ABSTRACT
On 25 or 28 February 1608, Margaret Ferneseede was burnt to death in St. George’s Field, Southwark for allegedly killing her husband. She had refused to admit her guilt despite intense pressure during the trial and before her execution. Dressed in a “kirtle [i.e., gown] of Canuasse pitched cleane through, ouer which she did weare a white sheet,” she was escorted to the pyre by two women holding her hands. As she was being tied to the stake, a clergyman
admonished her that now in that minute she would confesse that fact for which she was now ready to suffer[;] which she denying, the reeds were planted aboute, vnto which fier being giuen[,] she was presently dead. Finis. (The Araignement & burning of Margaret Ferne-seede, B4v)
Only 6 weeks later on 11 April, Elizabeth Abbot was hanged for allegedly murdering her drunkard landlady, ironically named Elizabeth Killingworth. She too had refused to confess. A gibbet was purposefully erected close to the victim’s house near Aldgate, towards which Abbot was faced and “bad [to] let the sight of that where she had committed so foule a fact, be a remembrance to haue her cleare her soule.” When this arrangement failed to stir her conscience, Abbot was forced to her knees in the cart and made to pray “that [god] would be pleasd to open her harte, and make her fit for him in this her houre of death” (The Apprehension, Arraignement, and execution of Elizabeth Abbot, C3v). This too failed and led to an extraordinary scene. While one sheriff rode away to inform the Mayor of London “how she still persuered in pleading her innocency” (C4r), another hauled Abbot from the cart into nearby St. Katherine Cree Church where all the prosecution witnesses were summoned to reiterate their testimony against her. The writer’s account of this postverdict tribunal revealed that crucial allegations against Abbot had never been proved:
[They urged] that she wold yet tell whither shee knew Mistris Killingworth, or if she shamed to open that sinne, that she would but discover who was partaker with her in the roberie yt he might, be found, or what manner of man he was. (C4r)
Still unmoved, Abbot was quickly brought back to gallows and hanged. Her story ended as starkly as Ferneseede’s: “Finis.”
