Overview of Burning at the Stake in England and Wales
Burning at the stake in public was used in England and Wales to punish heresy for both sexes and for women convicted of High Treason or Petty Treason.
Men who were convicted of high treason were hanged, drawn, and quartered, but this ritual was not deemed acceptable for women by the judiciary because disembowelling and post-mortem quartering would have involved public nudity.
High Treason included offences against the state currency such as counterfeiting money and “coining” (the clipping of edges from gold and silver coins, which were melted down to cast counterfeit money), possessing coining equipment, and coloring base metal coins to pass them off as currency of higher denomination.
Oddly, men who committed these same counterfeiting crimes suffered ordinary hanging at the gallows, having first been drawn to the place of execution upon a sledge or hurdle.
Petty Treason was defined under common law as the murder by a woman of her lawful husband or master, or by a servant of their master or mistress, as they were legally classified as their hierarchical superiors in feudal law.
In Scotland, burning at the stake was primarily reserved as the statutory punishment for witchcraft.
Early History of Burning in Britain
It is not known precisely when judicial burning was first introduced to Britain, but there is a recorded execution for heresy in 1222, when an apostate deacon of the church was burned at Oxford for embracing the Jewish faith in order to marry a Jewish woman.
In 1401, King Henry IV authorized the statute De Heretico Comburendo (“Concerning the Burning of Heretics”), which empowered the ecclesiastical hierarchy to arrest, try, and deliver suspected religious dissenters to secular sheriffs for burning.
The first to suffer under the 1401 statute was William Sautre, a parish priest from Lynn who was executed in 1402.
Although subsequently repealed, burning for heresy was revived in 1553 by Henry VIII’s daughter, Queen Mary I (“Bloody Mary”).
During her five-year reign from 1553 to 1558, 274 burnings of men and women for religious heresy were officially recorded.
In the vast majority of cases, their sole offence was adhering to the Protestant faith and rejecting papal supremacy.
The principal site of execution in London was West Smithfield (now simply Smithfield).
Contemporary engravings demonstrate that condemned heretics were stood inside empty tar barrels positioned against a wooden stake, around which heavy faggots of wood were piled.
It was not the ecclesiastical or civil practice to strangle heretics prior to setting fire to the pyre, meaning that condemned victims died slow, excruciating deaths—being literally burned alive.
Burning as a Punishment in Continental Europe
Judicial burning was in widespread use across continental Europe throughout the medieval and early modern periods.
It was favored by the tribunals of the Spanish Inquisition because the canonical principle ecclesia non novit sanguinem (“the Church abhors the shedding of blood”) disallowed surgical or mutilating capital punishments.
Furthermore, total incineration ensured that the condemned possessed no corporeal body to carry forward into the afterlife, which theological doctrine regarded as an exceptionally severe secondary penalty.
Contemporary religious belief also held that passing through fire cleansed the corrupted soul of spiritual taint, an idea applied to both heretics and individuals convicted of witchcraft.
Witchcraft and Burning at the Stake
Although popular imagination frequently associates burning at the stake with the prosecution of witchcraft, it was used far less for that offence in England than in continental Europe, particularly in France, Switzerland, the German states, and Scandinavia.
Under English common law, witchcraft was classified as a felony rather than religious heresy under the Witchcraft Acts of 1562 and 1604, meaning that English witches were executed by hanging rather than burning.
Alice Molland is recorded as the last person convicted and sentenced to hang for witchcraft in England, at Exeter Castle in 1684.
Conversely, the Kingdom of Scotland routinely burned witches at the stake following conviction in the High Court of Justiciary or local burgh courts, with extensive records documenting women and men suffering this fate.
On the 18th of May 1671, Janet McMuldroche and Elspeth Thompson were strangled and burned at Dumfries.
The official Scottish execution warrant, dated two days prior, read:
“Forsamuch as in ane court of Justiciarie holden be us within the Tolbuithe of drumfreis vpon the fyftein day of May instant Jonet McMuldroche and Elspeth Thomsone were found guiltie be ane ascyse of the se[ver]all articles of witchcraft spe[cif]it in the verdict given againest them theiranent Were decerned and adjudged be us the Lords Commissioners of Justiciarie to be tane vpon thursday next the eighteen day of May instant Betuixt tuo and foure houres in the afernoone to the ordinare place of executione the toune of drumfreis And their to be wirried at ane stake till they be dead And theirafter their bodies to be brunt to ashes And all their moveable goods and geir to be escheat.”
(Note: “wirried” meant strangled by cord, and “escheat” indicated that all personal goods and property were forfeited to the Crown).
The final person legally burned for witchcraft in Scotland was Janet Horne, executed at Dornoch in Ross-shire in 1727.
Janet had been accused of bewitching her daughter and using her as a flying horse shod by the Devil, accounting for the daughter’s physical hand and foot deformities.
The daughter was acquitted, and later bore a child exhibiting the identical hereditary hand deformity. A carved memorial stone at Dornoch still marks the place of Janet Horne’s execution.
The Scottish and English Witchcraft Acts were officially repealed by Parliament under the Witchcraft Act 1735, which substituted imprisonment for fraudulent fortune-telling.
Historical estimates indicate that between 40,000 and 50,000 individuals—and by some broader estimates up to 200,000—were executed for witchcraft across early modern Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Historical Methods of Scaffold Burning
Scaffold burnings in Europe generally employed three technical variations:
- Faggots Piled Around an Elevated Stake: The prisoner was chained or encircled with iron hoops to an upright timber post positioned above a raised wood pile. This method was preferred in England and by the Spanish Inquisition for its open visibility to large crowds. Because flames took several minutes to reach chest and head level, it resulted in a agonizing death if the victim was not rendered insensible beforehand. In Scottish witchcraft and English treason executions, strangulation was generally administered before lighting the wood.
- Enclosed Pyres: The condemned person was fastened directly to the post at ground level, and dry faggots were stacked upward past head height, enclosing them within a solid wooden pyre. Joan of Arc was executed using this method at Rouen in 1431. This method caused faster death: inhaling superheated smoke, toxic gases, and direct flames triggered acute thermal edema of the respiratory tract, causing suffocation within several minutes.
- Suspension onto the Flames: Utilized primarily in parts of Germany and Scandinavia, the prisoner was bound to a wooden ladder frame, which was hoisted upright and swung downward face-first into an established bonfire.
Legal Procedures and the Mercy of Strangulation
Under English law codified in Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, every woman convicted of counterfeiting gold or silver currency was formally sentenced to be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution and there:
“to be burned with fire till she was dead.”
However, by established judicial convention in England, women sentenced to the stake were granted the mercy of being strangled with a hemp cord before the flames consumed them, ensuring that physical death occurred in a manner similar to hanging.
In later 18th-century executions, manual strangulation with a cord was superseded by a rudimentary suspension mechanism: the upright stake was fitted with an iron bracket, ring, or hook at the summit from which the woman was suspended by a halter until lifeless, after which an iron retaining chain was wrapped around her torso and the brushwood ignited.
This procedure was documented in contemporary accounts of the execution of Susannah Lott at Maidstone Gaol in 1769, and was used for the final three burnings carried out outside Newgate Prison.
On the Continent, pre-strangulation was recognized under criminal codes as a retentum—a secret or public judicial instruction directing the executioner to garrotte the prisoner prior to igniting the pyre.
In some Nordic territories, a small keg of gunpowder was suspended around the condemned person’s neck, designed to detonate upon contact with the flames to cause instant death.
Where neither pre-strangulation nor gunpowder was employed, death resulted from acute neurogenic shock, destruction of the lungs, and asphyxiation from carbon monoxide and thermal smoke inhalation.
Elizabeth Gaunt holds the distinction of being the last woman executed in England for high political treason in the traditional sense.
Convicted of sheltering a fugitive involved in the 1685 Rye House Plot against King Charles II, Gaunt was denied the mercy of strangulation at Tyburn and was burned alive.
18th-Century Burnings at Tyburn (1702–1734)
Between 1702 and 1734, ten women were executed at the stake at London’s Tyburn:
- Two for the Petty Treason murder of their husbands;
- Eight for High Treason related to currency counterfeiting (two for possessing coining tools, four for counterfeiting silver coins, and two for coin clipping).
Barbara Spencer (1721)
Barbara Spencer was condemned for counterfeiting and executed at Tyburn on Wednesday, 5 July 1721.
A defiant young woman involved in London’s coin-forging networks, she was drawn to Tyburn tied to a wooden hurdle behind a horse.
Upon arrival, she was placed against the stake and strangled by the executioner before the faggots were lit around her feet.
Catherine Hayes (1726)
On Monday, 9 May 1726, Catherine Hayes was executed at Tyburn for Petty Treason after instigating the murder of her husband, John Hayes.
Catherine had persuaded two male lodgers—her lovers Thomas Billings and Thomas Wood—to bludgeon her husband to death with a hatchet, dismember his corpse, and cast his severed head into the River Thames at Westminster.
Both male conspirators were condemned to be hanged in chains.
Catherine was conveyed on a hurdle to Tyburn and chained to the stake.
A rope halter was placed around her neck, threaded through a pre-drilled hole in the post.
However, when the executioner lit the faggots, the dry wood flared up with sudden, uncontrolled intensity, scorching the executioner’s hands and forcing him to release the strangling cord before he could pull it tight.
As a result, Catherine was burned alive before the eyes of the crowd.
The Newgate Calendar recorded that she screamed in agony, attempting to push the blazing faggots away from her body as the flames consumed her clothing, taking upwards of an hour to be reduced to ashes.
Elizabeth Wright (1733)
Elizabeth Wright was executed at Tyburn for currency coining on the 19th of December 1733, while her twenty-six-year-old daughter and accomplice received a royal pardon.
The Triple Execution of 1734
On the 2nd of October 1734, Mary Haycock, Elizabeth Tracey, and Catherine Bougle were burned together at Tyburn for counterfeiting coins and possessing coining presses.
This was the only recorded triple burning at the stake carried out in London during the 18th century.
Complete Chronology of Women Burned in Britain (1735–1789)
Although public burning was becoming increasingly controversial, at least thirty-three women were executed at the stake across England between 1735 and 1789:
| Name | Date of Execution | Execution Location | Offence / Conviction | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Margaret Onion | 08/08/1735 | Chelmsford | Murder of husband | Strangled prior to fire |
| Mary Fawson | 08/08/1735 | Northampton | Murder of husband | Strangled prior to fire |
| Ann Mudd | 25/06/1737 | Tyburn, London | Murder of husband | Stabbing with knife |
| Mary Bird | 01/07/1737 | Ely | Murder of husband | Poisoning |
| Mary Groke (or Troke) | 18/03/1738 | Winchester | Murder of mistress | Aged 16; petty treason |
| Ann Goodson | 12/04/1738 | Guildford | Murder of husband | Strangled prior to fire |
| Susannah Broom | 21/12/1739 | Tyburn, London | Murder of husband | Aged 67; petty treason |
| Elizabeth Moreton (or Owen) | 10/08/1744 | Evesham | Murder of husband | Poisoning |
| Mary Johnson | April 1747 | Lincoln Castle | Murder of husband | Poisoning |
| Amy Hutchinson | 07/11/1749 | Ely | Murder of husband | Arsenic poisoning |
| Elizabeth Packard | 1750 | Exeter | Murder of husband | Arsenic poisoning |
| Ann Whale | 08/08/1752 | Horsham | Murder of husband | Aged 21; petty treason |
| Ann Williams | 13/04/1753 | Over, near Gloucester | Murder of husband | Strangled prior to fire |
| Susannah Bruford | 03/09/1753 | Wells, Somerset | Murder of husband | Aged 19; arsenic poisoning |
| Mary Ellah | 28/03/1757 | York Castle | Murder of husband | Petty treason |
| Alice Davis | 31/03/1758 | Tyburn, London | High Treason (Coining) | Counterfeiting shillings |
| Margaret Bedingfield | 08/04/1763 | Ipswich | Murder of husband | Petty treason |
| Mary Heald | 23/04/1763 | Chester Castle | Murder of husband | Arsenic poisoning |
| Mary Saunders | 21/03/1764 | Monmouth | Murder of mistress | Poisoning; petty treason |
| Mary Norwood | 08/05/1765 | Ilchester, Somerset | Murder of husband | Aged 33; arsenic poisoning |
| Ann Sowerby | 10/08/1767 | York Castle | Murder of husband | Poisoning |
| Susannah Lott | 21/07/1769 | Maidstone Gaol | Murder of husband | Hanged on stake before burning |
| Mary Hilton (or Hulton) | 06/04/1772 | Lancaster Castle | Murder of husband | Poisoning |
| Elizabeth Herring | 13/09/1773 | Tyburn, London | Murder of husband | Stool slipped; burned alive |
| Margaret Ryan | 18/03/1776 | Maidstone Gaol | Murder of husband | Petty treason |
| Elizabeth Bordingham | 30/03/1776 | York Castle | Murder of husband | Instigated lover to kill husband |
| Ann Cruttenden | 08/08/1776 | Horsham | Murder of husband | Aged 80; petty treason |
| Mary Pyner | 24/03/1779 | Chelmsford | Murder of husband | Petty treason |
| Rebecca Smith | 28/07/1779 | Ilchester, Somerset | Murder of husband | Arsenic poisoning |
| Mary Bayley | 09/03/1784 | Portsmouth | Murder of husband | Petty treason |
| Phoebe Harris | 21/06/1786 | Newgate, London | High Treason (Coining) | 20,000 spectators |
| Margaret Sullivan | 25/06/1788 | Newgate, London | High Treason (Coining) | Hanged on stake before burning |
| Christian Murphy (Bowman) | 18/03/1789 | Newgate, London | High Treason (Coining) | Last woman burned in Britain |
The Botched Execution of Elizabeth Herring (1773)
On the 13th of September 1773, Elizabeth Herring was executed at Tyburn for Petty Treason after stabbing her husband during a violent domestic quarrel.
Her execution highlighted the severe risks inherent in manual strangulation.
Drawn on a hurdle, Elizabeth was placed upon a wooden stool set against the post, with an iron chain securing her waist and a cord around her neck.
Before the hangman could pull the cord, the executioner’s assistants kicked the stool away prematurely, or the stool slipped.
The cord broke or loosened, and as the wood pile was ignited, the spectators were subjected to the horrific spectacle of Elizabeth struggling and screaming within the fire for several minutes before perishing from burns and smoke.
The incident provoked sharp denunciations in the London press, which condemned the survival of medieval executions in an enlightened era.
The Final Burnings at Newgate and Abolition (1786–1790)
The final phase of public burnings in Great Britain took place outside London’s Newgate Prison following the relocation of executions from Tyburn in late 1783.
Phoebe Harris (1786)
On the 21st of June 1786, thirty-year-old Phoebe Harris was executed outside Newgate for High Treason after being convicted of counterfeiting copper and silver sixpences.
Harris was led from the prison out to a low scaffold erected in front of the Debtor’s Door.
She stood on a small stool set against an eleven-foot post, an iron chain looped around her torso, and a halter placed around her neck.
The stool was pulled from beneath her feet, leaving her suspended by the neck until she had expired.
Once the attending surgeons confirmed death, faggots and pitch barrels were stacked around her hanging body and set ablaze, taking two hours to consume the remains.
A crowd estimated at 20,000 spectators gathered in the Old Bailey to watch the event.
The sight of a woman’s corpse publicly incinerated in central London provoked widespread indignation.
The High Sheriff of London and Middlesex, Sir Benjamin Hammet, publicly condemned the spectacle, describing it as an affront to Christian civilization.
Christian Murphy (1789): Britain’s Last Burning
The final person legally burned at the stake in Great Britain was Christian Murphy (also recorded in court proceedings as Christian Bowman).
Murphy was convicted of High Treason for coining—specifically, filing and clipping shillings and shillings-moulds.
On the 18th of March 1789, she was escorted to the front of Newgate Prison alongside four men condemned for hanging.
Dressed in a clean striped gown, Murphy was placed upon a raised platform in front of the post.
The executioner suspended her by the neck until she was dead.
Her lifeless body was then chained to the timber, surrounded by bundles of wood and tar barrels, and consumed by fire.
Sophia Girton and the Treason Act 1790
In March 1790, another woman, Sophia Girton, was convicted at the Old Bailey for counterfeiting and sentenced to be drawn on a hurdle and burned at the stake.
However, Sir Benjamin Hammet, by then Member of Parliament for Taunton, intervened directly.
Hammet secured a series of temporary royal respites staying Girton’s execution while he introduced emergency legislation into the House of Commons.
Hammet argued before Parliament that burning women was a barbaric survival of feudalism that forced sheriffs to violate common decency.
Parliament passed Hammet’s bill without serious opposition.
On the 5th of June 1790, King George III granted Royal Assent to the Treason Act 1790 (30 Geo. 3 c. 48).
The Act formally abolished the penalty of burning at the stake for women, providing that female offenders convicted of High Treason or Petty Treason:
“shall not be burned, but shall be drawn to the place of execution and there hanged by the neck until they be dead, in the same manner as men convicted of the same offences.”
Sophia Girton received a royal pardon commuting her sentence to penal transportation to New South Wales.
Petty Treason was later eliminated as a distinct legal category under the Offences Against the Person Act 1828, merging the offence of husband-murder into the standard law of murder.
The complete elimination of capital punishment for coining and property offences was achieved during the penal reforms of the 1830s under Sir Robert Peel, leading to the eventual restriction of hanging exclusively to murder by 1861, as detailed in our analysis of the abolition of capital punishment in Britain.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why were women burned at the stake in England instead of being hanged, drawn, and quartered?
Under English common law, the statutory penalty for men convicted of High Treason was to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. Jurists deemed this punishment improper for women because exposing female nakedness during disembowelling violated public decency. Burning was substituted to provide a severe, fatal penalty while keeping the female body concealed beneath clothing and flames.
What was Petty Treason?
Petty Treason was a common law offence defined as a subordinate murdering their lawful superior. For a woman, murdering her lawful husband or master was legally treated as treason against the domestic state, carrying the mandatory sentence of being drawn on a hurdle and burned at the stake until 1790.
Were women burned alive in 18th-century England?
In most 18th-century English burnings, women were not burned alive. By convention, the executioner strangled the prisoner with a cord or suspended her from an iron hook on the stake until she was dead before the faggots were lit. However, in several botched cases—most notably Catherine Hayes in 1726 and Elizabeth Herring in 1773—the fire took hold before the cord was pulled, causing the condemned women to burn alive.
Who was the last woman burned at the stake in Great Britain?
Christian Murphy (also known as Christian Bowman) was the last person burned at the stake in the United Kingdom. She was executed for coining outside Newgate Prison on 18 March 1789, being hanged until dead before her corpse was consumed by fire.
Which law abolished burning at the stake in Britain?
Burning at the stake was abolished by the Treason Act 1790 (30 Geo. 3 c. 48), introduced by Sir Benjamin Hammet MP. The statute replaced burning with ordinary hanging for all female treason convictions.
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