subs. (old).—Thirteen-pence-halfpenny. [The fee for an execution was a Scots mark: the value of which piece was settled, by a proclamation of James I., at 131/2d.]

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  1602.  DEKKER, The Honest Whore, Pt. II., in Wks. (1873) ii., 171. Why should I eate hempe-seed at the HANGMAN’S THIRTEENE-PENCE HALFE-PENNY ordinary?

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  1659.  The Hangman’s Last Will and Testament (Rump Song quoted in Notes and Queries, 2 S. xi., 316).

        For half THIRTEEN PENCE HALF PENNY WAGES
I would have cleared all the Town cages,
And you should have been rid of all the Sages.
                    I and my Gallows groan.

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  1678.  BUTLER, Hudibras, pt. III., c. 2, 750.

        To find us pill’ries and cart’s-tails,
Or HANGMAN’S WAGES.

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  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. HANGMAN’S WAGES. Thirteen pence halfpenny; which, according to the vulgar tradition, was thus allotted, one shilling for the execution, and three halfpence for the rope.

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