with a hot iron . The Greeks branded their slaves with a Delta, A, for AoDXos . Robbers and runaway slaves were marked by the Romans with the letter F (fur, fugitivus); and the toilers in the mines, and convicts condemned to figure in gladiatorial shows, were branded on the forehead for identification . Under Constantine the face was not permitted to be so disfigured, the branding being on the hand, arm or calf . The canon law sanctioned the punishment, and in France galley-slaves could be branded " TF " (travaux forces) until 1832 . In Germany, however, branding was illegal . The punishment was adopted by the Anglo-Saxons, and the ancient law of England authorized the penalty . By the Statute of Vagabonds (1547) under Edward VI. vagabonds, gipsies and brawlers were ordered to be branded, the first two with a large V on the breast, the last with F for " fraymaker." Slaves, too, who ran away were branded with S on cheek or forehead . This law was repealed in 1636 . From the time of Henry VII. branding was inflicted for all offences which received benefit of clergy (q.v.), but it was abolished for such in 1822 . In 1698 it was enacted that those convicted of petty theft or larceny, who were entitled to benefit of clergy, should be " burnt in the most visible part of the left cheek, nearest the nose." This special ordinance was repealed in 1707 . James Nayler, the mad Quaker, who in the year 1655 claimed to be the Messiah, had his tongue bored through and his forehead branded B for blasphemer .

In the

Lancaster criminal court a branding-iron is still pre-served in the dock . It is a long bolt with a wooden handle at one end and an M (malefactor) at the other . Close by are two iron loops for firmly securing the hands during the operation . The brander, after examination, would turn to the judge and exclaim, " A fair mark, my lord." Criminals were formerly ordered to hold up their hands before sentence to show if they had been previously convicted . Cold branding or branding with cold irons became in the 18th century the mode of nominally inflicting the punishment on prisoners of higher rank . " When Charles Moritz, a young German, visited England in 1782 he was much surprised at this custom, and in his diary mentioned the case of a clergyman who had fought a duel and killed his man in Hyde Park . Found guilty of manslaughter he was burnt in the hand, if that could be called burning which was done with a cold iron " (Markham's Ancient Punishments of Northants, 1886) . Such cases led to branding becoming obsolete, and it was abolished in 1829 except in the case of deserters from the army . These were marked with the letter D, not with hot irons but by tattooing with ink or gunpowder . Notoriously bad soldiers were also branded with BC (bad character) . By the British Mutiny Act of 1858 it was enacted that the court-martial, in addition to any other penalty, may order deserters to be marked on the left side, 2 in. below the armpit, with the letter )t), such letter to be not less than 1 in. long . In 1819 this was abolished .

See W .

Andrews, Old Time Punishments (Hull, 1890) ; A . M . Earle, Curious Punishments of Bygone Days (London, 1896) .