Skevington's gyves

History

The Scavenger's Daughter (or Skevington's Daughter) was invented as an instrument of torture in the reign of Henry VIII by Sir Leonard Skevington, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, a son of Sir William Skeffington (died 1535), Lord Deputy of Ireland, and of his first wife, Margaret Digby. Compare: ; page 325; third para from end: - "[William] Skeffington married, first, Margaret, daughter of Sir Everard Digby of Drystoke, by whom he had a son Thomas, his heir, who married Margaret, daughter and heiress of Edmund Stanhope of West Markham, Nottinghamshire; and, secondly, Ann, daughter of Sir John Digby of Kettleby in Leicestershire, by whom he had apparently a son Leonard, 'sometime lieutenant of the Tower,' and the inventor of an instrument of torture, known as 'Skevington's irons' or 'Skevington's daughter,' by which the body of the victim was completely doubled up until the head and feet were drawn together, the invention of which has been erroneously ascribed to his father, Sir William." The device consisted of a metal rack shaped into an A-frame; the victim's head was strapped to the top point of the A, the hands at the midpoint, and the legs at the lower spread ends. The frame could fold, swinging the head down and forcing the knees up into a sitting position, compressing the body so as to force blood from the nose and ears.

The Scavenger's Daughter was conceived as the perfect complement to the Duke of Exeter's Daughter (the rack) because it worked according to the opposite principle - by compressing the body rather than stretching it.

The best-documented use is that on the Irishman Thomas Miagh, charged with being in contact with rebels in Ireland. It may be in connection with the Scavenger's Daughter that Miagh carved on the wall of the Beauchamp Tower in the Tower of London, "By torture straynge my truth was tried, yet of my libertie denied. 1581. Thomas Miagh."

Another victim of the Scavenger's Daughter was Thomas Cottam, an English Catholic priest and martyr from Lancashire, who suffered it twice in the 1580s before being released. Cottam was executed in 1582 during the reign (1558-1603) of Henry's daughter, Elizabeth I. Likewise, on 10 December 1580, the priest Luke Kirby was subjected to it.

The Scavenger's Daughter is also known as Skevington's gyves, as iron shackle, as the Stork (as in Italian cicogna) or as the Spanish A-frame. Further it is known as Skevington's daughter, from which the more commonly known folk etymology using "Scavenger" is derived. There is a Scavenger's daughter on display in the Tower of London museum.

Notes

Sources

• Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, "Duke of Exeter's Daughter".

References

1. [http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/scavengers-daughter.htm Scavenger's Daughter"]. Retrieved 25 March 2011
2. Selwood, Dominic, ''England's Salem'', ''Catholic Herald'', 31 October 2018
3. [https://books.google.com/books?id=KaI-Rl8p6C0C&pg=PA20 Challoner, Richard. ''Memoirs of Missionary Priests'', Thomas Richardson & son, 1843, p. 110]{{PD-notice}}