(Vol. ii., pp. 6. 50. 90. 165.)
In the "NOTES AND QUERIES" of Saturday, the 10th of August, SENEX gives
some account of the burning of a female in the Old Bailey, "about the
year 1788."
Having myself been present at the last execution of a female in London,
where the body was burnt (being probably that to which SENEX refers),
and as few persons who were then present may now be alive, I beg to
mention some circumstances relative to that execution, which appear to
be worthy of notice.
Our criminal law was then most severe and cruel: the legal punishment of
females convicted of high treason and petty treason was burning; coining
was held to be high treason; and murder of a husband was petty treason.
I see it stated in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, that on the 13th of
March, 1789,--
"The Recorder of London made his report to His Majesty of the
prisoners under sentence of death in Newgate, convicted in the
Sessions of September, October, November, and January (forty-six
in number), fourteen of whom were ordered for execution;
five of whom were afterwards reprieved."
The recorder's report in regard to these unfortunate persons had been
delayed during the incapacity of the king; thus the report for four
sessions had been made at once. To have decided at one sitting of
council upon such a number of cases, must have almost been enough to
overset the strongest mind. Fortunately, these reports are now
abolished.
In the same number of the _Gentleman's Magazine_, under date the 18th of
March, there is this statement,--
"The nine following malefactors were executed before the
Debtors' Door at Newgate pursuant to their sentence, viz., Hugh
Murphy and Christian Murphy _alias_ Bowman, Jane Grace, and
Joseph Walker, for coining. [Four for burglary, and one for
highway robbery.] They were brought upon the scaffold, about
half an hour after seven, and _turned off_ about a quarter past
eight. The woman for coining was brought out after the rest were
turned off, and fixed to a stake and burnt; being first
strangled by the stool being taken from under her."
This is the execution at which I was present; the number of those who
suffered, and the burning of the female, attracted a very great crowd.
Eight of the malefactors suffered on the scaffold, then known as "the
new drop." After they were suspended, the woman, in a white dress, was
brought out of Newgate alone; and after some time spent in devotion, was
hung on the projecting arm of a low gibbet, fixed at a little distance
from the scaffold. After the lapse of a sufficient time to extinguish
life, faggots were piled around her, and over her head, so that her
person was completely covered: fire was then set to the pile, and the
woman was consumed to ashes.
In the following year, 1790, I heard sentence passed in the Criminal
Court, in the Old Bailey, upon other persons convicted of coining: one
of them was a female. The sentence upon her was, that she should be
"drawn to the place of execution, and there burnt with fire till she was
dead."
The case of this unfortunate woman, and the cruel state of the law in
regard to females, then attracted attention. On the 10th of May, 1790,
Sir Benjamin Hammett, in his place in the House of Commons, called the
attention of that House to the then state of the law. He mentioned that
it had been his official duty to attend on the melancholy occasion of
the burning of the female in the preceding year (it is understood he was
then one of the sheriffs of London), he moved for leave to bring in a
bill to alter the law, which he characterised as--
"One of the savage remains of Norman policy, disgracing our
statute book, as the practice did the common law."
He noticed that the sheriff who did not execute the sentence of burning
alive was liable to a prosecution; but he thanked Heaven there was not a
man in England who would carry such a sentence into effect. He obtained
leave to bring in a bill for altering this cruel law; and in that
session the Act 30 G. III. c. 48. was passed--
"For discontinuing the judgment which has been required by law
to be given against women convicted of certain crimes, and
substituting another judgment in lieu thereof."
A debt of gratitude is due to the memory of Sir Benjamin Hammett, for
his exertions, at that period, in the cause of humanity. Thank God, we
now live in times when the law is less cruel, and more chary of human
life.