Green’s Dictionary of Slang

St Johnstone’s tippet n.

the noose.

1638		H. Adamson Muse’s Threnodie (1774) 119: Hence of St. Johnston’s ribband came the word [OED].
1816		W. Scott Old Mortality in Waverley II (1855) 405: Then it will be my lot [...] to be sent to Heaven wi’ a St Johnstone’s tippit about my hause.
1825		Drogheda Jrnl 13 July 1/4: My Lord Advocat plays at cat and mouse wi’ me, but times may change and I may bring him to ye St Johnstone’s tippet.
1859		‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Matsell Vocabulum 99: Jack deserved the tippet for making a lay with him, as all coves of his kidney blow the gab.
1862		Dundee, Perth & Cupar Advertiser 3 Jan. 8/4: The wretch [...] put in the ‘joungs,’ [i.e. stocks] made to do penance in a white sheet; decorated with St Johnstone’s tippet — which is Scotch [...] for being hanged.
1880		Manchester Courier 26 Mar. 8/6: until the Turks or greeks manage to take Nico prisoner, and, as the border Scots would say, make him ‘wear St Johnstone’s tippet,’ brgandage [...] will always exist.
1889		Shepton Mallet Jrnl 15 Mar. 8/4: To wear ‘St Johnstone’s tippet,’ to ‘ride the two-legged mare’ [...] refer to the same thing. A piece of rope with which a man had been hanged.
1899		Century Dict. n.p.: Tippet. St Johnstone’s tippet... said to be named from the wearing of halters about their necks by Protestant insurgents of Perth (formerly also called St. John’s Town, St. Johnston).