Pit and Gallows, a rendering of the grant of capital jurisdiction (cum fossa et furca) made to vassals by the crown in feudal times. Male felons were usually hanged on the gallows (furca); women drowned in a ditch or well (fossa). See BARON, DROWNING.
Pit and Gallows
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 8: Peasant to Eoumelia, p. 200
Source scan(s): p. 0209