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*Over is a village about a mile from Gloucester, where the county gallows stood at this time.
Elizabeth Webber (or Webster) was probably burned at York in December 1739 for the murder of her husband but her execution cannot be confirmed. Alice Davis was most probably burnt for coining on the 31st of March 1758.

At the September Sessions of the Old Bailey on the 8th of September 1773, Elizabeth Herring was indicted for “feloniously, traitorously, and of her malice aforethought, making an assault upon Robert Herring, her husband, and with a certain case knife giving him a mortal wound on the right side of the throat, of the length of one inch, and the depth of two inches, of which wound he instantly died, on August the 5th of that year.” She was convicted of Petty Treason (note the word “traitorously” in the indictment) and the Recorder passed the following sentence upon her, "you Elizabeth Herring are to be led from hence to the Gaol from whence you came; and on Monday next you are to be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution; where you are to be burnt with fire until you are dead." The sentence was carried out at Tyburn in front of some 20,000 spectators on Monday, the 13th of September 1773.
The last woman to be burnt for petty treason, i.e. the murder of her husband in Britain, was Mary Bailey at Winchester, on Monday, the 8th of March 1784 thereafter hanging was substituted for this crime. Her co-accused, John Quinn, was hanged first.
The last three women to be burnt for coining offences were executed outside London’s Newgate prison, these being Phoebe Harris on Wednesday, the 21st of June 1786, (Click here for a detailed account of her case), Margaret Sullivan on Wednesday, the 25th of June 1788 and Catherine Murphy (also known as Christian Bowman), who was put to death on Wednesday, the 18th of March 1789.
Margaret Sullivan and her co-accused, Jeremiah Grace, came to trial at the 7th of May Sessions of the Old Bailey in 1788. They were indicted as follows, “for that they, on the 29th of April, a piece of base coin resembling the current silver coin of this kingdom, called a shilling, falsely and deceitfully, feloniously and traitorously did colour with materials, producing the colour of silver.” For this crime of High Treason, Jeremiah was sentenced to be hanged and Margaret to be burnt.

Catherine Murphy’s execution was to be the last burning of a woman in England and was really was only a modified form of hanging, followed by burning. She was led from the Debtor's Door of Newgate past the nearby gallows from which four men, including her husband, were already hanging, to the stake. Here she mounted a small platform in front of it and an iron band was put round her body. The noose, dangling from an iron bracket projecting from the top of the stake, was tightened around her neck. When the preparations were complete, William Brunskill, the hangman, removed the platform leaving her suspended and only after 30 minutes were the faggots placed around her and lit.

On the 10th of May 1790, Sir Benjamin Hammett raised the issue of burning women in the House of Commons. He told fellow MP’s that it had been his painful office and duty in the previous year to attend the burning of a female (Catherine Murphy), in the office of Sheriff of London at the time, and he therefore moved to bring in a Bill to alter the law. He pointed out that the sheriff who refused to execute a sentence of burning alive was liable to prosecution, but thanked Heaven that there was not a man in England who would carry such a sentence literally into execution. (see earlier reference to strangling prior to burning) The Treason Act of 1790 was passed (30 George III. C. 48) and Parliament substituted ordinary hanging for coining offences on the 5th of June 1790. 25 year old Sophia Girton who had been convicted of coining at the Old Bailey on the 24th of April 1790 was thus saved from the fire and was in fact pardoned on condition of transportation for life to New South Wales on the 12th of June 1790. Her co-defendant, Thomas Parker, was hanged on the 19th of May 1790.

Executions by burning at Newgate were distinctly unpopular with the local residents of what was a respectable business area of the City. They had sent a petition to the Lord Mayor requesting that Phoebe Harris’ execution be carried out elsewhere. There was an early version of “not in my back yard” rather than a protest against the severity of her punishment. It was later reported that some locals became ill from the smoke from her body. There were similar protests over the Sullivan and Murphy executions and a great feeling of relief when Sophia Girton was reprieved, and the whole ghastly business passed into history under the provisions of the Treason Act of 1790. The Sheriffs were also becoming increasingly unhappy about attending burnings, and it was they who brought forward the Bill to end this practice. Even though by this time the condemned woman was dead before the faggots were lit, it must have still been a gruesome and revolting spectacle and one which conveyed a feeling of injustice. Men convicted of coining offences were hanged in the same way as other condemned males. The Times newspaper took up this theme after Phoebe’s burning and printed the following article: “The execution of a woman for coining on Wednesday morning, reflects a scandal upon the law and was not only inhuman, but shamefully indelicate and shocking. Why should the law in this species of offence inflict a severer punishment upon a woman, than a man. It is not an offence which she can perpetrate alone - in every such case the insistence of a man has been found the operating motive upon the woman; yet the man is but hanged, and the woman burned.” Other London newspapers carried similar articles. Similar outrage was expressed two years later at the burning of Margaret Sullivan, although strangely there was little media interest at the burning of Christian Murphy.