A woman was strangled and burnt for coining in front of the Debtors door,
Newgate, on the 10th of March, 1789. I believe this to be the last instance
in which this old punishment was inflicted, at least in the metropolis. The
burning part of the ceremony was abolished by the 30 Geo. III., c. 48., and
death by hanging made the penalty for women in cases of high or petty
treason. E. S. S. W.'s informants are wrong in supposing that the criminals
were burnt whilst living. The law, indeed, prescribed it, but the practice
was more humane. They were first strangled; although it sometimes happened
that, through the bungling of the executioner, a criminal was actually
burnt alive, as occurred in the celebrated case of Katherine Hayes,
executed for the murder of her husband in 1726. The circumstances of this
case are so remarkable, that, having referred to it, I am induced to
recapitulate the chief of them, in the belief that they will interest your
readers. Hayes, who was possessed of some little property, lodged with his
wife Katherine in Tyburn, now Oxford Road. Mrs. Hayes prevailed upon two
men, named Billings (who lodged in the house) and Wood, a friend of Hayes,
to assist her in murdering her husband. To facilitate that object, Hayes
was induced to drink the enormous quantity of seven bottles (at that time
full quarts) of Mountain wine, besides other intoxicating drinks. After
finishing the seventh bottle he fell on the floor, but soon after arose and
threw himself on a bed. There, whilst in a state of stupefaction, he was
despatched by Billings and Wood striking him on the head with a hatchet.
The murderers then held council as to the best mode of concealing their
crime, and it was determined that they should mutilate and dispose of the
body. They cut off the head, Mrs. Hayes holding a pail to catch the blood;
and she proposed that the head should be boiled until the flesh came from
the skull. This advice was rejected on account of the time which the
process suggested would occupy, and Billings and Wood carried the head in
the pail (it was at night) to the Horseferry at Westminster, and there cast
it into the Thames. On the following day the murderers separated the limbs
from the body, and wrapping them, together with the trunk, in two blankets,
carried them to Marylebone fields, and placed them in a pond. Hayes' head
not having been carried away by the tide, as the murderers expected it
would have been, was found floating at the Horseferry in the morning. The
attention of the authorities was drawn to the circumstance, and the
magistrates being of opinion that a murder had been committed, caused the
head to be washed and the hair combed out, and then had it placed on a pole
and exposed to public view in St. Margaret's churchyard, in the hope that
it might lead to the discovery of the suspected crime. Great crowds of
persons of all ranks flocked to St. Margaret's churchyard to see the head,
and amongst the rest a young man named Bennett, who perceiving the likeness
to Hayes, whom he knew, immediately went to Mrs. Hayes on the subject; but
she assured him that her husband was alive and well, which satisfied him. A
journeyman tailor, named Patrick, also went to see the head, and on his
return told his fellow workmen that it was Hayes. These workmen, who also
had known Hayes, then went to look at the head, and felt the same
conviction. It happened that Billings worked at the same shop in which
these men were employed in Monmouth Street, and when he came to work next
morning, they told him of the circumstance. Billings, however, lulled their
suspicious by declaring that he had left Mr. Hayes at home that morning.
After the head had been exhibited for four days in the churchyard, the
magistrates caused it to be placed in spirits, in a glass vessel, and in
that state it continued to be exposed to public view. Two friends of Hayes,
named Ashley and Longmore, who had seen the head without imagining that it
was his, some time after called on Mrs. Hayes, on separate occasions, to
inquire for her husband, whose absence began to be noticed. Ashley and
Longmore were mutual {51} friends, and their suspicions being excited by
the contradictory statements which Mrs. Hayes had given to them, they went
to look again at the head, when a minute examination satisfied them that it
had belonged to Hayes. The apprehension of the murderers was the result. On
the day they were brought up for examination, the trunk and limbs of the
murdered man were found. Wood and Billings confessed and pleaded guilty.
Katherine Hayes put herself on her country, was tried and convicted. Wood
died in prison. Billings was hanged in Marylebone fields, near the pond in
which Hayes's body had been concealed. Katherine Hayes was executed at
Tyburn, under circumstances of great horror; for, in consequence of the
fire reaching the executioner's hands, he left his hold of the rope with
which he ought to have strangled the criminal, before he had executed that
part of his duty, and the result was, that Katherine Hayes was burnt alive.
The wretched woman was seen, in the midst of flames, pushing the blazing
faggots from her, whilst she yelled in agony. Fresh faggots were piled
around her, but a considerable time elapsed before her torments ended. She
suffered on the 3rd of November, 1726. This tragedy forms the subject of a
comic ballad which is attributed to Swift.