The female publicly hanged 1800 - 1868.

Between January 1800 and April 1868 in the British Isles (including Ireland and the Isle of Man), 206 women and girls were taken to places of public execution and there hanged by the neck until they were dead, in accordance with the sentence of the court.
The last woman to be hanged in public was 25 year old Frances Kidder, who was executed in front of Maidstone prison at midday on Thursday, the 2nd of April 1868. She had murdered Louisa Kidder-Staples, her 11 year old stepdaughter, by drowning her in a ditch.
From the 29th of May 1868, all executions were carried out inside prisons and a further 41 women were hanged in private in the British Isles (including Southern Ireland up to 1925). Twenty three of these hangings were carried out in the 19th century and 18 in the 20th century. Where names below are in blue please click the hyperlink for a detailed account of this case.

Date	Name	Age	Place of execution	Crime
1800 - 7 hanged
29/01/1800	Mary Connor		Cork (Gallows Green)	Murder
17/03/1800	Mary Thorpe		York (Knavesmire)	Murder of her bastard child.
12/04/1800	Sarah Bailey	25	York (Knavesmire) (hanged with 2 men)	Forgery
23/04/1800	Sarah Lloyd	19	Bury St Edmunds	Stealing in a dwelling house.
31/07/1800	Ann Mead	16	Hertford	Murder of Charles Proctor
23/08/1800	Elizabeth Johnson		York (Knavesmire)	Uttering forgery
18/10/1800	Mary Lloyd		Boughton (Cheshire)	Forgery
1801 - 7
01/04/1801	Hannah Palmer		Warwick (hanged with her brother John)	Murder of Mrs. Palmer (wife of John)
13/04/1801	Alice Clarke		Ruthin	Murder of baby daughter
17/04/1801	Elizabeth Burne		Naas (Ireland)	Murder of Catherine Dale
02/05/1801	Hannah Eastwood		Lancaster Castle	Forgery (hanged with 2 men)
23/07/1801	Susanna Mottershall	23	Lincoln Castle	Murder of Samuel Glem
03/08/1801	Ann Baker		Rutland (hanged with 1 man)	Killing and stealing sheep
07/08/1801	Sarah Claridge		Warwick	Murder of her son age 4
1802 - 3
16/03/1802	Mary Voce	24	Nottingham	Murder of her baby
12/04/1802	Maria Davis and Charlotte Bobbett	20	Bristol	Murder of her son Richard Davis
		23		Aiding above murder
1803 - 3
15/04/1803	Mary Lappidge		Warwick	Uttering forgery
01/08/1803	Martha Chapple	19	York Castle	Murder of bastard child
11/08/1803	Sarah Jones	26	Shrewsbury	Revenge murder of her female child
1804 - 3
08/02/1804	Ann Hurle	22	Newgate	Forgery (hanged with 1 man)
12/03/1804	Elizabeth Caesar (Carter)		Winchester (hanged with 2 men)	Murder of her female bastard
19/03/1804	Elizabeth Laughan (Largham)		Chelmsford	Murder of bastard child
1805 - 6
18/03/1805	Ann Heywood		York Castle	Murder of her child
25/03/1805	Elizabeth Barber	53	Maidstone	Murder of John Daly
13/04/1805	Mary Morgan	17	Presteigne	Murder of bastard child
03/05/1805	Ann Davis (Gordon)		Horsham Common	Murder of a child
12/08/1805	Elizabeth Rogers	32	Exeter	Murder of William Rogers
13/11/1805	Mary Parnell	23	Newgate	Forgery (hanged with 2 men)
1806 - 2
08/04/1806	Sarah Herring		Horsemonger Lane Surrey	High Treason coining (hanged with 3 men)
19/04/1806	Mary Jackson		Lancaster Castle	Stealing in dwelling house
1807 - 3
07/01/1807	Margaret Cunningham		Edinburgh	Murder of her husband
23/02/1807	Elizabeth Godfry or Godfrey	34	Newgate (hanged with 2 men)	Murder of Richard Prince (A large number of spectators were killed & injured at this execution)
31/07/1807	Martha Aldin	32	Norwich	P/T murder of her husband
1808 - 3
10/02/1808	Barbara Malcolm		Edinburgh	Murder - child
28/03/1808	Sarah Pugh		Hereford	Murder of her 12 year old daughter
09/04/1808	Mary Chandler	19	Lancaster Castle	Stealing in dwelling house
1809 - 3
22/02/1809	Mary Barrington (aka Margaret Grimes)	31	Newgate (hanged with 1 man)	Making a false oath to obtain property
20/03/1809	Mary Bateman	41	York Castle	Murder ("The Yorkshire Witch")
18/08/1809	Susan Grant	64	Warwick	High Treason coining
1810 - 6
12/03/1810	Rebecca Blundell		Winchester	Murder of her bastard child
24/03/1810	Jane Curran		Winchester	Forgery (hanged with 5 men)
07/04/1810	Francis Thompson		York Castle	Uttering (hanged with 4 men)
13/06/1810	Melinda Mapson	26	Newgate (hanged with 1 man)	Robbery in a dwelling house
22/08/1810	Mary Costigan		Tipperary	Murder of Nicholas Maher
13/08/1810	Betty Amphlett	21	Gloucester	Murder of her bastard child
1811- 2
12/08/1811	Jane Cox	31	Exeter	Murder of John Tremman (child)
30/03/1811	Eleanor Shiel		Tipperary	Child murder
1812 - 3
23/03/1812	Elizabeth Smith		Ipswich (hanged with 2 men)	Murder of her daughter (husband John also hanged for this)
13/06/1812	Hannah Smith	54	Lancaster Castle	Riot (hanged with 3 men)
12/08/1812	Catherine Foster	36	Newgate (hanged with 1 man)	Making false oath on a will
1813 - 8
29/03/1813	Ann Arnold		Ipswich	Murder of her bastard child
02/04/1813	Catherine Donovan		Cork (Gallows Green)	Murder of Ellen M’Carthy
05/04/1813	Sarah Fletcher	19	Horsemonger Lane	Child murder
23/04/1813	Edith Morrey	35	Chester	Murder of her husband, George (her co-defendant was hanged on 24/08/1812, but Edith was respited as she was pregnant)
06/08/1813	Azubah Fountain		Lincoln Castle	P/T murder of her husband (hanged with 1 man)
06/09/1813	Elizabeth Osborne	20	Bodmin	Arson
29/12/1813	Christian Sinclair	60	Edinburgh	Murder - child
1814 - 3
28/03/1814	Mary Gibbs		Ipswich	Murder of her bastard child (hanged with 1 man)
20/04/1814	Sarah Owens		Ilchester	Stealing in dwelling house (hanged with 1 man)
01/08/1814	Mary Cook		Dorchester	Murder of her bastard child
1815 - 6
28/03/1815	Sarah White		Salisbury	Arson (hanged with 1 man)
03/04/1815	Sarah Woodward	25	Ipswich	Murder of her bastard child
19/07/1815	Jane Mulholland		Armagh	P/T murder of her husband (hanged with co-defendant Robert Edgar)
25/07/1815	Elizabeth Woolterton	49	Ipswich	Murder of Robert Sparkes (infant)
26/07/1815	Elizabeth Fenning	21	Newgate	Attempted murder (hanged with 2 men)
04/08/1815	Honora Houraghan	40	Cork (Gallows Green)	P/T murder of her husband
1816 - 3
11/03/1816	Sarah Cook		Hertford	Murder of her infant son
07/09/1816	Dinah Riddiford	69	Gloucester	Burglary
16/09/1816	Susanna Holroyd		Lancaster Castle	P/T murder of her husband
1817 - 8
24/02/1817	Sarah Perry	33	Newgate	Murder of her child
05/03/1817	Elizabeth Fricker	30	Newgate	Burglary (hanged with 6 men)
15/03/1817	Elizabeth Whiting		Lincoln Castle	Murder of her female infant
21/03/1817	Ann Statham	28	Stafford	Murder of her bastard child
14/04/1817	Ann Hawlin	28	Warwick	Murder of her child (hanged with 1 man)
26/07/1817	Elizabeth Warriner		Lincoln Castle	Murder of 11 year old son, John
20/09/1817	Jenny Cheatham		Lancaster Castle	Uttering (hanged with 4 men)
17/10/1817	Margaret Crossan	50	Ayr	Arson
1818 - 8
17/02/1818	Charlotte Newman & Mary Ann James	33 20	Newgate	Forgery (hanged with 2 men)
10/04/1818	Mary Connell		Cork (Gallows Green)	Murder of Margaret Manning
18/04/1818	Margaret Dowd		Lancaster Castle	Uttering (hanged with 4 men)
24/04/1818	Harriet Skelton	33	Newgate	Uttering (hanged with 1 man)
24/04/1818	Ann Bamford		Warwick	Uttering
04/05/1818	Ann Tye	38	Gloucester	Murder of her baby, Phoebe Tye
11/08/1818	Bridget Murray		Cavan	P/T murder of her husband
1819 - 6
08/03/1819	Sarah Huntingford	61	Winchester (Gallows Hill)	P/T murder of her husband
12/03/1819	Sarah Hurst		Aylesbury	P/T murder of her husband, William
22/03/1819	Hannah Bocking	16	Derby	Murder of Jane Grant
22/03/1819	Mary Woodman	30	Exeter	P/T murder of her husband
29/03/1819	Mary McGarry		Downpatrick	Child murder
23/04/1819	Mary Bissaker	56	Warwick	Coining (High Treason)
1820 - 4
12/04/1820	Ann Heytrey	22	Warwick	Petty treason murder of mistress – Mrs. Dormer
12/08/1820	Sarah Polgreen (or Polgrean)	34	Bodmin	P/T murder of husband, Henry
16/08/1820	Rebecca Worlock	36	Gloucester	P/T murder of her husband, Thomas
05/12/1820	Sarah Price	43	Newgate	Uttering (hanged with 5 men)
1821 - 9
10/03/1821	Mary Clarke		Northampton	P/T murder of her husband (hanged with male co defendant)
14/03/1821	Margaret Plunkett	29	Trim (Co. Meath)	P/T murder of her husband
14/03/1821	Frances Gilligan	18	Trim (Co. Meath)	Aiding Plunkett above
31/03/1821	Esther Waters		Leicester	Murder of Elizabeth Clarke aged 3
04/05/1821	Bridget Butterly Bridget Ennis		Dublin	Murder of Miss Thompson
13/08/1821	Ann Barber	45	York Castle	P/T murder of her husband, James
27/11/1821	Ann Norris	21	Newgate	Robbery in a brothel (hanged with 2 men)
07/12/1821	Margaret Tindell or Shuttleworth	36	Montrose	P/T murder of her husband
1822 - 2
25/03/1822	Hannah Halley	31	Derby	Murder of her bastard child
16/08/1822	Rachel Edwards		Monmouth	P/T murder of her husband
1823 - 3
16/04/1823	Mary McKinnon		Edinburgh (Lawn Market)	Murder of William Howat
18/04/1823	Catherine Kinrade	19	Castle Rushton (Isle of Man)	Accessory to murder (hanged with male co defendant)
26/07/1823	Grace Griffin		Berwick	P/T murder of her husband
1824 - 1
16/08/24	Ester Loughbridge		Carrickfergus	Murder of her sister in law
1825 - 2
11/03/1825	Eleanor Ryan		Limerick	Murder of her husband
05/08/1825	Hannah Read	36	Leicester	P/T murder of her husband
1826 - 2
16/01/1826	Mary Caen	44	Newgate	Murder of Maurice Fitzgerald
28/04/1826	Joanna Lovett	30	Tralee	Murder of her husband
1827 - 5
02/01/1827	Amelia Roberts	30	Newgate	Stealing in a dwelling house (hanged with 1 man)
26/03/1827	Rachel Bradley	27	Lancaster Castle	Murder of her infant child
11/04/1827	Sarah Jones	26	Monmouth	Murder of her bastard child
16/06/1827	Margaret Wishart		Forfar	Murder of her sister
17/09/1827	Mary Wittenback	40	Newgate	Murder of her husband, Frederick
1828 - 6
17/03/1828	Mary Magrath	60	Dundalk	Murder of Jane Kelly (infant)
22/03/1828	Jane Scott	22	Lancaster Castle	Murder of her parents
14/04/1828	Catherine Welch	24	Newgate	Murder of her unnamed son
08/08/1828	Elizabeth Commins	22	Bodmin	Murder of her male bastard
16/08/1828	Ann Harris	50	Shrewsbury	Accomplice to the murder of James Harrison
22/10/1828	Isabella (Bell) McMenemy	25	Glasgow	Robbery & assault (hanged with co defendant Thomas Connor)
1829 - 5
07/03/1829	Jane Jameson	30	Newcastle	Murder of her mother, Margaret
13/04/1829	Esther Hibner	61	Newgate	Murder - child
22/07/1829	Ann Mary Chapman	28	Newgate	Attempted murder of baby daughter (hanged with 6 men)
17/08/1829	Kezia Westcombe	32	Exeter	Murder of her husband Samuel (hanged with her lover Richard Quantance, age 35)
19/08/1829	Catherine Wright (Stewart)	28	Edinburgh	Murder (hanged with her husband)
1830 - 7
22/03/1830	Ellen Connell	36	Tralee (Ireland)	Murder of her husband
25/03/1830	Mary Kelly		Kilkenny	Murder of her aunt
31/03/1830	Jane Graham	49	Carrickfergus	Murder of John Bell (child)
31/03/1830	Mary Murphy	50	Limerick	Conspiracy to murder
13/08/1830	Bridget Brennan		Tralee	Murder of her husband
24/08/1830	Margaret Cleland	22	Downpatrick (Ireland)	Murder of sister in law
08/10/1830	Catherine Davidson (Humphries)		Aberdeen	Murder of her husband
1831 - 5
18/03/1831	Margaret Mackesay		Limerick	Murder
05/08/1831	Agnes Clarke		Downpatrick	Murder of two lodgers (hanged with her husband Charles)
06/08/1831	Judith Butler		Clonmel (Ireland)	Murder of William Whellan (hanged with 2 male co-defendants)
11/08/1831	Mary Ann Higgins	19	Coventry	Murder of her uncle
06/10/1831	Mary Steel (Bryce)		Glasgow	Murder & robbery (hanged with her husband James)
1832 - 4
09/01/1832	Elizabeth Ross	38	Newgate	Murder of Caroline Walsh
26/03/1832	Mary Kellaway	27	Exeter	Murder of her bastard child
26/03/1832	Sarah Smith	28	Leicester	Murder of Elizabeth Wood
08/06/1832	Margaret Gunning		Clonmel	Conspiracy to murder James Short
1833 - 3
30/03/1833	Mary Hunter	47	York Castle	Arson (hanged with 2 men)
19/08/1833	Elizabeth Heaffy		Cork	Murder of Thomas Cummins and Francis Canning (hanged with 2 male co-defendants)
31/08/1833	Charlotte Long	33	Gloucester	Arson (last female for arson) (hanged with 1 man also for arson)
1834 - 3
17/02/1834	Maria Canning		Dublin	Murder of husband by poisoning (hanged with male co-defendant, Patrick Martin)
19/03/1834	Mary Holden	29	Lancaster Castle	Murder of her husband, Roger
19/03/1834	Mary Smith	24	Stafford	Murder of her bastard child
1835 - 6
30/03/1835	Lucinda Sly	56	Carlow	Murder of her husband, Walter (hanged with male co-defendant)
06/04/1835	Ursula Lofthouse	26	York Castle	Murder of her husband (hanged with 2 men)
15/04/1835	Mary Ann Burdock	30	Bristol	Murder of Mrs. Smith
03/08/1835	Elizabeth Banks	54	Edinburgh	Murder of her husband
10/08/1835	Francis Billing & Catherine Frary	40 46	Norwich Castle	Poisoning murders of Mary Taylor and Robert Frary
1836 - 3
09/04/1836	Harriet Tarver	21	Gloucester	Murder of her husband Thomas
09/04/1836	Betty Rowland	46	Liverpool	Murder of her husband, William
14/04/1836	Sofia Edney	23	Ilchester	Murder of her husband by poison
1837 - 1
07/08/1837	Mary Cooney		Limerick	Murder of Anne Anderson
1838 -2
05/05/1838	Ann Wycherly	28	Stafford	Murder of her daughter, Ann
21/05/1838	Elizabeth Jeffrey (aka Nicholson & Shafto)	36	Glasgow	Murder of Ann Newall and Hugh Monro
1839 - 0
1840 - 0
1841 - 1
01/05/1841	Mary Anne McConkey		Monaghan	Murder of her husband
1842 - 0
1843 - 2
06/05/1843	Betty Eccles	38	Liverpool	Murder of her stepson, hanged with Wilmot Buckley
05/08/1843	Sarah Dazley	24	Bedford	Murder of her husband
1844 - 5
13/01/1844	Sarah Westwood	42	Stafford	Murder of her husband, John
02/08/1844	Eliza Joyce	31	Lincoln Castle	Murder of her stepson
07/08/1844	Catherine Bryan & Bridget Lanigan		Roscommon	Murder of her husband Patrick, (brother in law)
28/12/1844	Mary Gallop	20	Chester	Patricide (murder of her father)
1845 - 2
11/01/1845	Mary Sheming	51	Ipswich	Murder of her son, John
23/04/1845	Sarah Freeman	28	Taunton	Murder of her brother, Charles
1846 - 1
05/01/1846	Martha Browning	23	Newgate	Murder of Mrs. Mundell
1847 - 2
17/04/1847	Catherine Foster	18	Bury St Edmunds	Murder of her husband, John
30/07/1847	Mary Ann Milner	27	Lincoln Castle	Murder of her sister in law
			Milner hanged herself in her cell on the morning of execution but is included here as she would have been executed, there being no reprieve
1848 - 2
21/02/1848	Harriet Parker	33	Newgate	Murder of her 2 step children
14/08/1848	Mary May	38	Chelmsford	Murder of her half brother
1849 - 7
21/03/1849	Jane Scully		Roscommon	Murder of Isabella Brennan (hanged with male co-defendant and 1 other man).
20/04/1849	Sarah Harriet Thomas	17	Bristol	Murder of Miss Jefferies (mistress)
09/08/1849	Mary Ball	31	Coventry	Murder of her husband
11/08/1849	Catherine Dillon		Limerick	Murder of her husband Daniel (hanged with male co-defendant)
21/08/1849	Mary Ann Geering	49	Lewes	Murder of her husband and 2 sons
23/08/1849	Rebecca Smith	44	Devizes	Murder of her infant son
13/11/1849	Maria Manning	28	Horsemonger Lane	Murder of Patrick O'Connor (hanged with her husband)
1850 - 4
31/01/1850	Margaret Hamilton or Lennox	25	Glasgow	Murder of sister in law, Jean
11/04/1850	Catherine Moore		Maryborough (now Portlaoise)	Murder of her husband, Patrick
13/04/1850	Mary Reeder	20	Cambridge	Murder of sister, Susan Lucas (Elias’s wife) (hanged alongside Elias Lucas)
27/07/1850	Bridget Keogh	32	Ennis (Ireland)	Murder of Arthur O'Donnell (hanged with male co-defendant)
1851 - 3
25/03/1851	Sarah Chesham	42	Chelmsford	Attempted murder of husband (hanged with one man)
10/05/1851	Catherine Connelly	70	Cork	Murder of Mary Morris
19/08/1851	Mary Cage	40	Ipswich	Murder of her husband, James
1852 - 2
16/03/1852	Elizabeth Pinckard	51	Northampton	Murder of her mother in law
10/04/1852	Sarah Ann French	27	Lewes	Murder of her husband, William
1853 - 3
29/04/1853	Bridget Stackpoole		Ennis	Murder of her nephew, James (hanged with husband Richard)
29/04/1853	Honora Stackpoole		Ennis	As above, hanged an hour later. (Last woman to be publicly hanged in Ireland)
11/08/1853	Helen Blackwood	30	Glasgow	Murder of Alexander Boyd. (hanged with male co-defendant.)
1854 - 1855 - 0
1856 - 1
09/08/1856	Elizabeth Brown	45	Dorchester	Murder of her husband, John
1857 - 1861 - 0
1862 - 2
29/04/1862	Mary Ann Timney (Reid)	27	Dumfries	Murder of her neighbour, Ann Hannah. (Last female public hanging in Scotland)
20/10/1862	Catherine Wilson	40	Newgate	Murder of Mrs. Soames
1863 - 1
28/12/1863	Alice Holt (Hewitt)	27	Chester	Murder of her mother
1864 - 1865 - 0
1866 - 1
28/03/1866	Mary Ann Ashford	44	Exeter	Murder of her husband, William
1867 - 1
10/01/1867	Ann Lawrence	29	Maidstone	Murder of her 4 year old son, Jeremiah (hanged with 1 man)
1868 - 1
02/04/1868	Frances Kidder	25	Maidstone	Murder of her step-daughter, Louisa (12)

Note. Newgate was the main place of execution for London and the County of Middlesex up to 1902. Horsemonger Lane Gaol was the “hanging” prison for the County of Surrey up to 1878.

As you can see from the above, murder was by far the most common crime for which women were hanged in the 19th century, representing some 78.6% of the total number executed. 142 of these women suffered for this crime. A further 20 were hanged for the murder of their bastard child. This was sadly quite commonplace where young, usually poor, unmarried girls became pregnant and killed their baby. It was defined as a separate crime from ordinary murder. Attempted murder was still a capital crime in Britain up to 1861. Three women were executed for this offence, the last being Sarah Chesham in 1851. Three women were hanged, one for being an accessory to murder, one for conspiracy to murder and one for aiding and abetting murder.
Women convicted of murdering their husbands (at least 18 cases) and superiors (e.g., their employers) (1 or 2 cases) prior to 1828, were guilty of Petty Treason (denoted by P/T above) and were dragged to the gallows on a hurdle or sled before being hanged. Martha Aldin was who had murdered her husband received the following sentence that on "Friday next you will be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, there to be hanged by the neck till you are dead, and your body afterwards to be dissected." The sentence was carried out in full on Friday, the 31st of July 1807, at 12 noon, before a huge crowd on Castle Hill, Norwich. Dissection was a mandatory part of the punishment for all female murderers from 1752 to 1834. In 1828 the crime of Petty Treason was abolished, the offence being reclassified as ordinary murder.

At the beginning of the 19th century the “Bloody Code”, as it was known, was still in force, mandating the death sentence for a large number of property crimes. Six women were hanged for stealing or robbing in a dwelling house, one for robbing in a brothel, three for burglary, one for riot, one for killing sheep.
Coining was deemed to be high treason and three women were executed for it in the 19th century, the last being Susan Grant in 1809. Coining was the practice of clipping off the edges of gold and silver coins and melting down the clippings either to form ingots or to forge other coins. Coining ceased to be a capital crime in 1832. Forgery (particularly of bank notes and coins) also carried the death penalty and led to six executions up to 1834. Uttering was the crime of passing forgeries - e.g. forged coins, bank notes or cheques and eight women were to die for this crime.
Charlotte Long became the last woman to be executed for a crime other than murder or attempted murder, when she was hanged with Thomas Gaskins at Gloucester in 1833 for arson, which was considered a very serious crime due to the destruction of property and the risk to life. It still carries the possibility of a "life sentence" today. She was one of five women to suffer for this crime between 1800 and 1833.

It was not until 1861 that the Criminal Law Consolidation Act reduced the number of capital crimes to four: murder, treason (including arson in Royal Naval dockyards), mutiny and piracy. No woman was to hang for any of these crimes other than murder.
Catherine Connelly was the oldest woman hanged, being 70 at the time, the youngest recorded was Hannah Bocking, who was only 16 and one of at least nine teenage girls to be executed during the 19th century. She was hanged for poisoning another girl, Jane Grant, at Wardlow Miers in Derbyshire. The execution of persons under 16 was not formally outlawed until the Children's Act was passed in 1908.

Click here for a graph showing the steady decline in female executions during the 19th century as the number of capital crimes and severity of punishments were reduced.  For whatever reason the proportion of female murders and executions was much higher in the period 1837 to 1865. Women accounted for 32 out of 318 executions during this period, or just over 10%, the highest ever proportion, despite the fact that a large number were reprieved. There seemed to be a rash of poisonings by women at this time.

All of these women suffered in public, often before large crowds, hanged using the short drop method which meant that none of them had a pain free death and in many cases, it would be reported that they "died hard," i.e. struggled for some time before unconsciousness supervened. Twenty two year old Ann Hurle's execution in 1804 is described thus in the Newgate Calendar:
"She was brought out of the debtors' door in Newgate at eight o'clock. The mode of execution by the drop having been for the time changed to that of the common gallows, she was put into a cart and drawn to the place of execution, in the widest part of the Old Bailey, where she expiated her offences in penitence and prayer. When the halter was fixed, she seemed inclined to speak, but her strength evidently failed, and she was incapable. Her appearance, upon the whole, excited emotions of compassion among the spectators, who at last became so clamorous that the sheriff, in a loud voice, described to them the impropriety of their behaviour, after which they were more silent. The cap was then pulled over the face of the sufferer and the cart drawn away. As it was going she gave a faint scream, and for two or three minutes after she was suspended she appeared to be in great agony, moving her hands up and down frequently". (She was typically only pinioned by a rope around her arms and body at the elbows and her wrists tied together in front.)

In accordance with the Murder Act of 1752 murderers had to be hanged within 48 hours of sentence. In reality this was often extended to 72 hours as it was usual to pass sentences on all prisoners convicted at the end of the assize on a Friday. Sunday was legally a “dies non” and nobody could be executed on that day so the earliest a murderer could be hanged was on the following Monday. This act was finally repealed in 1834. After which it was normal for at least two weeks to elapse between sentence and execution and this was later extended to “three clear Sundays”.

After 1834, the bodies of all criminals executed were buried within the precincts of the prison in which they were last confined, in unmarked graves whose locations were recorded. Prior to 1834 those executed for crimes other than murder could be claimed by relatives and friends for burial in consecrated land.

It was normal for men and women to be sentenced together at the end of a county assize or Old Bailey Sessions in London and those condemned and not reprieved would be hanged together. In the shire counties executions were often held on a market day (often a Saturday) so as to draw the biggest crowd. In 1817, the famous prison reformer, Elizabeth Fry, recorded one of her visits to Newgate prison where she went to comfort a young woman called Eliza(beth) Fricker, aged about 30. Eliza had been condemned for burglary. Fry found "also six men waiting to be hanged and seven young children." One of the men was Elizabeth’s co-defendant who had also been sentenced for burglary, two for robbery and three for forgery, all capital felonies. Mrs. Fry protested at the severity of Eliza's sentence and was attacked for being a sentimentalist by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Eldon, who stated that "if hanging was abolished for theft, the property of Englishmen would be left wholly without protection." Eliza was duly hanged outside Newgate on Wednesday, the 5th of March 1817, together with the six men, the children being reprieved.

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