[London?, 1800?]
Public horror at a woman murdering her husband is clear from the state of the law in the late eighteenth century. The crime was classified as Petty Treason and judged to be a crime against the state and so more terrible than other murders. The penalty was for the woman to be burned alive, but by the second half of the eighteenth century the victim was usually strangled, then her corpse was burnt. By 1825 the crime was re-classified as murder and women executed by hanging. It is unclear whether this broadside describes a real or fictional case. There were certainly half a dozen women executed for poisoning their husbands between 1790 and 1825, but nobody of this name.
Public horror at a woman murdering her husband is clear from the state of the law in the late 18th century. The crime was classified as Petty Treason and judged to be a crime against the state and so more terrible than other murders. The penalty was for the woman to be burned alive, but by the second half of the 18th century the victim was usually strangled, then her corpse was burnt. By the late 18th century there was concern as to the morality of inflicting this harsher punishment on a woman than a man and by 1825 the crime of petty treason was re-classed as murder and all convicted women executed by hanging.
In fact, despite the usual outrage when a woman murdered her husband, there was growing public sympathy for the woman. In some cases it emerged that there had been ill-treatment by the husband, in others the woman had been persuaded by unscrupulous men to commit the crime. It is unclear whether this broadside describes a real or fictional case. There were certainly half a dozen women executed for poisoning their husbands between 1790 and 1825, but nobody of this name.
Broadsides.B.78.18
