Hand of Glory#

A brief report in the Nottingham Review of Friday 15 March 1811 records:

Last week, as some men were employed in lowering a hill near Nottingham gallows, they dug up more than twenty human sculls, and a number of other bones of a corresponding nature; but from there not being one entire skeleton found, from the number of limb-bones not being proportionate to the number of sculls, and from the whole being found near the surface, it is very probable they were taken thither at some distant period, on the lowering of one of the churchyards.

Or how about the following case, which starts in December, 1812, with reports in Worcester of a “daring robbery and attempt at murder”.

A week later, the tragic death of Mr Robins was reported: the crime was now one of murder rather than attempted murder.

With the charge now one of murder, the supoort of Bow Street officers was called for, who began their investigations and set off on a hunt for the miscreant the reads something like an episode of a TV detective series.

Four hundred miles in pursuit, January 1813

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002634/18130120/021/0004 London Chronicle - Wednesday 20 January 1813

MURDER.

In consequence of the robbery and murder of Benjamin Robins, near Stoutbridge, on the 11th ult. and a number of daring depredations having been committed in that part of the country, the Magistrates and wealthy inhabitants wrote up to the Public-office, Bow-Street, and applied for two officers. Adkins and Taunton were dispatched there with all speed. The officers, soon after their arrival, heard of a suspicious character, and they travelled upward of four hundred miles in pursuit of him, his person answering fully to the description given by Mr. Robins of his murderer.—They learnt that his name was William Howe, a journeyman carpenter, who resided at Humbersley, about six miles from Kidderminster. He had been discharged from his employment for some trifling offence, supposed to be a petty theft. He had left his home on the 17th of December, telling his wife he was going to Worcester to endeavour to get work, but was seen at Kidderminster on that day. The officers found persons who could prove him in the neighbourhood where Mr. Robins was robbed and shot, at least a man afnswering his descriptiin, and some of them stated that he had something under his coat like a pistol.

On the evening of the murder and robbery, just before he came up with Mr. Robins, as it is supposed, he called in at a cottage, and begged a pin of the woman: it struck her as an extraordinary circumstance, as he did not appear to have any use for it, but merely stuck it in his coat sleeve. It is supposed, however, he wanted it for the purpose of clearing the touch-hole of his pistol. A little girl in the cottage noticed his particular make, he having very small eyes, and being bow-legged. On the evening of the 22d of December, about seven o’clock, he returned home, appearing very tired. The following morning he packed up his clothes in a box, and his carpenter’s tools in another, and in one of them he put a pistol. He took them to the carrier, and they were conveyed to Worcester that morning; he walked with the carrier. At Worcester the officers discovered that his boxes had been to the London waggon-office, with the direction on them William Wood, Cattle and Falcon Aldersgate-street, London. They traced the man from Worcester to the Cattle and Falcon Inn, in Aldersgate-street, where he claimed the boxes directed to William Wood; he did not employ any regular porter or cart, but stopped a meal man’s cart in the street, which conveyed the boxes for him to the Bull Inn, Bishopsgate-street, from thence he removed them in a cooper’s cart, which happened to be passing at the time. Here all traces of the boxes and the man were lost for a considerable time. The officers made inquiries at about one hundred coopers, but could not gain the least information; at length, when they were going along the Commercial-road, following up their inquiries, they met a cooper’s cart; they told the driver the object of their pursuit; he denied knowing any thing of the circumstance, but promised to use his utmost endeavours to find out the cart. The officers promised to reward him if he did, and gave him their address.

On the evening of the same day the man called on them, confessed that he had deceived them, and his reason for doing so was, that he had once got into great trouble with his mailer, for carrying something in his cart, and he had threatened to turn him away if he did so again; but as this was to lead to the detection of a murderer, he would run the risk of it. He then told them that he had carried the boxes for a man answering the description of the one they wanted, but had only taken them a very short distance from the Bull Inn, to a house in a court in Bishopsgate-street. The officers there learnt that he had gained admission into the house of a poor widow woman, by imposing upon her, and telling her falsely that he was recommended to her by a neighbour, and that he knew her husband. He agreed to pay her a shilling a week to let his boxes stay there, telling her he worked in the country, and that he should occasionally call for his tools and clothes.— The Officers told the old woman what he was charged with, and agreed to reward her if she would keep the secret, and let them stay in her house to wait for his calling, which she agreed to, and they staid there day and night, till last Thursday evening, when he called at the old woman’s, and the Officers took him into custody. He denied having been at Stourbridge, or that he had even heard of the murder of Mr. Robins. In one of his boxes the Officers found a bright pistol and two bullets. The pistol is nine inches long, and answers the description of the pistol given by Mr. Robins, that was presented to him to shoot him a second time, which he he saw distinctly, it being very light. Friday night Adkins and Taunton left town with him in their custody, for Stourbridge.

The offender was duly committed to trial, found guilty under the weight of circumstantial evidence, and sentenced to death and hanging in chains.

Having been executed, the rest of the sentence — hanging in chains — was then duly carried out. But it seems that the story does not quite end there, as we see from a brief article in the Nottingham Gazette of Friday 16 September 1814, which describes the following, rather gruesome, robbery:

Robbery Extraordinary, September 1814

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001099/18140916/015/0003

Nottingham Gazette - Friday 16 September 1814

Robbery Extraordinary.— The remains of Howe, who was hung in irons, eighteen months since, near Stourbridge, for the murder Mr. Robins, of Dunsley, were stolen from the gibbet, in the night of Saturday se’nnight.

So what might have been the reason for such a theft?

The Magical Properties of the Hand of Hanged Man#

The hand of glory is a fantastic device that can be used by thieves to keep people asleep as they go about their nefarious business. How a hand of glory is made also contains a tale. A typical telling of the hand of glory story is as follows:

It’s a dark and stormy night and several travellers were gathered in a remote inn. There was a knock at the door — a beggar seeking shelter. He was welcomed in. Everyone settled down to sleep, except for the serving who had finished her chores and was struggling to to sleep. She noticed the beggar take something out of his bag - it looked like a candle in a misshapen candlestick. He lit the candle and muttered something “Let those who sleep, stay asleep”. He proceeded to go through everyone’s belongings. A thief. The girl went to raise a maser but he could not be woken. She went downstairs, and the robber heard her. As he tried to make his escape, she tried to douse the flame with water, with beer… ah, with milk. Folk were awoken, the robber caught and hung. The strange enchantment: a hand of glory, a candle in the hand of a dead man, cut from a corpse hanging on a gallows. In some tellings, the candle should be made from the fat of another hanged man. As a ward against the use of the hand of glory, the following is recommended: the application of an unguent composed of the gall of a black cat, the fat of a white hen, and the blood of a screech owl around the threshold of the door and other possible points of entry.

At the Oxford Storytelling Festival in 2022, I saw Nick Hennessey put the hand of glory to good effect as a frame tale around of set of beautifully linked inner tales with a fantastic twist revealed as a call-back. In the framing, all but one person falls asleep, and the thief character then begins to swap tales with the person who remained awake. The hand of glory might also be used more generally to flesh out a burglary sequence, as for example in the Knight of York when a burglar swaps the letter that would otherwise condemn the heroine to death.

One of the earliest references comes from 17th century English antiquary, John Aubrey:

Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, John Aubrey, (1696)/1881

In Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, John Aubrey, ed. J. Britten, 1881, p103 (Lansdowne Manuscript no. 231):

This brings to my remembrance a story that was generally believed when I was a Schooleboy (before the civill Warres) that Thieves when they broke open a house, would putt a Candle into a Dead man’s hand, and then the people in the Chamber would not awake. There is such a kind of story somewhere amongst the magical writers.

Another early reference appears courtesy of Petit Albert in 1765:

In Louis Liger’s La nouvelle maison rustique (“The New Rustic House, or General Economy of All Rural Assets”), a French guide book to rural life published in 1768, we see a mandrake root placed in a box described as a “hand of glory”, with the ability to propagate riches:

A translation of Petit Albert’s review of the hand of glory appears in Grose’s Provincial Glossary of 1787. Note that a ward against the use of the hand of glory is also provided:

The “dog days” are the hot and humid days of summer.

Brand’s Observations on Popular Antiquities also quotes Grose’s translation:

Another French description of the hand of glory can be found in the Dictionnaire Infernal of 1818. The previously offered ward against the use of the hand of glory is also described:

Another French view of the Main de gloire is given in Charles Nisard’s Histoire des livres populaires of 1854:

As well as describing the by now common an well-appreciated characteristics of the hand of the glory, the translation also describes how the hand of glory can be used as a “loot proximity detector”:

A news report, from 1831, of a hand of glory apparently being used in a robbery in Ireland was syndicated variously in 1841 as an example of the ignorance of the Irish peasantry:

In passing, it’s worth noting that the hand of glory also makes an appearances in the Nurse’s Story in the Ingoldsby Legends.

As well as a thief’s hand or finger, Benjamin Thorpe suggests in volume 3 of his Northern Mythology series of 1852, that a foot could also work:

If John Fiske is to be believed, in Myths And Mythmakers, 1872, the hand of glory is actually a macabre corruption of an invisibility charm known as a the Icelandic schamir, or “raven stone”:

The naïveté of the believers in the hand of glory superstition was also implied by it’s inclusion in John Timbs’ Popular Errors of 1852:

William Henderson, in his Notes on the Folklore of the Northern Counties of 1866 addresses the superstition of the hand of glory in various forms:

Baring Gould’s narration would seem to come from Dictionnaire Infernal.

Warning

The 1866 edition of William Henderson’s Notes on the Folklore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders also includes an appendix on “Household Tales” by Sabine Baring Gould. The appendix was dropped from later editions. A copy of the 1866 version was held by the Internet Archive, but it now seems to have been taken down; a version can still be found on Google Books.

Baring-Gould’s appendix includes a collected version of the tale.

Sabine Baring-Gould also relates a collected telling of the hand of glory story in his appendix to Notes on the Folklore of the Northern Counties.

Local tellings of the hand of glory story appear as elaborated “collected” fictionalisation of local legends. For example, in Thomas and Katharine Macquoid’s About Yorkshire of 1891:

Mentions of the Hand of Glory in Local Newspaper Folklore and Tradition Columns#

As local customs and folklore columns became popular in the local newspapers of the latter part of the 19th century, it is not surprising that the hand of glory started to make an appearance in some of them. For example, in the Cheshire Observer in 1872:

And slightly further north, in the Cumberland and Westmorland Advertiser of 1873:

A few years later, tales of the hand of glory are still filling column inches, as in the Stockton Herald in 1891:

Appearances in Notes & Queries#

Over the years, the hand of glory, and related matters, made several appearances in Notes & Queries, that veritable “medium of inter‐communication for literary men, artists, antiquaries, genealogists, etc.” in which you can chase down all manner of idle curiosities.

The subject first appears in a query regarding Grose’s account, although it is not clear whether a more contemporary publication had motivated the correspondent to submit the query:

A response comes back referring the enquirer to Petit Albert:

As befits a literary journal, another correspondent brought a literary reference to bear, in the form of a description of the hand of glory provided by Sir Walter Scott in The Antiquary, first published in 1816:

Although not related to the hand of glory, the following note regarding a hand used as a relic that was saved from a priest martyred by hanging may lead to another interesting short tale:

Back on the topic of the hand of glory, we have another literary reference, which also includes a reference in its notes to Grose’s report:

Another correspondent suggests alternative names of the hand of glory that might have been more original names:

At first glance, we might wonder why a “new thread” on the topic of the hand of glory appears to have been started under the heading “Thieves’ candles”; but it seems the author was an overseas reader, perhaps one who had not yet seen the March 23rd, 1872, issue, but had perhaps been motivated to submit the note having received a similar stimulus to the author of the original hand of glory query?

Several years later, a link is drawn between the “thieves’ candle” and the hand of glory, as described by Sir Walter Scott, and as referenced by Brand:

A few months later still, and a stronger parallel is now being drawn between the thieve’s candle and the hand of glory:

By now, the correspondent H. E. M. from St Petersberg, who had initiated the Thieves’ candles thread, has also discovered Nisard’s Histoire des Livres Populaires:

A French reference is also communicated to N&Q:

The reference to Littré is presumably Émile Littré’s Dictionnaire de la langue française, 1873, which includes the definition:

Main de gloire, nom d’un prétendu charme fait avec une racine de mandragore préparée d’une certaine manière, à laquelle les charlatans attribuaient le pouvoir de doubler l’argent qu’on mettait auprès; main de gloire est une altération de mandegloire, qui à son tour est une altération de mandragore. || Par suite de la défiguration du mot, main de gloire, nom d’un autre prétendu charme, qui se fait avec la main d’un pendu, enveloppée dans un drap mortuaire.

which is translated by ChatGPT as:

Hand of Glory, the name of an alleged charm made with a prepared mandrake root, to which charlatans attributed the power to double the money placed nearby. “Main de gloire” is a corruption of “mandegloire,” which, in turn, is a corruption of “mandragore.” || As a result of the distortion of the word, “main de gloire” is also the name of another alleged charm, which is made with the hand of a hanged person, wrapped in a mortuary cloth.

As with many other threads in Notes & Queries, the hagiographers often feel compelled to contribute:

And then it’s the turn of those protective of traditional crafts and techniques:

At this point, you may be starting to feel that the rabbit hole is starting to lose focus:

Other Curative Properties of a Hanged Man#

To the peculiar properties of the hand of hanged man, we might also add various curative properties of touching the corpse of such a person.

An Aside — Gibbeting in England#

One of the joys of N & Q is that having started tracking down one particular topic, you can often quickly sidetrack yourself down another.

For example, we might start to wonder about when the practice of gibbeting died out in England. Such a piece of information might perhaps add colour to the tale of the hand of glory. It might also provide additional historical context for the tale I tell of Micah Morey [related Isle of Wight storynote], a man gibbeted on the Isle of Wight having been hanged for the cruel murder and dismemberment of his grandson, James Dove, in 1736.

Witches Ointment#

From Benjamin thorpe’s Northern mythology, comprising the principal popular traditions and superstitions of Scandinavia, north Germany, and the Netherlands, 1851,vol III, p. 276, we also hear of another gruesome salve made from dead body parts:

Witches’ ointment, 1851

WITCHES’ OINTMENT.

Sorceresses destroy with their ceremonies both baptized and unbaptized children (especially the former, when a cross has not been made or a prayer said over them), as well in the cradle as by the side of their parents, whence the latter often think that they have smothered the child. When the infant is buried, the witches steal the corpse out of the coffin, put it into a kettle, and boil it until the flesh falls from the bones. From the more solid parts of this decoction they make an ointment, by means of which they exercise their arts, transform themselves, etc. The fluid they pour into bottles, and whoever drinks of it and lets certain ceremonies be performed over him by the sorceresses, becomes initiated in their arts and a master thereof.