Bladys of the Stewponey/Appendix  From Wikisource Jump to:
navigation, search Bladys of the Stewponey by Sabine Baring-
Gould   In 1769 Susannah Lott was burned for the murder of her
husband, at Canterbury, and Benjamin Buss, her paramour, was
hanged for participation in the crime.  Catherine Hayes was
burned alive in 1726. Her son, Billings, who had assisted her in
the murder of her husband, was hung. "An iron chain was put
round her body, with which she was fixed to a stake near the
gallows." On these occasions, when women were hanged for petty
treason, it was customary to strangle them, by means of a rope
passed round the neck, and pulled by the executioner, so that
they were dead before the flames reached the body. But this
woman was literally burnt alive: for the executioner letting go
the rope sooner than usual, in consequence of the flames
reaching his hands, the fire burnt fiercely round her, and the
spectators beheld her pushing away the faggots, while she rent
the air with her cries and lamentations.