The Ducking of Ruth Osborne at Tring

On 30 July 1751 three men were tried at Hertford for the murder of Ruth Osborne, an old woman of Tring. That April the criers of Hemel Hempstead, Winslow and Leighton Buzzard had announced that a man and woman were to be publicly ducked at Tring for their wicked crimes, and when the overseer hid John and Ruth Osborne, a mob of thousands wrecked the workhouse and threatened to burn the town until they were given up. The couple were wrapped in sheets with thumbs tied to toes and dragged repeatedly through a pond at Marlston Green, where Ruth died. Thomas Colley, who had turned her over with his stick and then collected money from the crowd, was hanged and gibbeted at Gubblecut Cross, while many muttered that it was hard to hang a man for killing a witch; the farmers round Tring would afterwards not employ John Osborne, believing him a wizard.