well-applied assiduity. Ob. 1800.

BOLTON CORNEY.


* * * * *

+Queries+

PUNISHMENT OF DEATH BY BURNING.

Judging from the astonishment with which I learned from an eye-witness the
circumstance, I think that some of your readers will be surprised to learn
that, within the memory of witnesses still alive, a woman was burnt to
death under sentence of the judge of assize, for the murder of her husband.

This crime--petty treason--was formerly punished with fire and faggot; and
the repeal of the law is mentioned by Lord Campbell in a note to his life
of one of our recent chancellors, but I have not his work to refer to.

The post to which this woman was bound stood, till recently, in a field
adjoining Winchester.

She was condemned to be burnt at the stake; and a marine, her paramour and
an accomplice in the murder, was condemned to be hanged.

A gentleman lately deceased told me the circumstances minutely. I think
that he had been at the trial, but I know that he was at the execution, and
saw the wretched woman fixed to the stake, fire put to the faggots, and her
body burnt. But I know two persons still alive who were present at her