Halifax

A corruption of the Saxon “Haligfock,” from halig , holy, and fock , people. For what reason the inhabitants of this place were considered more saintly than people elsewhere local tradition does not say. Halifax in Nova Scotia was named, on the foundation of the city in 1749, by the Hon. Edward Cornwall is, after the Earl of Halifax. Halifax Gibbet Law. An ancient enactment for the protection of the local woollen manufacture. Owing to the systematic theft by the employées in the trade of material supplied to them, it was found that the fabric lacked body and weight. To put a stop to this pilfering a law was pa ed, making the theft of anything whatsoever, to the value to thirteen pence halfpenny, subject to the death penalty. On conviction before a magistrate the thief was publicly executed on the next market day. The mode of execution was not by hanging, but by beheading, the instrument used being a kind of guillotine. Taylor, the Water Poet, speaks of this “Jyn that wondrous quick and well, Sends thieves all headle into heaven or hell.”