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 Death by burning is an list of execution methods, execution, murder, or suicide method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a puni ...

. Catherine Murphy and her husband, Hugh Murphy, were convicted for coining at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

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 Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey, just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, the pr ...

along with seven other men who had been convicted of various offences. The eight men were executed by

hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

. But as a woman, the law provided that Murphy should be burnt at the stake. She was brought out past the hanging bodies of the others, and made to stand on a foot-high, 10-inch-square platform in front of the stake. She was secured to the stake with ropes and an iron ring. When she finished her prayers, her executioner, William Brunskill, piled faggots of straw around the stake and lit them. Murphy was not burned alive. After Prudence Lee in 1652, it had been the practice to strangle the condemned before setting the stake alight.Fergus Linnane
London's Underworld: Three Centuries of Vice and Crime
' According to testimony given by Sir Benjamin Hammett, the

Sheriff of London Two Sheriffs of the City of London are elected annually by the members of the City livery companies. Today's Sheriffs have only ceremonial duties, but the historical officeholders held important judicial responsibilities. They have attended the ...

, he gave instructions that she should be strangled before being burned. She was, reportedly, tied with one rope around her neck, after which the platform was removed from under her feet and 30 minutes passed before the fire was lit, and thus, she was not actually burned alive. 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.

References

External links

Burning at the Stake - Capital Punishment UK
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Catherine 18th-century births 1789 deaths 1788 crimes in Europe Executed British people People executed by the Kingdom of Great Britain English counterfeiters Executed English women People executed for forgery People executed by England and Wales by burning