MARWOOD, WILLIAM (1820–1883), public executioner, born at Horncastle, Lincolnshire, in 1820, was by trade a cobbler. He turned his attention early to the subject of executions. He suggested that culprits ought, for reasons of humanity, not to be choked to death. By carefully ascertaining a criminal's weight, and by employing a proportionate length of rope, he showed that the descent of the body into the pit beneath the scaffold would instantaneously dislocate the vertebræ, and thus cause immediate death. He obtained his first engagement as a hangman at Lincoln in 1871, and his 'long-drop' system worked with success on that and many subsequent occasions. Among the more celebrated criminals whom he put to death were Charles Peace, Percy Lefroy Mapleton, Dr. Lamson, and Kate Webster. He died at Church Lane, Horncastle, on 4 Sept. 1883, aged 63, and was buried in Trinity Church on 6 Sept.
[The Life of W. Marwood, 1883, with portrait; Law Journal, 8 Sept. 1883, p. 490; St. Stephen's Review, 3 Nov. 1883, pp. 9, 20. facsimile of his letter; Illustrated Police News, 15 Sept. 1883, pp. 1–2, with portrait.]
MARY I (1516–1558), queen of England and Ireland, third but only surviving child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, was born at four o'clock in the morning of Monday, 18 Feb. 1515–16, at Greenwich Palace. She was baptised with great solemnity on Wednesday, 20 Feb., in the monastery of Grey Friars, which adjoined Greenwich Palace. Margaret Pole, countess of Salisbury [q. v.], carried her to the font, assisted by the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk. The Princess Catherine Plantagenet, daughter of Edward IV, and the Duchess of Norfolk were her godmothers. Cardinal Wolsey stood godfather. The infant was named Mary, after her father's favourite sister [see Mary, 1496–1533]. After baptism, the girl received the rite of confirmation, the Countess of Salisbury acting as sponsor. To the countess, a very pious catholic, the queen confided the general care of the child, while Catherine, wife of Leonard Pole (a kinsman of the countess's husband, Sir Richard Pole), was appointed her nurse, and before she was a year old, Henry Rowte, a priest, became her chaplain and clerk of the closet. For her first year Mary chiefly lived under the same roof as her parents. The autumn of 1517 she spent at the royal residence of Ditton Park, Buckinghamshire, within easy reach of Windsor. In February 1518, when she was just two, Henry VIII, carrying her in his arms, introduced her to a crowd of courtiers, including Wolsey and Sebastian Giustinian, the Venetian ambassador. All kissed the child's hand, but Mary suddenly cast her eyes on a Venetian friar, Dionisius Memo, the king's organist, and calling out, 'Priest, priest,' summoned him to play with her (Giustinian, ii. 161; Brewer, i. 232). The childish cry—Mary's first reported words—almost seems of prophetic import. About the same time Margaret, wife of Sir Thomas Bryan, was made governess to the princess, and there were added to her household a chamberlain (Sir Weston Browne) and a treasurer (Richard Sydnour).
In 1520, while her parents were in France, Mary stayed at Richmond Palace, and gave signs of remarkable precocity. The lords of the council, writing (9 June) to her father of a visit they had just paid her, described her as 'right merry and in prosperous health and state, daily exercising herself in virtuous pastimes and occupations.' A few days later three Frenchmen of rank visited her; she welcomed and entertained them 'with most goodly countenance,' and surprised them with 'her skill in playing on the virginals, her tender age considered.' She spent the Christmas following with her father at Greenwich, and seems to have thoroughly enjoyed the extravagant festivities which characterised Henry's court at that season. A dramatic performance by a man and three boys was arranged for her special benefit. Christmas of 1521 Mary celebrated at her own residence of Ditton Park, and elaborate devices were prepared by John Thurgoode, one of the valets of her household, who masqueraded as the Lord of Misrule. In February 1522 she stood godmother to the daughter of Sir William Compton, to whom she gave her own name. The child was the first of a long succession of infants to whom the princess stood in a like relation.
Before she left her cradle Mary had become a recognised factor in her father's political intrigues with his two continental rivals, Francis I and Charles V. On 28 Feb. 1517–1518 a son was born to Francis, and Wolsey straightway opened negotiations for a marriage between Mary and the new-born heir of France (Giustinian, ii. 177). By 9 July the articles were drawn up; in September a richly furnished embassy was sent by Francis to complete the treaty. On 5 Oct. 1518 bridal ceremonies took place at Greenwich amid a splendour which suggested to the Venetian ambassador a comparison with the court of Cleopatra or Caligula. The princess was dressed in cloth of gold, and her cap of black velvet blazed with jewels. The dauphin was represented by Admiral Bonnivet, who placed
