1542: Margaret Davy, poysoner
Add comment March 17th, 2020 Headsman
Seventeenth century Jurist John Brydall‘s “An abridgment of the lawes of England, touching treasons, rebellious murthers, conspiracies, burning of houses, poysonings, and other capital offences (1679):
Whether killing a man by poyson be more detestable, than by any other means?
To kill a man by poyson, sayes Coke, is the most detestable of all, because it is most horrible and fearful to the nature of man, and of all others can be least prevented, either by Manhood, or providence: This offence was so odious, that by Act of Parliament it was made High Treason, and it inflicted a more grievous and lingring death, than the common Law prescribed, viz. That the Offendor shall be boyled to death in hot water: upon which Statute Margaret Davy [or Davie, or Davey -ed.] a young woman was attainted of High Treason for poysoning her Mistress, and some others, was boyled to death in Smithfield the Seventeenth of March in the same year: But this Act was afterwards repealed by 1. E. 6. c. 12. and 1. Mar. c. 1.
This appears to be the last documented execution by boiling alive in English history. (The far better-known boiling of Richard Roose for attempting to poison John Fisher occurred 11 years earlier, during the run-up to Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn.)
On this day..
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- 1830: Robert Emond - 2018
- 1784: Anne Castledine, infanticide - 2017
- 1706: Matthias Kraus, Bavarian rebel - 2016
- 2015: Twelve in Pakistan - 2015
- 1713: Juraj Janosik, Slovakian social bandit - 2014
- 1662: Rose Cullender and Amy Denny, Bury St. Edmunds witches - 2013
- 1995: Flor Contemplacion, OFW - 2012
- 1999: Andrew Kokoraleis, the last ever in Illinois? - 2011
- 1834: Fusilamientos de Heredia - 2010
- 2006: Yuan Baojing, gangster capitalist - 2009
- 1915: Four French Corporals, for cowardice - 2008
Entry Filed under: 16th Century,Boiled,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,England,Execution,Gruesome Methods,History,Milestones,Murder,Public Executions,Treason,Women
Tags: 1540s, 1542, london, march 17, margaret davey, margaret davie, margaret davy, poison, poisoner, smithfield
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