An important processional leading to a hanging was the execution of pirates on the banks of the Thames in the area known as Wapping.  Practiced for more than four centuries, those convicted of piracy were brought from Marshalsea Prison in Southwark, across London Bridge, and past the Tower to Execution Dock.  The procession was led on horseback by the Admiralty Marshal or his deputy carrying a silver oar.  The oar represented the authority of the Admiralty which had jurisdiction over crimes on the sea (offenses on land were the responsibility of the civil courts).  Like the Tyburn ritual, the prisoner traveled on a cart with a chaplain by his side.  With the church of St. Mary in the background and a crowd assembled on land or on boats moored in the river, he was given the same opportunity of a last dying speech.

After being "turned off" (see Glossary), the tide would rise and submerge the body.  The custom held that three tides would wash over it before it was taken away.  After the hanging, the more notorious pirates were covered with tar and suspended on a gibbet or in irons along the Thames at Graves Point to warn sailors on ingoing and outgoing ships the price of mutiny and piracy.  Captain Kidd was the most famous pirate executed at Wapping but for reasons unknown to me, he was incarcerated at Newgate prison instead of the Marshalsea where pirates were usually held.  Today, the original location is overlooked by a riverside pub called the Captain Kidd.

Picture of a Pirate Hanging
Captain Kidd's Body on Display
The Ballad of Captain Kidd