Note 95 — Chapter III · Early Lynch-law
Reading edition
Joseph Johnson: “Traditions and Reminiscences” (1851), p. 71. “The punishment of banishment, preceded by the more dreadful operation of tarring and feathering,” was put in execution by a “judicial Association” in the early days of a settlement on the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. See R. G. Jameson: “New Zealand, South Australia, and New South Wales” (London, 1842), pp. 190–191.
The Yankee, June 4, 1813, p. 4, cited one of the laws of the naval code established during the reign of Richard I as the “Origin of Tarring and Feathering.” By this law any one lawfully convicted of stealing should have his head shorn, and boiling pitch poured upon his head, and feathers or down strewed upon the same, whereby he might be known until the next landing place was reached, where he was to be left.—See Hakluyt’s “Voyages,” II, 21.