Military Punishments

15 January 1726   Wednesday last three private Centinels of the Foot-Guards were whipt in Hyde-Park; one for desertion, another for being a Papist, and the third for cursing his Colonel; the last ran the gauntlet, and the others were ty’d to a tree. [Weekly Journal, or The British Gazetteer ]

26 February 1726   Saturday last . . . a Centinel in the Second Regiment of Foot Guards, having been whipt on three several days, pursuant to the sentence of the Court Martial, for several times striking in the Guard Room at Whitehall the Right Hon. the Earl of Albermarle, his Colonel, then on guard, was drumm’d out of the Regiment with a halter about his neck; and we hear he had received sentence of death; but the same was mitigated at the request of the sa’d noble Lord. [Weekly Journal, or The British Gazetteer]

26 March 1726   Last Thursday John Ellis a private Centinel in Colonel Ingoldsby’s Company, in the First Regiment of Foot Guards, was shot to death in Hyde-Park for desertion. About seven in the morning he was convey’d from the Savoy to the Tilt-Yard, and 10 men from each Company of the three Regiments being drawn up on the parade before ten; the drums beat the Grenadiers March, when the prisoner hand-cuff’d, and a clergyman with him, march’d on foot to the place of execution, when he seemingly died very penitent. [Weekly Journal, or The British Gazetteer]