PUNISHMENT OF DEATH BY BURNING

In the "NOTES AND QUERIES" of Saturday, the 10th of August, SENEX gives some account of the burning of a female in the Old Bailey, "about the year 1788." Having myself been present at the last execution of a female in London, where the body was burnt (being probably that to which SENEX refers), and as few persons who were then present may now be alive, I beg to mention some circumstances relative to that execution, which appear to be worthy of notice. Our criminal law was then most severe and cruel: the legal punishment of females convicted of high treason and petty treason was burning; coinin…