"who made a fool of himself speaking in opposition. Parliament passed the Witchcraft Act 1735 which made it a crime to accuse someone of witchcraft. The laws against witchcraft were not fully repealed until 1951 with the passing of the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951. Witchcraft was a minor issue of little importance in Ireland. However, Scotland was a major centre of suppression; 3900 Scots were tried; two thirds were convicted and executed, the last of whom was Janet Horne in 1727. There was no free schooling for ordinary children, but in the towns and cities small local private schools were"
"be a martyrdom and reportedly behaved with such good humour that the audience was moved to tears. She was executed by burning, and, as she was denied strangulation, she was literally burned alive. William Penn witnessed the execution and reported that she ""died with a constancy, even to a cheerfulness, that struck all that saw it."" Elizabeth Gaunt Elizabeth Gaunt (died 23 October 1685) was an English woman sentenced to death for treason after having been convicted for involvement in the Rye House Plot. She was the last woman executed for a political crime in England. Gaunt was an Anabaptist"
"magic. The last executions for witchcraft in England had taken place in 1682, when Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles, and Susanna Edwards were executed at Exeter. In 1711, Joseph Addison published an article in the highly respected ""The Spectator"" journal (No. 117) criticizing the irrationality and social injustice in treating elderly and feeble women (dubbed ""Moll White"") as witches. Jane Wenham was among the last subjects of a typical witch trial in England in 1712, but was pardoned after her conviction and set free. Kate Nevin was hunted for three weeks and eventually suffered death by ""Faggot and Fire"" at Monzie"
"Elizabeth Martha Brown Elizabeth Martha Brown (c. 1811–9 August 1856), née Clark, was the last woman to be publicly hanged in Dorset, England. She was executed outside Dorchester Prison after being convicted of the murder of her second husband, John Brown, on 22 July, just 13 days earlier. The prosecution said she had attacked him with an axe after he had taken a whip to her. Among the crowd of 3,000–4,000 who watched the hanging of Brown was the English novelist, Thomas Hardy, 16 years old at the time, standing close to the gallows. He wrote 70 years later that"
"removed from under her feet and 30 minutes passed before the fire was lit, and thus, she was not actually burned alive. Whatever the case, Catherine Murphy remains the last person to have been sentenced and at least officially executed by the method of burning. In part through the efforts of Sir Benjamin Hammett, who took the execution of Murphy as an example when he criticised this form of punishment, burning as a method of execution was abolished the next year, by the Treason Act 1790. Catherine Murphy (counterfeiter) Catherine Murphy (died 18 March 1789) (also known as ""Christian Murphy"")"
"Elizabeth Gaunt Elizabeth Gaunt (died 23 October 1685) was an English woman sentenced to death for treason after having been convicted for involvement in the Rye House Plot. She was the last woman executed for a political crime in England. Gaunt was an Anabaptist shop-keeper in London. She was the daughter of Anthony Fothergill of Brownber, Ravenstonedale, and was well known to give shelter to persecuted people, such as victims of religious and political oppression. According to Bishop Burnet, she spent ""her life in acts of charity, visiting the gaols and looking after the poor of what persuasion soever they"
"be convicted for ""high treason"", and have her body burnt, in this case for the crime of coin forgery, was Catherine Murphy in 1789. The last case where a woman was actually burnt alive in England is that of Catherine Hayes in 1726, for the murder of her husband. In this case, one account says this happened because the executioner accidentally set fire to the pyre before he had hanged Hayes properly. The historian Rictor Norton has assembled a number of contemporary newspaper reports on the actual death of Mrs. Hayes, internally somewhat divergent. The following excerpt is one example:"
"gallows. 'The infatuation of the greatest part of the country people was so great that they would not be spectators of his death; yet many thousands stood at a distance to see him go, grumbling and muttering that it was a hard case to hang a man for destroying an old wicked woman that had done so much harm by her witchcraft.' It is noticeable that the last case of a witch being condemned by the verdict of an English jury, that of Jane Wenham, also occurred in Hertfordshire in 1712. Ruth Osborne (alleged witch) Ruth Osborne (1680–1751) was an"
"Catherine Murphy (counterfeiter) Catherine Murphy (died 18 March 1789) (also known as ""Christian Murphy"") was an English counterfeiter, the last woman in England to be officially burned at the stake. Catherine Murphy and her husband, Hugh Murphy, were convicted for coining at the Old Bailey in London and sentenced to death on 18 September 1788. She and her husband were executed on the morning of 18 March 1789 at Newgate prison along with seven other men who had been convicted of various offences. The eight men were executed by hanging. But as a woman, the law provided that Murphy should"
"a role. Before the 20th century, adultery was often punished harshly. In Scandinavia, in the 17th century, adultery and bigamy were subject to the death penalty, although few people were actually executed. Examples of women who have been executed for adultery in Medieval and Early Modern Europe include Maria of Brabant, Duchess of Bavaria (in 1256), Agnese Visconti (in 1391), Beatrice Lascaris di Tenda (in 1418), Anne Boleyn (in 1536), and Catherine Howard (in 1542). The enforcement of adultery laws varied by jurisdiction. In England, the last execution for adultery is believed to have taken place in 1654, when a"
"history of witchcraft"", repealing the earlier Witchcraft Acts which were based on a widespread belief in the genuine existence of magic and witchcraft. The law was reverting to the view of the medieval Church that witchcraft and magic were illusory, treating as an offence not the supposed practice of witchcraft but the superstitious belief in its existence. The Act reflected the general trend in Europe, where after a peak in the mid-17th century, and a series of late outbursts in the late 17th century, witch-trials quickly subsided after 1700. The last person executed for witchcraft in Great Britain was Janet"
"that sin ceased to be sin when God wills it. At this time, execution by burning, though still legal, was no longer well seen, and the Inquisition attempted to avoid such an execution. During the investigation, several scholars were called to persuade her to confess her regret and submit. She refused to regret, and stated that God had revealed to her that she should die a martyr. She was sentenced to death by burning for heresy on 22 August 1781. On her way to execution, however, she asked for a confessor and made a confession of regret. Therefore, she was"
"than murder was of Andrew Clark in 1872 for rape. The last woman executed was Margaret Meierhoffer in 1881. Except for a dozen slaves executed by burning in the early 18th century, executions in New Jersey were by hanging until 1906 and electrocution since then, with the exception of a single execution by hanging in 1909. Following the 1963 execution, there were no executions prior to the 1972 ruling in ""Furman v. Georgia"" by the Supreme Court of the United States, which led to a ""de facto"" ban on executions nationwide until laws meeting the revised standards specified could be"
"Death Penalty) Act, temporarily abolishing capital punishment for murder for 5 years. The Act was renewed in 1969, making the abolition permanent. With the passage of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998, the death penalty was officially abolished for all crimes in both civilian and military cases. Following its complete abolition, the gallows were removed from Wandsworth Prison, where they remained in full working order until that year. The last woman to be hanged was Ruth Ellis on 13 July 1955, by Albert Pierrepoint who was a prominent hangman in the 20th century in"
"members of the county, and for the coroners, the former of which, after a few suffrages is usually adjourned to Maidstone; on a conspicuous hill on the opposite side of the heath, though in Maidstone parish, is the gallows, for the public execution of criminals condemned at the assizes."" During the 18th and 19th centuries the heath remained a common site for the execution of criminals (by hanging). The last public execution on the heath took place in 1830 where John Dyke from the nearby village of Bearsted was hanged for burning a rick, although it later emerged he was"
"the site of Dorchester prison in Dorset may belong to Brown. In 2018 it was reported that Martha may be re-buried with others in the Poundbury Cemetery, should she not be buried in the churchyard at Blackdown, where her husband's remains lie. Elizabeth Martha Brown Elizabeth Martha Brown (c. 1811–9 August 1856), née Clark, was the last woman to be publicly hanged in Dorset, England. She was executed outside Dorchester Prison after being convicted of the murder of her second husband, John Brown, on 22 July, just 13 days earlier. The prosecution said she had attacked him with an axe"
"became simply hanging, which was the method of execution for murder. The original penalty for women was to be drawn to the place of execution and burned at the stake. Burning was abolished by the Treason Act 1790 in Great Britain and by the Treason by Women Act (Ireland) 1796 in Ireland. The 1814 Act also permitted the King to authorise the use of an alternative method, beheading, which was not abolished until 1973 (although obsolete long before then). The Act was amended by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 when the death penalty was abolished and replaced with imprisonment"
"Alice Lisle Lady Alice Lisle (September 16172 September 1685), commonly known as Alicia Lisle or Dame Alice Lyle, was a landed lady of the English county of Hampshire, who was executed for harbouring fugitives after the defeat of the Monmouth Rebellion at the Battle of Sedgemoor. While she seems to have leaned to Royalism, she combined this with a decided sympathy for religious dissent. She is the last woman to have been executed by a judicial sentence of beheading in England. Dame Alice was a daughter of Sir White Beconshaw of Moyles Court at Ellingham in Hampshire and his wife"
"who was executed for witchcraft in England. Her name was Agnes Waterhouse, locally known as Mother Waterhouse, and she confessed to witchcraft in 1566, and two other women were also accused of witchcraft at the same time: Elizabeth Francis and Joan Waterhouse (Agnes' daughter). Her trial took place in Chelmsford, where she was found guilty and executed for using witchcraft to disease and cause the death of William Fynne. Elizabeth admitted to having a familiar- a cat called Satan, who she fed drops of her blood and it helped to kill people, terminate pregnancies and stole cattle. She sold the"
"Jane Wenham (alleged witch) Jane Wenham (died 1730) was one of the last people to be condemned to death for witchcraft in England, although her conviction was set aside. Her trial in 1712 is commonly but erroneously regarded as the last witch trial in England. Wenham, a widow of Walkern, Hertfordshire, brought a charge of defamation against a farmer, in response to an accusation of witchcraft. The local Justice of the Peace, Sir Henry Chauncy referred the matter to the Rev Gardiner, the rector of Walkern. She was awarded with a shilling, though advised to be less quarrelsome. She was"
"England. The last hanging in Britain took place in 1964, when Peter Anthony Allen, at Walton Prison in Liverpool, and Gwynne Owen Evans, at Strangeways Prison in Manchester were executed for the murder of John Alan West. Hanging was also the method used in many colonies and overseas territories. In the UK, some felons were traditionally executed by hanging with a silken rope: Capital punishment in the U.S. varies from state to state; it is outlawed in some states but used in most others. However, the death penalty under federal law is applicable in every state. The largest mass execution"
"(25) was found guilty of drowning her 12-year-old step-daughter, Louisa Staples, in 12 inches of ditch water. Following a change in attitudes and the law, she became the last woman to be publicly executed in England. Less severe punishments included flogging (usually up to 20 lashes applied) and solitary confinement, as well as the daily routine of a six-hour shift spent on the treadmill for those prisoners set to hard labour. King's Bench Prison The King's Bench Prison was a prison in Southwark, south London, England, from medieval times until it closed in 1880. It took its name from the"
"executions were carried out in the United Kingdom for any of these offences after the abolition of the death penalty for murder. Nevertheless, there remained a working gallows at HMP Wandsworth, London, until 1994, which was tested every six months until 1992. This gallows is now housed in the Galleries of Justice in Nottingham. England and in the United Kingdom: on 13 August 1964, Peter Anthony Allen, at Walton Prison in Liverpool, and Gwynne Owen Evans, at Strangeways Prison in Manchester, were executed for the murder of John Alan West on 7 April that year. Scotland: Henry John Burnett, 21,"
"1998. By section 36 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 the maximum punishment for high treason became life imprisonment. ""(See also Treason Act 1814.)"" The last beheading of a peer for high treason was that of Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat in 1747. The last execution by burning for high treason was that of Catherine Murphy in 1789. The last sentences of hanging, drawing and quarterings were those on the Cato Street Conspirators in 1820, (but the drawing and quartering were omitted by royal command). One of the last executions for high treason was that of John Amery, the"
"abolish the burning of women for treason through the Treason Act 1790. Christian Murphy, who at her execution in 1789 was ""drest in a clean striped gown, a white ribbon, and a black ribbon round her cap"", was the last woman in England to be burned. Footnotes Notes Bibliography Burning of women in England In England, burning was a legal punishment inflicted on women found guilty of high treason, petty treason and heresy. Over a period of several centuries, female convicts were publicly burnt at the stake, sometimes alive, for a range of activities including coining and mariticide. While men"
"Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, after Ellis had a bit part in ""Lady Godiva Rides Again"", four years before she was executed by Albert Pierrepoint, having admitted to and been found guilty of shooting her lover. Through her husband Hamilton, Dors was also close friends with the notorious Kray twins and their mother Violet. During her relationship with Hamilton and until a few months before her death, Dors regularly held adult parties at her home. There, a number of celebrities, amply supplied with alcohol and drugs, mixed with young starlets against a background of both"
"state of New South Wales. The first full-length examination of the case, ""Last Woman Hanged: the Terrible True Story of Louisa Collins"", by Australian author and journalist Caroline Overington, was published in 2014. A novel, ""The Killing of Louisa"" by Janet Lee, was published by UQP in 2018. Louisa Collins Louisa Collins (1847–1889) was an Australian poisoner and convicted murderer. Collins, who was dubbed the ""Borgia of Botany"" by the press of the day, endured four trials in front of 48 men, after the first three juries failed to convict. Collins was hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol on the morning of"
"of severed heads and other body parts on pikes, etc., as a method to support conquest, territorial expansion, pillage and looting. Heads were displayed to terrify various peoples into submission, such as enslaved Africans, Tasmanians, Chinese, and Celts. Historically, beheading was typically used for noblemen, while commoners would be hanged; eventually, hanging was adopted as the standard means of non-military executions. The last actual execution by beheading was of Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat on 9 April 1747, while a number of convicts (typically traitors sentenced to drawing and quartering, a method which had already been discontinued) were beheaded posthumously"
"the last person hanged for blasphemy in Great Britain. Blasphemy remained a capital offence in Scotland until 1825. Thomas Aikenhead Thomas Aikenhead ( – 8 January 1697) was a Scottish student from Edinburgh, who was prosecuted and executed at the age of 20 on a charge of blasphemy under the Act against Blasphemy 1661 and Act against Blasphemy 1695. He was the last person in Great Britain to be executed for blasphemy. His execution happened 85 years after the death of Edward Wightman (1612), the last person to be burned at the stake for heresy in England. Thomas Aikenhead was"
"eighty or so Catholics who were executed in the forty-five years of her reign were put to death because they were considered members of ""...a subversive fifth column."" The last execution of a ""heretic"" in England occurred under James VI and I in 1612. Although the charge was technically one of ""blasphemy"" there was one later execution in Scotland (still at that date an entirely independent kingdom) when in 1697 Thomas Aikenhead was accused, among other things, of denying the doctrine of the Trinity. Another example of the persecution of heretics under Protestant rule was the execution of the Boston"
"fishing vessels and terrorizing fishermen along the northern Jamaican coastline. Rackham had come across a small vessel crewed by nine English pirates, and they joined Rackham on his ship for a bout of drinking while at anchor, during which they became intoxicated at Bry Harbour Bay in Jamaica, October 1720. Barnet's sloop attacked Rackham's ship and captured it after a fight presumably led by Mary Read and Anne Bonny. Rackham and his crew were brought to Spanish Town, Jamaica, in November 1720, where they were tried and convicted of piracy and sentenced to be hanged. Rackham was executed in Port"
"Thomas Aikenhead Thomas Aikenhead ( – 8 January 1697) was a Scottish student from Edinburgh, who was prosecuted and executed at the age of 20 on a charge of blasphemy under the Act against Blasphemy 1661 and Act against Blasphemy 1695. He was the last person in Great Britain to be executed for blasphemy. His execution happened 85 years after the death of Edward Wightman (1612), the last person to be burned at the stake for heresy in England. Thomas Aikenhead was the son of James Aikenhead and his wife Helen Ramsey. His father was a burgess of Edinburgh, as"
"lengthy consideration by the High Court of Justiciary and rejected by a vote of 4 to 2. Margaret Hare was released on 19 January and travelled to Glasgow to find a passage back to Ireland. While waiting for a ship she was recognised and attacked by a mob. She was given shelter in a police station before being given a police escort onto a Belfast-bound vessel; no clear accounts exist of what became of her after she landed in Ireland. Burke was hanged on the morning of 28 January 1829 in front of a crowd possibly as large as 25,000;"