This was the ultimate punishment available in English law for men who had been convicted of High Treason. Women were burned at the stake instead—apparently for the sake of decency.
Explore more historical capital punishment cases with a free collection of 10 detailed accounts.
Free PDF • Instant access
The Full Sentence
The full sentence passed upon those convicted of High Treason up to 1870 was as follows:
“That you be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution where you shall be hanged by the neck and being alive cut down, your privy members shall be cut off and your bowels taken out and burned before you, your head severed from your body and your body divided into four quarters to be disposed of at the King’s pleasure.”
So, not for the faint-hearted then!!
Meaning of “Drawing”
As you will see from the sentence, it should properly be called drawing, hanging and quartering as the condemned was drawn to the place of execution, tied to the hurdle or sledge which was dragged by a horse. This is confirmed by contemporary law books. Drawing does not refer to the removal of the intestines in this context and remained part of the sentence for High Treason long after the disembowelling and dismemberment had ceased.
The hurdle was similar to a piece of fencing made from thin branches interwoven to form a panel to which the prisoner was tied to be dragged behind a horse to the place of execution.
The Execution Process
Once there, the prisoner(s) were hanged in the normal way (i.e. without a drop to ensure that the neck was not broken) but cut down whilst still conscious. The penis and testicles were cut off and the stomach was slit open. The intestines and heart were removed and burned before them. The other organs were torn out and finally, the head was cut off and the body divided into four quarters. The head and quarters were parboiled to prevent them rotting too quickly and then displayed upon the city gates as a grim warning to all.
At some point in this agonising process, the prisoner inevitably died of strangulation and/or haemorrhage and/or shock and damage to vital organs.
It has to be one of the most sadistic forms of execution ever invented, which it was in 1241, specifically to punish William Maurice who had been convicted of piracy.
Notable Historical Cases
David, Last Welsh Prince of Wales (1283)
In 1283, David, the last Welsh Prince of Wales, was tried for treason at Shrewsbury in Shropshire and was sentenced:
“To be drawn to the gallows as a traitor to the King who made him a Knight, to be hanged as the murderer of the gentleman taken in the Castle of Hawarden, to have his limbs burnt because he had profaned by assassination the solemnity of Christ’s passion and to have his quarters dispersed through the country because he had in different places compassed the death of his lord the king.”
Tyburn Martyrs (1500s)
In the 1500s, a total of 105 Catholic martyrs were hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn in London for what amounted to “spiritual treason”—failing to recognise the official religion of the day.
The Gunpowder Plot (1606)
Guy Fawkes and his fellow “Gunpowder Plot” conspirators are possibly the most famous and best-remembered victims of this punishment. Fawkes was captured and tortured on the rack to get him to reveal the names of the others, who were then arrested. They were tried at Westminster Hall in January 1606 and all seven were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
Executions took place on January 30th and 31st. The first three—Sir Everard Digby, Thomas Bates, and Robert Winter—were put to death near St. Paul’s Church. Guy Fawkes, Ambrose Rookwood, Thomas Winter, and Robert Keyes suffered the following day in Old Palace Yard in front of the Houses of Parliament. Their heads were placed upon spikes on London Bridge.
Strangely, by tradition, we burn the “guy” on the bonfire on fireworks night in celebration of the Gunpowder Plot, although Fawkes was not burnt.
The Restoration and the Regicides
In August 1660, Charles II passed the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion, which gave a free pardon to anyone who had supported the republican (Commonwealth) government of Oliver Cromwell. However, he retained the right to try for treason those people who had participated in the trial and execution of his father, Charles I.
A special court was appointed, and in October 1660, the Regicides, as they were known, were brought to trial. Ten were found guilty and were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. They were Thomas Harrison, John Jones, John Carew, Hugh Peters, Adrian Scroope, Thomas Scot, Gregory Clement, Francis Hacker, Daniel Axtell, and John Cooke.
Harrison was the first to die; he was executed at Charing Cross on Saturday, the 13th of October, and was subjected to the full gruesome rigours of his sentence. Two days later, John Carew suffered the same fate, although his quartered body was allowed to be buried rather than put on display. The following day, John Cooke and Hugh Peters were executed. Cooke’s head was displayed on a pole at Westminster Hall with Harrison’s, whilst Peters’s was displayed on London Bridge.
On Wednesday, the 17th, Scot, Clement, Scroope, and Jones were executed. Finally, on Friday, the 19th, it was Hacker and Axtell’s turn.
Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton, Thomas Pride, and John Bradshaw were all dead by this time but were posthumously tried for high treason. They were found guilty, and in January 1661, their corpses were exhumed and hung in chains at Tyburn.
17th Century Forgery and Treason Cases
At the Sessions of the Old Bailey on the 15th of October 1690, Thomas Castle was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered for forging shillings. It is interesting that in the Ordinary’s Account, Castle’s sentence is stated as “Drawn, Hanged and Quartered,” confirming that the drawing referred to the drawing to the place of execution on a hurdle or sledge, and not to disemboweling.
Castle was spared the full punishment and was drawn on a sledge to Tyburn and hanged on Friday, the 24th of October.
The 1715 and 1745 Jacobite Rebellions
There were hanging, drawing, and quartering executions as a result of the 1715 Rebellion. Three men were convicted of High Treason by the King’s Bench on the 22nd of November 1715 and were drawn to Tyburn for execution on the 7th of December that year. They were John Dorrell, Captain John Gordon, and Captain William Kerr.
The 1745 Jacobite Rebellion led to a considerable number of trials for High Treason, resulting in 91 sentences of hanging, drawing, and quartering being passed by a Special Commission at Carlisle. Thirty-three were carried out during October and November of 1746—twenty at Carlisle, six at Brampton, and seven at Penrith.
A further 22 executions took place at York during November 1746 after trials by a Special Commission. There were also 17 at Kennington Common, the place of execution for the County of Surrey, between July and November. These included Sir John Wedderburn, John Hamilton, Andrew Wood, Alexander Leith, and Captain James Dawson. Kennington Common is now known as Kennington Park, near Camberwell in London.
The Execution of Francis Townley
The execution of 37-year-old Francis Townley in July 1746 is described thus:
“After he had hung for six minutes, he was cut down, and, having life in him, as he lay on the block to be quartered, the executioner gave him several blows on the breast, which not having the effect designed, he immediately cut his throat, after which he took his head off, then ripped him open, and took out his bowels and threw them into the fire which consumed them. Then he slashed his four quarters, put them with the head into a coffin, and they were deposited till Saturday, August 2nd, when his head was put on Temple Bar, and his body and limbs suffered to be buried.”
The head was stolen (on the instructions of his family) from Temple Bar and held in secret by the Townley family until 1945, when it was interred in the Townley vault in Burnley (along with another head). Francis Townley had commanded the English Jacobite Manchester Regiment, which surrendered to the Duke of Cumberland after briefly holding Carlisle in late 1745. Francis and his regiment had held the town, whilst John Hamilton had held the castle.
Late 18th Century Executions
Thereafter, there were only four further hanging, drawing, and quartering executions in the 18th century.
Dr. Archibald Cameron was convicted under the 1746 Act of Attainder for his part in the ’45 Rebellion and was executed at Tyburn on Thursday, the 7th of June 1753. He was allowed to hang for 20 minutes before being cut down. His head was removed, but it is unclear whether the rest of the sentence was carried out. His remains were buried in the Savoy Chapel.
François Henri de la Motte suffered at Tyburn on Friday, the 27th of July 1781, for conspiring against the life of the King. He was hanged for nearly half an hour before his head was cut off and shown to the crowd, and his heart cut out and burnt. His body was then scored with a knife as a symbolic form of quartering.
A year later, David Tyrie was executed at Portsmouth on Saturday, the 24th of August 1782 (possibly on the shoreline), having been tried by a Special Commission at Winchester and convicted of giving information to an enemy (France) in time of war. His sentence was carried out in full.
The last 18th-century occurrence was at Maidstone on the 7th of July 1798 when James O’Coigley was executed for “compassing and imagining the death of the King and adhering to the King’s enemies” – the French.
19th Century Treason Executions
In the 19th century, there were four recorded sets of executions for High Treason, in all of which the prisoners were hanged until dead and then beheaded, the rest of their sentence being remitted.
The Despard Conspirators
The first was the execution of the seven Despard Conspirators at Horsemonger Lane Gaol in Surrey on Monday, the 21st of February 1803. They were symbolically drawn around the prison yard before their execution. Colonel Edward Despard, John Francis, John Wood, James Broughton, James Sedgewick, Arthur Wrutton, and John McNamara were put to death by William Brunskill.
The Treason Act of 1814, which came into force on 27 July of that year, formally removed the disembowelling part of the punishment and substituted normal hanging followed by post-mortem decapitation.
The Pentrich Martyrs
The next “hanging, drawing and quartering” took place outside Friar Gate Gaol in Derby on Friday, the 7th of November 1817, when Jeremiah Brandreth, William Turner, and Isaac Ludlam, known as “The Pentrich Martyrs,” were executed for attempting to lead a revolution. They were hanged for half an hour (until dead) before being taken down. The executioner then cut off their heads with an axe and held Brandreth’s up to the crowd, exclaiming, “Behold the head of the traitor, Jeremiah Brandreth.” This was the last use of the axe for decapitation in Britain.
The Cato Street Conspirators
The five Cato Street conspirators became the last to suffer this fate in England when they were executed in front of Newgate Prison on Monday, May the 1st 1820 for conspiring to murder several members of the Cabinet. The case became known as the Cato Street Conspiracy. The conspirators—Arthur Thistlewood, James Ings, John Brunt, Richard Tidd, and William Davidson—had hatched their plot in London’s Cato Street, off the Edgware Road.
Their security had been breached by a government agent, and they were all arrested. Tried at the Old Bailey, the Lord Chief Justice sentenced them as follows:
“That you, each of you, be taken hence to the goal from whence you came, and from thence that you be drawn on a hurdle to a place of execution, and be there hanged by the neck until dead; and that afterwards your heads shall be severed from your bodies, and your bodies divided into four quarters, to be disposed of as his Majesty shall think fit. And may God of His infinite goodness have mercy upon your souls.”
The Sheriff for the City of London, Mr. Rothwell, was in charge of the arrangements and decided, principally to avoid traffic congestion, to do away with the drawing on a hurdle.
Additional barricades were erected for crowd control, and an extra platform added at the back of Newgate’s gallows. Extra security was deployed in the form of troops, and the new platform was covered in sawdust to absorb blood. The coffins were placed in readiness.
Jeremy Botting was the executioner. At 8 o’clock, the drop fell. The traitors were suspended for half an hour, then drawn back up, placed on their coffins, and decapitated by a masked man using a surgical knife. The heads were shown to the crowd with the proclamation, “This is the head of a traitor.” It is thought that a medical man or butcher performed the decapitations.
The 1820 Rising in Scotland
The last recorded instance of hanging and decapitation took place a few months later in Scotland.
Twenty-two men were tried at Stirling on the 13th and 14th of July for High Treason for their parts in the “1820 Rising.” These were radicals campaigning for universal male suffrage, better working conditions, and a Scottish parliament. They had attempted to seize the Carron Ironworks near Falkirk but were captured at Bonnymuir by the British army.
Andrew Hardie and John Baird, the two leaders, pleaded guilty at trial, and all 22 received the death sentence on the 4th of August. Hardie and Baird were executed at Stirling on Friday, the 8th of September. After hanging for half an hour, their bodies were cut down and placed in their coffins, with their necks over one edge. Their heads were then cut off and shown to the crowd.
On the gallows, Hardie told the spectators, “I die a martyr to the cause of truth and injustice.” The remaining 20 conspirators were reprieved.
The End of a Barbaric Practice
With this, another cruel punishment passed into history. However, it remained the lawful punishment for High Treason until abolished in 1870. It was rarely carried out in full, as it was considered so barbaric. Governments were concerned about public opinion even in those days.
Ordinary hanging replaced it, although the Monarch could still order beheading and quartering. The cutting down of the prisoner whilst still alive, and the disembowelling and burning of his organs, had ceased a century earlier. It was not until the Forfeiture Act of 1870 that all reference to drawing and quartering was removed from the Statute Book.
Post-1870, normal hanging in private became the only penalty, and there were very few executions for treason.
It is interesting to note that men convicted of Petty Treason and High Treason offences such as coining were not subjected to quartering—being just drawn on a hurdle or sledge to the place of execution and hanged in the normal way—yet women convicted of these offences were burnt at the stake until 1789. It is unclear why this was.
Peers of the Realm who were convicted of High Treason were beheaded.
Support the Archive
If you have found this article useful and would like to help preserve and maintain this historical archive, please consider supporting the site.