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The manqueller
00:00 Sat 23rd Feb 2002 | Phrases & Sayings
Q. Sounds serious. What is it
A. Who was it, more like. Originally it meant a murderer, one who quells (in its archaic sense of 'to kill') a man�-�but from the Middle Ages on, it came to be used for the town executioner.
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Q. A hangman, then.
A. Yes, in that the most common method of execution in England was hanging. The manqueller and his family were social pariahs, seriously restricted�as to�with whom they were allowed to have any form of social intercourse. Nor were they allowed to change jobs - an early form of demarcation - except to other socially unacceptable professions such as torturer, knacker or maybe, at a push, butcher.
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Q. There must have been a few perks to being a manqueller
A. They did get to dance with women caught in adultery. An odd one, admittedly: it was a punishment for the adulterer, but perhaps a perk for the manqueller. Who knows Some executioners, given their intimate knowledge of anatomy, gained a certain cachet as a kind of shaman, and they were often approached for special occult preparations and body parts that might ensure good health or luck -�a service for which, naturally, there would be a fee.
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Q. Body parts
A. Indeed. Dead people's hands in particular were considered pretty useful. They were rumoured to have the quality of curing tumours: this was done by stroking the affected area nine times with the limb. The European
Magazine featured a piece by R. Grose in the early 19th century, in which he says: 'The hand of a person dying a violent death was particularly efficacious, as it very frequently happens that nurses bring children to be stroked with the hands of executed criminals, even whilst they are still hanging on the gallows.' Nice.Another way in which the manqueller made a few bob out of the hands of their late clients was to soak them in oil and sell them as a special kind of torch which, when lit, would enable people to locate hidden treasure.
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Up to the 18th century it was also the practice of the executioner to sell lengths of the rope from which the hanged were suspended on the derrick - the more celebrated the victim, the greater the price per inch of rope.
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Q. Derrick
A. Derrick meant both the gallows and, less often, the executioner. It was so named for an infamous Tyburn hangman, Godfrey Derrick, who practised his craft on a large number of 'gallows-ripe' clientele in the late 16th century, until his own career was cut short by being taken to the Tyburn Tree himself in 1601.
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Q. Is this related to oil derrick
A. It is. In the 18th century, derrick came to mean a kind of crane or hoist, and in this sense is used for the structure above an oil well.
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Q. And not to be confused with
Herr Inspector Stephan Derrick, the legendary Bavarian crime-buster. In 250 episodes of the eponymous programme over 21 years, Derrick, along with his sidekick Harry Klein, became Germany's most famous television export, and the series has been shown in 95 countries, including, briefly, the UK - though it wasn't taken as seriously as it might have been by British audiences and programmers, being relegated to late-night slots usually reserved for low-grade US dramas. Shame.
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See also the answerbank articles on Tyburn and archaic professions
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For more on Phrases & Sayings click here
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by Simon Smith
