<![CDATA[Execution Ballads]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/browse?tags=Female&output=rss2 Fri, 29 Mar 2024 01:47:11 +1100 una.mcilvenna@unimelb.edu.au (Execution Ballads) Zend_Feed http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss <![CDATA[Juanita, die Giftmörderin in Spanien]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1288

Title

Juanita, die Giftmörderin in Spanien

Subtitle

Eine wahre Begebenheit, welche sich in neuester Zeit daselbst zugetragen hat

Synopsis

Juanita Junaz, a young woman in Zaragosa, is seduced by the wealthy Don Clabrio and abandoned. With her father, she plots revenge and poisons his entire family. She is dragged to the town square on an oxhide, her flesh pulling with burning pliers, and beheaded with an axe. Her father commits suicide.

Digital Object

Image notice

Full size images of all song sheets available at the bottom of this page.

Image / Audio Credit

Pamphlet: Deutsches Volksliedarchiv Freiburg i.Br. (Bl 13295). VD Lied digital.

Transcription

Das Lied.
Fern in Spanien’s schönem Lande,
Wo die gold’ne Traube reift
Und die Sonn’ mit heißem Brande
Ueber gold’ne Saaten streift,
Dort im schönen Lande eben,
Das ein Feder Dichter preis’t,
Hat sich Schreckliches begeben,
Das uns fast das Herz vereis’t.

Sie, der Mädchen schönste Blüthe,
Lebte mit dem Vater dort,
Unschuldvoll, sanft vom Gemüthe,
In des Waldes düsterm Ort.
Doch ein reicher Mann verführte
Dieses Mädchen, jung und schön;
Als er nahm, was einst sie zierte,
Ließ er sich nicht wieder sehn.

Da schwur wild der Vater Rache,
Und die Tochter schwur es mit,
Und so ging die grause Sache
Ihren festen, blut’gen Schritt.
Alles was ihm angehorte,
Ihm, der fulsch und treulos war,
Sann das Paar, wie es zerstörte
Dieses auf dem Rachaltar.

Alles, alles, mußt’ verderben
Ihn auch wild die Rache trifft,
Auch sein Weib, es mußte sterben,
Alles fiel durch heimlich Gift;
Doch das Mädchen auch traf Rache;
Denn die Rach’ gehöret Gott,
Und sie büßt’ die grause Sache
Schrecklich bald auf dem Schaffot.

Under der Vater endet plötzlich,
Denn er hat durch eigne Hand
In der Hütte sich entsetzlich
In Verzweiflungsangst verbrannt.
Und so endete ihr Lebe
Beide büßten im Berein,
Gott mög’ ihrer Seel’ vergeben,
Gnädig und barmherzig sein.

Method of Punishment

beheading, burning pliers

Crime(s)

murder (poison)

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Zaragosa

Printing Location

Hamburg : Kahlbrock, [1868]
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Thu, 05 Mar 2020 21:22:06 +1100
<![CDATA[Reuevolles und zur Warnung dienendes Abschieds-Lied von der Welt,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1276

Title

Reuevolles und zur Warnung dienendes Abschieds-Lied von der Welt,

Subtitle

der zum Tode verurtheilten Deliquentin Theresia K*** welche in Wien den 16. März 1809, wegen verübter Mordthat an ihrem eigenen Manne, mit dem Strange vom Leben zum Tode hingerichtet worden : Zum singen eingerichtet nach der bekannten Arie: Ich war kaum sechszehn Sommer alt

Synopsis

Theresia K. murders her husband in 1809, is executed.

Digital Object

Image notice

Full size images of all ballad sheets available at the bottom of this page.

Image / Audio Credit

Pamphlet: VD Lied digitalWiener Liedflugschriften. ÖVLA Wien <ÖC Kotek 1240>


Set to tune of...

Ich war kaum sechszehn Sommer alt

Transcription

1. Hört, Freunde! hört mein Abschiedslied
Las un Arrest ich machte,
Da Re?ker von der Welt mich schied,
Das ich mir selbst zubrachte.

2. In dieser grauen Einsamkeit,
Mir selbst nun überlassen,
Muß ich des Rerkers Bitterkeit
Ertragen ganz gelassen.

3. Als ich noch dreyzehn Jahre alt,
Lebt’ ich in Jugendfreuden,
Und hüpste froh im grünen Wald,
Mich druckten keine Leiden.

4. Geführt durch meiner Eltern Hand,
War Unschuld meine Zlerde,
Es schmückte meinen Jugendstand
Nur Tugend, die ich führte.

5. Mit Jahren wuchs auch Leidenschaft,
Die mich zu Sünd verführte,
Daß ich durch ihre Wirkungstraft
Mich manchmal schwer verirrte.

6. Ich gab auf keine Lehren acht,
Die mir die Eltern gaben,
Und so fiel ich oft unbedacht
In Schlund, den Sünden graben,

7. Wie tief der Mensch nun fallen kann,
Der von der Tugend weichet,
Sey klar und deutlich jedermann
Mein Beyspiel dargereichet.

8. Seht Freunde! seht mein Elend an,
So schwer hab’ich gefehlet,
Weil ich nun statt der Tugendbahn
Das Laster hab gewählet.

9. Gemordet habe ich sogar
Den Mann, der mich geliebet,
Und der nur stets beforget war,
Daß er mich nicht beteübet.

10. Die That fühl ich nua Zentnerschwer,
Die ich begangen habe,
Weil ich geschäzet hab nicht mehr,
Sein’ mir ertheilte Gabe.

11. Den Tod, der mir bestimmet ist,
Leid ich nunmehr geduldig!
Denn jeder Mensch als mein Mitschrift
Bekennt mich dessen schuldig!

12. Ich scheide nun aus dieser Welt,
Auf der ich schwer gefehlet,
Zum Beyspeil bleibe aufgestellt
Mein Strafe unverhehlet!

13. Verlaßt in eurem Leben nicht
Den Tugendweg zu wandeln,
Und denkt allzet an eure Pflicht
Nach dem Gefez zu handeln!

14. Bleibt Gott und eurem Fürsten treu
In eurem ganzen Leben
Sonst reißt ever Glück entzwey,
Das Gott euch hat gegeben.

15. Gebt jener Stimme stets Gehör,
Die euch zum Guten leitet,
Damit euch werde mehr und mehr
Der Guadenweg bereitet.

16. Und so vermehret jederzeit
Dein Eifer, gut zu handeln,
Versäumet kein’ Gelegenheit
Als wahrer Christ zu wandeln!

17. Dann mag er kommen, wann er will,
Der Tod mit seinen Pfeilen,
Erhalten werd’t ihr stets das Ziel
In’s Himmelreich zu eilen.

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Printing Location

n.l.
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Mon, 02 Mar 2020 16:57:44 +1100
<![CDATA[Gewisser Bericht des Truten und Hexenbrennens Bambergischen Gebiets]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1221

Title

Gewisser Bericht des Truten und Hexenbrennens Bambergischen Gebiets

Subtitle

wie lang es gewehrt / Was für ubels / ihrer Außsag nach / sie viel Jahr hero an Menschen / Vihe / Früchten und andern verübet / was allbereit verbrennet / un vermög heiliger Göttlicher Schrifft (kein Zauberer man leben lassen) hingerichtet / Und in summa / wie sie von Teuffel betrogen un hinter das Liecht geführet worden. All frommen Christen zur sonderlichen trewherzigen Warnung in ein Lied gebracht / Im Thon: Es ist gewißlich an der zeit.

Synopsis

account of multiple witches and sorcerers burned in Bamberg region

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Set to tune of...

Es ist gewißlich an der zeit

Transcription

Dann man ansicht feßt unser zeit
in welche wir sind kommen
Findet man nichts denn Herzenleid
welch uberhand genommen
So gar daß wol nicht erger sein
fan auff Erden in aller gemein
steht es ubler alß ubel.

Wie wolt es auch nict ubel stehen
weil nicht nur sünd und schande
uber all heuffig im schwang gehn
daß fast in allen Landen
Krieg / Blutvergiessen / mord un brand
uber all auch de Oberhand
bekommen /Gott seys geklaget.

Sondern welchs zu erbarmen ist
wie auch schrecklich zu hören
daß der so sein wil ein guter Christ
sich lest so gar bethören
Daß er sich dem Teuffel ergibt
mit Leib und Seel durch ein gelübd
absaget seiner Tauffe.

Die heilige Dreyfaltigkeit
verleugnet auch dem Teuffel
sich mit Leib und Seel ganz ergert
stürzt sich ohn allen zweifel
nur schendlichen wollusts wegen
so sie mit dem Teuffel pflegen
der sie doch nur betrieget.

Ein Tausentkünstler allezeit
der Teuffel ist gewesen
welcher auch in der Christenheit
gestisstet groß unwesen
mit Hexerey und Zauberey
und durch die Unholden mancherley
zu seim Werckzeug gebrauchet.

Wie dann mehr alß denn wolbekant
im Bambergischen Lande
durch unterschiedliche Trutenbrant
solch Hexerey unn schande.
Jezund vermög heiliger Schrifft
außgerottet wird welche spricht:
Kein Zauberer solt lassen leben.

Weil sie bekennen so viel Mord
und unseglichen Schaden
gestisstel han an manchen ort
daß keine Frucht gerhaten
So viel Jahr her und ob sie wol
gerhaten sind auch etlichmal
haben sie alls verzaubert.

Daß Vieh und Menschen sind zu grund
gangen durch ihr beshweren
und bezaubert zu aller stund
des Teuffels sies thun lehren.
Verspricht ihnen darbey güldne Berg
geht doch endlich alls uberzwerg
mitbetrug sie bezahlet.

Zu Zeit sind unterschiedlich Brandt
jetzt in eim halben Jahre
gesechehen und nimmet uberhand
je mehr man brennt fürware.
Je mehr der Hexen finden sich
welchs erschrecklich und erbermlich
von Christen ist zu hören.

Die Großköpffin und Canzlerin
sampt dero beyde Töchter
der Großkopff selbst ist auch schon hin
zuin brennen sie all dochten
wegen ihrer Zauberey und Hexerey
so sie getrieben haben haben.

Die dicke Kandelgiesserin
hat auch herhalten müssen
welche lange zeit ein Trütnerin
und Zauberwerck bewiesen.
Da sie sebsten bekennet hat
sie sey froh daß man an diese stat
zum verbrennen sey kommen.

Sie sey vom Teuffel immer zu
gewesen hart geplaget
hab ihr gelassen kein rast noch ruh
ihr gewissen genaget.
Daß sie nach all dem willen sein
außstehen müssen Marter unnd Pein
die ganze zeit ihres Lebens.

Reiche Kramer ohn unterschied
wie auch fürnehme Herren
sampt dero Weibern sind dereit
verbrennt worden und werden.
Teglich mehr eingefangen viel
kein ansehen der Person gilt
Reich / Arm / Schön / Herr und Frawen.

Ein grosses Hauß mit viel gemach
ist allbreit erbawet
darein man teglich einfacht
vielen noch dafür grawet.
Doch geschict keinem kein unrecht
denn solchem zaubrischen Beschlecht
gehört mit ins Fewer.

Ein grosser Ofen ist erbawt
zu Zeilda man ein hauffen einwerffen kan
man hört und schawt
keine kan da entlauffen
Der Teuffel betrengt sie sehr
alß ob es Phantasey wer
mit den Truten verbrennen.

Uberredet die albern Leut
Er laß keinen verbrennen
Er errette sie zu rechter zeit
wie sies hernach bekennen.
Gibt ihnen ein die grosse Frewd
sey hinderstellig gar kein Leid
laß er den seinen wiederfahren.

Solch und dergleichen Ubelthat
sind abgeschaffet worden
Mit dem Schwerdt darnach man sie hat
geworffen an den orten.
Ins Fewer sie verbrant zu staub
etlichen wird auch abgehawt
die Händ werden gezwicket.

Mit glüend Zangen welche viel
und groß ubel verübet
wie denn der noch sehr viel im Spiel
welche manch Mensch betrübet.
Erkrummet / erlamt / erschreckt / getödt
Daß der es alles erzehlen thet
müst ein gantzen Tag haben.

Ach Gott erhör uns deine Kind
behüt uns fürs Teuffels listen
und vor dem zauberischen Gesind
dein recht gleubige Christen.
Gib O Heilig Dreyfaltigkeit
dir zu dinnen je und allezeit
wer das wil thun sprech Amen.

Method of Punishment

burning

Crime(s)

witchcraft

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Bamberg, Germany

Printing Location

Schmalkalden
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]]>
Tue, 10 Dec 2019 14:31:34 +1100
<![CDATA[Sal]isbury Assizes. [?]ard of Witchcraft.]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1218

Title

Sal]isbury Assizes. [?]ard of Witchcraft.

Subtitle

Being a true Relation of one Mistris Bodnan living in Fisherton, next house but one to the Gallowes, who being a Witch seduced a Maid, called by name, Anne Stiles, to the s[a]me abominab[le] and detested action of VVitchcraft; which VVitch for that action was executed the 19 day of March 1653.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Manchester Central Library, BR f 821.04 B49, EBBA 36038

Set to tune of...

Bragandary

Transcription

WHen men and Women leave the way
of God, and goodnesse quite,
They practice mischief every day
and therein take delight
The Divel then is nye at hand
When these things he doth understand,
You that will goe,
High or low
Resolve upon this doubt.

As by the Story you shall heare
if you will list a while
The Divell lately did appeare;
and a Woman did beguile
But she did make the way before,
And in her heart did him adore
You that will goe, etc.

In Fisherton this dame did dwell
of conversation bad
She did converse with the Divell of Hell,
which made her friends all sad,
Unto the Divell she gave her soule
Sealed in a bloudy scroule,
You that will goe, etc.

Mistris Bodnam was her name,
who daily undertooke
To helpe men to stolne goods againe,
even with her cunjuring booke
A looking glasse she had likewise,
To shew the Theeves before their eyes
You that will goe, etc.

Amonge the rest a Maid then went,
her name was Annis Stiles
About stolne goods in discontent
but the Divill her beguiles
The Divill did the Witch perswade
For to seduce this silly maid
You that will goe, etc,

She gave the Maid a Looking glasse
on which she looked on
But at the length it came to pas
she was to soone undone,
For want of wisdome and true grce,
She was undone in little space,
You that will goe, etc.

Sweetheart quoth she if that you please,
I will teach you my art,
So you may live in wealth and ease
according to your heart
If you your Soule the Divell will give
In health and wealth you then may live,
You that will goe, etc.

To soone alas she did consent
and seald it with her blood,
Which made her afterwards repent,
when as she understood
That she must loose the joyes of heaven
For some Toyes unto her given
You that will goe,
High or low,
Resolve upon this doubt.

[The secon]d part to the same tune.

AT length it came for to be known,
how she had simply run
Then to the Witch she made her mone.
and said she was undone
She said to London she would flye,
For feare least both of them should dye,
You that will goe
High or low,
Resolve upon this doubt.

The Witch was willing thereunto,
and bid her fly with speed
She was at Stockbridge taken though,
for that notorious deed,
The Divill cast her to and froe
As all the company did know
You that will goe, etc,

When in the chamber she came in,
the Divell tost her about
She askt the divell where heed bin
to give her such a floute,
Then all the standers by amaz'd,
Upon each other then they gaz'd,
You that will goe, etc,

A Gentleman great paines did take,
with her the people say,
And she to him her minde did breake
and for her he did pray,
She told him the old witch was cause
That she had broke Gods holy lawes
You that will goe, etc.

Foure dayes together she was vext
tormented grievously
And in her mind was sore perplex[t]
that some thought she would d[?]

The Divell like a Snake apeard
Which all the country people feard
You that will goe, etc,

But when the old Witch came in sight,
then did she take her rest,
And she did sleepe well all that night
as plainly is exprest,
She said when as she walkt againe,
She praised God she felt no paine
You that will goe, etc.

She told the Gentleman that she
would tell him all her art
And that he should inriched be
by what she should impart
She told him that she knew full well,
She should be a great Lady in hel.
You that will goe,etc.

The old Witch executed was,
this moneth the 19. day.
She ever had a face of Bras
as all the people say,
Insteed of pensivenesse and prayer
She did nought but curse and sware,
You that will goe, etc,

God nothing had to do with her
she said most desperately
She swore and curst and kept a stur
and desperately did dye
Let all good people therefore say
[?]their hearts with me and pray,
[You that w]ill goe
High or low,
Resolve upon this doubt.

Lond[on ?]

Method of Punishment

hanging

Crime(s)

witchcraft

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Salisbury
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Mon, 09 Dec 2019 10:11:40 +1100
<![CDATA[Witchcraft discovered and punished.]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1217

Title

Witchcraft discovered and punished.

Subtitle

Or, the Tryals and Condemnation of three Notorious Witches, who were Tryed the last Assizes, holden at the Castle of Exeter, in the County of Devon: where they received Sentance for Death, for bewitchng several Persons, destroying Ships at Sea, and Cattel by Land, &c.

Synopsis

Three old women are convicted of witchcraft in Exeter. It is claimed that they poisoned livestock and children, and bewitched people.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

British Library - Roxburghe, C.20.f.8.531, EBBA 31034

Set to tune of...

Doctor Faustus (Fortune My Foe)

Transcription

NOw listen to my Song good People all,
And I shall tell what lately did befall,
At Exeter, a place in Devonshire,
The like whereof of late you nere did hear.

At the last Assizes held at Exeter,
Three Aged Women that Imprisoned were
For Witches, and that many had destroyd;
Were thither brought in order to be tryd.

For Witchcraft, that Old Wicked Sin,
Which they for long time had continued in:
And joynd with Satan, to destroy the good,
Hurt Innocents, and shed their harmless blood.

But now it most apparent does appear,
That they will now for such their deeds pay dear:
For Satan having lulld their Souls asleep,
Refuses Company with them to keep.

A known deceiver he long time has been,
To help Poor Mortals into dangerous Sin;
Thereby to cut them off, that so they may,
Be plungd in Hell, and there be made his Prey.

So these Malicious Women at the last,
Having done mischiefs, were by Justice cast:
For it appeard they Children had destroyd,
Lamed Cattel, and the Aged much annoyd.

Having Familiars always at their beck,
Their Wicked Rage on Mortals for to wreck:
It being provd they used Wicked Charms,
To Murther Men, and bring about sad harms.

And that they had about their Bodys strange
And Proper Tokens of their Wicked Change:
As Pledges that to have their cruel will,
Their Souls they gave unto the Prince of Hell.

The Country round where they did live came in,
And all at once their sad complaints begin:
One lost a Child, the other lost a Kine,
This his brave Horses, that his hopeful Swine.

One had his Wife bewitched, the other his Friend,
Because in some things they the Witch offend:
For which they labour under cruel pain,
In vain seek remedy, but none can gain.

But Roar in cruel sort, and loudly cry,
Destroy the Witch, and end our misery:
Some used Charms by Mountabanks set down,
Those cheating Quacks, that swarm in every Town.

But alls in vain, no rest at all they find,
For why? all Witches to cruelty are enclind:
And do delight to hear sad dying groans,
And such laments, as woud pierce Marble Stones.

But now the Hand of Heaven has found them out,
And they to Justice must pay Lives, past doubt:
One of these Wicked Wretches did confess,
She Four Score Years of Age was, and no less.

And that she had deserved long before,
To be sent packing to the Stigian shore:
For the great mischiefs she so oft had done,
And wondered that her Life so long had run.

She said the Devil came with her along,
Through Crouds of People, and bid her be strong:
And she no hand should have, but like a Lyer,
At the Prison Door he fled, and nere came nigh her.

The rest aloud, cravd Mercy for their Sins,
Or else the great deceiver her Soul gains;
For they had been lewd Livers many a day,
And therefore did desire that all would Pray

To God, to Pardon them, while thus they lie
Condemned for their Wicked Deeds to Die:
Which may each Christian do, that they may find
Rest for their Souls, though Wicked once inclind.

FINIS.

Method of Punishment

hanging

Crime(s)

witchcraft

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Exeter
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Mon, 09 Dec 2019 09:54:19 +1100
<![CDATA[Truth brought to light. Or, Wonderful strange and true news from Gloucester shire, concerning one Mr. William Harrison]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1216

Title

Truth brought to light. Or, Wonderful strange and true news from Gloucester shire, concerning one Mr. William Harrison

Subtitle

formerly Stewart to the Lady Nowel of Cambden, who was supposed to be Murthered by the Widow Pery and two of her Sons, one of which was Servant to the said Gentleman. Therefore they were all three appprehended and sent to Gloucester Goal, and about two years since arraigned, found guilty, condem|ned, and Executed upon Broadway hill in sight of Cambden, the mother and one Son being then buried under the Gibbet, but he that was Mr. Harrisons Servant, hanged in Chains in the same place, where that which is remaining of him may be seen to this day, but at the time of their Execution, they said Mr. Harrison was not dead, but ere seven years were over should be heard of again, yet would not confess where he was, but now it ap[...]ears the Widow Pery was a witch, and after her Sons had ro[...]d him, and cast him into a Stone Pit, she by her witch-craft conveyed him upon a Rock in the Sea near Turkey, where he remaind four days and nights, till a Turkish Ship coming by, took him and sold him into Turky, where he remained for a season, but is now through the good providence of God returnd again safe to England, to the great wonder and admiration of all that know the s[...]me. This is undenyably true, as is sufficiently testified by the Inhabitants of Cambden, and many others thereabouts.
To the Tune of, Aim not too high.

Synopsis

William Harrison is murdered by his servant, and the servant's brother and mother. They are punished but claim that Harrison will return alive again within seven years. Two years later Harrison, who had been in Turkey, returns and it is believed that Widow Perry, the mother, was actually a witch who had bewitched him.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Bodleian 18713, Wood 401(191), Bod18713

Set to tune of...

Aim Not Too High (Fortune My Foe)

Transcription

AMongst those wonders which on early are shown,
In any age there seldom hath béen known,
A thing more strange then that which this Relation,
Doth here present unto your observation.
In Glocestershire as many know full well,
At Camben Town a Gentleman did dwell,
One Mr. William Harrison by name,
A Stewart to a Lady of great fame.

A Widdow likewise in the Town there was,
A wick wretch who brought strange things to pass,
So wonderful that some will scarce receive,
[...]hese lines for truth nor yet my words beleive.

[...] such as unto Cambden do resort,
Have surely found this is no false report,
Though many lies are dayly now invented,
This is as true a Song as ere was Printed.

Therefore unto the story now give ear,
This Widow Pery as it doth appear,
And her two sons all fully were agréed,
Against their friend to work a wicked déed.

One of her Sons even from a youth did dwell,
With Mr. Harrison who loved him well,
And bred him up his Mother being poor,
But sée how he requited him therefore.

For taking notice that his Master went,
Abroad to gather in his Ladies rent,
And by that means it was an usual thing,
For him great store of money home to bring.

He thereupon with his mischevous mother,
And likewise with his vile ungodly Brother,
Contriv'd to rob his Master, for these base
And cruel wretches were past shame and grace.

One night they met him comming into Town,
And in a barbarous manner knockt him down,
Then taking all his money quite away,
His body out of sight they did convey.

But being all suspected for this déed,
They apprehended were and sent with spéed,
To Glocester Goal and there upon their Tryal,
Were guilty found for all their stiff denyal.

JT was supposed the Gentleman was dead,
And by these wretches robd and Murthered,
Therefore they were all thrée condem'd to death,
And eke on Broadway-hill they lost their breath.

One of the Sons was buried with his Mother,
Vnder the Gibbet, but the other Brother,
That serv'd the Gentleman was hang'd in Chains,
And there some part of him as yet remains.

But yet before they died they did proclaim
Even in the ears of those that thither came,
That Mr. Harison yet living was
And would be found in less then seven years space.

Which words of theirs for truth do now appear
For tis but two year since they hanged were,
And now the Gentleman alive is found
Which news is publisht through the Countrys round

But lest that any of this truth shall doubt,
Ile tell you how the business came about
This Widow Pery as tis plainly shown
Was then a Witch although it was not known.

So when these Villains by their mothers aid
Had knockt him down (even as before was said)
They took away his money every whit,
And then his body cast into a pit.

He scarce was come unto himself before
Another wonder did amaze him more,
For whilst he lookt about, he found that he
Was suddainly conveyd unto the Sea.

First on the shore he stood a little space
And thence unto a rock transported was,
Where he four days and nights did then remain
And never thought to see his friends again.

But as a Turkish ship was passing by
Some of the men the Gentleman did spy,
And took him in and as I understand,
They carried him into the Turkish Land.

And there (not knowing of his sad disaster)
They quickly did provide for him a Master,
A Surgeon or of some such like profession,
Whose service he performed with much discretion.

It séems in gathering Hearbs he had good skill,
And could the same excéeding well distil,
Which to his Master great content did give,
And pleas'd him well so long as he did live.

But he soon dyd, and at his death he gave him,
A piece of plate that so none should enslave him,
But that his liberty be might obtain,
To come into his native land again.

And thus this Gentleman his fréedom wrought;
And by a Turky Ship from thence was brought;
To Portugal, and now both safe and sound,
He is at length arrived on English ground.

Let not this séem incredible to any,
Because it is a thing afirmed by many,
This is no feigned story, though tis new,
But as tis very strange tis very true.

You sée how far a Witches power extends,
When as to wickedness her mind she bends,
Great is her Malice, yet can God restrain her,
And at his pleasure let her loose or chain her.

If God had let her work her utmost spight,
No doubt she would have kild the man outright,
But he is saved and she for all her malice,
Was very justly hang'd upon the Gallows.

Then let all praise to God alone be given,
By men on earth as by the Saints in heaven,
He by his mercy dayly doth befriend us,
And by his power he will still defend us.

Method of Punishment

hanging, hanging in chains

Crime(s)

murder, witchcraft

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Gloucester

Printing Location

London
Truth Brought to Light.gif
]]>
Mon, 09 Dec 2019 09:48:39 +1100
<![CDATA[Complainte et epitaphe de Madame Lescombat]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1185

Title

Complainte et epitaphe de Madame Lescombat

Synopsis

On this date in 1755, Henri Mongeot was broken on the wheel for assassinating the husband of his adulterous lover, Marie.

Louis Alexandre Lescombat was a Paris architect; the betrayal of his flighty wife Marie Catherine Taperet was all the talk of Paris after her lover Mongeot slew the husband whilst out on a walk in December of 1754 — then summoned the watch to present a bogus self-defense claim.

This tactic has been known to work when the killer enjoys sufficient impunity; perhaps a respectable bourgeois like Lescombat could have done it to Mongeot — but when the horny 23-year-old busts up the family home with one blade and then the other, it’s La Mort de Lescombat, a tragedy.

For the widow, one good betrayal would deserve another: Mongeot faithfully avoided implicating her in the murder but when he discovered on the very eve of his death that she was already making time with a new fellow, he summoned the judge and revenged himself by exposing her incitement to the crime. His evidence would doom her to follow him many months later, after the sentence was suspended long enough for the widow Lescombat to deliver a son.

Joining Mongeot on the scaffold this date was a 15-year-old heir to the family executioner business apparently conducting just his second such sentence — Charles-Henri Sanson, the famed bourreau destined in time to cut off the head of the king and queen. Mongeot makes a passing appearance in the 19th century Memoirs of the Sansons; in it, Charles-Henri’s grandson remarks from the family notes that “Mdme. Lescombat … was confronted with him [i.e., her doomed lover] at the foot of the scaffold. She was remarkably handsome, and she tried the effect of her charms on her judges, but without avail.”

Set to tune of...

air des Pendus

Transcription

Complainte sur Madame Lescombat.
Sur l’Air des pendus.

Quelle nouveauté est-ce aujourd’hui!
Quel bruit entend-on dans Paris!
L’on voit le monde qui s’amasse
Dans les Carfours & dans les Places,
Qui s’entredisent, allons voir ça,
L’on va pendre la Lescombat.

Monsieur, faut que vous l’appreniez,
C’est une femme éfrontée
Qui fit assassiner son homme
Par son Faraut, elle en personne.
Aujourd’hui elle est condamnée
D’être pendue & étranglée.

Maître Charlot vient d’arriver,
Sitôt il la fut saluer.
La corde au col, dit-il, Madame
Je vous jure dessus mon ame,
Aujourd’hui il nous faut danser,
Ma Salle est déjà préparée.

Pourquoi donc m’en vouloir, Charlot?
Tôt ou tard je ferai ton lot.
Si de quelques mois je differe,
Ne sçais tu pas qu’il est vulgaire,
Que quand on est prêt de mourir,
Adieu la joye & les plaisirs.

A ce discours aussi courtois
Charlot qui est un bon grivois,
Lui dit: dans quelque mois Madame,
Je vous ferai danser un branle
Je vous ferai cabrioler
Un Menuet & un Passepied.

Console-toi aussi Charlot,
Car cela ne sera pas de sitôt,
Remporte tout ton équipage;
Je ne veux point aller au Bal,
Ou bien par ma foi si j’y vas,
Ce ne sera que dans quatre mois.

Avant de danser un Menuet,
Tu sçais que les Cabriolets
Sont les voitures les plus commodes
Et même les plus à la mode,
Pour dedans ta Salle danser,
Il faut tous deux dedans rouler.

Mais sache que je suis appuyée
D’un puissant Seigneur étranger,
Comme il est Anglois sans doutance,
Et qu’il a beaucoup de finance,
Le bruit court par tous dans Paris,
Qu’il me pourra sauver la vie.

Allez vous, Madame, penser
Que vous serez pendu & étranglée.
Si l’on vous donne votre grace,
Ça seroit faire un grand outrage.
Ayant fait tuer votre Mari
Par Mongeot votre Favori.

Je veux, & cela sera fait,
Etre pendue en Mantelet.
Il est vraie, c’est chose assurée,
Que l’on dit à ma renommée,
Quand on pendra la Lescombat
Pour la voir tout Paris viendra.

Madame, il me le faut donc payer,
Est-ce ainsi que vous me renvoyez?
Ma foi je vous le dis sans honte,
Ce sera toujours pour votre compte,
Puisque près ou loin vous viendrez
Mes outils je vais remporter.

Avec Permission.

Method of Punishment

hanging

Crime(s)

murder

Date

Execution Location

Paris, Place de Greve

Printing Location

Paris

URL

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Catherine_Taperet
Complainte sur Madame Lescombat, sur l'air des pendus 1.JPG
Complainte sur Madame Lescombat, sur l'air des pendus 2.JPG
]]>
Thu, 14 Jun 2018 14:38:35 +1000
<![CDATA[Chanson nouvelle sur Madame Lescombat. Sur l’air du Danger.]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1184

Title

Chanson nouvelle sur Madame Lescombat.
Sur l’air du Danger.

Synopsis

On this date in 1755, Henri Mongeot was broken on the wheel for assassinating the husband of his adulterous lover, Marie.

Louis Alexandre Lescombat was a Paris architect; the betrayal of his flighty wife Marie Catherine Taperet was all the talk of Paris after her lover Mongeot slew the husband whilst out on a walk in December of 1754 — then summoned the watch to present a bogus self-defense claim.

This tactic has been known to work when the killer enjoys sufficient impunity; perhaps a respectable bourgeois like Lescombat could have done it to Mongeot — but when the horny 23-year-old busts up the family home with one blade and then the other, it’s La Mort de Lescombat, a tragedy.

For the widow, one good betrayal would deserve another: Mongeot faithfully avoided implicating her in the murder but when he discovered on the very eve of his death that she was already making time with a new fellow, he summoned the judge and revenged himself by exposing her incitement to the crime. His evidence would doom her to follow him many months later, after the sentence was suspended long enough for the widow Lescombat to deliver a son.

Joining Mongeot on the scaffold this date was a 15-year-old heir to the family executioner business apparently conducting just his second such sentence — Charles-Henri Sanson, the famed bourreau destined in time to cut off the head of the king and queen. Mongeot makes a passing appearance in the 19th century Memoirs of the Sansons; in it, Charles-Henri’s grandson remarks from the family notes that “Mdme. Lescombat … was confronted with him [i.e., her doomed lover] at the foot of the scaffold. She was remarkably handsome, and she tried the effect of her charms on her judges, but without avail.”

Set to tune of...

air du Danger

Transcription

O Mort, t’es trop cruelle,
Tu me livres un combat,
Et quoique je sois belle,
Faut y sauter le pas;
Sans différer,
Faut perdre la santé,
Chose assurée,
Au cabriolet j’irai.

Je partirai sans doute
Dans quelque jours d’ici:
Faut que je me résoude
A ne plus voir Paris;
C’est aujourd’hui
Qu’il me faut perdre la vie,
Sans plus tarder,
Je me vois condamnée.

Me voilà donc jugée,
La chose est décidée,
Et par mon Favori
J’ai fait tuer mon Mari,
Qui m’aimoit bien.
Ah! quel fâcheux destin
Que j’ai commis,
Pour plaire à mon ami.

Cela est tout abus,
Faut que je sois pendue.
Adieu, Ville de Paris,
Puisqu’il me faut partir
En mantelet,
Ayant un air coquet,
Tout le monde charmé
De me voir cabrioler.

Il me faut donc mourir
Pour vous faire plaisir.
Adieu, tous mes Amis,
Et mes Parens aussi.
Quel grand chagrin,
Moi qui vous aimois bien,
Dans votre coeur
Pour vous quel deshonneur.

Mon Pere, aussi ma Mere,
Je vous fais mes adieux.
Quelle douleur amere
De voir devant vos yeux
Un tel objet!
Que vous avez de regret
De votre enfant
Que vous aimiez tendrement.

Et le jour de ma mort
Tout Paris y viendra,
Les filles, aussi les femmes
S’empresseront pour cela
De tous côtés,
Ils seront étouffés
Pour contempler
Ma charmante beauté.


Au supplice arrivée;
A la Ville je monterai,
Sera pour faire pester
Ceux que seront charmés,
Sans plus târder,
C’est pour m’y voir danser,
Chose assurée,
Menuet & Passepied.

Avant de rendre l’ame,
Son coeur s’en va disant:
Priez pour moi, mes Dames,
Que Jesus tout-puissant,
Et que pour cette nuit
Je sois en paradis,
Je prierai Dieu
Pour vous dedans les cieux.

Et vous, jeunes fillettes,
Qui êtes à marier,
Ne prenez point un homme
Et sans que vous l’aimiez;
C’est que je vous le dis,
J’ai fait tuer mon Mari,
Ne l’aimant pas,
Me voilà au trépas.

FIN

Avec Permission

Method of Punishment

hanging

Crime(s)

murder

Date

Execution Location

Paris, Place de Greve

URL

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Catherine_Taperet
Chanson nouvelle sur Madame Lescombat 1.JPG
Chanson nouvelle sur Madame Lescombat 2.JPG
]]>
Thu, 14 Jun 2018 14:28:19 +1000
<![CDATA[Life of the Mannings executed at Horsemonger Lane Go[...] on Tuesday 13th Nov 1849]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1139

Title

Life of the Mannings executed at Horsemonger Lane Go[...] on Tuesday 13th Nov 1849

Synopsis

Marie Manning (1821–13 November 1849) was a Swiss domestic servant who was hanged outside Horsemonger Lane Gaol, London, England, on 13 November 1849, after she and her husband Frederick were convicted of the murder of her lover, Patrick O'Connor, in the case that became known as the "Bermondsey Horror." It was the first time a husband and wife had been executed together in England since 1700.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Harvard Law School Library Special Collections, Harvard University; Rare (Trials Broadside 286), Record ID: 990095439080203941

Set to tune of...

Just Before the Battle Mother? [no indicated tune]

Transcription

See the scaffold it is mounted,
And the doomed ones do appear?
Seemingly borne wan with sorrow,
Grief and anguish, care and pain.
They cried the moments [sic] is approaching,
When we together must leave this life,
And no one has the least compassion,
On Frederick Manning and his wife.

Maria Manning came from Sweden,
Brought up respectable we hear,
And Frederick Manning came from Taunton
In the county of Somersetshire.
Maria lived with noble ladies,
In ease, and splendour, and delight.
But on one sad and fatal morning,
She was made Frederick Mannings wife.

She firtt [sic] was courted by O'Connor,
Who was a lover most sincere,
He was possessed of wealth and riches,
And loved Maria Roux most dear.
But she preferred her present husband,
As it appeared, and with delight,
Slighted sore Patrick O'Connor,
And was made Frederick Manning's wife.

And when O'Connor knew the story,
Down his cheeks rolled floods of tears,
He beat his breast, and wept in sorrow,
Wrung his hands and tore his hair,
Marie dear how could you leave me,
Wretched you have made my life,
Tell me why you did deceive me,
For to be Frederick Manning's wife.

At length they all were reconciled,
And met together night and day,
Maria by O'Connor's riches,
Dressed in splendour fine and gay.
Though married yet she corresponded
With O'Connor all was right,
And oft he went to see Maria
Frederick Manning's lawful wife.

At length they plann'd their friend to murder
And for his company did crave,
The dreadful weapons they prepared,
And in the kitchen dug his grave.
And as they fondly did caress him,
They slew him - what a dreadful sight.
First they mangled, after robbed him,
Frederick Manning and his wife.

They absconded, but was apqrehended [sic],
And for the cruel deed was tried,
When placed at the bar of Newgate,
They both the crime strongly denied,
At length the jury them convicted,
And doomed them for to leave this life,
The judge pronounced the awful sentence,
On Frederick Manning and his wife.

Return he said to whence they brought you
From thence unto the fatal tree,
Fnd [sic] there together be suspended,
Where multitudes your fate may see.
Your hours recollect is numbered,
You betrayed a friend and took his life.
For such there's not one spark of pity,
As Frederick Manning and his wife.

See what numbers are approaching,
To Horsemonger's fatal tree,
Full of bloom in health and vigour,
What a dreadful sight to see.
Old and young pray take a warning,
Females lead a virtuous life,
Think upon that fatal morning,
Frederick Manning and his wife.

Method of Punishment

hanging

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Horsemonger Lane Gaol, London

Printing Location

Hodges (from Pitt's) Wholesale Marble Warehouse, 31 Dudley St, 7 Dials

Notes

Lots of printing errors in this pamphlet. Appears that printer did not have enough correct type.
Life of the Mannings executed.jpg
]]>
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 10:46:22 +1000
<![CDATA[Life Confession & Execution, of Mr. & Mrs. Manning, for the murder of Mr. O'Conner [sic], with copies of the letters.]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1138

Title

Life Confession & Execution, of Mr. & Mrs. Manning, for the murder of Mr. O'Conner [sic], with copies of the letters.

Synopsis

Marie Manning (1821–13 November 1849) was a Swiss domestic servant who was hanged outside Horsemonger Lane Gaol, London, England, on 13 November 1849, after she and her husband Frederick were convicted of the murder of her lover, Patrick O'Connor, in the case that became known as the "Bermondsey Horror." It was the first time a husband and wife had been executed together in England since 1700.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Harvard Law School Library Special Collections, Rare Trials Broadside 122, Record ID: 990080893890203941

Transcription

Attention give, both old and young
Of high and low degree;
Think, while this mournful tale is sung,
Of our sad misery.
We've slain O'Connor, both good and kind,
Who oft to us has been a friend,
For which we must our lives resign,
Our time is near an end.

Oh! hark, what mean that dreadful sound?
It sinks deep in our souls.
It is the bell that sounds our knell,
How solemn is the toll.
See, thousands are assembled
Around the fatal place,
To gaze on our approaching fate,
And witness our disgrace.

Let pilfering passions not intrude,
For to lead you astray,
From step to step it will delude,
And bring you to dismay.
Think of the wretched guilty Mannings,
Who thus die on a tree,
A death of shame, we've nought to blam
But our own base infamy.

Mercy on earth we'll not iimplore,
To crave it would be vain.
Our hands are dyed with human gore,
None can wash off the stain.
But the merits of a Saviour,
Whose mercy alone we crave,
Good Christians pray, so thus we die,
We may has pardon have.

Method of Punishment

hanging

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Horsemonger Lane Gaol, London

Printing Location

Paul, Whitechapel
(printing details partially torn)

Notes

First person voice of Mannings at their execution
Life Confession and Execution.jpg
]]>
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 10:22:50 +1000
<![CDATA[A new song on the Mannings]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1137

Title

A new song on the Mannings

Synopsis

Marie Manning (1821–13 November 1849) was a Swiss domestic servant who was hanged outside Horsemonger Lane Gaol, London, England, on 13 November 1849, after she and her husband Frederick were convicted of the murder of her lover, Patrick O'Connor, in the case that became known as the "Bermondsey Horror." It was the first time a husband and wife had been executed together in England since 1700.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Bodleian Library - Shelfmark: Firth c.17(268); Bodleian Bod 9607

Set to tune of...

Transcription

Another shocking murder I have for to declare,
At Bermondsey, near London, number three, Minerva Square,
Master and Mistress Manning, if you'll listen here awhile,
For the murder of O'Connor, a man from Erin's Isle.

O'Connor was a Guager in the London Docks,
An invitation from Maria to dine with her he gets,
She desired him to attend at five the next day,
The Mannings were determined Patrick Connor for to slay.

O'Connor left his lodgings - to the Mannings went straightway,
But little did he think that night that they would him betray,
But those two barbarians, as you shall understand,
For a long time previous this horrid deed had planned.

They shot him with a pistol - with a crowbar bruised his head,
They stripped the clothes from off his back when that he was dead
His legs they doubled up and with a cord them tied,
They buried him in a hole by their kitchen fireside.

That evening after the murder, Maria Manning went
Unto O'Connor's lodgings - on robbery she was bent,
She took both cash and documents, and many other things,
From O'Connor's lodgings, at different times she brings.

She took the train from London to Edinburgh town,
There she was apprehended all for that murderous crime,
Then they conveyed her back again to London with all speed,
There to take her trial for that horrid barbarous deed.

Frederick George Manning to the Isle of Jersey went,
To shun the ends of justice, for America he was bent,
Then he was taken prisoner for the murder they had done,
He said, 'Is that wretch taken?' - meaning Mistress Manning.

They told him she was taken - they knew he meant his wife,
He said, 'Then I am satisfied, for that will save my life,
'Twas she who fired the pistol - gave O'Connor his death wound,'
But they brought Manning back with them to famed London town.

Their trial it is over and they are both condemned to die,
May the Lord have mercy on your souls, the judge to them did cry
And I hope this will a warning be unto both young and old,
Never to commit a murder for the sake of cursed gold.

Composer of Ballad

J. Clark

Method of Punishment

hanging

Crime(s)

murder

Date

Execution Location

London, Horsemonger Lane Gaol
A New Song on the Mannings.png
]]>
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 09:51:55 +1000
<![CDATA[Execution of the Mannings]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1136

Title

Execution of the Mannings

Synopsis

Marie Manning (1821–13 November 1849) was a Swiss domestic servant who was hanged outside Horsemonger Lane Gaol, London, England, on 13 November 1849, after she and her husband Frederick were convicted of the murder of her lover, Patrick O'Connor, in the case that became known as the "Bermondsey Horror." It was the first time a husband and wife had been executed together in England since 1700.

Digital Object


Image notice

Full size images of all ballad sheets available at the bottom of this page.

Image / Audio Credit

Bodleian Library, Shelfmark: Firth c.17(267); Bodleian Bod9606. Audio recording by Hannah Sullivan. 

Set to tune of...

Lord Exmouth

Transcription

Sad was the awful moments,
And dreadful was the sight,
Upon last Tuesday morning,
To Manning and his wife.
When thousands did assemble,
That spectacle to see,
A man and wife suspended,
Upon the fatal tree.

CHORUS
What thousands did assemble,
Around that fatal tree,
The murderers of O'Connor,
That fatal morn to see.

Thousands from every quarter,
Before the break of day,
Towards Horsemonger's dreary gaol,
So swift did bend their way.
Frederick Manning and his wife,
One moment to behold,
Upon the fatal platform
How dreadful to unfold.

Just at the fatal moment,
The hour of eight o'clock,
Frederick Manning and his wife,
Appeared upon the drop.
The minister repeating,
May God receive your souls.
In the midst of life we are in death,
Then awful was the fall.

What numbers congregated,
That horrid sight to see,
Fred[erick] and Maria Manning,
Launched into eternity
In youth, in health and vigour
But nothing could them save,
And now they lie together,
Mouldering in the silent grave.

Manning in his dying moments,
Declared it was his wife,
Who planned O'Connor's murder
And took away his life.
It was her who with the pistol,
Her friend betrayed and shot,
When he her husband was not nigh
The sure and fatal shot.

Their heavenly Judge all secrets knows,
And marks what each does say,
And he will tell them to account,
Upon the judgement day.
May one all both great and small,
By their unhappy fate,
Consider and take warning,
Before it is too late.

Composer of Ballad

anon

Method of Punishment

hanging

Crime(s)

murder

Date

Execution Location

Horsemonger Lane Gaol, London

Notes

Prose on pamphlet, including quotes from letters by both
Execution of the Mannings.jpg
]]>
Mon, 04 Jun 2018 09:39:09 +1000
<![CDATA[Pietoso lamento che fece la signora Prudenza anconitana prima che fosse condotta alla giustizia]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1099

Title

Pietoso lamento che fece la signora Prudenza anconitana prima che fosse condotta alla giustizia

Subtitle

coll'aggiunta di tutto il caso successo di nuovo, quanto disse, e scrisse di propria mano

Synopsis

Prudenzia Anconitana

Set to tune of...

terza rima and sonnet

Transcription

Fuggir non si puö_ mai quel che'l Ciel vuole,

Gender

Date

Printing Location

In Lucca : presso Francesco Bertini, 1818

URL

http://opac.sbn.it/opacsbn/opac/iccu/scheda.jsp?bid=IT\ICCU\RMLE\057249
]]>
Thu, 24 May 2018 15:02:09 +1000
<![CDATA[Ein warhafftiges newes Klaglied von einer Jungfrawen mit namen Dorothea]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1066

Title

Ein warhafftiges newes Klaglied von einer Jungfrawen mit namen Dorothea

Subtitle

wie sie umb der Augspurger Confession oder bekandtnuß des Christenlichen Glaubens jämerlich unnd erbermlich mit dem Schwerdt hingericht ist worden / und auch Christum mit mundt und herzen frey bekandt hat / biß um jr letstes endt / durch den Cardinal zü Triendt / welches geschehen ist in dism 1573 Jar.

Synopsis

A young woman named Dorothea is executed for her Protestant beliefs

Digital Object

Image notice

Full size images of all ballad sheets available at the bottom of this page.

Image / Audio Credit

Zentralbibliothek Zürich PAS II 10/24.

Set to tune of...

Steh ich allhie verborgen [?]

Transcription

Es war ein Gott förchtiges
unn Christenliches Jungfrewelin
Gottes wort unnd Catechismus
hat sie gelernet fein.

Ir namm Dorothea
ist weit und breit bekandt
Mit fleiß in irer Jugend
wol zü der Predig gieng.

Schamhafftig und fein stille
Hielt sie sich alle zeit
Und lebt noch Gottes willen
Acht keiner uppigkeit.

Armen war sie geneiget
Und diener in mit fleiß
Ir hilff sie in erzeiget
Gott lob ehr und preiß.

Weh thet es dem alten Drachen
Und kund das leiden nit
Speiit fewr auß seinem Rachen
Verfolgung er anricht.

Das Megdtlin wolt man zwingen
Zü der Abgötterey
Dem feindt wol es nit gelingen
Christum bekandt sie frey.

Mit worten süß unnd sawre
Man sie bereden wolt
Sie stund fest wie ein Maure
Im fewr wie das gold.

Kein Marter pein noch schmerzen
Von Christo sie abwandt
Mit irem enundt und hertzen
den Glauben sie bekandt.

Ein urteil ward gefellet
Verdienet het sie den Todt
Gar ritterlich sie sich stellet
Unnd schreiet ernstlich zü Gott.

Herr Christ in deine hende
Mein seel befihlich dir
Bescher mir ein Seligs ende
Mit deim Geist steh bey mir.

Deinem name zü ehren
wie ein Christ sterb ich heüt
Ach hilff das sich bekehren
Die armen blinden leut.

Als nun das schötte Jungfrewelein
Durchs Schwerd gerichtet ward
Ins schöne Paradeiß
Kom ich nach meinem Todt.

Composer of Ballad

Berck, Wilhelm

Crime(s)

heresy

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Trent

Printing Location

Getruckt durch Wilhelm Berck von Cöln

Notes

Ein warhafftiges newes Klaglied von einer Jungfrawen mit namen Dorothea.jpg
1066 Ein warhafftiges.jpg
]]>
Thu, 24 May 2018 14:57:59 +1000
<![CDATA[Drey warhafftige newe Zeittungen]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1039

Title

Drey warhafftige newe Zeittungen

Subtitle

... Die Ander: Auß dem Niderland / zwo Meylwegs von Cöln / in einem Kloster zu S. Catharinen genennet / wie es einem Schaffner darinnen / sampt seinem Weib unnd Kindern / ergangen ist / wie sie alle umb das Leben kommen seynd. Im Thon:

Synopsis

A woman in a pact with a Landsknecht (a soldier) persuades him to kill her husband; she herself kills her children; in the night locals see lights on the roof of the building, and investigate the next morning. The soldier is put on the wheel, the flesh on his breasts pulled off with burning pliers, and his hands are chopped off; she is buried alive, and has a stake struck through her heart.

Digital Object

Image notice

Full size images of all ballad sheets available at the bottom of this page.

Image / Audio Credit

Bayerische StaatsBibliothek Res/4 P.o.germ. 235,13. 

Set to tune of...

Ewiger Vatter in Himmelreich

Transcription

Hilff Gott was hört man Wunders doch
was gschehen ist unnd hört es noch
in diser Weltjetzunder:
Man sagt von widerwärtigkeit
in allen Landen weyt und breyt
in Teuschenland besunder.

Auff Wucher Gentz Hoffarth Finantz
thursich schier ein jeder besleissen
es tracht nun nach dem Zeitlichen gantz
der Arm mit dem Reichen
darauß erfolgt offt jammer und Noth
Schmerzen Elend unn groß Rummer
leztlich der bitter Todt.

Hört weitter zu ihr Menschen Kindt
schlagt dise Geschicht nicht in Mind
so newlich ist geschehen:
Im Niderland gantz wol bekandt
ein Kloster zu S. Cathrinen gnant
thu ich mit Warheith jehen.

Ein Schaffner allda wohnen thät
der hat mit seiner Frawen
vie kleine Kinder an der Stät
weytter sing ich ohn nawren
sie lebten in Frewd und Wollust groß
sechs gantzer Jar merckt eben
letzlich entstund groß Angst unnd Noth.

Das Kloster ein grossen Eingang hat
von Wein und Korn wol an statt
Von Zinz unn Stewr dergleichen:
Das kam dem Schaffner zu guren theyl
die sechs Jar versucht er selu heyl
unn wurd an gut sehr reiche.

Den armen Leuten in der not
thät er das jr abbrechen
den Arbeiternauch das täglich brot
letztlich thäts Gott an im rechen
das drauß erfolgt groß herzenleid
an im und seinen Kindern
deßgeischen an dem Weib.

Nun muß ich jetzund zeygen an
merckt auff ir Frawen und ir Mann
was sich da thät begeben:
Mit disem Schaffner und seim Weib
deßgleichen an den Kindern mit leyd
wie sie kamen umbs leben.

Die Fraw auß falschem herz unn Muth
thât irem Mann betriegen
bracht zusamen vil gele und gut
daran thu ich nit liegen
mit dem Knecht mach er sie ein Bund
heymich und gar verborgen
wie ichs will machen kundt.

Als nun der bund beschlossen ward
den ihn der böse Geist eingab
sie wolten auff von hinnen:
Das B?ut und Gelt namens mit ihn
ziehen inn frembde Lande hin
doch das mans nit wurd innen.

Das sie vom Kloster kommen zwar
heymlich und gar verborgen
die Fraw dem Knecht gab einen Rath
er solt ohn alles Sorgen
den Schaffner erschlagen unnd ermordt
ihn in das Hauß vergraben
an ein heymbliches Orth.

Der Knecht folget der Frawen rath
als er den Schaffner erschlagen hat
vergraub in die Kirchen:
Die Fraw auß Tyrannischem Scheyn
nam ir drey kleine Kinderlein
thäts jämmerlich erwürgen.

Henckt sie all drey an der stett
im Hauß an einen Balcken
das vierdt der Knecht ermörden thät
der Bößwicht und auch Schalcke
er stachs jämmerlich durch sein Herz
mit eim spitzigen Dochen
O jammer noth und schmerz.

Nun will ich jetzund zeygen an
wie sie das erste Kind hernam
unnd thets geschwind auffhencken:
Das ander es erschen haties
war ein Knäblein an der statt
lieff schnell und auch geschwindt.

Sucht seinen Vatter in dem Hauß
wolt im dasselbig sagen
lieff alle schlüpff und winckel auß
der Vatter war schon erschlagen
das wust das kleine Kindlein nit
doch meynt es sich zuretten
aber halffe alles nit.

Sie names grimmig bey der Hand
unnd henckt es hinden an die Wand
das dritt mit noch und klagen :
War ein Meidlein bey fünff Jar alt
weynet bitterlich in der Gstalt
und thet zur Mutter sagen.

Ach liebe Mutter thu mirs nit
wie dem Philipp dort hinden
ich bitt dich also fleissigklich
aber sie war verblendet
der Teuffel hät sie besessen gar
zu demselbigen male
kein Erbarmung bey it nicht war.

Sie bandt ihm Händt und Füß mit Leyd
unnd hänckt es zu den andern zwey
an den Balcken zur Stunden:
Das vierdt wolt sie auch hencken auff
da kam sie an ein Schräcken unnd grauß
verstocket und verstummet.

Fiel ob den Kindlein in ein Ohnmacht
die That wa? sie gerawen
der verzweyflet Bößwicht an der statt
erstachs ohn alleb trawren
das kleine Kinnlein an der statt
O Gott laß dichs erbarmen
die jämmerliche That.

Als nun die Kinder ein gantze Nacht
hiengen im Kloster mit Weh unnd Klag
hört was sich hat begeben:
Vil Liecher sah mann die gantz Nacht
in dem Kloster hoch auff dem Tach
hin unnd auch wider schweben.

Da nun das Volck im Flecken zwar
mit Schröcken hätt vernommen
wie dises Zeichen gsehen war
auff den Morgen thäten kommen
zehen gewehrter Mann zuhand
das Kloster thet man bschawen
hört weiter ihr Christen allsandt.

Da sie ins Kloster kamen zwar
die Fraw erschrack der grossen Gfahr
thät solchs dem Knecht verkünden:
Der Knecht wolt springen zum Ladennauß
sie namen ihn gfangen ohn Grauß
da sahen sie die Kinder
jämmerlich hangen wie ich sag

mit Schräcken unnd mit Klagen
O weht der jämmerlichen That
der Schaffner war auch erschlagen
man führts gen Cöln inn die Statt
da thäten sie bekennen
vor eim Ersamen Weisen Rath.

Das Urtheyl war gefället drat
das man solt richten mit dem Rad
den Knecht thu ich euch sagen:
Zween Griff mit glüenden Zangen schon
solt man nach seinen Brüsten thon
beyde Händt auch abschlagen.

Auff der Wahlstatt vor jedermann
thät man die Fraw herführen
kläglich als ich euch zeyge an
must sie ihr Leben verlieren
lebendigs mans begraben hat
ein Pfaal durch ihr Herz gschlagen
gelegt under das Rad.

Method of Punishment

breaking on the wheel, impalement

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Cologne/Cöln

Printing Location

Niclaus Schreiber, Cöln
Drey warhafftige newe Zeitungen...Auß dem Niderland pg 1.jpg
Drey warhafftige newe Zeitungen...Auß dem Niderland pg 3.jpg
Drey warhafftige newe Zeitungen...Auß dem Niderland pg 4.jpg
Drey warhafftige newe Zeitungen...Auß dem Niderland pg 5.jpg
]]>
Thu, 24 May 2018 14:57:56 +1000
<![CDATA[L'Empoisonneuse Hélène JéGADO, Accusée d'avoir attenté à la vie de 37 personnes, dont 25 ont succombé.]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1024

Title

L'Empoisonneuse Hélène JéGADO, Accusée d'avoir attenté à la vie de 37 personnes, dont 25 ont succombé.

Synopsis

Hélne Jégado (1803äóñ1852) was a French domestic servant and serial killer. She is believed to have murdered as many as 36 people with arsenic over a period of 18 years. After an initial period of activity, between 1833 and 1841, she seems to have stopped for nearly ten years before a final spree in 1851.
Hélne Jégado was born on a small farm in Plouhinec (Morbihan), near Lorient in Brittany. She lost her mother at the age of seven and was sent to work with two aunts who were servants at the rectory of Bubry. After 17 years, she accompanied an aunt to the town of Séglien. She became a cook for the curé where an incident arose where she was accused of adding hemp from his grain house to his soup.

Her first suspected poisoning occurred in 1833 when she was employed by another priest, Fr. Franois Le Drogo, in the nearby village of Guern. In the three months, between June 28 and October 3, seven members of the household died suddenly, including the priest himself, his aging mother and father, and her own visiting sister, Anne Jégado. Her apparent sorrow and pious behaviour was so convincing she was not suspected. Coming shortly after the cholera epidemic of 1832 the deaths may have been put down to natural causes.

Jégado returned to Bubry to replace her sister where three people died in the course of three months, including her other aunt, all of whom she cared for at their bedside. She continued to Locminé, where she boarded with a needleworker, Marie-Jeanne Leboucheräóîboth Leboucher and her daughter died and a son fell ill. It is possible that the son survived because he did not accept Jégado's ministrations. When in the same town, the widow Lorey offered Jégado a room, she died after eating a soup her new boarder had prepared. In May 1835, she was hired by Madame Toussaint and four more deaths followed. By this point in time, she had already put seventeen people in their graves.

Later in 1835, Jégado was employed as a servant in a convent in Auray, but rapidly dismissed after several incidents of vandalism and sacrilege.

Jégado worked as a cook in other households in Auray, then Pontivy, Lorient, and Port-Louis where she was employed only briefly in each one. Often, someone fell ill or died. Among her most infamous murders is of a child, little Marie Bréger, who died at the Château de Soye (Ploemeur) in May 1841, ten years and one month before her final arrest. Most victims died showing symptoms corresponding to arsenic poisoning, though she was never caught with arsenic in her possession. There is no record of suspected deaths from late 1841 to 1849, but a number of her employers later reported thefts; she was apparently a kleptomaniac and was caught stealing several times.

Her career took a new turn in 1849 when she moved to Rennes, the capital city of the region.
Arrest

In 1850, Jégado joined the household staff of Théophile Bidard, a law professor at the University of Rennes. One of his servants, Rose Tessier, fell ill and died when Jégado tended her. In 1851, one of the other maids, Rosalie Sarrazin, fell ill as well and died. Two doctors had tried to save Sarrazin and because the symptoms were similar to those of Tessier, they convinced the relatives to permit an autopsy. Jégado aroused suspicion when she announced her innocence before she was even asked anything, and she was arrested July 1, 1851.

Later inquiries linked her to 23 suspected deaths by poisoning between 1833äóñ1841, but none of these was thoroughly investigated since they were outside the ten-year limit for prosecution and there was no scientific evidence. Local folklore has attributed to her many unexplained deaths - some of which were almost certainly due to natural causes. The most reliable estimate is that she probably committed about 36 murders.
Trial

Jégado's trial began December 6, 1851 but, due to French laws of permissible evidence and statute of limitations, she was accused only of three murders, three attempted murders and 11 thefts. At least one later case appears to have been dropped since it involved a child and police were reluctant to upset the parents by an exhumation. Jégado's behaviour in court was erratic, changing from humble mutterings to loud pious shouting and occasional violent outbursts against her accusers. She consistently denied she even knew what arsenic was, despite evidence to the contrary. Doctors who had examined her victims had not usually noticed anything suspicious, but when the most recent victims were exhumed, they showed overwhelming evidence of arsenic and possibly antimony.

The defence lawyer, Magloire Dorange, made a remarkable closing speech - arguing that she needed more time than most to repent and could be spared the death penalty since she was dying of cancer anyway.

The case attracted little attention at the time, pushed off the front pages by the coup d'état in Paris.

Jégado was sentenced to death by guillotine and executed in front of a large crowd of onlookers on the Champ-de-Mars in Rennes on February 26, 1852.

Set to tune of...

Fualdès

Transcription

Qui pourrait, chrétiens fidles,
Ecouter, sans en frémir,
Un récit qui fait pâlir
Mille actions criminelles?
Pour des forfaits aussi grands
Est-il assez de tourments?

Chez un bon prtre de Guerne,
Nommé Monsieur Le Drogo,
La fille Hélne Jégado,
Qu'un mauvais esprit gouverne,
Vient demander humblement
De server pour de l'argent.

A l'église du village
On la voit soir et matin,
Cachant, sous un air benin,
Ses goùts de libertinage;
Pour un ange on la prendrait,
C'est un démon fieffé.

La mort, dans chaque demeure,
Va la suivre maintenant;
Le poison, souple instrument,
Pour elle tue à toute heure,
Aujourd'hui toi, lui demain;
Hélne assouvit sa faim.

Sept personnes innocentes
Meurent à ce premier coup;
Cela suffit pour un coup.
Hélne a les mains sanglantes;
Elle a pris un laid chemin,
Et le suit jusqu'à la fin.

Bubry verra trois victimes
Succomber au noir poison;
C'est dans la mme maison
Qu'elle accomplit tant de crimes.
Où donc est-il le vengeur,
Pour arrter sa fureur?

Déjà les gens la souponnent,
On la regarde passer,
On craindrait de l'aborder.
Des bruits à l'entour bourdonnent:
C'est un tre malfaisant;
Gardez-vous, son foie est blanc.

Dans un couvent elle cache
Ses traits qui causent l'horreur,
Mais où perce sa noirceur.
Le démon vient, qui l'arrache
Au remords, au repentir:
Les innocents vont souffrir.

Elle engage ses services
Dans Pontivy, dans Auray,
Dans Locminé, Plumeret,
Et reprent ses maléfices.
Partout le mortel poison
La suit dans chaque maison.

On la voit aux lits funbres,
Comme un gardien vigilant;
Elle veille à tout instant,
Comme un ange de ténbres.
Elle sent un doux plaisir
A voir les autres souffrir.

Le monstre sur eux se penche
Et jouit de leur douleur;
Elle y trouve son bonheur.
L'enfer prendra sa revanche.
Il y a un vengeur au ciel:
C'est le Dieu juste, éternel.

Le crime entraîne le crime,
Le faux pas suit le faux pas;
Ds lors on n'arrte pas
Qu'on n'ait roulé dans l'abîme,
Où les vices confondus
Rongent ceux qu'ils ont perdus.

Du meurtre Hélne lassée
Songe à voler son prochain;
Ce qui tombe sous sa main,
Elle le prend, empressée;
Pour embellir ses amours
Il lui faut de beaux atours.

A Rennes enfin elle arrive
Méditant d'autres forfaits:
Car dans ses desseins mauvais
Elle était fort inventive;
Mais la justice de Dieu
Devait la prendre en ce lieu.

Rose Tessier, domestique,
Bientôt succombe à la mort,
Et peut-tre un mme sort,
S'il faut en croire la chronique,
Frappait Franoise Huriaux
Qui fuit, échappe à ses maux.

Rosalie, ô pauvre fille,
La dernire tu péris;
Ta douceur, ton frais souris
Et ta figure gentille,
Non, rien ne peut adoucir
Le monstre; il faut mourir.

Mais la justice sévre
A la fin rend un arrt,
Hélne est prise au filet:
La loi la tient dans sa serre.
Misérable! il faut payer
La peine de tes forfaits.

On la saisit, on l'arrte,
On la traîne au tribunal:
Hélne, le jour fatal
Va faire tomber ta tte.
Tu voudrais bien nier,
Cent témoins t'ont accusé.

La coupable repentante,
Avant l'exécution,
A fait sa confession.
Mieux valait tre innocente.
Les juges doivent frapper;
C'est Dieu qui doit pardonner.

MORALITé

Si l'esprit du mal vous tente,
Chrétiens, sachez résister;
Car Dieu sait où retrouver
Le serviteur, la servante,
Qui se croyaient assurés
De voir leurs crimes cachés.

Method of Punishment

guillotine

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Rennes, Champ de Mars

URL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9l%C3%A8neéJ%C3%A9gado
http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/Accused/00000016.htm

Notes

Meazey, Peter (1999), La Jégado: Histoire de la célbre empoisonneuse, Guingamp (22)and paperback (2006).

see Vincent Morel, p. 50 of thesis, and p. 56 of catalogue for two complaintes, one like this, the other to an unidentified tune.
L'empoisonneuse Helene Jegado.jpg
]]>
Thu, 24 May 2018 13:58:41 +1000
<![CDATA[HORRIBLE SACRILEGE Commis par Barbe Guenpelle, dans l'Eglise S. Severin, à l'endroit du S. Sacrement de l'Autel, lors que le Prestre celebroit la Sainte Messe.]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1023

Title

HORRIBLE SACRILEGE
Commis par Barbe Guenpelle, dans l'Eglise S. Severin, à l'endroit du S. Sacrement de l'Autel, lors que le Prestre celebroit la Sainte Messe.

Synopsis

2 September 1693 between 5-6am
Elisabeth Chateauroux enters church of St. Sacrament and tips over chalice during mass.

Transcription

Chrétiens écoutez jeunes & vieux
Un grand sacrilege odieux
Arrivé dans la Sainte Eglise
De Saint Severin sans feintise
De Paris trés-assurément
Envers le tres-Saint Sacrement.
Une fille pour le certain
S'en vint des cinq heures au matin
Animée de l'esprit du diable,
Attaquant le Sang adorable
De JESUS que le Prestre offroit
Pour nos pechez comme l'on voit.
Ce saint Prestre devotieux
Disant la Messe dans ces lieux
Avecque grande reverence
En presence de l'assistance,
Cette fille icy se leva
Et le Calice renversa.
Comme le Prestre le tenoit
Entre ses mains & l'élevoit
Cette abominable tigress
Le Sang de Jesus elle renverse,
Qui est son Dieu, son Juge Puissant
Voilé dessous ces accidens.
Et alors tous les assistans
Ayant veu ce fait tres-méchant
Se levant si tost s'écrierent
Attestant cette temeraire
Pour savoir d'elle ce délit
Commis au sang de Jesus-Christ.
Le Commissaire du cartier
L'interrogea sans plus tarder,
De sa trop grande perfidie
Commis envers le Fruit de Vie,
connoissant son crime en effet
L'on la mena au Chastelet.
Elle declara ensuivant
Qu'il y avoit plus de deux ans
Qu'elle avoit eu envie faut croire
De faire cette action noire
Envers Jesus le Tout-Puissant
Qui repose au S. Sacrement.
Aprés luy avoir demandé
Son nom, son lieu pour assuré
Elle dit Barbe je m'appelle
Fille de M. Jean Quenpelle,
Qui demeuroit en son vivant
Ruö‚ Zacarie assurément.
Et méme qu'à S. Severin
Elle avoit esté pour certain
Dedans l'Eglise Baptisée,
Et qu'elle étoit chose assurée
De la Parroisse assurément,
Connuö‚ des petits & des grands.
La Justice ayant sceu son nom
Ont connue son méchant renom,
Faisant enqueste de sa vie,
Dont la voicy je certifie,
Comme l'on a sceu des voisins
Qui vivent en veritables humains.
Ils disent tous en verité,
Méchante fille elle a esté,
Libertine dés sa jeunesse,
Abandonnée au jeu sans cesse,
Des-obeö¿ssance en tout temps
A son pere, mere, parens.
Cette méchante, ce dit-on,
N'avoit Foy ny Religion,
Ne voulant nullement connoistre
Les Sacremens de Dieu son Maistre,
Et de son Curé se mocquoit,
Et de tout ce qu'il luy disoit.
Pour la corriger de son mal
L'on l'a fait mettre à l'Hospital,
L'enfermant chose tres certaine,
Estant là comme dans la géne,
Bien huit ans elle y a esté
Pour punir sa méchanceté.
Venant malade dans ce lieu
L'on la mena à l'Hotel-Dieu.
Elle en est sortie bien guerie,
Et pour faire sa tyrannie
S'en fut ainsi à S. Severin,
Accomplir son méchant dessein.
Aussi dans son aveuglement
Pousse de l'esprit de Satan
A fait ce sacrilege énorme
Envers JESUS devant les Hommes,
Et dit encor qu'elle le feroit
Si a recommancé estoit.
Et que c'est par méchanceté
Qu'elle a fait cette cruauté,
Et par ainsi son esperance
Est d'estre penduö‚ d'assurance.
Et aussi brùlée sur le champ,
Et les cendres jettées au vent.
Aussi pour reparation
De cette cruelle action,
Plusieurs bons Prestres venerables
Ont fait tous amande honorable
La corde au col se prosternant
Devant Dieu au S. Sacrement.
S'est-il jamais veu sous le Ciel
Un fait plus énorme & cruel
Que de s'adresser à son Maistre,
Celuy qui nous a donné l'estre,
Adorons-le avec amour
Au S. Sacrement a toùjours.

Crime(s)

heresy

Gender

Date

Horrible Sacrilege, chanson 1.JPG
Horrible Sacrilege, chanson 2.JPG
Horrible Sacrilege, chanson 3.JPG
Horrible Sacrilege, chanson 4.JPG
Registres 1.JPG
Registres 2.JPG
Registres 3.JPG
]]>
Thu, 24 May 2018 13:58:41 +1000
<![CDATA[Complainte et regret d'une jeune fille, laquelle a esté exécutée dans la ville de Aure de Grace]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1015

Title

Complainte et regret d'une jeune fille, laquelle a esté exécutée dans la ville de Aure de Grace

Subtitle

en Normandie pour avoir deffaict son propre enfant. Sur le chant, Demandez l[e] à votre père pareillement à vostre mère.

Set to tune of...

Demandez l[e] à votre père pareillement à vostre mère

Transcription

Or escoutez je vous en prie,
La complainte que je vas dire
D'une fille agée de vingt ans
Qui c'est gouvernée meschamment.
Sathan maudit tout plain de rage
Ma faict faire un grand outrage
Me conseillant de paillarder:
Et puis mon propre enfant tuer.
Ne suis je pas bien miserable
J'estoit d'un lieu tres-honorable
Avoir commis ce or peché
Helas qui ma d'es-honnoré.
Mon Pere avoit en abondance
D'or & d'argent & de chevance
Pour me marié richement,
A quelque honneste marchant.
Mais Cupidon trompeur infame
Ma enflambé le corps & l'ame
J'ay voulu prendre mes esbas,
Avec un jeune Advocat.
Comme n'ayant de Dieu la crainte
Quant je seu que j'estois ensainte
[J'ay] conclu une trahison:
Mais j'en resenty le guerdon.
Dans le grenier je suis montée
[?] celle fin de l'anfantée
Enfans que nul ne me verroit
Mais le bon Dieu point ne dormoit.
Soudain je l'ay pris par la gorge
Sans avoir de luy misericorde
D'une ache je l'ay tué
Puis l'ay jetté dans les privé.
Alors voicy venir ma Mere
Qui descouvry tout mon affaire
Estant faschée & courroussée
Elle mesme ma accusée.
Me voilla prise & liée
Et dedans la prison fut menée
Enserrée bien estroittement,
En attendant mon jugement.
La justice a ordonnée
Que j'aurois les deux point couppée
Et les mamelles tenaillé,
Car je l'ay fort bien merité.
Puis apres à une potence
Seray mise pour recompence
Je prie Dieu de paradis,
Qu'il face a mon ame mercy.
Entre vous autre jeune fille
Prenez example a ma follie
Gouvernez vous plus sagement
Las que je n'ay fait en mon temps.
A Dieu mon Pere a Dieu ma Mere
Auquel j'ay grand' vitupere
Je vous crie a tous mercy,
Priez Dieu pour moy mes amis.

Method of Punishment

mutilation, hanging?

Crime(s)

infanticide

Gender

Date

Printing Location

Lyon: Simon Rigaud, 1606
'La Fleur du Rozier des chansons'

URL

https://play.google.com/books/reader?printsec=frontcover&output=reader&id=zdg5AAAAcAAJ&pg=GBS.PA43
]]>
Thu, 24 May 2018 13:58:39 +1000
<![CDATA[Complainte de Marie Antoinette veuve de L. Capet;]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1013

Title

Complainte de Marie Antoinette veuve de L. Capet;

Subtitle

Exécuté le 25me Jours du Ier Mois de la Seconde Année de la Republique Française à 11. heures du matin.
abrégé sur sa mort après avoir montré de l'audace et de la fermeté dans ses intérogatoires lorsqu'il fut question de la conduire à l'échafaud, elle demanda un carosse, ou du moins d'avoir la tête couverte d'un voile ; comme contraire à l'égalité l'on lui refusa...

Set to tune of...

O! ma tendre musette

Transcription

[...] tourmens que j'endure
[...] peindra les heurreurs?
J'ai trahi la Nature...
Et j'ai bravé ses pleurs...
Dès ma plus tendre enfance
Mon coeur dur et pervers
Brûlait d'impatience,
De perdre l'Univers.

2.
Ce n'est point la Couronne
Qui me flattait le plus....
Je regardois le Trône
Comme un rang superflus...
Mais le titre de Reine
Assurait mes forfaits
Et secondait ma haine
Pour le Peuple Français.

3.
Il me souvient encore
De ces temps de bonheur
Le Peuple entier m'adore
Et pour moi n'a qu'un coeur.
Quelle réconnoissance!
Français! Peuple Français!
Quelle est ta récompense?
Les plus infâmes traits!

4.
J'épuise tes finances,
Et je ris de tes maux:
Par mes folles dépenses
La France est un tombeau.
Hélas! le bout d'oreille
Echappe par malheur...
Le Peuple se reveille
[......................]

5.
Que faire? Que résoudre?
Je ne pouvais changer....
J'aurais bravé la foudre
Pour pouvoir me venger....
Le Clergé, la Noblesse
Méprisoient mon Epoux
La vengeance me presse...
J'ordonne un dix Août.

6.
O comble de ma rage
Et de mon désespoir!
J'appelle en vain l'orage
Il n'a plus de pouvoir...
Contre moi la Nature
S'élève en frémissant
Je dois à l'imposture
... que je ressens.

7.
Adieu charmant Versailles
Et mon cher Trianon
Adieu, cher Cornouailles
Adieu belle Malton.
Cruelle destinée!
Tu venges les Français....
Et je suis accablée
De mille mille traits

8.
Polignac dont les graces
Me plurent si longtemps
Ô évite mes traces
Auprès de ton Amant.
Adieu, belle Justine
Qui me fit tant plaisir
Ciel! par la Guillotine,
Je vais enfin mourir.

9.
Adieu, grandeur passée
Adieu tout mes plaisirs.
La Nature offensée
Veut mes derniers soupirs
Et toi cher la Fayette
Dont j'écoutai les feux...
Venges ton Antoinette
Et reçois ses adieux.

10.
Compagnes de mes crimes
Et de tous mes forfaits
Serés vous les victimes
Du courroux des Français
Destaing, Bailly, ma fille
Et toi, mon fils et toi
Ainsi que ma famille
Souvenez vous de moi.

11.
Enfers, Dieux, Peuples, flâme,
Serpens, chaines, horreurs.
Tout accable l'infâme
Et brave ses fureurs.
La chaux et le bitame
La font toujours souffrir
Le feu qui la consume
Ne put l'anéantir.

12.
Voilà donc cette Reine
Ce fléau des Français!
Qui payoit de sa haine
Leurs plus tendres bienfaits.
Cette Femme impudente
Etonne l'Univers
Et son âme arrogante
Brule dans les Enfers.

Gender

Date

Printing Location

A Paris : chez Le Fevre, [ca 1793]

URL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLbhW9qJwhU
Complainte de marie-Antoinette, veuve de L. Capet.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:58:39 +1000
<![CDATA[La Mort de Marie-Antoinette]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1000

Title

La Mort de Marie-Antoinette

Subtitle

ci-devant reine des français, condamnée et exécuté à mort, le 16 octobre, 1793.
Air connu. Par Ladré

Synopsis

Marie Antoinette; baptised Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna (or Maria Antonia Josephina Johanna);2 November 1755 äóñ 16 October 1793), born an archduchess of Austria, was Dauphine of France from 1770 to 1774 and Queen of France and Navarre from 1774 to 1792. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa.

In April 1770, on the day of her marriage to Louis-Auguste, Dauphin of France, she became Dauphine of France. Marie Antoinette assumed the title of Queen of France and of Navarre when her husband, Louis XVI of France, ascended the throne upon the death of Louis XV in May 1774. After seven years of marriage, she gave birth to a daughter, Marie-Thérse Charlotte, the first of four children.

Initially charmed by her personality and beauty, the French people generally came to dislike her, accusing "L'Autrichienne" (meaning the Austrian (woman) in French) of being profligate, promiscuous,[2] and of harboring sympathies for France's enemies, particularly Austria, her country of origin.[3] The Diamond Necklace incident further ruined her reputation. Although she was completely innocent in this affair, she became known as Madame Déficit.

The royal family's flight to Varennes had disastrous effects on French popular opinion, Louis XVI was deposed and the monarchy abolished on 21 September 1792; the royal family was subsequently imprisoned at the Temple Prison. Eight months after her husband's execution, Marie Antoinette was herself tried, convicted by the Convention for treason to the principles of the revolution, and executed by guillotine on 16 October 1793.

1793: "Widow Capet," Trial, and Death
Marie Antoinette on the way to the guillotine. (Pen and ink by Jacques-Louis David, 16 October 1793)
Marie Antoinette's execution on 16 October 1793.

Louis was executed on 21 January 1793, at the age of thirty-eight.[118] The result was that the "Widow Capet", as the former queen was called after the death of her husband, plunged into deep mourning; she refused to eat or do any exercise. There is no knowledge of her proclaiming her son as Louis XVII; however, the comte de Provence, in exile, recognised his nephew as the new king of France and took the title of Regent. Marie-Antoinette's health rapidly deteriorated in the following months. By this time she suffered from tuberculosis and possibly uterine cancer, which caused her to hemorrhage frequently.[119]

Despite her condition, the debate as to her fate was the central question of the National Convention after Louis's death. There were those who had been advocating her death for some time, while some had the idea of exchanging her for French prisoners of war or for a ransom from the Holy Roman Emperor. Thomas Paine advocated exile to America.[120] Starting in April, however, a Committee of Public Safety was formed, and men such as Jacques Hébert were beginning to call for Antoinette's trial; by the end of May, the Girondins had been chased out of power and arrested.[121] Other calls were made to "retrain" the Dauphin, to make him more pliant to revolutionary ideas. This was carried out when the eight-year-old boy Louis Charles was separated from Antoinette on 3 July, and given to the care of a cobbler.[122] On 1 August, she herself was taken out of the Tower and entered into the Conciergerie as Prisoner No. 280.[123] Despite various attempts to get her out, such as the Carnation Plot in September, Marie Antoinette refused when the plots for her escape were brought to her attention.[124] While in the Conciergerie, she was attended by her last servant, Rosalie Lamorlire.

She was finally tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal on 14 October. Unlike the king, who had been given time to prepare a defence, the queen's trial was far more of a sham, considering the time she was given (less than one day). Among the things she was accused of (most, if not all, of the accusations were untrue and probably lifted from rumours begun by libelles) were orchestrating orgies in Versailles, sending millions of livres of treasury money to Austria, plotting to kill the Duke of Orléans, incest with her son, declaring her son to be the new king of France, and orchestrating the massacre of the Swiss Guards in 1792.

The most infamous charge was that she sexually abused her son. This was according to Louis Charles, who, through his coaching by Hébert and his guardian, accused his mother. After being reminded that she had not answered the charge of incest, Marie Antoinette protested emotionally to the accusation, and the women present in the courtroom äóî the market women who had stormed the palace for her entrails in 1789 äóî even began to support her.[125] She had been composed throughout the trial until this accusation was made, to which she finally answered, "If I have not replied it is because Nature itself refuses to respond to such a charge laid against a mother."
Funerary monument to King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, sculptures by Edme Gaulle and Pierre Petitot in the Basilica of St Denis

In reality the outcome of the trial had already been decided by the Committee of Public Safety around the time the Carnation Plot was uncovered, and she was declared guilty of treason in the early morning of 16 October, after two days of proceedings.[126] Back in her cell, she composed a letter to her sister-in-law Madame élisabeth, affirming her clear conscience, her Catholic faith and her feelings for her children. The letter did not reach élisabeth.[127]

On the same day, her hair was cut off and she was driven through Paris in an open cart, wearing a simple white dress. At 12:15 p.m., two and a half weeks before her thirty-eighth birthday, she was beheaded at the Place de la Révolution (present-day Place de la Concorde).[128][129] Her last words were "Pardon me sir, I meant not to do it", to Henri Sanson the executioner, whose foot she had accidentally stepped on after climbing the scaffold. Her body was thrown into an unmarked grave in the Madeleine cemetery, rue d'Anjou, (which was closed the following year).

Her sister-in-law élisabeth was executed in 1794 and her son died in prison in 1795. Her daughter returned to Austria in a prisoner exchange, married and died childless in 1851.[130]

Both Marie Antoinette's body and that of Louis XVI were exhumed on 18 January 1815, during the Bourbon Restoration, when the comte de Provence had become King Louis XVIII. Christian burial of the royal remains took place three days later, on 21 January, in the necropolis of French Kings at the Basilica of St Denis.[131]


Set to tune of...

Air connu. Par Ladré

Transcription

AH, quel moment terrible,
Fatale nation,
De mon coeur insensible,
C'est la punition
Qu'il faut subir,
Hélas, je vais mourir,
Ah! quelle horreur,
Moi fille d'empereur.

Moi qui jadis fut reine,
L'on me condamne à mort,
Ayant brisé la chaine,
Le peuple voit mon tort,
Ma trahison,
Me fit mettre en prison,
Et mon orgueil
Me conduit au cercueil.

Pour soutenir l'empire
Contre la liberté,
Aujourd'hui si j'expire,
Je l'ai bien mérité,
Par mes forfaits
J'ai trahi les franais,
Mon grand desir
Etoit de réussir.

Autrefois à mes ordres
Le peuple était soumis,
Par mes sanglans désordres,
Des millions d'ennemis
Sont contre moi,
Par eux, Louis, leur roi,
Perdit le jour,
Aujourd'hui c'est mon tour.

Moi qui, comme une idole,
Fut du peuple adorée,
Par une libre école
Il fut trop éclairé.
A mon égard,
Sur moi jette un regard
plein de mépris,
Et sur-tout à Paris.

J'avais grande espérance
Que les rois, mes parents,
Rétabliraient en france
La puissance des grands,
Mais je vois bien
Que malgré ce soutien,
Les franais forts
Vaincront tous leurs efforts.

Madame Guillotine
Est ma dame d'honneur.
Pour moi plus de cuisine,
Adieu l'appât flatteur
Des courtisans;
Adieu tous mes amans;
Je meurs, hélas,
Par un rude trépas.

Method of Punishment

guillotine

Crime(s)

treason

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Paris, Place Louis Quinze
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:58:37 +1000
<![CDATA[La déclaration des crimes de madame de Brinvilliers,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/998

Title

La déclaration des crimes de madame de Brinvilliers,

Subtitle

faite par elle-même, estant prisonnière en la conciergerie du palais, au grand étonnement de tous les assistans avec les dernières parolles qu'elle a prononcée sur l'échaffaut.

Transcription

A vous, mon Dieu, je me confesse,
Comme méchante pécheresse,
Et vous prie de tout mon coeur
De prendre en gré ma pénitence,
Et me pardonner mes offences
Que je déteste avec douleur.

Je suis perverse créature,
J'ay abusé de la nature,
Plusieurs fois j'ay violé ma foy,
Je suis pleine d'ingratitude,
A mal faire j'ay fait étude
Contre vous, grand Dieu, et la loy.

Dedans ma plus tendre jeunesse
J'usois de ruses et finesses,
Je m'adonnois du tout au mal;
Quoy qu'on prit peine à m'instruire
Je ne m'amusois rien qu'à rire,
A danser et aller au bal.

Bref j'ay commis beaucoup de crimes,
De quoy je faisois peu d'estime,
Et mme par un grand effort
J'ay tant fait que mon trs-cher pre
J'ay réduit comme une mégre
Dessous l'étendart de la mort.

Un Godin et un La Chaussée
Savoient mes secrets et pensées
Comme complices de mes faits.
L'un faisoit le poison sans doute,
L'autre mettoit tout en déroute
Par les poisons les plus infects.

Godin introduit chez mes frres
La Chaussée par trop téméraire
Qui mes frres empoisonna;*
Le dernier mort sans nul doutance
Du poison donna connoissance:
La Chaussée on emprisonna.

On fit en grande diligence
Le procs sans nulle doutance
A La Chaussée trop criminel,
Qui déclara à la justice
Ses par trop détestables vices
Et son péché par trop cruel.

Godin sans nul doute il accuse,
Et point du tout il ne m'excuse:
Promptement il fut condamné
Par le sénat et la justice
Qui pour le punir de son vice
Ont commandé qu'il fut roué.**

Ce fut dans la place de Grve
Qu'il fut rompu sans nulle trve,
En présence des assistans;
Et moy sachant cette nouvelle,
Bien vite je bandé mes voiles
Pour me sauver bien loin aux champs.

Pourtant dans la ville de Liége ***
Ce caresme on me prit au piége,
Et à Paris on m'amena [april 1676]
Jusque à la Conciergerie
Pour faire enqueste de ma vie
Qui beaucoup de monde étonna.

Il y a déja quatre lunes
Qu'une prison trop importune
A renfermé mon chétif corps:
Plut à Dieu qu'une maladie
M'eust maintenant privé de vie
Et réduite au nombre des morts.

Je ne serois pas dans la crainte
De me voir mener sans nul feinte
A la mort trs-honteusement,
Quoy que mon advocat fidle [Nivelle avocat au Parlement]
Témoigne enverse moy un grand zle,
Plaidant pour moy éloquamment.

Mais ma trop maudite cassette
Cause que dessus la sellette
On m'a mis assez rudement,
Et ce qui choque plus mon âme
C'est qu'on m'a mis comme la femme
D'un berger ou d'un artisant.

Une fois j'y fus bien trois heures,
C'est pour moy piteuse demeure,
Je voudrois estre en Portugal,
Ou dans quelque autres estrange terre,
Car mes péchés me font la guerre
Et me cause un estrange mal.

Pourtant dans mes peine et souffrance
Il me faut piller patience;
Grand Dieu, ayez pitié de moy,
Je suis toute couverte de crimes,
Je suis la véritable abyme
De l'équité et de la loy.

Je perds beaucoup de personnages
Par mon poison et grand outrage,
Plusieurs sont dejà en prison
Qui pour moy souffrent grandes peines
Dans les cachots, couverts de chesnes,
En trs-grand tribulation.

De quantités je suis maudite:
On voudroit que je fus détruite,
Mon advocat tient toujours bon,
Et toujours il plaide ma cause:
Nonobstant tout cela je n'ose
Espérer sortir de prison.

De beaucoup je suis accusée
Quantités me nomme rusée
D'avoir fait ma confession.
Ma confession est écrite,
Mon advocat dessus médite,
Cherchant mon absolution.

Peut-on absoudre une personne
Qui à tout vice s'abandonne
Et délaisse son Créateur,
Qui defait pre, soeur et frre,
Et qui aux humains fait la guerre,
Les faisant mourir en langueur?

Mon poison, chose véritable,
Se pouvoit donner à la table,
A la promenade et au lit,
Aux gands, bouquets et aux épingles,
Aux médecines et seringues:
Partout il faisoit son délit.

Mais à ce coup faut que je meure;
Me voicy à ma dernire heure:
Je dis adieu à mes enfans,
A mes parens, à l'assistance,
Je meurs dans les peines et souffrance;
Mon sépulchre sera ardans.

Adieu, adieu, belle noblesse,
Toutes mes ruses et finesses
Ne m'ont servy aucunement:
Il faut paroistre en personne,
Et d'un seul coup que l'on me donne,
On me renverse au monument.

Notes:
Godin= Gaudin de Sainte-Croix, amant de la marquise, mort en juillet 1672.
La Chaussée= D'abord valet de Sainte-Croix, puis de la marquise et enfin du conseiller d'Aubray frere de cette derniere.

* en 1670

** l'arrt est du 24 mars 1673

*** she was arrested in the convent in Liege where she had taken sanctuary by the policeman Desgrais who disguised himself as an abbé








Method of Punishment

beheading, burning of remains

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Paris, place de Greve

Notes

Anne Somerset - The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV (St. Martin's Press (October 12, 2003)

The affair of the poisons

Strange revelations : magic, poison, and sacrilege in Louis XIV's France / Lynn Wood Mollenauer. Pennsylvania State University Press ; [London : Eurospan, distributor], c2007

Wikipedia: Marie-Madeleine-Marguerite d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers (22 July 1630 - 17 July 1676) conspired with her lover, army captain Godin de Sainte-Croix to poison her father Antonine Dreux d'Aubray in 1666 and two of her brothers, Antoine d'Aubray and Franois d'Aubray, in 1670, in order to inherit their estates. There were also rumors that she had poisoned poor people during her visits to hospitals.

She appears to have used Tofana poison, whose recipe she seems to have learned from her lover, the Chevalier de Sainte Croix, who had learned it from Exili, an Italian poisoner, who had been his cellmate in the Bastille. Her accomplice Sainte-Croix had died of natural causes in 1672.

In 1675, she fled to England, Germany, and a convent, but was arrested in Lige. She was forced to confess and sentenced to death. On 17 July 1676, she was tortured with the water cure, that is, forced to drink sixteen pints of water. She was then beheaded and her body was burned at the stake.

Her trial and the attendant scandal launched the Affair of the Poisons, which saw several French aristocrats charged with poison and witchcraft.

 

Madame de Sevigné: Encore un petit mot de la Brinvilliers : elle est morte comme elle a vécu, c'est-à-dire résolument. Elle entra dans le lieu où l'on devoit lui donner la question ; et voyant trois seaux d'eau : Œ‚ C'est assurément pour me noyer, dit-elle ; car de la taille dont je suis, on ne prétend pas que je boive tout cela. Œé Elle écouta son arrt, ds le matin, sans frayeur ni sans foiblesse ; et sur la fin, elle le fit recommencer, disant que ce tombereau l'avoit frappée d'abord, et qu'elle en avoit perdu l'attention pour le reste. Elle dit à son confesseur, par le chemin, de faire mettre le bourreau devant elle, Œ‚ afin de ne point voir, dit-elle, ce coquin de Desgrais qui m'a prise : Œé il étoit à cheval devant le tombereau. Son confesseur la reprit de ce sentiment ; elle dit : Œ‚ Ah mon Dieu ! je vous en demande pardon ; qu'on me laisse donc cette étrange vue ; Œé et monta seule et nu-pieds sur l'échelle et sur l'échafaud, et fut un quart d'heure mirodée, rasée, dressée et redressée, par le bourreau : ce fut un grand murmure et une grande cruauté. Le lendemain on cherchoit ses os, parce que le peuple disoit qu'elle étoit sainte. Elle avoit, dit-elle, deux confesseurs : l'un disoit qu'il falloit tout dire, et l'autre non ; elle rioit de cette 1676 diversité, disant : Œ‚ Je peux faire en conscience tout ce qu'il me plaira : Œé il lui a plu de ne rien dire du tout. Penautier sortira un peu plus blanc que de la neige : le public n'est point content, on dit que tout cela est trouble. Admirez le malheur : cette créature a refusé d'apprendre ce qu'on vouloit, et a dit ce qu'on ne demandoit pas ; par exemple, elle dit que M. Foucquet avoit envoyé Glaser, leur apothicaire empoisonneur, en Italie, pour avoir d'une herbe qui fait du poison : elle a entendu dire cette belle chose à Sainte-Croix. Voyez quel excs d'accablement, et quel prétexte pour achever ce misérable. Tout cela est encore bien suspect. On ajoute encore bien des choses ; mais en voilà assez pour aujourd'hui.

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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:58:37 +1000
<![CDATA[L'orgueil de Marie-Antoinette, confondue par la guillotine.]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/995

Title

L'orgueil de Marie-Antoinette, confondue par la guillotine.

Subtitle

Air: Bonsoir ma jeune & belle amie. Par Ladré.

Synopsis

Marie Antoinette; baptised Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna (or Maria Antonia Josephina Johanna);2 November 1755 - 16 October 1793), born an archduchess of Austria, was Dauphine of France from 1770 to 1774 and Queen of France and Navarre from 1774 to 1792. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa.

In April 1770, on the day of her marriage to Louis-Auguste, Dauphin of France, she became Dauphine of France. Marie Antoinette assumed the title of Queen of France and of Navarre when her husband, Louis XVI of France, ascended the throne upon the death of Louis XV in May 1774. After seven years of marriage, she gave birth to a daughter, Marie-Thérse Charlotte, the first of four children.

Initially charmed by her personality and beauty, the French people generally came to dislike her, accusing "L'Autrichienne" (meaning the Austrian (woman) in French) of being profligate, promiscuous,[2] and of harboring sympathies for France's enemies, particularly Austria, her country of origin.[3] The Diamond Necklace incident further ruined her reputation. Although she was completely innocent in this affair, she became known as Madame Déficit.

The royal family's flight to Varennes had disastrous effects on French popular opinion, Louis XVI was deposed and the monarchy abolished on 21 September 1792; the royal family was subsequently imprisoned at the Temple Prison. Eight months after her husband's execution, Marie Antoinette was herself tried, convicted by the Convention for treason to the principles of the revolution, and executed by guillotine on 16 October 1793.

1793: "Widow Capet," Trial, and Death
Marie Antoinette on the way to the guillotine. (Pen and ink by Jacques-Louis David, 16 October 1793)
Marie Antoinette's execution on 16 October 1793.

Louis was executed on 21 January 1793, at the age of thirty-eight.[118] The result was that the "Widow Capet", as the former queen was called after the death of her husband, plunged into deep mourning; she refused to eat or do any exercise. There is no knowledge of her proclaiming her son as Louis XVII; however, the comte de Provence, in exile, recognised his nephew as the new king of France and took the title of Regent. Marie-Antoinette's health rapidly deteriorated in the following months. By this time she suffered from tuberculosis and possibly uterine cancer, which caused her to hemorrhage frequently.[119]

Despite her condition, the debate as to her fate was the central question of the National Convention after Louis's death. There were those who had been advocating her death for some time, while some had the idea of exchanging her for French prisoners of war or for a ransom from the Holy Roman Emperor. Thomas Paine advocated exile to America.[120] Starting in April, however, a Committee of Public Safety was formed, and men such as Jacques Hébert were beginning to call for Antoinette's trial; by the end of May, the Girondins had been chased out of power and arrested.[121] Other calls were made to "retrain" the Dauphin, to make him more pliant to revolutionary ideas. This was carried out when the eight-year-old boy Louis Charles was separated from Antoinette on 3 July, and given to the care of a cobbler.[122] On 1 August, she herself was taken out of the Tower and entered into the Conciergerie as Prisoner No. 280.[123] Despite various attempts to get her out, such as the Carnation Plot in September, Marie Antoinette refused when the plots for her escape were brought to her attention.[124] While in the Conciergerie, she was attended by her last servant, Rosalie Lamorlire.

She was finally tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal on 14 October. Unlike the king, who had been given time to prepare a defence, the queen's trial was far more of a sham, considering the time she was given (less than one day). Among the things she was accused of (most, if not all, of the accusations were untrue and probably lifted from rumours begun by libelles) were orchestrating orgies in Versailles, sending millions of livres of treasury money to Austria, plotting to kill the Duke of Orléans, incest with her son, declaring her son to be the new king of France, and orchestrating the massacre of the Swiss Guards in 1792.

The most infamous charge was that she sexually abused her son. This was according to Louis Charles, who, through his coaching by Hébert and his guardian, accused his mother. After being reminded that she had not answered the charge of incest, Marie Antoinette protested emotionally to the accusation, and the women present in the courtroom äóî the market women who had stormed the palace for her entrails in 1789 äóî even began to support her.[125] She had been composed throughout the trial until this accusation was made, to which she finally answered, "If I have not replied it is because Nature itself refuses to respond to such a charge laid against a mother."
Funerary monument to King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, sculptures by Edme Gaulle and Pierre Petitot in the Basilica of St Denis

In reality the outcome of the trial had already been decided by the Committee of Public Safety around the time the Carnation Plot was uncovered, and she was declared guilty of treason in the early morning of 16 October, after two days of proceedings.[126] Back in her cell, she composed a letter to her sister-in-law Madame élisabeth, affirming her clear conscience, her Catholic faith and her feelings for her children. The letter did not reach élisabeth.[127]

On the same day, her hair was cut off and she was driven through Paris in an open cart, wearing a simple white dress. At 12:15 p.m., two and a half weeks before her thirty-eighth birthday, she was beheaded at the Place de la Révolution (present-day Place de la Concorde).[128][129] Her last words were "Pardon me sir, I meant not to do it", to Henri Sanson the executioner, whose foot she had accidentally stepped on after climbing the scaffold. Her body was thrown into an unmarked grave in the Madeleine cemetery, rue d'Anjou, (which was closed the following year).

Her sister-in-law élisabeth was executed in 1794 and her son died in prison in 1795. Her daughter returned to Austria in a prisoner exchange, married and died childless in 1851.[130]

Both Marie Antoinette's body and that of Louis XVI were exhumed on 18 January 1815, during the Bourbon Restoration, when the comte de Provence had become King Louis XVIII. Christian burial of the royal remains took place three days later, on 21 January, in the necropolis of French Kings at the Basilica of St Denis.[131]


Image / Audio Credit

BnF Franois Mittérand, Recueil de chansons Ye 56375, 161-240

Set to tune of...

Bonsoir ma jeune & belle amie.

Transcription

JOUR fatal, on connait mon crime
Je croyais qu'il étoit caché (bis).
Aujourd'ui je me vois victime
De tous tes maux (bis) que j'ai cherché. bis

Faut-il donc que la guillotine
Aujourd'ui termine mes jours!
Moi qui croyais être divine,
On reconnait tous mes détours.

Quoi donc, moi, Marie-Antoinette,
Princesse & reine des français,
Aujourd'hui l'on veut ma défaite,
Pour punir mes sanglans forfaits.

Moi qui menais à la baguette
Ce peuple qui veut mon malheur!
Que ne viens-tu cher La Fayette
Me consoler dans ma douleur.

Je croyois un jour dans mon âme,
Nager dans le sang des français,
Mais de mon infernale flame
La mort confond tous les projets.

Que d'amis j'avais dans la france,
Mais il n'osent plus me parler;
La loi leur en fait la défense
Et son glaive les fait trembler.

Il faut donc que ce fatal glaive
Ote l'existence à mon corps!
J'imagine que c'est un rêve
D'être bientôt au rang des morts.

FIN.

Method of Punishment

guillotine

Crime(s)

treason

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Paris, Place Louis Quinze
IMG_2211.jpg
IMG_2212.jpg
]]>
Thu, 24 May 2018 13:58:36 +1000
<![CDATA[L’execution remarquable de Mme de Brinvilliers,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/994

Title

L’execution remarquable de Mme de Brinvilliers,

Subtitle

qui a esté condamnée à faire amende honourable devant nostre dame, et de la conduit à la grève pour y estre décolleté et ensuite jetée au feu, pour avoir empoisonné son Pere, ses frères, et quantité d’autres gens de condition

Transcription

Il faut mourir, ma sentence est rendue,
Mais ce seul mot me rend toute esperdue,
Me faut mourir dessus un echaffaut.
C'est pour punir mes trop cruels deffauts,
Et aujourd'huy on abrège ma vie
Pour expier mes grandes perfidies.

On n'a jamais veu femme dans le monde
Ainsi que moy faire crimes immondes;
J'ay irrité et la terre et le ciel,
Et j'ay commis de grands péchés mortels,
Car j'ai tué par poison mon cher frère
Lequel m'aimoit d'une amour singulière

J'avois en main certain apotiquaire
Que je payois d'une bonne manière,
J'avois aussi un fripon de laquais
Lequel faisoit à peu près mes souhaits,
Je leur donnois de l'argent grande somme,
Et eux passoient toujours pour honneste-hommes.

De ce poison le traistre apotiquaire
Me fournissoit de beaucoup de manière:
Il enfaisoit pour un an, pour six mois,
Il m'en donnoit ainsi que je voulois
Que je faisois prendre comme une infame
A ceux de qui je voulois ravir l'ame.

Dieu tout puissant permit que ce perfide
Lequel estoit devant luy homicide
Vint à mourir, et que ses héritiers
Parmi ses biens, richesses et papiers
Trouverent las! la maudite cassette
Là où estoit le poison manifeste.

On reconnut ma grande perfidie,
Comment j'avais las! abrégé la vie
A mon frère qui me chérissoit tant,
Dont à présent j'ay le coeur mal content;
Dans l'ame j'ay très-forte repentance:
Ma teste va servir de pénitence.

Mon laquais pris, en prison on le mene
Où on luy fit souffrir beaucoup de peines,
Il raconta toute ma trahison,
Comment j'usois de ce maudit poison;
Pour ce sujet il fut mené en Grève,
Où il mourut en peines très-grièves.

Moy je m'en fuis en grande diligence
Abandonnant le royaume de France,
Je fus roder de pays en pays
Bien éloignée de parens et amis,
Pour me sauver je fus en Angleterre,
En [la] Hollande et plusieurs autres terres.

Mais Dieu, lassé de mes crime et offence
A suscité un officier de France
Qui me connut et viste me saisit:
En sauve-garde [tout] soudain il me mit,
Et à Paris on m'ameine bien viste:
Pour m'amener j'avois fort bonne suite.

Mon procès fait, ce coup il faut paroistre
Sur l'echaffaut, c'est pour couper ma teste,
Auparavant je fais déclaration
De mes forfaits et mauvaises actions,
Car j'ay commis des actions si noires
Qu'il n'y a point d'écrites dans l'histoire.

Comme j'ay dit, j'ay fait mourir mon frère
Par le poison d'une mort très-amère,
Je croyois bien faire mourir mon mary,
Mais le poison n'eut pas pouvoir sur luy:
Diligemment il usa de remede,
Et son remede à mon poison succede.

J'ay bien pis fait, mais je ne l'ose dire,
J'ay fait mourir mon pere en [grand] martyre,
En luy donnant de ce maudit poison
L'ay fait pâtir longtemps dans ma maison
Et à la fin il est mort comme etique,
Par ma fraude et ma noire pratique.

Je demande pardon à mon cher pere,
Pareillement aussi à mon cher frère,
Je demande pardon à mes parens,
Je demande pardon à mes enfans,
Je demande pardon à l'assistance,
Je meurs, je meurs avec grand repentance.

Mon cher mary, pardon je vous demande
D'avoir commis une faute si grande;
Je croyois bien vous tuer par poison
Bien préparé par ma grand trahison,
Mais Dieu très-bon vous conserve la vie:
La mienne va ce coup estre finie.

Ce n'est pas tout que de perdre la vie,
Mes entrailles s'en vont estre rotties,
Et dans ce lieu on va brùler mon corps,
Encor qu'il soit déjà au rang des morts,
Contemplez moy, très-illustre noblesse:
Ma sentence me réduit en faiblesse.

Method of Punishment

beheading, burning of remains

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Paris, place de Greve

Notes

image is from another pamphlet, Musee Carnavalet, estampe HIST PC 001 TerG (in Bastien, execution publique a Paris)

Wikipedia: Marie-Madeleine-Marguerite d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers (22 July 1630 - 17 July 1676) conspired with her lover, army captain Godin de Sainte-Croix to poison her father Antonine Dreux d'Aubray in 1666 and two of her brothers, Antoine d'Aubray and Franois d'Aubray, in 1670, in order to inherit their estates. There were also rumors that she had poisoned poor people during her visits to hospitals. 

She appears to have used Tofana poison, whose recipe she seems to have learned from her lover, the Chevalier de Sainte Croix, who had learned it from Exili, an Italian poisoner, who had been his cellmate in the Bastille. Her accomplice Sainte-Croix had died of natural causes in 1672.

In 1675, she fled to England, Germany, and a convent, but was arrested in Lige. She was forced to confess and sentenced to death. On 17 July 1676, she was tortured with the water cure, that is, forced to drink sixteen pints of water. She was then beheaded and her body was burned at the stake.

Her trial and the attendant scandal launched the Affair of the Poisons, which saw several French aristocrats charged with poison and witchcraft.

 

Madame de Sevigné: Encore un petit mot de la Brinvilliers : elle est morte comme elle a vécu, c'est-à-dire résolument. Elle entra dans le lieu où l'on devoit lui donner la question ; et voyant trois seaux d'eau : Œ‚ C'est assurément pour me noyer, dit-elle ; car de la taille dont je suis, on ne prétend pas que je boive tout cela. Œé Elle écouta son arrt, ds le matin, sans frayeur ni sans foiblesse ; et sur la fin, elle le fit recommencer, disant que ce tombereau l'avoit frappée d'abord, et qu'elle en avoit perdu l'attention pour le reste. Elle dit à son confesseur, par le chemin, de faire mettre le bourreau devant elle, Œ‚ afin de ne point voir, dit-elle, ce coquin de Desgrais qui m'a prise : Œé il étoit à cheval devant le tombereau. Son confesseur la reprit de ce sentiment ; elle dit : Œ‚ Ah mon Dieu ! je vous en demande pardon ; qu'on me laisse donc cette étrange vue ; Œé et monta seule et nu-pieds sur l'échelle et sur l'échafaud, et fut un quart d'heure mirodée, rasée, dressée et redressée, par le bourreau : ce fut un grand murmure et une grande cruauté. Le lendemain on cherchoit ses os, parce que le peuple disoit qu'elle étoit sainte. Elle avoit, dit-elle, deux confesseurs : l'un disoit qu'il falloit tout dire, et l'autre non ; elle rioit de cette 1676 diversité, disant : Œ‚ Je peux faire en conscience tout ce qu'il me plaira : Œé il lui a plu de ne rien dire du tout. Penautier sortira un peu plus blanc que de la neige : le public n'est point content, on dit que tout cela est trouble. Admirez le malheur : cette créature a refusé d'apprendre ce qu'on vouloit, et a dit ce qu'on ne demandoit pas ; par exemple, elle dit que M. Foucquet avoit envoyé Glaser, leur apothicaire empoisonneur, en Italie, pour avoir d'une herbe qui fait du poison : elle a entendu dire cette belle chose à Sainte-Croix. Voyez quel excs d'accablement, et quel prétexte pour achever ce misérable. Tout cela est encore bien suspect. On ajoute encore bien des choses ; mais en voilà assez pour aujourd'hui.

L'execution remarquable de madame de Brinvillers.png
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:58:36 +1000
<![CDATA[DIALOGUE DE LA TIGRESSE ANTOINETTE,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/987

Title

DIALOGUE DE LA TIGRESSE ANTOINETTE,

Subtitle

Avec la Guillotine, le jour de son exécution.
Air: Jeunesse trop coquette.

Set to tune of...

Jeunesse trop coquette.

Transcription

La Guillotine.
DéTESTABLE Antoinette,
C'est donc en ce moment,
Que l'on va voir ta tête
Tomber sous mon tranchant,
Pour prix de tes forfaits:
C'est là ta récompense,
Ayant par tes projets,
Voulu perdre la France.

Antoinette.
Cruelle guillotine,
Que tu me fais frémir,
Lorsque plus j'examine,
Que je m'en vais mourir,
Moi qui fus ci-devant,
Souveraine sur terre:
Faut-il donc maintenant,
Terminer ma carriere?

La Guillotine.
Maudite créature,
Des français le fléau;
Ton supplice, je jure,
N'est qu'un foible tableau
Des noires cruautés,
Qui, par ta manigance,
Furent tant exercés
Sur le peuple de france.

Antoinette.
Machine épouvantable,
Effroi du genre humain,
En quoi suis-je coupable,
Explique-toi soudain,
Veux-tu me reprocher
Mon trop d'indépendance;
Tu devrois m'en passer
J'avois tout en puissance.

La guillotine.
C'est justement, coquine,
Ce dont chacun se plaint,
Le mal par origine
Dans ton coeur est empreint,
Peux-tu me dêmentir,
Te retraçant tes crimes?
Combien fis-tu périr
D'innocentes victimes?

Antoinette.
J'avouerai sans mystère,
Qu'en quittant mon pays
Je reçus ma mère
De très mauvais avis;
Moi, pour la contenter,
Jalouse de lui plaire,
Je promis d'outrager
Le françois débonnaire.

La guillotine.
C'est donc cela, cruelle,
Qui te fit un sujet
Pour troubler la cervelle
A ton mari Capet,
Sot et mal avisé,
Sans foi ni sans justice,
Il fut en verité
De tes fautes complices.

Antoinette.
Il faut en conscience
Dire qu'au dix aout,
Je fus de connivence
Avec feu mon époux:
Les Suisses nous avons
Sut gagner par finesse,
C'étoit, nous conviendrons,
Agir avec adresse.

La guillotine.
Pétion te fut propice,
Quoiqu'en te donnant tort;
Aussi pour sa malice,
Il subira ton sort,
Et tous les scélérats
Qui formèrent ta clique,
Vont tous sauter le pas,
La chose est authentique.

Antoinette.
Je sens que je succombe,
Finissons ce discours
Et que ma tête tombe;
Il le faut en ce jour.
Recevez mes adieux,
Aimable république,
J'ai les larmes aux yeux,
Voilà ma fin tragique.

FIN.

Method of Punishment

guillotine

Crime(s)

treason

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Paris, Place Louis Quinze

Notes

Wikipedia: Marie Antoinette; baptised Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna (or Maria Antonia Josephina Johanna);2 November 1755 - 16 October 1793), born an archduchess of Austria, was Dauphine of France from 1770 to 1774 and Queen of France and Navarre from 1774 to 1792. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa.

In April 1770, on the day of her marriage to Louis-Auguste, Dauphin of France, she became Dauphine of France. Marie Antoinette assumed the title of Queen of France and of Navarre when her husband, Louis XVI of France, ascended the throne upon the death of Louis XV in May 1774. After seven years of marriage, she gave birth to a daughter, Marie-Thérse Charlotte, the first of four children.

Initially charmed by her personality and beauty, the French people generally came to dislike her, accusing "L'Autrichienne" (meaning the Austrian (woman) in French) of being profligate, promiscuous, and of harboring sympathies for France's enemies, particularly Austria, her country of origin. The Diamond Necklace incident further ruined her reputation. Although she was completely innocent in this affair, she became known as Madame Déficit.

The royal family's flight to Varennes had disastrous effects on French popular opinion, Louis XVI was deposed and the monarchy abolished on 21 September 1792; the royal family was subsequently imprisoned at the Temple Prison. Eight months after her husband's execution, Marie Antoinette was herself tried, convicted by the Convention for treason to the principles of the revolution, and executed by guillotine on 16 October 1793.

Louis was executed on 21 January 1793, at the age of thirty-eight. The result was that the "Widow Capet", as the former queen was called after the death of her husband, plunged into deep mourning; she refused to eat or do any exercise. There is no knowledge of her proclaiming her son as Louis XVII; however, the comte de Provence, in exile, recognised his nephew as the new king of France and took the title of Regent. Marie-Antoinette's health rapidly deteriorated in the following months. By this time she suffered from tuberculosis and possibly uterine cancer, which caused her to hemorrhage frequently.

Despite her condition, the debate as to her fate was the central question of the National Convention after Louis's death. There were those who had been advocating her death for some time, while some had the idea of exchanging her for French prisoners of war or for a ransom from the Holy Roman Emperor. Thomas Paine advocated exile to America. Starting in April, however, a Committee of Public Safety was formed, and men such as Jacques Hébert were beginning to call for Antoinette's trial; by the end of May, the Girondins had been chased out of power and arrested. Other calls were made to "retrain" the Dauphin, to make him more pliant to revolutionary ideas. This was carried out when the eight-year-old boy Louis Charles was separated from Antoinette on 3 July, and given to the care of a cobbler. On 1 August, she herself was taken out of the Tower and entered into the Conciergerie as Prisoner No. 280. Despite various attempts to get her out, such as the Carnation Plot in September, Marie Antoinette refused when the plots for her escape were brought to her attention. While in the Conciergerie, she was attended by her last servant, Rosalie Lamorlire.

She was finally tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal on 14 October. Unlike the king, who had been given time to prepare a defence, the queen's trial was far more of a sham, considering the time she was given (less than one day). Among the things she was accused of (most, if not all, of the accusations were untrue and probably lifted from rumours begun by libelles) were orchestrating orgies in Versailles, sending millions of livres of treasury money to Austria, plotting to kill the Duke of Orléans, incest with her son, declaring her son to be the new king of France, and orchestrating the massacre of the Swiss Guards in 1792.

The most infamous charge was that she sexually abused her son. This was according to Louis Charles, who, through his coaching by Hébert and his guardian, accused his mother. After being reminded that she had not answered the charge of incest, Marie Antoinette protested emotionally to the accusation, and the women present in the courtroom and the market women who had stormed the palace for her entrails in 1789, even began to support her. She had been composed throughout the trial until this accusation was made, to which she finally answered, "If I have not replied it is because Nature itself refuses to respond to such a charge laid against a mother."

In reality the outcome of the trial had already been decided by the Committee of Public Safety around the time the Carnation Plot was uncovered, and she was declared guilty of treason in the early morning of 16 October, after two days of proceedings. Back in her cell, she composed a letter to her sister-in-law Madame élisabeth, affirming her clear conscience, her Catholic faith and her feelings for her children. The letter did not reach élisabeth.

On the same day, her hair was cut off and she was driven through Paris in an open cart, wearing a simple white dress. At 12:15 p.m., two and a half weeks before her thirty-eighth birthday, she was beheaded at the Place de la Révolution (present-day Place de la Concorde). Her last words were "Pardon me sir, I meant not to do it", to Henri Sanson the executioner, whose foot she had accidentally stepped on after climbing the scaffold. Her body was thrown into an unmarked grave in the Madeleine cemetery, rue d'Anjou, (which was closed the following year).

Her sister-in-law élisabeth was executed in 1794 and her son died in prison in 1795. Her daughter returned to Austria in a prisoner exchange, married and died childless in 1851.

Both Marie Antoinette's body and that of Louis XVI were exhumed on 18 January 1815, during the Bourbon Restoration, when the comte de Provence had become King Louis XVIII. Christian burial of the royal remains took place three days later, on 21 January, in the necropolis of French Kings at the Basilica of St Denis.

 

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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:58:35 +1000
<![CDATA[CRIMES DE MARIE-ANTOINETTE,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/985

Title

CRIMES DE MARIE-ANTOINETTE,

Subtitle

Veuve Capet, Guillotinée le 25 du premier mois de l'an 2 de la République française, une et indivisible (le 16 octobre, 1793. Vieux stile.
Air du malheureux Lisandre.

Set to tune of...

Air du malheureux Lisandre.

Transcription

DE peur que la race future,
D'Antoinette apprenant le sort,
Ne nous reproche un jour sa mort,
Des faux écrits par l'imposture,
Je veux montrer à l'univers
Ses crimes, ses desseins pervers;
Je veux que, du royaume sombre,
Elle entende le cri des loix:
Je veux interroger son ombre
Et qu'elle frémisse à ma voix.

Monstre échappé de Germania,
Toi qui dévastas no climats,
Ils n'ont cessé tes attentats
Que lorsqu'on fit cesser ta vie;
Par tes crimes & tes forfaits,
Vois les maux que tu nous a faits;
Non satisfaite, dans ta rage,
de ceux ou nous sommes plongés,
Nous devions tous, par ton ouvrage,
Périr l'un par l'autre égorgés.

Avant l'époque combinée
Du heureux & beau changement,
Qui rendit le français si grand
Et la france régénerée;
Par ton adresse & par le vin,
Charmant ton époux peu malin,
Oui, je vois tes mains sacrilèges,
L'endormant sur de vils excès,
Pour un frere que tu protèges,
Dépouiller l'empire francais.

Ce fut le premier de tes crimes:
Quand on débute comme toi,
On peut, sans honte & sans effroi,
Marcher d'abîmes en abîmes:
L'horreur ne quitte point tes pas,
Et, prodigue de tes appas,
De tes enfans coupable mere,
Ne retenant plus aucun frein,
Trois fois une flâme adultere
Fit germer ces fruits dans ton sein.

Je vois une femme en furie
Troubler le dedans, le dehors;
Des Flandrins & Gardes-du-Corps
Elle-même anime[r?] l'orgie.
Je la vois les encourager,
A ses yeux, faire profaner
Notre cocarde tricolore:
Par ses artifices adroits,
Je vois la blanche qu'on arbore,
Pour anéantir tous nos droits.

Mais quelles sont ces assemblées,
Que j'apperçois dans ce palais?
Qui, de ces criminels projets
Inspire les noires idées?
C'est toi, trop cruelle, c'est toi:
Contre nous & contre la loi.
C'est-là même que tu présides
Et fais, pour servir tes desseins,
Nommer des ministres perfides,
Agens de tes faits clandestins.

Tu nous fais déclarer la guerre,
Et, par tes mouvemens secrets,
De la Belgique, des franais
Se fait la retraite premiere:
Aux rois & brigands conjurés
Nos plans, par toi, sont envoyés:
Si, quelquefois, sur nos armées
Triompherent les ennemis,
C'est à tes perfides menées
Que, par eux, en est dù le prix.

Je t'accuse de cet orage
Que sur nous tu fis éclater,
Le jour où l'on vit tant briller
Des sans-culotes le courage,
C'est le célevre jour du dix,
Funeste à des peres chéris:
Et de cette trame infernale
Pour encourager les agens,
D'avoir mordu plus d'une balle,
Au milieu de tes partisans.

Si Capet se fouilla de crimes,
Et s'il fut digne de la mort,
S'il a trop mérité son sort
Et fait tomber tant de victimes,
C'est toi-mme qui le perdis,
Abusant d'un coeur trop épris:
Qui, profitant de sa faiblesse,
Fit servir son crédule amour,
Aux complots machinés sans cesse
Par ton noir esprit et ta cour.

Envain je cherche en ma mémoire
Le nom des êtres abhorrés,
Dignes de t'être comparés:
Je n'en trouve pas dans l'histoire,
Pour faire un fidele tableau,
Tu fus, on peut dire en un mot,
Plus scélérat qu'Agrippine,
Dont les crimes sont inouis,
Plus lubrique que Messaline,
Plus barbare que Médicis.

Par GOURIET, fils.

Method of Punishment

guillotine

Crime(s)

treason

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Paris, Place Louis Quinze

Printing Location

De l'Imp. de GOURIET, rue S.-Etienne-des-Grs, Nos. 20 & 22.

Notes

Marie Antoinette; baptised Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna (or Maria Antonia Josephina Johanna);2 November 1755 äóñ 16 October 1793), born an archduchess of Austria, was Dauphine of France from 1770 to 1774 and Queen of France and Navarre from 1774 to 1792. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa.

In April 1770, on the day of her marriage to Louis-Auguste, Dauphin of France, she became Dauphine of France. Marie Antoinette assumed the title of Queen of France and of Navarre when her husband, Louis XVI of France, ascended the throne upon the death of Louis XV in May 1774. After seven years of marriage, she gave birth to a daughter, Marie-Thérse Charlotte, the first of four children.

Initially charmed by her personality and beauty, the French people generally came to dislike her, accusing "L'Autrichienne" (meaning the Austrian (woman) in French) of being profligate, promiscuous,[2] and of harboring sympathies for France's enemies, particularly Austria, her country of origin.[3] The Diamond Necklace incident further ruined her reputation. Although she was completely innocent in this affair, she became known as Madame Déficit.

The royal family's flight to Varennes had disastrous effects on French popular opinion, Louis XVI was deposed and the monarchy abolished on 21 September 1792; the royal family was subsequently imprisoned at the Temple Prison. Eight months after her husband's execution, Marie Antoinette was herself tried, convicted by the Convention for treason to the principles of the revolution, and executed by guillotine on 16 October 1793.

1793: "Widow Capet," Trial, and Death
Marie Antoinette on the way to the guillotine. (Pen and ink by Jacques-Louis David, 16 October 1793)
Marie Antoinette's execution on 16 October 1793.

Louis was executed on 21 January 1793, at the age of thirty-eight.[118] The result was that the "Widow Capet", as the former queen was called after the death of her husband, plunged into deep mourning; she refused to eat or do any exercise. There is no knowledge of her proclaiming her son as Louis XVII; however, the comte de Provence, in exile, recognised his nephew as the new king of France and took the title of Regent. Marie-Antoinette's health rapidly deteriorated in the following months. By this time she suffered from tuberculosis and possibly uterine cancer, which caused her to hemorrhage frequently.[119]

Despite her condition, the debate as to her fate was the central question of the National Convention after Louis's death. There were those who had been advocating her death for some time, while some had the idea of exchanging her for French prisoners of war or for a ransom from the Holy Roman Emperor. Thomas Paine advocated exile to America.[120] Starting in April, however, a Committee of Public Safety was formed, and men such as Jacques Hébert were beginning to call for Antoinette's trial; by the end of May, the Girondins had been chased out of power and arrested.[121] Other calls were made to "retrain" the Dauphin, to make him more pliant to revolutionary ideas. This was carried out when the eight-year-old boy Louis Charles was separated from Antoinette on 3 July, and given to the care of a cobbler.[122] On 1 August, she herself was taken out of the Tower and entered into the Conciergerie as Prisoner No. 280.[123] Despite various attempts to get her out, such as the Carnation Plot in September, Marie Antoinette refused when the plots for her escape were brought to her attention.[124] While in the Conciergerie, she was attended by her last servant, Rosalie Lamorlire.

She was finally tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal on 14 October. Unlike the king, who had been given time to prepare a defence, the queen's trial was far more of a sham, considering the time she was given (less than one day). Among the things she was accused of (most, if not all, of the accusations were untrue and probably lifted from rumours begun by libelles) were orchestrating orgies in Versailles, sending millions of livres of treasury money to Austria, plotting to kill the Duke of Orléans, incest with her son, declaring her son to be the new king of France, and orchestrating the massacre of the Swiss Guards in 1792.

The most infamous charge was that she sexually abused her son. This was according to Louis Charles, who, through his coaching by Hébert and his guardian, accused his mother. After being reminded that she had not answered the charge of incest, Marie Antoinette protested emotionally to the accusation, and the women present in the courtroom äóî the market women who had stormed the palace for her entrails in 1789 äóî even began to support her.[125] She had been composed throughout the trial until this accusation was made, to which she finally answered, "If I have not replied it is because Nature itself refuses to respond to such a charge laid against a mother."
Funerary monument to King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, sculptures by Edme Gaulle and Pierre Petitot in the Basilica of St Denis

In reality the outcome of the trial had already been decided by the Committee of Public Safety around the time the Carnation Plot was uncovered, and she was declared guilty of treason in the early morning of 16 October, after two days of proceedings.[126] Back in her cell, she composed a letter to her sister-in-law Madame élisabeth, affirming her clear conscience, her Catholic faith and her feelings for her children. The letter did not reach élisabeth.[127]

On the same day, her hair was cut off and she was driven through Paris in an open cart, wearing a simple white dress. At 12:15 p.m., two and a half weeks before her thirty-eighth birthday, she was beheaded at the Place de la Révolution (present-day Place de la Concorde).[128][129] Her last words were "Pardon me sir, I meant not to do it", to Henri Sanson the executioner, whose foot she had accidentally stepped on after climbing the scaffold. Her body was thrown into an unmarked grave in the Madeleine cemetery, rue d'Anjou, (which was closed the following year).

Her sister-in-law élisabeth was executed in 1794 and her son died in prison in 1795. Her daughter returned to Austria in a prisoner exchange, married and died childless in 1851.[130]

Both Marie Antoinette's body and that of Louis XVI were exhumed on 18 January 1815, during the Bourbon Restoration, when the comte de Provence had become King Louis XVIII. Christian burial of the royal remains took place three days later, on 21 January, in the necropolis of French Kings at the Basilica of St Denis.[131]

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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:58:35 +1000
<![CDATA[Complainte de la Reine de France]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/976

Title

Complainte de la Reine de France

Synopsis

Marie Antoinette sings after her husband's execution

Transcription

Ce n'est donc fait o mon Epoux!
Philippe comblé sa vengeance
tu viens de tomber sous ses coups,
il n'est plus de vertus en France.
L'injustice et la cruauté
dans tous les coeurs on pris leur place,
Et la perfide lacheté
plus cruelle encore que l'audace.

Ma fille, helas! jamais tes yeux
Ne reverront ton tendre pere;
Ce parfait ouvrage des Cieux,
Elizabeth, n'a plus de frere.
Elizabeth, Elizabeth,
Models d'amour et constance,
Des barbares l'affreux projet
Accuse aussi ton innocence.

Toi qui souvent des assassins
Mon fils, as desarmé la rage,
Recois ce papier de mes mains*
Voila ton plus bel heritage.
Pardonne à tous nos ennemis
Comme ton pere leur pardonne,
L'august fils de Saint Louis*
En montant au Ciel te l'ordonne.

Vous qui souffrez, des coups du sort
N'accusez point la barbarie.
Pouriez vous bien vous plaindre encor,
En contemplant ma triste vie.
Pour vous il n'est plus de malheurs
J'en epuisai la coupe amere:
Ah! pour bien sentir mes douleurs
Faut être epouse, Reine, et mere.

Dans le chagrin mon coeur noyé,
N'a point d'azile en sa souffrance
On me refuse la pitié,*
Et Je regnois hier en France!
Ainsi quand tout me fait la loi,
Cher et tendre epoux, de te suivre
La gloire de mon jeune Roi
M'impose le tourment de vivre.

Mon fils, pour rendre à son devoir
Un peuple encore dans l'ivresse,
Pour faire cherir ton pouvoir,
Pour faire benir ta jeunesse,
Je te parlerai jour et nuit
Des douces vertus de ton pere:
Un autre y joindra le recit
Des infortunes de ta mere.

*Le Testament de Louis XVI
*Fils de St. Louis, vous montez au Ciel: Paroles prononcées par Edgeworth confesseur du Roi, aux pieds de l'echaffaud
*On a defendu aux commissaires du Temple de rendre compte de la situation des Augustes prisonniers de crainte que le peuple ne s'attendrit sur leur sort.

Composer of Ballad

words: M. Peltier, music M. Ferrari

Method of Punishment

guillotine

Crime(s)

treason

Gender

Date

Execution Location

guillotine

Printing Location

Se vend chez M. Fores, No. 3 Piccadilly et chez les Marchands de Musique
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:58:33 +1000
<![CDATA[Chanson nouvelle d'une servante de Laon laquelle a esté bruslee toute vive pour avoir empoisonné sa maistresse, pensant avoir son Maistre en Mariage.]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/973

Title

Chanson nouvelle d'une servante de Laon laquelle a esté bruslee toute vive pour avoir empoisonné sa maistresse, pensant avoir son Maistre en Mariage.

Subtitle

Sur le chant, Il y a un cler en ceste ville, &c.

Set to tune of...

Il y a un cler en ceste ville, &c.

Transcription

Escoutez un cas déplorable,
De moy chetive & miserable,
Qu'ay fait par trop aventureux
Par un conseil pernicieux.
Moy que estois pauvre servante,
Mal avisée & peu sçavante
Ay faict à ma maistresse tort,
la mettant du tout à mort.
C'est ennemy remply de rage,
Pour me tirer à son servage
M'est venu ainsi recevoir,
Pour mon âme excellente avoir.
Disant d'invention meschante,
Que plus je ne serois servante,
Si poison voulois acheter
Pour ma maistresse empoisonner.
Moy entant ainsi poursuivie
De ce faux Sathan par l'envie,
Je m'absenta de la maison
Pour acheter ceste poison.
Et puis par une folle rage
Je la vins metter en son potage
Dont ma maistresse par l'effort
De ce poison fut mise à mort.
Dequoy esmerveillé mon magister
Qui rien ne sçavoit du faict traistre
Que j'avois meschamment commis
Fut en grande tristesse mis.
Faisant soudain devoir extreme,
Pour donner remede à sa femme,
De courir aux Chirurgiens,
Pour y trouver quelques moyens.
Mia il n'ont seu en nulle sorte
Retarder ceste poison forte,
Dont ma bonne maistresse helas,
Fut tout soudain mise au trespas.
Mon maistre ignorant la furie
De la poison & maladie,
Fit subit ma maistresse ouvrir,
Pour le vilain faict descouvrir.
Aussi tost ma maistresse ouverte,
Ceste poison fut descouverte
Et fut tout averé le cas,
De sa mort subite & trespas.
Voyant la trahison meschante
Et que j'estois seule servante
Mon maistre s'en va au Prevost
Lequel me vient saisir bien tost.
Estant ainsi en prison mise
Et puis par la justice enquise
De ce meschant traistre forfait
Soudain j'ay confessé mon faict.
Disant que soubs espoir volage
D'avoir mon maistre en mariage
J'avois donné ceste poison
A ma maistresse en trahison.
Le cas confessé, la justice
Me condamne au dernier supplice
Et de passer par la rigueur
Du feu en tresgrande douleur.
Ainsi par ma faute insensée
Seray toute vive bruslée
Comme je l'ay bien merité
Par mon faict plein de cruauté.
Or entre vous autres servantes
Ne soyez comme moy meschantes,
Priez pour moy le doux Jesus
Conduire mon ame là sus.

Method of Punishment

burning

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Printing Location

Lyon: Simon Rigaud, 1606
'La Fleur du Rozier des chansons'
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:58:33 +1000
<![CDATA[Chanson lamentable d'une fille de Dijon,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/972

Title

Chanson lamentable d'une fille de Dijon,

Subtitle

condamnee à mort, par son pere, Sur le chant du bel Adonis.

Synopsis

so far only have picture taken from van Orden, 'Female Complaintes'

Set to tune of...

Sur le chant du bel Adonis

Transcription

Fillez qui aymez honneur,
Escoutez ie vous supplie
En quelle peine & douleur
M'a mise ma grand' folie.
Ie n'avois passe quinze ans
Que m'oubliant en moy mesme
Me brusloit l'ame au dedans

rest is at BnF?

Gender

Date

]]>
Thu, 24 May 2018 13:58:33 +1000
<![CDATA[The last Speech and Confession of Jannet Riddle,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/960

Title

The last Speech and Confession of Jannet Riddle,

Subtitle

who was Execute, for murthering her own Child, in the Grass Market of Edinburgh, January 21st. 1702

Synopsis

Jannet Riddle is convicted of murdering her newborn baby and is hanged for it in the Grass Market, Edinburgh, 1702.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

National Library of Scotland, Shelfmark: Ry.III.a.10(103); The Word on the Street, National Library of Scotland Digital Gallery

Transcription

Oh! Oh! did ever any hear,
of such an one as I;
The Laws cannot be too Severe;
for it's Reason that I die,
The Cru'lest Death that e're was known,
because I did deny,
Even Life to it: when all alon,
which 'twixt my Sides did lye.

Was not I then Un-natural,
mine own Child for to Kill.
For which I am ordan'd, Sirs, all
your Eyes by Death to fill.
When I and it then parted were,
it did begin to Cry,
But I soon stop its Mouth so fair,
which 'twixt my Sides did lye.

Yea was it not great Cruelty,
that enter'd in my mind,
To dispair of GOD's great Mercy,
who Releif soon did find.
To me, who of Relief was fain,
before my Deliv'ry,
Yet to my Child, I wrought great pain,
which 'twixt my Sides did lye.

Which when Born, I did Repair,
for to commit the deed,
Not of GOD's Mercy taking care,
I caus'd my Child to Bleed,
The Div'l helpt me to go on,
and paved out the way.
How I should make my Child begon,
which 'twixt my Sides long lye.

The Worlds shame me did entice,
because I thought it great,
This Bloody act to enterprice,
for which here ends my Fate.
And having thought for to promot;
its death without delay,
i with great speed 'bout threw it's Throat,
which 'twixt my Sides long lye.

This being done, with little Grace,
where I might lay the Child;
I did Contrive for it a place,
which when alive was Mild;
Mong Feathers then the Bab I laid,
with silence great I say,
And being Dead, it Bleeding Stay'd,
which 'twixt my Sides long lye.

The Bloody Fact this being done,
I thought my self secure.
Yet GOD most High, it did think on,
He such would not endure.
But soon caus'd some as Witness stand,
that they did hear it Cry,
And that I kill'd it with my hand,
which 'twixt my Sides did lye.

I then with Boldness did soon Swear
of such me to be free,
Because I said none 'mong them there,
with Child did e're me see.
But when they also found the Child,
I likewise did deny,
That I then it my self had kill'd,
which 'twixt my Sides did lye.

Saying it was by me dead Born,
and I had laid it there,
Least any Person should me Scorn,
and Church be too severe.
They not beliving, I Confest,
at length, I was Guilty,
And that its Life I there out prest,
which 'twixt my Sides did lye.

Oh! Sad and Grivous Crueltie,
is it not for to hear,
Children Murther'd even Mothers by.
Oh! Sad for I may fear,
Eternal Misery and Woe,
may be my chance I say,
Because I wrought it's overthrow,
which 'twixt my Sides long lye.

Yet though my Sins are many LORD,
thy mercy's great are more,
The Blessing give me of thy Word,
good LORD I the implore.
Farewel O People, be you fil'd
with Joy, for I do Die,
For Murthering of my only Child,
which 'twixt my Sides did lye.

Method of Punishment

hanging

Crime(s)

Infanticide

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Edinburgh
Jannet Riddle image.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:37 +1000
<![CDATA[The complaint and lamentation of Mistresse Arden of Feversham in Kent,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/959

Title

The complaint and lamentation of Mistresse Arden of Feversham in Kent,

Subtitle

who for the loue of one Mosbie, hired certaine Ruffians and Villaines most cruelly to murder her Husband; with the fatall end of her and her Associats.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

British Library - Roxburghe, C.20.f.9.156-157; EBBA 30458

Set to tune of...

Transcription

AY me, vile wretch, that ever I was borne,
Making my selfe unto the world a scorne:
And to my friends and kindred all a shame,
Blotting their blood by my unhappy name.
Unto a Gentleman of wealth and fame,
(One Master Arden, he was calld by name)
I wedded was with joy and great content,
Living at Feversham in famous Kent.
In love we livd, and great tranquility,
Untill I came in Mosb[i]es company,
Whose sugred tongue, good shape, and lovely looke,
Soone won my heart, and Ardens love forsooke.
And living thus in foule adultery,
Bred in my husband cause of jealousie,
And lest the world our actions should bewray,
Wee did consent to take his life away.
To London faire my Husband was to ride,
But ere he went I poyson did provide,
Got of a Painter which I promised
That Mosbies sister Susan he should wed.
Into his Broth I then did put the same,
He likt it not when to the boord it came,
Saying, Theres something in it is not so[un]d,
At which inragd, I flung it on the ground.
Yet ere he went, his man I did conjure,
Ere they came home, to make his Master sure,
And murder him, and for his faith and paine,
Susan, and store of gold that he should gaine.
Yet I misdoubting Michaels constancy,
Knowing a Neighbour that was dwelling by,
Which, to my husband bore no great good will,
Sought to incense him his deare blood to spill.
His name was Greene; O Master Green (quoth I)
My husband to you hath done injury,
For which I sorry am with all my heart,
And how he wrongeth me I will impart.
He keepes abroad most wicked company,
With whores and queanes, and bad society;
When he comes home, he beats me sides and head,
That I doe wish that one of us were dead.
And now to London he is rid to roare,
I would that I might never see him more:
Greene then incenst, did vow to be my friend,
And of his life he soone would make an end.
O Master Greene, said I, the dangers great,
You must be circumspect to doe this feat;
To act the deed your selfe there is no need,
But hire some villaines, they will doe the deed.
Ten pounds Ile give them to attempt this thing,
And twenty more when certaine newes they bring,
That he is dead, besides Ile be your friend,
In honest courtesie till life doth end.
Greene vowd to doe it; then away he went,
And met two Villaines, that did use in Kent
To rob and murder upon Shooters hill,
The one calld Shakebag, tother namd Black Will.
Two such like Villaines Hell did never hatch,
For twenty Angels they made up the match,
And forty more when they had done the deed,
Which made them sweare, theyd do it with al speed
Then up to London presently they hye,
Where Master Arden in Pauls Church they spy,
And waiting for his comming forth that night,
By a strange chance of him they then lost sight.
For where these Villaines stood & made their stop
A Prentice he was shutting up his shop,
The window falling, light on Blacke-Wills head,
And broke it soundly, that apace it bled.
Where straight he made a brabble and a coyle,
And my sweet Arden he past by the while;
They missing him, another plot did lay,
And meeting Michael, thus to him they say:
Thou knowst that we must packe thy Master hence
Therefore consent and further our pretence,
At night when as your Master goes to bed,
Leave ope the doores, he shall be murthered.
And so he did, yet Arden could not sleepe,
Strange dreames and visions in his senses creepe,
He dreamt the doores were ope, & Villaines came,
To murder him, and twas the very same.
The second part. To the same tune.
HE rose and shut the doore, his man he blames,
which cunningly he strait this answer frames;
I was so sleepy, that I did forget
To locke the doores, I pray you pardon it.
Next day these Ruffians met this man againe,
Who the whole story to them did explaine,
My master will in towne no longer stay,
To morrow you may meete him on the way.
Next day his businesse being finished,
He did take horse, and homeward then he rid,
And as he rid, it was his hap as then,
To overtake Lord Cheiney and his men.
With salutations they each other greet,
I am full glad your Honour for to meet,
Arden did say; then did the Lord reply,
Sir, I am glad of your good company.
And being that we homeward are to ride,
I have a suite that must not be denide,
That at my house youle sup, and lodge also,
To Feversham this night you must not goe.
Then Arden answered with this courteous speech,
Your Honours pardon now I doe beseech,
I made a vow, if God did give me life,
To sup and lodge with Alice my loving wife.
Well, said my Lord, your oath hath got the day,
To morrow come and dine with me, I pray.
Ile wait upon your Honour then (said he)
And safe he went amongst this company.
On Raymon-Downe, as they did passe this way,
Black-will, and Shakebag they in ambush lay,
But durst not touch him, cause of the great traine
That my Lord had: thus were they crost againe.
With horrid oathes these Ruffians gan to sweare,
They stampe and curst, and tore their locks of haire
Saying, some Angell surely him did keepe.
Yet vowd to murther him ere they did sleepe.
Now all this while my husband was away,
Mosby and I did revell night and day;
And Susan, which my waiting maiden was,
My Loves owne sister, knew how all did passe.
But when I saw my Arden was not dead,
I welcomd him, but with a heavy head:
To bed he went, and slept secure from harmes,
But I did wish my Mosby in my armes.
Yet ere he slept, he told me he must goe
To dinner to my Lords, heed have it so;
And that same night Blacke-will did send me word,
What lucke bad fortune did to them offord.
I sent him word, that he next day would dine
At the Lord Cheinies, and would rise betime,
And on the way their purpose might fulfill,
Well, Ile reward you, when that you him kill.
Next morne betimes, before the breake of day,
To take him napping then they tooke their way;
But such a mist and fog there did arise,
They could not see although they had foure eyes.
Thus Arden scapd these villaines where [?]
And yet they heard his horse goe by that way,
I thinke (said Will) some Spirit is his friend,
Come life or death, I vow to see his end.
Then to my house they strait did take their way,
Telling me how they missed of their pray;
Then presently, we did together gree,
At night at home that he should murdered be.
Mosby and I, and all, our plot thus lay,
That he at Tables should with Arden play,
Black-will, and Sakebag they themselves should hide
Untill that Mosby he a watchword cride.
The word was this whereon we did agree,
Now (Master Arden) I have taken ye:
Woe to that word, and woe unto us all,
Which bred confusion and our sudden fall.
When he came home, most welcome him I made,
And Judas like I kist whom I betraide,
Mosby and he together went to play,
For I on purpose did the tables lay.
And as they plaid, the word was straightway spoke,
Blacke-Will and Sakebag out the corner broke,
And with a Towell backwards puld him downe,
which made me think they now my joyes did crowne
With swords and knives they stabd him to the heart
Mosby and I did likewise act our part,
And then his body straight we did convey
Behind the Abbey in the field he lay.
And then by Justice we were straight condemnd,
Each of us came unto a shamelesse end,
For God our secret dealings soone did spy,
And brought to light our shamefull villany.
Thus have you heard of Ardens tragedy,
It rests to shew you how the rest did die:
His wife at Canterbury she was burnt,
And all her flesh and bones to ashes turnd.
Mosby and his faire Sister, they were brought
To London for the trespasse they had wrought,
In Smithfield on a gibbet they did die.
A just reward for all their villanie,
Michael and Bradshaw, which a Goldsmith was,
That knew of letters which from them did passe,
At Feversham were hanged both in chaines,
And well rewarded for their faithfull paines.
The painter fled none knowes how he did speed,
Sakebag in Southwarke he to death did bleed,
For as he thought to scape and ran away,
He suddenly was murdered in a fray.
In Kent at Osbridge, Greene did suffer death,
Hangd on a gibbet he did lose his breath:
Blacke-Will at Flushing on a stage did burne,
Thus each one came unto his end by turne.
And thus my story I conclude and end,
Praying the Lord that he his grace will send
Upon us all, and keepe us all from ill,
Amen say all, ift be thy blessed will.

Method of Punishment

burning, hanging, hanging in chains,

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Execution Location

Various: Canterbury (burning), Smithfield (hanging), Feversham (hanging in chains), Osbridge in Kent (hanging)

Printing Location

Printed at London for C.W.

Notes

Wikipedia:  Thomas Arden, or Arderne, was a successful businessman in the early Tudor period. Born in 1508, probably in Norwich, Arden took advantage of the tumult of the Reformation to make his fortune, trading in the former monastic properties dissolved by Henry VIII in 1538. In fact, the house in which he was murdered (which is still standing in Faversham) was a former guest house of Faversham Abbey, the Benedictine abbey near the town. His wife Alice had taken a lover, a man of low status named Mosby; together, they plotted to murder her husband. After several bungled attempts on his life, two ex-soldiers from the former English dominion of Calais known as Black Will and Loosebag (called Shakebag in the play) were hired and continued to make botched attempts. Arden was finally killed in his own home on 14 February 1551, and his body was left out in a field during a snowstorm, hoping that the blame would fall on someone who had come to Faversham for the St Valentine's Day fair. The snowfall stopped, however, before the killers' tracks were covered, and the tracks were followed back to the house. Bloodstained swabs and rushes were found, and the killers quickly confessed. Alice and Mosby were put on trial and convicted of the crime; he was hanged and she burnt at the stake in 1551. Black Will may also have been burnt at the stake after he had fled to Flanders: the English records state he was executed in Flanders, while the Flemish records state he was extradited to England. Loosebag escaped and was never heard of again. Other conspirators were hanged in chains. One - George Bradshaw, who was convicted by an obscure passage in a sealed letter he had delivered - was wrongly convicted and posthumously acquitted.
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:37 +1000
<![CDATA[Some Luck Some Wit]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/956

Title

Some Luck Some Wit

Subtitle

Being a Sonnet upon the merry life and untimely death of Mistriss Mary Carlton, commonly called THE German Princess. To a new Tune, called the German Princess adieu.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

British Library - Roxburgh C.20.f.9.35; EBBA 30388

Set to tune of...

The German Princess adieu

Transcription

Farewel German Princess the Fates bid adieu whose fall is as strange as her story is true,
Her peddigree she from a Fidler does bring

and Fidlers do commonly end in a string,
How many mad pranks has she plaid on the Earth

which equally moves us to pitty and mirth,
But now for a Gamball at Christmas the fool

must shew us a trick on a three-legged Stool.
The first of her tricks was a Freak into France

to learn the French language to sing and to dance,
And who but a Taylor should lye in the lurch

to cut out her work and to lead her to Church,
He plyd her to with Gold but when all was prepard

to measure the Princess about with his yard,
She bobd off the Taylor and made him a Goose

but for all her mad pranks she must dye in a Noose.
Next after to Holland she steered her course

and there she abused a Jewelor worse,
For when he so many rich jewels had brought

seald up in a box, she another had wrought,
And thus he was chevld by the wit of the Girl

with pebbles for diamonds and Glasses for pearl,
Who after his gelding most sadly bemoans,

he quite was undone for the loss of his stones
The next that she shewd was on English-Mans jest

and though there was wit int twas none of the best
Then who but the Princess, and happy were they,

that could but obtain this so welcome a pray:
As eagerly she at the Collies did catch,

but when she was married she met with her match;
For at last an Atturney did fall in her way

who gave her his Bond and had nothing to pay.
A Brick-maker then as a Suitor did go

whose news was as strange as the news from Soho
For when he came up to his Tenement door

he found there was one in possession before,
To furnish this Room he sold all that he had

and now not to enter it made him stark mad,
But she had the money and kept him in awe

by bidding him make up his Brick without straw.
And now the young gallant that next was trappand

was a kind of a Drugster as I understand,
He thought her so rich that the prodigal fop

to gain her sold all that he had in the Shop,
But when to this prize he began to draw near

he found he had bought his Commoditie dear,
His fore-head did bud and such pains he indurd

as would not by Balsoms or Plaisters be curd
A Limner at length who had heard of her fame

would needs draw her Picture and give it a frame,
With couler and varnish she cheated the Elf

and provd that she painted as well as himself,
He made her a Face and a Robe like a Queen

and swore twas as like her as ever was seen,
But when at the Tavern she left him in paw[n]

he swore for a Princess a Beggar hed drawn
A thousand such pranks she did daily invent

and yet with her money was nevey content,
But spent it apace for the proverb you know

says wealth that comes lightly as lightly does go.
At Masques and at Revels by day and by night

with Toryes and gallants she took her delight,
She fancyd alass, it would nere be day

and so never thought of a reckoning to pay.
But what was long lookd for is now come at last

and the sentence of death on the Princess is past
Nor could she be tryd by her peers for no doubt

there was not her peer the whole nation throughout
But if any more of the gang should be found

they are born to be hangd they shall never be dround
When people must cheat to encourage their pride

it is a Dutch trick which we cannot abide.

Method of Punishment

hanging

Crime(s)

returning from penal transportation without permission

Gender

Printing Location

London Printed for Philip Brooksby near the Hospital-gate in West-smith-field.

Notes

Wikipedia: Mary Carleton (11 January 1642 - 22 January 1673) was an Englishwoman who used false identities, such as a German princess, to marry and defraud a number of men.

Carleton was born Mary Moders in Canterbury. According to later accounts she married a journeyman shoemaker named Thomas Stedman and gave birth to two children who died in infancy. She later left her husband to move to Dover where she married a surgeon, prompting her arrest and trial in Maidstone for bigamy.

After the trial she visited Cologne where she had a brief affair with a local nobleman. He gave her valuable presents, pressed her for marriage and began the preparations for a wedding. She, however, slipped out of Germany with all the presents and most of her landlady's money, returning to England through the Netherlands.

She returned to London in 1663 and took on the persona of an orphaned Princess van Wolway from Cologne. She claimed that she was born in Cologne and that her father was Henry van Wolway, Lord of Holmstein and that she had fled a possessive lover. She used this guise to marry John Carleton, brother-in-law of the landlord of the Exchange tavern which she frequented. After the wedding, however, an anonymous letter exposed her.

Her trial in 1663 was the first recorded appearance of Mary Carleton. She was charged for masquerading as a German princess and marrying John Carleton in London under that name. She claimed that John Carleton himself had claimed to be a lord and was trying to extract himself from marriage as he had discovered there was no money in it. Divorce would have been an unheard of scandal in those times. Both sides of the conflict published pamphlets to support their own story. Mary Carleton was eventually acquitted.

Afterwards Mary Carleton wrote her own account, The Case of Madam Mary Carleton, possibly through a ghostwriter. She also acted in a play about her life and gained a number of admirers who gave her more valuable gifts. She eventually married one of her admirers. Predictably she left him too, taking with her his money, valuables and keys while he was drunk.

Carleton next pretended to be a rich virgin heiress fleeing an undesirable suitor whom her father had arranged for her. She even arranged that someone would send her letters that supposedly contained updates of family news. When her new landlady found and read them, she was convinced and became a matchmaker between Carleton and her nephew.

Carleton arranged a new letter that claimed that her brother was dead and he had left her all he had, including her father's forthcoming inheritance. However, her father was even more determined to marry her to a suitor she detested. Her lover invited her to live with him but Carleton and an accomplice, disguised as a maid, stole his money.

Over the following ten years Carleton used similar methods to defraud various other men and landlords, often with the aid of her maid. Some of the men were too embarrassed to reveal they had been duped. She was many times accused of theft but was jailed only briefly.

She was once arrested after stealing a silver tankard, and was sentenced to penal transportation and sent to Jamaica. However, after two years she returned to London, again pretending to be a rich heiress and married an apothecary at Westminster. Naturally, she stole his money and left him.

In December 1672 Carleton was captured when a man who was searching for stolen loot recognized her. On 16 January 1673 she was tried in the Old Bailey. Because she had returned from penal transportation without permission, she received a sentence of death. She was executed by hanging on 22 January.

In 1673 Francis Kirkman wrote, and issued under his own name, The Counterfeit Lady Unveiled, a fictional autobiography.
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:37 +1000
<![CDATA[An Excellent Ballad of George Barnwel,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/954

Title

An Excellent Ballad of George Barnwel,

Subtitle

an Apprentice of London, who was undone by a Strumpet, who having thrice robbed his Master, and murdered his Uncle in Ludlow, was hanged in Chains in Polonia, and by the means of a Letter sent from his own hand to the Mayor of London, she was hang'd at Ludlow.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

British Library - Roxburghe, C.20.f.9.26-27; EBBA 30382; Also in Bodleian

Set to tune of...

Transcription

ALL youths of fair England, that dwell both far and neer,
Regard my story that I tell,
and to my song give ear:
A London Lad I was, a Merchants Prentice bound,
My name George Barnwel who did spend my master many a pound.

Take heed of Harlots then, and their inticing trains,
For by that means I have been brought, to hang alive in chains.
As I upon a day
was walking through the street,
About my masters business, I did a wanton meet:
A dainty gallant Dame, and sumptuous in attire,
With smiling looks she greeted me
and did my name require.
Which when I had declard, she gave me then a kiss,
And said, if I would come to her, I should have more then this.
In faith my boy, quoth she, such news I can thee tell,
As shall rejoyce thy very heart, then come where I do dwell.
Fair Mistris, then said I, if I the place may know,
This evening I will be with you, for I abroad must go,
To gather money in, that is my masters due,
And ere that I do home return, ile come and visit you.
Good Barnwel then, quoth she, do thou to Shoreditch come,
And ask for Mrs. Milwood there, next door unto the Gun.
And trust me on my truth, if thou keep troth with me,
For thy friends sake, as my own heart, thou shalt right welcome be.
Thus parted we in peace, and home I passed right,
Then went abroad and gathered in by five a clock at night:
A hundred pound and one, with bag under mine arm,
I went to Mrs. Milwoods house and thought on little harm:
And knocking at the door, straightway her self came down,
Ruffling in most brave attire, her Hoods and silken gown:
Who through her beauty bright, so gloriously did shine,
That she amazd my dazling eyes, she seemed so divine.
She took me by the hand, and with a modest grace,
Welcome sweet Barnwel than, quod she, unto this homely place:
Welcome ten th[o]usand times, more welcome then my brother,
And better welcome I protest, then any one or other:
And seeing I have thee found as good as thy word to be,
A homely supper er thou part, thou shalt here take with me.
O pardon me, quoth I, fair Mistris I you pray,
For why out of my Masters house, so long I dare not stay.
Alas, good sir, she said. art thou so strictly tyd,
You may not with your dearest friend
one hour or two abide?
Fath then the case is hard if it be so, quoth she,
I would I were a Prentice bound to live in house with thee.
Therefore my sweetest George, list well what I do say,
And do not blame a woman much, her fancy to bewray:
Let not affections force
be counted lewd desire,
Nor think it not immodesty, I would thy love require.
With that she turnd aside,
and with a blushing red,
A mournful motion she bewrayd, by holding down her head.
A Handkerchief she had,
all wrought with silk and gold,
which she to stop her trickling tears against her eyes did hold.
This thing unto my sight, was wondrous rare and strange;
& in my mind and inward thoughts it wrought a sudden change:
That I so hardy was,
to take her by the hand,
Saying, sweet Mistris, why do you so sad and heavy stand?
Call me not Mistris now, but Sara thy true friend,
Thy servant Sara honouring thee, until her life doth end.
If thou wouldst here alledge thou art in years a Boy,
So was Adonis, yet was he, fair Venus love and joy.
Thus I that ner before,
of Woman found such grace,
And seeing now so fair a Dame,
give me a kind imbrace:
I supt with her that night, with joys that did abound,
And for the same paid presently, in Money twice three pound.
A hundred Kisses then for my farewel she gave,
Saying, sweet Barnwel, when shall I again thy company have?
O stay not too long my dear, sweet George have me in mind,
her words bewitcht my childishness she uttered them so kind,
So that I made a vow, next Sunday without fail,
With my sweet Sara once again, to tell some pleasant tale.
When she heard me say I, the tears fell from her eyes,
O George, quoth she, if thou dost fail thy Sara sure will dye:
Though long, yet loe at last, the pointed time was come,
That I must with my Sara meet, having a mighty sum
Of money in my hand, unto her house went I.
Whereas my love, upon her bed, in saddest sort did lye.
What ails my hearts delight, my Sara dear, quoth he,
Let not my love lament and grieve nor sighing pain and dye.
But tell to me my dearest friend, what may thy woes amend,
& thou shalt lack no means of help, though forty pounds I spend:
With that she turnd her head, and sickly thus did say,
O my sweet George my grief is great, ten pounds I have to pay,
Unto a cruel wretch, and God he knows, quoth she,
I have it not, tush, rise, quoth I, and take it here of me:
Ten pounds, nor ten times ten, shall make my love decay,
Then from his bag into her lap, he cast ten pounds straight way.
All blith and pleasant then,
to banqueting they go,
She proffered him to lye with her, and said it should be so:
And after that same time, I gave her store of Coyn,
Yea, sometimes fifty pound at once, all which I did purloyn:
And thus I did pass on, until my master then,
Did call to have his reckoning in, cast up amongst his men.
The which when as I heard, I knew not what to say,
For well I knew that I was out, two hundred pound that day:
Then from my master streight, I run in secret sort,
And unto Sara Milwood then my state I did report:
But how she usd this Youth, in this his extream need,
The which did her necessity, so oft with money feed:
The second part behold shall tell it forth at large;
And shall a Strumpets willy ways
with all her tricks discharge.

The Second Part, to the same Tune.

HEre comes young Barnwel unto,
sweet Sara his delight,
I am undone, except thou stand my faithful friend this night:
Our Master to command accounts, hath just occasion found,
And I am come behind the hand, almost two hundred pound:
And therefore knowing not at all what answer for to make,
And his displeasure to escape, my way to thee I take:
Hoping in this extreamity thou wilt my succour be,
That for a time I may remain in secret here with thee.
with that she knit & bent her brows and looking all aquoy,
Quoth she, what should I have to do with any Prentice-boy?
And seeing you have purloynd and got your Masters goods away,
The case is bad, and therefore here,
I mean thou shalt not stay.
why sweetheart thou knowst, I said, that all which I did get;
I gave it, and did spend it all, upon thee every whit.
Thou knowst I loved thee so well, thou couldst not ask the thing,
But that I did incontinent the same unto thee bring.
Quod she, thou art a paultry Jack, to charge me in this sort,
Being a Woman of credit good, and known of good report;
And therefore this I tell thee flat, be packing with good speed,
I do defie thee from my heart, and scorn thy filthy deed.
Is this the love & friendship which thou didst to me protest?
Is this the great affection which you seemed to express?
Now fie on all deceitful shews, the best is I may speed,
To get a lodging any where, for money in my need:
Therefore false woman now fare-well while twenty pound doth last
My anchor in some other Haven I will with wisdom cast.
When she perceived by his words that he had money store,
That she had gauld him in such sort it grievd her heart full sore:
Therefore to call him back again she did suppose it best,
Stay George, quod she, thou art too quick why man I do but jest.
thinkst thou for all my passed speech that I would let thee go?
Faith no, quoth she, my love to thee
I wis is more then so:
you will not deal with prentice boys I heard you even now swear,
Therefore I will not trouble you my George herk in thine ear,
Thou shalt not go this night quod she what chance so er befall,
But man wel have a bed for thee, or else the Devil take all.
Thus I that was with Wiles be-witchd & snard with fancy still,
Had not the power to put away, or to withstand her will.
Then wine and wine I called in,
and cheer upon good cheer,
And nothing in the world I thought for Sarahs love too dear:
Whilst I was in her company, in joy and merriment,
And all too little I did think, that I upon her spent,
A fig for care or careful thought when all my gold is gone,
In faith my girl we will have more, whoever it light upon:
My fathers rich, why then, quoth I should I want any gold?
With a father indeed (quoth she) a Son may well be bold:
I have a Sister richly wed, that ile rob ere ile want;
Why then quod Sara they may well consider of your scant:
nay more then this an Uncle I have at Ludlow he doth dwell,
He is a Grasier, which in wealth, doth all the rest excell.
Ere I will live in lack (quoth he) and have no coyn for thee,
Ile rob the churl and murder him, why should you not (quoth she.)
Ere I would want were I a man, or live in poor estate,
On father, friends, and all my kin, I would my talents grate.
For without mony, George, (quod she) a man is but a beast,
And bringing money thou shalt be always my chiefest guest:
For say thou shouldst pursued be with twenty hues and cries,
And with a Warrant searched for with Argos hundred eyes:
Yet in my house thou shalt be safe, such privy ways there be,
That if they sought an 100 years, they could not find out thee.
And so carousing in their cups, their pleasure to content,
George Barnwel had in little space his money wholly spent.
Which being done to Ludlow then, he did provide to go,
To rob his wealthy Uncle then,
his Minion would it so:
and once or twice he thought to take his father by the way,
but that he thought his Master there took order for his stay.
Directly to his Uncle then, he rode with might and main,
where with good welcome, and good cheer he did him entertain:
A Sennets space he stayed there, until it chanced so,
His Uncle with fat Cattel did unto a Market go.
His Kinsman needs must ride with him and when he saw right plain
Great store of Money he had took, in coming home again,
Most suddenly within a Wood, he struck his Uncle down,
And beat his brains out of his head, so sore he crackt his crown:
And fourscore pound in ready coyn, out of his Purse he took,
And comming unto London strait, the Country quite forsook.
To Sara Milwood then he came, shewing his store of gold,
And how he had his Uncle slain, to her he plainly told.
Tush, tis no matter George, quod she so we the money have,
To have good cheer in jolly sort, and deck us fine and brave.
And thus they livd in filthy sort, till all his store was gone,
And means to get them any more, I wis poor George had none.
And therefore now in railing sort she thrust him out of door,
Which is the just reward they get that spend upon a Whore.
O do me not this vile disgrace, in this my need (quoth he)
She calld him thief and murderer with all the spight might be.
And to the Constable she went, to have him apprehended,
And shewd in each degree how far, he had the law offended.
When Barnwel saw her drift, to sea he got straightway,
Where fear and dread, & conscience sting, upon him still doth stay.
Unto the Mayor of London then, he did a Letter write,
Wherein his own and Saras faults he did at large recite.
Whereby she apprehended was,
and then to Ludlow sent,
Where she was judgd, condemnd & hangd for murder incontinent,
and there this gallant quean did die this was her greatest gains,
For murder in Polonia
was Barnwel hangd in chains.
Lo heres the end of wilful youth, that after Harlots haunt,
Who in the spoyl of other men, about the streets do flaunt.

Method of Punishment

hanging, hanging in chains

Crime(s)

robbery, murder

Gender

Execution Location

Ludlow and Polonia

Printing Location

Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere J. Wright, and J. Clarke

Notes

see also: (1780-1812) http://bodley24.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/acwwweng/ballads/image.pl?ref=Harding+B+1%2818%29&id=00019.gif&seq=1&size=0

and: http://bodley24.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/acwwweng/ballads/image.pl?ref=Firth+c.17%2872%29&id=18762.gif&seq=1&size=1

Cf. The Unfaithful Servant: 17. For George Barnwell as black-letter ballad see Coles, F, Vere, T and Gilbertson, W in Bodleian Allegro archive as Wood 401(77); for other printings, same source, Aldermary Church Yard as Harding B 1(17), from c.Brown in London as Douce Ballads 3(40a), J. Evans in London (41 Long Lane), same source, as Harding B. 1(18) and Keys in Devonport, same source, as Firth b. 25(503).
rox_3_26-27_2448x2448.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:36 +1000
<![CDATA[A looking-glass for vvanton women by the example and expiation of Mary Higgs]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/952

Title

A looking-glass for vvanton women by the example and expiation of Mary Higgs

Subtitle

who was executed on Wednesday the 18th of July 1677 for committing the odious sin of burgery with her dog who was hanged on a tree the same day neer the place of execution shewing her penitent behaviour and last speech at the gallows, tune of In summer time.

Synopsis

Mary Higgs, executed for 'buggery' with her dog. It was a genuine case, recorded here in the Old Bailey Proceedings. The dog was also hanged alongside her.

Digital Object


Image notice

Full size images of all ballad sheets available at the bottom of this page.

Image / Audio Credit

Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Wood E 25 fol. (145), Wing / 2852:09. EEBO record (institutional login required). Audio recording by Hannah Sullivan. 

Set to tune of...

In Summer Time

Transcription

To a sad story now give ear,
of one who lived in this Land,
It may make the stoutest heart to fear,
and all vile Sinners trembling stand.

A wicked woman liv'd of late,
who did all honesty didain;
All Modesty she much did hate,
and to her death did so remain.

Lasciviousness she much did love,
and Buggery was her delight,
To wantonness she still did move,
not thinking it would come to light.

A Mungril Curr which she did keep,
and us'd to do that beastly act,
In Court on her did fawn and leap,
but now hath suffered for the fact.

Near Cripple-gate her dwelling-place,
where she did act this beastly sin,
Which now hath brought her to disgrace
that she long time hath wallowed in.

She took delight in drunkenness,
and as a Common Woman ?,
When she had drunk unto excess,
then God above she would defie.

Her chief desire was after mirth,
and hearing of sweet Melodies,
Thus while? she lived upon the earth,
gods holy Laws she did despise.

No precepts that could her controul,
so wicked was her wretched life,
She like a Swine in mire did rowl,
which with her Husband caus'd some strife.

Gods Holy word she much abus'd,
and did profane his Sabbath day,
The company of those refus'd
who urg'd her to Repent and Pray.

There's scarce a sin that can be nam'd,
but what she striv'd for to commit,
Her Lustful lmind was so inflam'd,
that by no means she could quench it.

But being now Condemn'd by Law,
on her past life she did reflect,
The Worm of Conscience did her gnaw,
'cause Gods Commands she did neglect.

O World, said she, thou canst not save,
this soul of mine from pain and woe,
No joys of heaven I e're shall have,
unless my sins I can forgo.

O eyes of mine that us'd to see,
and take delight in Objects fair,
Must now behold where Devils be,
poor Souls tormented in dispair.

I that was wont to sport and play,
most wantonly in many a place,
Must now depart from them away,
the Flames of hell for to imbrace,

Now unto you that stand me by,
and hear what case my soul is in,
See that you never guilty be,
of any sad and heinous sin.

Let Prayer be your meat and drink,
your cloathing be humilitie,
On Gods just Laws be sure to think,
that you the joys of Heaven may see.

When this sad wretch her speech had done
and tears in streaks run down her face;
Would melt a heart of steel or stone,
to think upon her woful case.

The Dog was hang'd with her just by,
a sad example let it be,
To all that do Gods laws defie,
and live as wickedly as she.

Strive more & more Gods ways to love,
that you may here live happily;
Then you'l not miss sweet joys above,
nor never be afraid to dye.

FINIS.

Crime(s)

buggery with dog; bestiality

Gender

Date

Printing Location

[S.l.] : Printed for P. Brooksby at the Goldene Ball in West-Smith-Field neer the Hospital Gate
A looking-glass for wanton women.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:36 +1000
<![CDATA[A Cabinet of grief,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/951

Title

A Cabinet of grief,

Subtitle

or, The French midwife's miserable moan for the barbarous murther committed upon the body of her husband

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Reproduction of original in the Bodleian Library, Wing / 1611:04. Recorded in EEBO (institutional login required). 

Set to tune of...

The Pious Christians Exhortation

Transcription

A CABINET of Grief: OR, THE French MIDVVIFE'S Miserable mean for the Barbarous Murther committed upon the Body o[...] her Husband

With the manner of her Co[...]veying away hi[...] Limbs and of her Execution; She being Burnt to Ashes on the 2d. of March in Leicester-Fields.

For the better impressing of this Subject on your Hearts and Minds, take these following Lines, which may be Sung [H] to the Tune of, The Pious Christians Exhortation.

A Lack! my very heart does bleed,
to see my woful Destiny,
You that my Dying Lines shall read,
I pray you all to pitty me.

A Murder here I did commit,
for which I have deserved Death,
This Crime I never shall forget,
as long as I have life or breath.

With grief and sorrow am I slain,
to see the Race that I have run,
A thousand times I wish in vain,
this Wicked deed I had not done.

It was my Husband whom I kill'd,
and Mangl'd at so strange a rate,
The World may be with Wonder fill'd,
while I this Tragedy relate.

In sorrow here my hands I wring,
on Wrack of Conscience am I rowl'd,
What did provoke me to this thing,
in brief to you I will unfold.

With care and grief I was opprest,
e're since I did become his Wife,
And never could have peace or rest,
but led a discontented life.

No Tongue is able to express
what I with him did undergo,
He Cruel was and pittiless,
which now has prov'd our overthrow.

From time to time he Riffl'd me,
scarce leaving any Cloaths to wear,
Besides his Acts of Cruelty,
this drove me into deep Dispair.

My heart was ready then to break,
in private I shed many a Tear,
As knowing not what course to take,
my sorrows they were so severe.

Against me his whole heart he set,
and often vow'd my Blood to spill,
Morning and Night when e're we met,
confusion was our Greeting still.

When him I strove to Reconcile,
saying, thou know'st how 'tis with us,
Maliciously he'd me Revile,
and swear it should be worse and worse.

Though he to Wickedness was bent,
and show'd himself so cross and grim,
I own this was no Argument
that I, alas! should Murder him.

But Sin and Satan so took place,
by living so from time to time,
For want of Gods preventing Grace,
I did commit this horrid Grime.

When Man and Wife lives at discord,
they may expect both fear and dread,
For there's no Blessing from the Lord,
where such a Wicked life is led.

For coming from bad Company,
when I was in a sweet Repose,
He from the sleep did waken me,
with many cruel bitter Blows.

This did the height of Anger raise,
when he did such unkinkness show,
That I resolv'd to end his days,
altho' it prov'd my overthrow.

To Bed he straight ways did repair,
as soon as he these Blows did give,
Thought I thy life I will insnare,
thou hast but little time to live.

I vow'd no favour to afford,
to him that us'd me so amiss,
Straight he I Strangl'd with a Cord,
when as he little thought of this.

Altho' he strugl'd for his life,
as surely very well he might,
Yet I his cruel-hearted Wife,
resolved to expell my spight.

Thus him of life I did deprive,
then in his Bed some days he lay,
My greatest care was to contrive,
how to convey his Corps away.

To bear him forth my self alone,
I cut off Head, Arms, c'ry Limb,
Had I not had a Heart of Stone,
I could hot thus have Mangl'd him.

His Head into a Vault I threw,
his Carcass on a foul Dung-hill,
His other Limbs into the Thames,
and then I thought all things was well.

Safe was I then, as I did think,
yet seiz'd I was in a short time,
For Heavens Justice would not wink
at such a black and bloody Crime.

Then to a Prison was I sent,
there to bewail my wretched state,
And there in Tears I did lament,
but this was when it was too late.

To Justice was I brought indeed,
where Conscience in my face did flye,
Guilty was all that I could plead,
I knew I did deserve to Dye.

O then my sad and dismal Doom,
soon after this I did receive,
It was in Fire to Consume,
which made my very heart to grieve.

Alas! I knew not what to say,
'tis Death alone must end the strife,
Behold this dreadful dismal Day,
the which must end my dearest Life.

Altho' I Weep and make sad moan,
as being Wounded to the heart,
I cannot chuse but needs must own
it is no more then my Desert.

To see me go some Thousands throng,
and thus in shame and much disgrace,
Through many Crowds I past along,
unto the Execution place.

Lord, tho' my Body here must Burn,
for my sad Crime so gross and foul,
Yet when I shall to Ashes turn,
receive my poor Immortal Soul.

FINIS.

Method of Punishment

burning

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Leicester-Fields

Printing Location

Licensed accordin[...] to Order Blare, at the Looking-Glass on London-Bridge. 1688.

Notes

Ballad follows a prose account of the event
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:36 +1000
<![CDATA[The Midwife of Poplar's Sorrowful Confession and Lamentation in Newgate]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/947

Title

The Midwife of Poplar's Sorrowful Confession and Lamentation in Newgate

Subtitle

Who was Condemned to Dye for that Horrid and Unheard of Murder, which she committed on the Bodys of several young infants, whom she Starved to Death, and was accordingly Executed for the same in Holbourn, upon the 23d. of this instant October, 1693.

Synopsis

Mary Compton was found guilty of the murders of several children, some her own, some she was paid by the churchwardens to take in. Her maid was acquitted, as she knew nothing of the dead children (in the cellar) and was left with only cheese to feed the babies. Ann Davis was convicted of being an accessory to the murders and was burned in the hand.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Magdalene College - Pepys Library, Pepys Ballads 2.192; EBBA 20807

Set to tune of...

Transcription

I Am the worst of Women-kind,
Compton it is my Name,
I was to Cruelty inclin'd, and do Repent the same,
But Oh! I wish I ne're had done that wicked deed, for why,
My Thread of Life is almost spun, now I'm Condemn'd to dye.

In Poplar near fair London Town, 'twas there that I did dwell,
My Murders calls just Vengeance down, for they do far excel
The worst of Villains in the Land, as e'ery one may own,
The very truth to understand would melt a heart of stone.

For three and thirty years ago, I Midwife did begin,
And of late years assurely know, I have been murdering;
Sweet Infants from their Mothers Womb, Oh! wretched Creature, I
Starving did make their Dismal Doom, for which I now must dye.

My maid and I did go from Home, as being not afraid,
And left three Children all alone, thus was I then betray'd,
A little Boy and Girl I left,
to Nurse an infant young,
Who was of life almost bereft, thus I the Babes did wrong.

I left none but Water and Cheese, to feed the Babe that cry'd,
At which sad grief did greatly seize Neighbours on e'ery side,
The Boy he told unto them then, that they might find two more,
Young Infants in a basket dead, upon a shelf below.

This sight did much amaze them all,
so soon as they were found,
Vermin did there about them craul, as they lay above ground,
Then they dug up the Cellar floor, directed by the Boy,
And there they found two or three more,
all which I did destroy.

The Babe that in the Cradle lay, did cry for Nourishment,
They put it out to Nurse straightway, who soon to dress it went,
And as she took the Linnen off to dress it unto bed,
The very Ears were rotted off from this poor Infants head.

O Cruel Wretch, what shall I do, a Monster to all good,
That could my bloody hands imbrew in little Infants blood,
How could I slumber Night or Day, or take one wink of rest,
While pritty Murther'd Infants lay, which might my sleep molest.

But I alas! was Seiz'd at last, and unto Justice brought,
And as along the Streets I past, I was with passion fraught,
I at my Tryal did appear, and am Condemn'd to dye,
The Laws cannot be too severe for such a Wretch as I.

And I account e're long must give, of my Offenses here,
Unto that great and mighty Judge, who will e're long appear,
How shall I look him in the face, or from his presence fly,
I have quite spent my day of Grace, who am Condemn'd to dye.

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Holborn

Printing Location

Printed for J. Bissel, at the Bible and Harp in West-Smith-Field.
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:35 +1000
<![CDATA[The Injured Children,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/945

Title

The Injured Children,

Subtitle

OR, The Bloudy Midwife; Being A Discovery of a Barbarous Cruelty to several Children that had been made away, and buried privately in a Sellar, and two hid dead in a Hand-basket.

Synopsis

Mary Compton was found guilty of the murders of several children, some her own, some she was paid by the churchwardens to take in. Her maid was acquitted, as she knew nothing of the dead children (in the cellar) and was left with only cheese to feed the babies. Ann Davis was convicted of being an accessory to the murders and was burned in the hand.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Magdalene College - Pepys Library, Pepys Ballads 2.193; EBBA 20808

Set to tune of...

Transcription

OH! what a wicked Age is this, we Wretches do live in,
How prone we are to Wickedness, and to commit each Sin;
No day but does produce new Fact of Villainy I say,
Some Thieve, some Murders basely act,
this is done day by day.
But of all Baseness none can tell a wickeder indeed,
For when I think upon it well, it makes my Heart to bleed;
A Midwife which at Poplar dwell'd, now Newgate is her doom,
'Tis said she several Children kill'd, and hid them under Ground.
She left a Boy and Girl at home, besides an infant small,
And left them no Provision, which made the Children bawl:
They cried so loud the Neighbours heard who went for their Relief,
The Boy immediately declar'd their Misery and Grief.
I'th' Sellar on a Shelf thats high
a Basket there you'l find,
And in it two dead Children lye, which terrifie[s] my Mind:
They went and found it to be true, a dismal Spectacle,
Oh wretched Woman, why did you these little Infants kill.
I'th' Sellar by the Boys advice, they digged up and down,
Where six poor Childrens carcasses immediately were found.
Their Skulls and Bores were taken up, a dismal sight to see,
Oh Midwife, Midwife, what mad'st thou bury them privately.
Some say they're By-blows she did take, Or Bastards, which you will
And all was for the Moneys sake, these infants must be kill'd;
For 'tis supposed a sum for good she with a Child did take,
But oh! such [?]n[?]rseries for Bloud, would makes one heart to ake.
What Grief and Trouble there must be, to those that have put out
Their Children to her Custody, since now the Murder's out;
No less than eight poor Childyen found, thought to be made away,
Six private buried under ground, two in a Basket lay.
You Mothers that have Children sure, you nere will Money give,
That you for that may never more your Child see while you live,
For 'tis a comfort for to see,
the Mother Nurse its Child,
And then no Midwives Cruelty
can ever you beguile.

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Printing Location

Printed and Sold by T. Moore,
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:35 +1000
<![CDATA[THE VVhipster of VVoodstreet,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/942

Title

THE VVhipster of VVoodstreet,

Subtitle

OR, A True Account of the Barbarous and Horrid Murther committed on the Body of Mary Cox, late Servant in Woodstreet LONDON.

Synopsis

Elizabeth Deacon tortures her maid to death.

Digital Object


Image / Audio Credit

Magdalene College - Pepys Library, Pepys Ballads 2.190 (cf. HEH Miscellaneous 80079, EBBA 32182); EBBA 20805

Set to tune of...

Grim King of the Ghosts

Transcription

Assist me some mournful Muse,
while I a sad Story relate;
Let all that these Lines peruse,
lament a poor maids hard fate;
Who Guiltless and Innocent fell,
by the hands of a barbarous Dame:
As fierce as a fury of Hell,
her sexes eternal shame.

Her husband to Bristol went,
his Trade to advance at the fair:
Whilst she was on mischief bent,
such mischief she can't repair:
for suspition o're clouding her mind,
bred a tempest within her breast:
her soul like a sea with rough wind,
was ruffled and rob'd of rest.

ALl jealous she taxed her maid,
and falsly did her accuse,
With theft she did her upbraid,
and shamefully did abuse:
While the maid in her own defence, undaunted and boldly stood,
Which made the fierce Dame commence,
a Tragedy full of Blood.

she caus'd her to be fast bound
to the post of her husbands bed,
where she did her body wound,
and whipped her almost dead:
thus did she a Confession extort,
of Crimes which the Maid never knew,
tormenting her in such a sort,
as wou'd make ones heart for to rue.

This monster not satisfied yet,
tho' the blood run from every part,
Made an Iron red hot in a pet,
resolving to give her more smart,
she burnt her in shoulders and thighs,
and sev'ral times under her ears,
she wou'd not come near her Eyes,
lest th'iron shou'd be quench'd with her tears.

Her body was blister'd and whail'd,
she was burnt from the head to the heel,
her skin was so parch'd that it scal'd,
no pain like to what she did feel:
she kept in her Chamber three days, unwilling the fact shou'd be known,
And turn to her Masters dispraise,
if her cruel stripes shou'd be shown.

As soon as down stairs she came,
her Mistress was in the old mood,
The merciless savage Dame,
did thirst for her very heart's blood:
she caus'd her two Prentices then,
neck and heels the poor Creature to bind,
No tigress within her Den,
e're shew'd a more savage mind.

She kick'd her and spurn'd her about,
and bid the young Lad do the same:
Resolving to act her part out,
thus ended the tragical game,
she catch'd up a hammer in haste,
and pierc'd the maids brains at a blow,
for which, of the hemp she must taste,
old Tyburn must have her I trow.

Method of Punishment

pardon

Crime(s)

murder, torture

Gender

Date

Printing Location

Printed for W. Thackeray at the Angel in Duck-Lane; J. Millet at the Angel in Little-Britain; and Alex. Milbourn at the Stationers-Arms in Green-Arbour-Court in the Little-Old-Baily. Where any Chapman may be Furnished with all Sorts of Small BOOKS

Tune Data

Reference: Grim King of the Ghosts (Simpson 1966, pp. 280-282)

Date Tune First Appeared

1682

Notes

From The Proceedings of the Old Bailey Online: London's Central Criminal Court, 1674 to 1913

Elizabeth Deacon , Wife of Francis Deacon , of the Parish of St. Michael Woodstreet Whipmaker, was arraigned and tried for the murther of her Servant maid one Mary Cox , aged about 17 years . The Tryal lasted very long, and abundance of Witnesses were called for the King, amongst which were two Apprentices, viz. Edward Newhall , and Thomas Albrook , &c. The former of which declared, that, on Monday the 20th of January last, his Mistris found the Maid to have a Shilling about her, and demanded how she came by it? The Maid confest at first, that she had one 6d. of one Mrs. Baker, and the other of one Susannah Middleton ; which her Mistriss being doubtful of, she ty'd her to the Beds-post, and whipt her very sorely, and on Wednesday following she deny'd it. Upon which, her Mistriss grew extreamly enraged at her, and struck her two or three Blows with a Whip, and proceeded further in her passion, even in causing him to tye her to the Beds-post, where she whipt her in a most violent manner, until the cry'd out Murther. To prevent which, her Mistriss stopt her Mouth with her Hand, but then on the Saturday following, she tyed her Neck and Heels, and afterwards tyed her to the Beds post, burning her with the Fire-Poker upon the Neck, Shoulders, and Back, after a most inhuman manner, and then gave her a Blow on the Head with a Hammer, until she made her confess to have been confederate with some Thieves who intended to Rob her Master's House while he was at Bristol Fair. Then she had the Maid before a Justice on the next Monday, being the day before she dyed, where she confessed the like, &c.

After which, her Mistriss grew careless of her; For when she fell sick upon it, she would not let her have those Accommodations that were fit for a person in that deplorable Condition, but was heard to say, Hang her, Hang her; And that if she had not confest, she would have kill'd her. She could no ways be prevail'd upon to take any pity upon her Servant, nor give her any sustenance: But, on the contrary, cry'd out, Who can do any thing for such a Wretch? Telling them, that she had the Pox, &c. The Surgeon said, that the Stripes and Wounds did contribute towards her Death, together with a Surfeit she had taken before.

The prisoner strived to Extenuate her Crime, saying, That her Maid had wronged her several times, by making away her Goods, and Money, and had Conversation with a parcel of Thieves, and was a Girl of a very sullen, obstinate, temper; and the reason why she Whipt her, was, for opening her Dressing-Box. She called some Witnesses, who gave a favourable account of her former Education, but none that could contradict or invalidate the King's Evidence; only one of them said, that the Maid complained of a stoppage at her stomach, and a great pain in her head, before she was so used; and that she surfeited her self by eating Ice Cakes, and Apples, &c. all which did not avail her any thing; but the Jury looking upon the Heinousness of the Fact, brought in her guilty of wilful Murther.

*** The Tryals being over, the Court proceeded to give Sentence as followeth, viz. ... Received Sentence of Death Eleven. Richard Merridy, George Cox, William Harvey, Robert Hillgrave, John Anderson, (convicted about four sessions ago) Thomas Williams, Thomas Fox, John Longstaffe, Edward Richardson, Jane Smith, and Elizabeth Deacon, who pleading her Belly, a Jury of Matrons were Empannelled, whose Verdict was, that she was with quick Child. 

Supplementary material, 27th May 1691. Elizabeth Deacon , the Whip maker's Wife in Wood street, pleaded Their Majesties most Gracious and Free Pardon .

Tim Hitchcock, Robert Shoemaker, Clive Emsley, Sharon Howard and Jamie McLaughlin, et al.The Old Bailey Proceedings Online, 1674-1913 (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.0, 15 January 2019). Reference Number: t16900226-1 
PepysC_2_190_2448x2448.jpg
The Whipster of Woodstreet Pamphlet Image
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:35 +1000
<![CDATA[THE Chamberlain's Tragedy:]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/937

Title

THE Chamberlain's Tragedy:

Subtitle

OR, The Cook-Maid's Cruelty;
Being a true Account how she in the heat of Passion, murder'd her Fellow-servant (the Chamberlain) at an Inn, in the Town of Andever. Tune, Bleeding Heart. Licens'd according to Order.

Synopsis

A chamberlain is stabbed by a cook's maid with whom he regularly quarrels. She bemoans her fate in prison.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Magdalene College - Pepys Library, Pepys 2.178; EBBA 20795

Set to tune of...

Transcription

You that have melting hearts to grieve,
This mournful Ditty pray receive,
'Tis of a bloody Tragedy,
Unheard of Matchless cruelty.
The which I shall in brief unfold,
Therefore dear People, pray behold,
The manner of this wicked deed,
It needs must make your hearts to bleed.
Two Servants in one house did dwell,
At Andever, 'tis known full well;
A Cook-maid and a Chamberlin,
Now the relation I'll begin:
The one of them was most moross,
The other was exceeding cross,
So that with heat or passion they,
Were still at parlance Day by Day.
They acted both, like Tygers wild,
They never wou'd be reconcil'd
By any admonition, no,
Till passion prov'd their overthrow.
Behold it happen'd on a day
The Chamberlin, he took his way
Unto the fire-side, where she
Was busie at her Cookery.
To make a Toast was his intent,
But she his purpose wou'd prevent,
With Knife in Hand, but still he cry'd,
He valu'd not her haughty Pride.
This rais'd her passion more and more,
So that at length she vow'd and swore,
That she wou'd stick him to the Heart,
If he did not the Room depart:
Quoth he, Are you so resolute,
Is Blood the heat of your dispute?
Yes, that it is, you Slave, quoth she,
Be gone or I shall hang for thee.
The Chamberlin reply'd again,
Your swelling words are all in vain;
I do not fear you in the least
And thus their passion still increas'd.
Quoth she, I'll not disputing stand,
To him she ran with Knife in Hand
And wounded him in woful case,
Across his Head and down his Face.
The wreaking Blood began to run,
But still the Cook-maid had not done;
Till through his Ribs, she thrust the Knife,
And so bereav'd him of his Life.
When she beheld him on the floor,
In woful streams of wreaking gore;
She then bemoan'd her dismal state,
But this repentance come too late.
Thus having his destruction wrought,
Before a Justice, she was brought,
Who soon committed her to Goal,
Where she the Murder does bewail.
Often with Tears she does reply
Why did my passion rise so high,
As for to take his Life away,
Alas! this is a dismal Day?
How shall I answer for my crime,
Who gave him not a Minutes time;
To beg a Pardon for his Soul,
In sorrow I his Death condole:
I can expect no favour here,
Who was so cruel and severe,
That for a trifle I should be,
The auther of his Tragedy.
I needs must suffer for the same,
And leave this wretched World in shame;
But woe is me, that is not all,
His Blood does for just vengance call.
The time I have to live, I'll spend,
In making God my special friend,
That when this painful life I leave,
He may in love my Soul receive.
You Serants all both far anear,
That does my sad relation hear;
Labour to live in Love I pray,
Least passion should your Lives decay.

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Execution Location

Andever

Printing Location

LONDON: Printed for J. Deacon, at the Angel, in Guiltspur-street.
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:34 +1000
<![CDATA[A warning for wiues,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/931

Title

A warning for wiues,

Subtitle

By the example of one Katherine Francis, alias Stoke, who for killing her husband, Robert Francis with a paire of Sizers, on the 8. of Aprill at night, was burned on Clarkenwell-greene, on Tuesday, the 21 of the same moneth, 1629.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Magdalene College - Pepys Library, Pepys Ballads 1.118-119; EBBA 20049

Set to tune of...

Bragandary

Transcription

ALas what wretched bloody times doe we vile sinners live in!
What horrid and what cruell crimes are done in spight of heaven!
What barberous murders now are done none fowler since the world begun!

Oh women, Murderous women. whereon are your minds?

The Story which I now recite, expounds you meanings evill
Those women that in blood delight,
Are ruled by the Devill,
Else how can th' wife her husband kill,
Or th' Mother her owne childs blood spill,
Oh women,
Murderous women, etc.

At Cow-crosse, neere to Smithfield-barres, adjacent to the City,
A man ands wife at houshold jarres long liv'd, the more's the pitty,
Like Cat and Dog they still agree'd;
Each small offence did anger breed:
Oh Women, etc.

She oftentimes would beat him sore, and many a wound she gave him,
Yet hee'd not live from her therefore, to stay ill fate would have him,
Till she with one inhumane wound,
Threw him (her husband) dead toth' ground,
Oh women, etc.

Upon the 8 of Aprill last, betweene this man and wife,
Some certaine words of difference past; and all their cause of strife,
Was but about a trifle small, yet that procur'd his fatall fall,
Oh women, etc.

This was about the houre of tenne, or rather more that night,
When this was done, whereof my Pen, in tragicke stile doth write;
The maner of's death most strange appeares
Being struck ith' neck with a pair of sheeres,
Oh women, etc.

As many of the neighbours say, that thereabout doe dwell,
This couple had most part oth' day beene drinking, so they tell,
And comming home at night so late,
She did renew her former hate.
Oh women, etc.

The second part To the same tune

ANother woman that was there, she out oth' doores did send,
And had her fetch a Pot of Beere, oh then drew nere his end,
For ere the woman came againe,
This wife had her owne husband slaine:

Oh women,
Murderous women, whereon are your minds?

She long had thirsted for his blood, (even by her owne confession)
And now her promise she made good, so heaven gave permission
To Satan, who then lent her power
And strength to do't that bloody houre.
Oh women, etc.

It seemes that he his head did leane toth' Chimney, which she spide,
And straight she tooke, (O bloody queane) her Sisers from her side,
And hit him therewith such a stroake
Ith necke, that (some thinke) he nere spoke.
Oh women, etc.

She having done that monstrous part, (woe worth her for her labour)
No power had from thence to start, but went unto a neighbour,
And told him, that she verily thought, that she her husbands death had wrought.
Oh women, etc.

The man amaz'd to heare the same, caught hold of her, and said,
Ile know the truth, and how this came, if such a part to be plaid,
No sooner had he said the same,
But neighbours did her fact proclaime.
Oh women, etc.

Then to New Prison was she sent, because it was so late,
And upon the next day she went (through Swithfield to New Gate,
Where she did lye untill the Session,
To answer for her foule transgression.
Oh women, etc.

Where she condemned was by Law, in Clarkenwell to be burned,
Unto which place they did her draw, where she to ashes turned,
A death, though cruell, yet too milde
For one that hath a heart so vlide.
Oh women, etc.

Let all good wives a warning take, in Country and in City,
And thinke how they shall at stake be burned without pitty.
If they can have such barbarous hearts,
What man or woman will take their parts,
Oh women,
Murderous women. whereon are your minds?

Composer of Ballad

Martin Parker

Method of Punishment

burning

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Clerkenwell

Printing Location

London for F. G. on Snow-hill.

Tune Data

Bragandary is a lost tune (Simpson 1966, p. 743).

Notes

'Middlesex Sessions Rolls: 1629', Middlesex county records: Volume 3: 1625-67 (1888), pp. 25-30.

8 April, 5 Charles I. - True Bill that, at Cowcrosse co. Midd. on the said day, Katherine Francis, late the wife of Robert Francis alias Katherine Francis late of the said parish spinster, assaulted the said Robert then her husband, and then and there murdered him by stabbing him with a pair of scissors in the neck, so that he then and there died instantly. G. D. R., . . . . April, 5 Charles I.
PepysC_1_118-119_2448x2448.jpg
A warning for wives, By the example of one Katherine Francis, alias Stoke.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:33 +1000
<![CDATA[A warning for all desperate VVomen.]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/930

Title

A warning for all desperate VVomen.

Subtitle

By the example of Alice Dauis who for killing of her husband was burned in Smithfield the 12 of Iuly 1628. to the terror of all the beholders.

Synopsis

One of two ballads about Alice Davis, convicted of petty treason for the murder of her husband and burned at the stake in Smithfield, London in 1628. Davis was one of a spate of executions of women for this crime in early seventeenth-century London, and the ballad's judgmental tone is meant to teach a lesson of subservience to all listening wives.

Digital Object


Image notice

Full size images of all ballad sheets available at the bottom of this page

Image / Audio Credit

Magdalene College - Pepys Library, Pepys Ballads 1.120-121; EBBA 20050.  Audio recording by Hannah Sullivan.

Set to tune of...

Transcription

UNto the world to make my moane,
I know it is a folly,
Because that I have spent my time,
which have beene free and jolly,
But to the Lord which rules above,
I doe for mercy crie,
To grant me pardon for the crime,
for which on earth I dye.

Hells fiery flames prepared are,
for those that live in sinne,
And now on earth I tast of some,
but as a pricke or pin,
To those which shall hereafter be,
without Gods mercy great,
Who once more calls us to account,
on his Tribunall Seate.

Then hasty hairebraind wives take heed,
of me a warning take,
Least like to me in coole of blood,
you burn't be at a stake;
The woman which heere last did dye,
and was consum'd with fire,
Puts me in minde, but all to late,
for death I doe require.

But to the story now I come,
which to you Ile relate,
Because that I have liv'd like some,
in good repute and state,
In Westminster we lived there,
well knowne by many friends,
Which little thought that each of us,
should have come to such ends.

A Smith my husband was by trade,
as many well doe know,
And divers merry dayes we had,
not feeling cause of woe,
Abroad together we had bin,
and home at length we came,
But then I did that fatall deede,
which brings me to this shame.

He askt what monies I had left,
and some he needes would have,
But I a penny would not give,
though he did seeme to crave,
But words betwixt us then did passe,
as words to harsh I gave,
And as the Divell would as then,
I did both sweare and rave.

The second Part, To the same tune.

And then I tooke a little knife,
and stab'd him in the heart.
Whose Soule from Body instantly,
my bloody hand did part,
But cursed hand, and fatall knife
and wicked was that houre,
When as my God did give me ore
unto his hellish power.

The deede no sooner I had don,
But out of doores I ran,
And to the neighbours I did cry,
I kil'd had my good man,
Who straight-way flockt unto my house,
to see that bloody sight,
Which when they did behold with griefe,
it did them much affright.

Then hands upon me there was lay'd,
And I to Prison sent,
Where as I lay perplext in woe,
and did that deede repent,
When Sizes came I was arraign'd,
by Jury just and true,
I was found guilty of the fact,
for which I have my due.

The Jury having cast me then,
to judgment then I came,
Which was a terrour to my heart,
and to my friends a shame,
To thinke upon my husbands death,
and of my wretched life,
Betwixt my Spirit and my flesh,
did cause a cruell strife.

But then the Judge me sentence gave
to goe from whence I came,
From thence, unto a stake be bound
to burne in fiers flame,
Untill my flesh and bones consum'd,
to ashes in that place,
Which was a heavie sentence then,
on on[e] so voyd of grace.

And on the twelfth of July now,
I on a sledge was laid,
To Smithfield with a guard of men
I streight way was conveyd,
Where I was tyed to a stake,
with Reedes was round beset,
And Fagtos, Pitch, and other things
which they for me did get.

Now great Jehovah I thee pray,
my bloudy sinnes forgive,
For on this earth most wretched I
unworthy am to live.
Christ Jesus unto thee I pray,
and unto thee I cry,
Thou with thy blood wilt wash my sinnes
away, which heere must dye.

Good wives and bad, example take,
at this my cursed fall,
And Maidens that shall husbands have,
I warning am to all:
Your Husbands are your Lords & heads,
you ought them to obey,
Grant love betwixt each man and wife,
unto the Lord I pray.

God and the world forgive my sinnes,
which are so vile and foule,
Sweete Jesus now I come to thee,
O Lord receive my Soule.
Then to the Reedes they fire did put,
which flamd up to the skye,
And then she shriek'd most pittifully,
before that she did dye.

The Lord preserve our King & Queene,
and all good Subjects blesse,
And Grant the Gospell true and free,
amongst us may encrease.
Betwixt each husband and each wife,
send lond and amitie,
And grant that I may be the last.
that such a death did dye.

[F]INIS.

Method of Punishment

burning

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Printing Location

Printed for F. Coules

Tune Data

The Ladies Fall (Simpson 1966, pp, 98, 104, 105, 248, 369-371, 368), is linked with In Peascod Time. Tune first appeared in 1597.
PepysC_1_120-121_2448x2448.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:33 +1000
<![CDATA[A New Ballad of Three Merry Butchers AND Ten High-Way Men,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/929

Title

A New Ballad of Three Merry Butchers AND Ten High-Way Men,

Subtitle

How three Butchers went to pay Five Hundred Pounds away, and hearing a Woman crying in a Wood, went to relieve her, and was there set upon by these Ten High-Way Men, and how only stout Johnson fought with them all, who kill'd Eight of the Ten, and last was kill'd by the Woman whom he went to save out of the Wood. To an Excellent New Tune.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Magdalene College - Pepys Lobrary, Pepys Ballads 2.176 (cf. Roxburghe 3.496-497, EBBA 31196; Euing 1.235, EBBA 31733); EBBA 20793

Transcription

I'll tell you of a story of lovly Butchers three,
There's Wilson, Gibson, Johnson, mark well what I shall say,
For they took Five Hundred Pounds Sir for to pay it all away,
For they took Five Hundred sir for to pay it all away.

As they rid on the Road sir, and as fast as they could trig,
Strike up your hearts sayes Johnson for weel have a merry jgg
With a high ding ding, with a hoe ding ding,
with a high ding ding dee, and God bless all good people from evil company.

As they rid on the Road sir, as fast as they could hie,
Strike up your hearts says Johnson, for I hear a woman cry,
With that he steps into the Wood, and looks himself all round,
& there he spy'd a woman with her hair bound unto the ground.

O woman, O woman, quoth Johnson, hast thou no evil company
O no, O no, says the woman, and alack how can that be,
For there came ten swaggering blades by, and thus abused me,
For there came ten swaggering blades by, and thus abused me.

Johnson being of a valient heart, and he bore a valient mind;
He wrapt his Cloak about her, for to keep her from the wind.
with a high ding ding, with a hoe ding ding, with a high ding
ding dee, and God bless all good people from evil company.

Strike up your hearts sayes Johnson for its dark all in the sky
She put her finger in her Ear, and she gave a shreeking cry;
With that there came Ten swaggering Blades with their weapons ready drawn?
And they boldly came to Johnson, and bolder bid him stand;

I will not fight says Wilson, for I had rather dye,
Or I to fight sayes Gibson, for I had rather [fl]ie:
Come on, come on sayes Johnson, and fight a man so free,
Or stand you still behind my back, and I'le win the Victorie;

Then Johnsons Pistols they flew off, till five of them were slain,
And then he drew his Hanger with all his might and main,
And play'd it about so manfully, till Three more he had slain,
And play'd it about so manfully, till Three more he had slain.

Come on, come on, says the other two, and let us make away,
For if that we do hold him too't, our lives he takes away:
O no, O no, quoth the woman, and alack how can that be,
For if you do not hold him to't then hanged you shall be,

Johnson fighting these two thieves before, the woman he did not mind,
And a sighing these two thieves before, she knockt him down behind,
O woman, O woman, quoth Johnson, alack what have you done
You have kill'd the bravest Butcher that ever England won.

Just as she had killed him, there came one riding by
And saw the deed which she had done, and seiz'd her presently,
She was condemn'd for to be hang'd in Iron Chains so strong
At the place where she did Johnson that great & mighty wrong.

Method of Punishment

hanging in chains

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Printing Location

Printed for J. Bissel at the Bible and Harp in West-/ smith-field.

Tune Data

EBBA recording  to The Spanish Gypsies (Simpson 1966, pp. 675-77).
PepysC_2_176_2448x2448.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:33 +1000
<![CDATA[The vnnaturall Wife:]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/925

Title

The vnnaturall Wife:

Subtitle

Or, The lamentable Murther, of one goodman Dauis, LockeSmith in Tutle-streete, who was stabbed to death by his Wife, on the 29. of Iune, 1628. For which fact, She was Araigned, Condemned, and Adiudged. to be Burnt to Death in Smithfield, the 12. Iuly 1628.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Magdalene College - Pepys Library, Papys Ballads 1.122-1.123r; EBBA 20051

Set to tune of...

Bragandary

Transcription

IF woefull objects may excite,

the minde to ruth and pittie,
Then here is one will thee affright

in Westminsters faire Citie:
A strange inhumane Murther there,
To God, and Man as doth appeare:

oh murther,

most inhumane,
To spill my Husbands blood.
But God that rules the host of Heaven,

did give me ore to sinne,
And to vild wrath my minde was given,

which long I lived in;
But now too late I doe repent,
And for the same my heart doth rent:

oh murther,

most inhumane,
To spill my Husbands blood.
Let all curst Wives by me take heed,

how they doe, doe the like,
Cause not thy Husband for to bleed,

nor lift thy hand to strike;
Lest like to me, you burne in fire,
Because of cruell rage and ire:

oh murther,

most inhumane,
To spill my Husbands blood.
A Locke-Smith late in Westminster,

my Husband was by trade,
And well he lived by his Art,

though oft I him ubbraide;
And often times would chide and braule,
And many ill names would him call:

oh murther,

most inhumane,
To spill my Husbands blood.
The second part. To the same Tune.
I And my Husband foorth had bin,

at Supper at that time,
When as I did commit that sin,

which was a bloody crime;
And comming home he then did crave,
A Shilling of me for to have:

oh murther,

most inhumane,
To spill my Husbands blood.
I vow'd he should no Money get,

and I my vow did keepe,
Which then did cause him for to fret,

but now it makes me weepe;
And then in striving for the same,
I drew my knife unto my shame:

oh murther,

most inhumane,
To spill my Husbands blood.
Most desperately I stab'd him then,

with this my fatall knife,
Which is a warning to Women,

to take their Husbands life;
Then out of doores I streight did runne,
And sayd that I was quite undon,

oh murther,

most inhumane,
To spill my Husbands blood.
My Husband I did say was slaine,

amongst my Neighbours there,
And to my house they straite way came,

being possest with feare;
And then they found him on the floore,
Starke dead all weltring in his goore,

oh murther,

most inhumane,
To spill my Husbands blood.
Life faine I would have fetcht againe,

but now it was too late,
I did repent I him had slaine,

in this my heavie state;
The Constable did beare me then
Unto a Justice with his men:

oh murther, etc.
Then Justice me to Newgate sent,

untill the Sessions came,
For this same foule and bloody fact,

to answere for the same;
When at the Barre I did appeare,
The Jury found me guiltie there:

oh murther, etc.
The Judge gave sentence thus on me,

that backe I should returne
To Newgate, and then at a Stake,

my bones and flesh should burne
To ashes, in the winde to flie,
Upon the Earth, and in the Skie.

oh murther, etc.
Upon the twelfth of Juely now,

I on a Hurdle plac't,
Unto my Excecution drawne,

by weeping eyes I past;
And there in Smith-field at a Stake,
My latest breath I there did take:

oh murther, etc.
And being chayned to the Stake,

both Reedes and Faggots then
Close to my Body there was set,

with Pitch, Tarre, and Rozen,
Then to the heavenly Lord I prayd,
That he would be my strength and ayde.

oh murther,

most inhumane,
To spill my husbands blood.
Let me a warning be to Wives,

that are of hasty kinde,
Lord grant that all may mend their lives,

and beare my death in minde,
And let me be the last I pray,
That ere may dye by such like way.

Oh Father

for thy Sonnes sake,
Forgive my sinnes for aye.

Method of Punishment

burning

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Printing Location

London for M. T. Widdow

Tune Data

Bragandary is a lost tune (Simpson 1966, p. 743).
PepysC_1_122r-123r_2448x2448.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:32 +1000
<![CDATA[The sorrowful complaint of Susan Higges,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/923

Title

The sorrowful complaint of Susan Higges,

Subtitle

a lusty Countrey Wench, dwelling in Risborrow in Buckinghamshire, who for twenty yeeres, most gallantly maintained her selfe by Robberies on the high-way side, and such like practises. And lastly, how she was executed at Brickhill, at the Assises, for a murther by her committed upon Messeldon Heath. To the tune of Lusty Gallant.

Synopsis

Susan Higges, highway robber, blackmails young men whom she finds with the maids in her house and for 20 years robs people on the highway. Her final victim, a woman, recognises her and is killed for it, but spits blood in Higges' face that will not wash off. In fear, Higges confesses her crimes.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Magdalene College - Pepys Library, Pepys Ballads 1.113 (cf Roxburghe 1.424-425: adds extra stanza); EBBA 20002

Set to tune of...

Lusty Gallant

Transcription

TO mourne for my offences, and former passed sinnes,
This sad and dolefull story, my heavy heart begins:
Most wickedly I spent my time. devoide of godly grace:
A lewder Woman never liv'd, I thinke in any place.

Nare Buckingham I dwelled, and Susan Higges by name,
Well thought of by good Gentlemen and Farmers of good fame:
Where thus.for xx. yeares at least, I liv'd in gallant sort:
Which made the Country marvell much, to here of my report.

My state was not maintained,
(as you shall understand)
By good and honest dealings, nor labour of my hand:
But by deceipt and couzening shifts the end whereof, we see
Hath ever beene repaide with shame and ever like to be.

My servants were young Countrey girles brought up unto my mind,
By nature faire and beautifull, and of a gentle kinde:
Who with their sweet intising eyes, did many Youngsters move
To come by night unto my house in hope of further love.

But still at their close meetings, (as I the plot had late)
I slept in still at unawares, while they the wantons plaid.
And would in question bring their names, except they did agree
To give me money for this wrong, done to my house and me.

This was but petty couzenage, to things that I have done:
My weapon by the high-way side, hath me much money wonne:
In mens attyre I oft have rode, upon a Gelding stout,
And done great robberies valiantly, the Countries round about.

I had my Scarfes and Vizards, my face for to disguise:
Sometime a beard upon my chin, to blinde the peoples eyes.
My Turkie blade, and Pistols good, my courage to maintaine:
Thus took I many a Farmers purse well cram'd with golden gaine.

Great store of London Marchants I boldly have bid Stand,
And showed my selfe most bravely, a Woman of my hand,
You rulsling Roysters, every one in my defence say then,
Wee women still for gallant minds, may well compare with men.

But if so bee it chanced, the Countries were beset,
With hue and cryes and warrants into my house I get:
And I so being with my Maides, would cloake the matter so,
That no man could by any meanes, the right offender know.

Yet God that still most justly, doth punish every vice,
Did bring unto confusion my fortunes in a trice:
For by a murther all my sinnes were strangly brought to light:
And such desert I had by law, as justice claim'd by right.

Upon the Heath of Misseldon, I met a woman there,
And robd her, as from market, home-wards she did repaire:
Which woman cald me by my name and said, that she me knew:
For which, even with her lifes deare bloud, my hands I did imbrew.

But after I had wounded, this women unto death,
And that her bleeding body, was almost reft of breath:
She gave a grone: and therewithall did spit upon my face,
Three drops of blood, that never could be wiped from that place:

For after I returned unto my house againe,
The more that I it washde, it more appeared plaine:
Each houre I thought that beasts, [&] birds this murther would reveale,
Or that the ayre, so vile a deede, no longer would conceale.

So heavy at my conscience, this wofull murther lay,
That I was soone inforced, the same for to beware,
And to my servants made it known,
as God appointed me:
For blood can never secret rest,
nor long unpunisht be.

My servants to the Justices,
declar'd what I had said:
For which I was attached,
and to the Jayle convaied,
And at the Sises was condemnd, and had my just desert:
Even such a death let all them have, that beare so false a heart.

Be warned by this story, you ru[s]sling Rosters all:
The higher that you climbe in sinne the greater is your fall:
For now the world so wicked is, in Maiden and in Wife
That few, or none, can finde the way to lead an honest life.
FINIS.

Method of Punishment

hanging?

Crime(s)

murder, highway robbery

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Brickhill Assises

Printing Location

London for H.G.

Tune Data

  • Reference: Lusty Gallant (Simpson 1966 pp. 476-78) 
  • Date: Tune was already well known in 1566 
  • Link: Tune on the right is sung to tune of Lusty Gallant, tune on left is the right words, but sung to The London Prentice.
PepysC_1_113_2448x2448.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:32 +1000
<![CDATA[The sad effects of Covetousness.]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/922

Title

The sad effects of Covetousness.

Subtitle

Being, a Relation of a Horrid Murther, commited upon a Maid Servant, in the Town of Lyn; by her Mistriss and her Son, for the Lucre of what she had: But they being apprehended for the same, was accordingly found Guilty, and was also Executed.

Synopsis

A maidservant comes into a legacy; out of greed she is murdered by her mistress and her son, who drive a spike into her head and then try to make it look like she hanged herself.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Magdalene College - Pepys Library, Pepys Ballads 2.168; EBBA 20785

Set to tune of...

The Young-Mans Legacy

Transcription

WHile I in brief shall make appear, what sins are chiefest in this land,
Who can forbear to shed a tear, when they these Lines shall understand

Covetousness we see each day, to many other sins does lead,
And when we shall to that give way, sad murthers does from thence proceed

For money what will many do, to Satans service they'l engage,
And will their hands in blood imbrue; O! is this not a sinful age.

Tho' many for the same does stretch, yet some will eagerly run on,
And does not fear to make a breach, in all the Laws of God and Man.

Alas, we find the case is clear, offenders will no conscience make,
Although their lives do pay full dear, yet they will not their sins forsake.

And now in brief I will proceed, to tell what grieves my heart full sore,
The like of this sad bloody deed, was hardly ever heard before.

There was an honest Servant-Maid, that lived in the town of Lyn:
Who of her life was soon betray'd, By Murther that notorious sin.

It was the Mistriss and her Son, who prov'd this Maidens overthrow,
There was no Creature, no not one, when they their Cruelty did show.

To death they did this Damsel bring, she did their cruelty behold,
What tempted them to do this thing, these very Lines shall here unfold.

While she did in this place abide, a Servant with humility:
A Friend or a Relation dy'd, who left to her a Legacy.

This to her service then she brought, where wickedness was too too rife,
For this they her destruction wrought, and suddenly they sought her life.

One morning when she riss betimes, to do her work, and thought no ill,
O! then they did commit this crime, her Guiltless blood they then did spill.

They first agreed to knock her down, then presently her wicked Son,
He drove a spike into her head, to finish what they had begun.

When they had her destruction wrought. O! then the Son that wicked Elf,
Did hang her that it might be thought to all, that she had hang'd her self.

But Murther Heaven does forbid, the Blood does still for vengeance cry,
Likewise we know it can't be hid, from our great Gods all-seeing Eye.

She by their Cruelty did fall, alas! we may her grief condole,
They did not give her time to call to God, to pitty her poor Soul.

They to the Bar was brought at last, by this sad wicked Race they run,
And there by Law they both were cast,
first dy'd the Mother, then her Son.

The fruits of Murther here we see, would make a Christians heart to bleed
O that it may a warning be, to all that e're these lines shall read.

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Execution Location

Lyn

Tune Data

The Young-Mans Legacy is not in The British Broadsie Ballad and its Music (Simpson 1966).
PepysC_2_168_2448x2448.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:31 +1000
<![CDATA[The lamentacion that Ladie Iane made saiyng for my fathers proclamacion now must I lese my heade.]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/908

Title

The lamentacion that Ladie Iane made saiyng for my fathers proclamacion now must I lese my heade.

Synopsis

A ballad about the execution of Lady Jane Grey in 1554. This was most likely printed some years after the events, as a ballad sympathetic to Lady Jane would have been unprintable during the reign of Mary I.

Transcription

The lamentation that Ladie Jane made, Saiyng for my fathers proclamation now must I lose my heade .


This was the lamentacion,
That Ladie Jane made :
Saiyng, for my fathers Proclamacion,
Now must I lose my head.

But God that sercheth every harte,
And knoweth I am giltles,
Although that I now suffer smarte,
Yet, I am not worthie of this.

For when she was at the place appoincted,
Her death mekely for to take :
Her ghostly father and she reasoned.
Her praiers then she did make.

Forthe of our beddes we were fet out,
To the Tower for to go :
Yet wist we not where about,
Our fathers did make us do so.

Alas what did our fathers meane,
Both tree and fruicte thus for to spill,
Against my mynde he proclaimed me quene,
And I never consented theretill.

The lorde Gilforde my housbande,
Which suffred here presente :
The thyng our fathers toke in hande,
Was neither his nor my consente.

But seyng I am iudged by a lawe to dye,
And under whiche I was borne :
Yet will I take it pacientlie,
Laughyng none of them to scorne,

Why should I blame fortune of this,
Seyng blame it is not worthie :
Our livyng were so farre amis,
That we deserved this miserie.

For my synne I am worthie to dye,
Pride in me did so remaine :
Yet all good people praie for me,
As charitie doeth constraine.

The hedsman kneled on his knee,
To forgeve hym her death :
Frende, she saied, God forgeve thee,
With all my harte and faithe.

She kyssed hym, and gave hym a rewarde,
And saied to hym incontinente :
I praie thee yet remember afterwarde,
That thou hast headed an innocente.

She gave the Lieutenaunt her booke,
Whiche was covered all with golde,
Praied hym therein to looke,
For his sake that Judas solde.

She toke her kercher faire and swete,
To cover her face withall :
A Psalme of David she did recite,
And on the Lorde she did call.

Although this breakefast be shorte to me,
Yet in the Lorde I trust :
To suppe in the heavenlie glorie,
With Abraham that is iuste. . . .

Upon the Blocke she laied her heade,
Her death mekely to take :
In manus tuas, then she saied,
And this her ende she did make.

Imprinted at London, for Ihon Wight.

Method of Punishment

beheading

Crime(s)

high treason

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Tower of London

Printing Location

London: Ihon Wight

URL

https://archive.org/details/TransactionsOfTheRoyalHistoricalSociety1909VolIII3rdSeries/page/n69/mode/2up?q=lamentation+that

Notes

Wikipedia:  Lady Jane Grey (1536/1537 - 12 February 1554), also known as The Nine Days' Queen, was an English noblewoman who was de facto monarch of England from 10 July until 19 July 1553 and was subsequently executed. A great-granddaughter of Henry VII by his younger daughter Mary, Jane was a first-cousin-once-removed of Edward VI. In May 1553 Jane was married to Lord Guildford Dudley, a younger son of Edward's chief minister, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. When the 15-year-old King lay dying in June 1553, he nominated Jane as successor to the Crown in his will, thus subverting the claims of his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth under the Third Succession Act. During her short reign, Jane resided in the Tower of London. She became a prisoner there when the Privy Council decided to change sides and proclaim Mary as Queen on 19 July 1553. She was convicted of high treason in November 1553, though her life was initially spared. Wyatt's rebellion in January and February 1554 against Queen Mary's plans of a Spanish match led to Jane's and her husband's execution.

On the morning of 12 February 1554, the authorities took Guilford from his rooms at the Tower of London to the public execution place at Tower Hill and there had him beheaded. A horse and cart brought his remains back to the Tower of London, past the rooms where Jane remained as a prisoner. Jane was then taken out to Tower Green, inside the Tower of London, and beheaded in private. With few exceptions, only royalty were offered the privilege of a private execution; Jane's execution was conducted in private on the orders of Queen Mary, as a gesture of respect for her cousin.
]]>
Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:29 +1000
<![CDATA[The Lady Isabella's Tragedy;]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/907

Title

The Lady Isabella's Tragedy;

Subtitle

OR, The Step-Mothers Cruelty. Being a Relation of a most Lamentable and Cruel Murder, committed on the body of the Lady Isabella, the only Daughter of a Noble Duke occasioned by the means of a Step-Mother and the Master-Cook, who were both adjudged to suffer a Cruel death, for committing the said Horrid Act.

Synopsis

A fictional ballad, included here to demonstrate how similar they were - in lyric, melody, and appearance - to ballads about genuine events. A wicked stepmother conspires with the cook to kill her stepdaughter. He kills her and bakes her into a pie, but the scullery boy is an eye-witness and warns the duke before he eats his daughter. The murderers are executed and the scullery boy becomes heir to the dukedom.

Digital Object


Image notice

Full size images of all ballad sheets available at the bottom of this page.

Image / Audio Credit

University of Glasgow Library - Euing Ballads 1.182; Pepys 2.149; EBBA 31937. Audio recording by Molly McKew.

Set to tune of...

Transcription

THere was a Lord of worthy fame and a Hunting he would ride,
Attended by a noble Train, of Gentry by his side,
And whilst he did in chase remain, to see both sport and play,
His Lady went as she did feign, unto the Church to pray.

This Lord he had a Daughter fair whose beauty shin'd so bright:
She was belov'd both far and near of many a Lord and Knight.
Fair Isabella was she call'd, A Creature fair was she,
She was her fathers only joy, as you shall after see.

But yet her Cruel step-Mother, did envy her so much,
That day by day she sought her life her Malice it was such.
She bargain'd with the Master-Cook to take her life away,
And taking of her Daughters Book she thus to her did say.

Go home sweet daughter, I thee pray go hasten presently.
And tell unto the Master-Cook these words that I tell thee.
And bid him dress to dinner straight, that fair and milk white Doe,
That in the Park doth shine so bright, there's none so fair to show.

THis Lady fearing of no harm, obey'd her Mothers will,
And presently she hasted home her mind for to fulfill.
She straight into the Kitchin went, her message for to tell:
And there the Master-Cook she spy'd who did with malice swell.

You Master-Cook it must be so, do that which I thee tell
You needs must dress the milk-white doe, which you do know full well.
Then straight his cruel bloody hands, he on the Lady laid,
Who quivering and shaking stands, whilst thus to her he said.

Thou art the Doe that I must dress, see here behold my Knife,
For it is pointed presently, to rid thee of thy life.
O then cry'd out the Scullen boy as loud as loud might be,
O save her life good Master-Cook, and make your Pies of me.

For pitty sake do not destroy, my Lady with your Knife,
You know she is her fathers joy, for Christs sake save her life.
I will not save her life he said, nor make my Pies of thee,
But if thou do this deed bewray thy Butcher I will be,

But when this Lord he did come home for to sit down and eat,
He called for his Daughter Dear, to come and carve his meat.
Now sit you down this Lady said O sit you down to meat,
Into some Nunnery she is gone, your Daughter dear forget.

Then solemnly he made a vow before the company,
That he would neither eat nor drink, until he did her see.
O then bespake the Scullen boy, with a loud voice so high,
If that you will your Daughter see, my Lord cut up that Pye.

Wherein her flesh is minced small; and parched with the fire:
All caused by her Step-Mother, who did her death desire.
And cursed be the Master-Cook, O cursed may he be,
I proffered him my own hearts blood, from death to set her free.

Then all in black this Lord did mourn, and for his Daughters sake
He judged for her Step-mother, to be burnt at a Stake,
Likewise he judg'd the Master-Cook in boyling Lead to stand,
and made the simple Scullen Boy, the Heir to all his Land.

Method of Punishment

burning at stake (for stepmother), boiling lead (for male cook)

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Printing Location

Printed for P. Brooksby at the Golden Ball in Pye-corner.

Tune Data

The Ladies Fall (Simpson 1966, pp, 98, 104, 105, 248, 369-371, 368), is linked with In Peascod Time.

Notes

Fictional tale
Euing_1_182_2448x2448.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:29 +1000
<![CDATA[The Clippers execution,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/902

Title

The Clippers execution,

Subtitle

or, Treason justly rewarded manifested in the fearful example of two Women who were Notorious offenders, and tryed at the Old-Bayly the 13th of this present April, 1678. for clipping and defacing his Majesties Coyn, where they were found Guilty of High Treason, and received Sentence to be Drawn on a Hurdle to the place of Execution, and there their Bodies to be Burnt. One of them being accordingly Executed in Smithfield upon the 17th of the said Moneth; as a warning for all others to avoid the like Dreadful Punishment. To the tune of, In summer time.

Synopsis

'Coin-clipping' was a kind of forgery: the practice of taking small chunks of gold coins in order to melt them down and make new coins. It was considered treasonous, and so these women were burned for it.

Digital Object


Image notice

Full size images of all ballad sheets available at the bottom of this page.

Image / Audio Credit

Image: Bodleian Library, Wing / C4716. Recorded in EEBO (institutional login required). Audio recording by Hannah Sullivan.

Set to tune of...

In summer time

Transcription

Lament, lament, good Christians all,
who now draw near unto this place,
To see a wretched Sinners fall,
who here doth die in great disgrace:
Although the Laws are ne'r so strict,
some daily do the same transgress,
And warnings all they do neglect;
they'r rooted so in wickedness.

As by this sad example here,
it is confirm's to every one,
Now that the Devil lays his baits,
to bring us to destruction:
For every one he hath a snare,
to please, and satisfie their mind,
And for their ruine doth prepare,
according as they are inclin'd.

This woman being Covetous,
for to grow rich it was her aim,
She did not value by what means,
which did procure her lasting shame:
Some of them did a practice make,
our Soveraigns Coyn for to deface,
Not thinking at the last to come,
To end their lives in foul disgrace.

But though they for a time did Raign,
and prosper in their wickedness,
They now are brought to open shame,
their heinious crimes for to confess:
This wretched woman being one,
who having not the Fear of God,
Now for her Crime is hither come,
to feel his dreadful heavy Rod.

Her Clipping and her Fileing Trade
in private she long time did use,
Hoping she should not be betraid,
the King and Country did abuse:
A little Girl she us'd to send
unto the Shops her Coyn to change,
And so convei'd it to her friend,
who put it off in manner strange.

At length the same suspected was,
by one that liv'd neer Temple-Barr,
who watcht the Girl when home she went
she being not of him aware:
With Officers the House they searcht,
and there one woman they did find,
With Clippings in a Handbaskit,
which did appear of the same kind.

In breaking ope another door,
they likewise plainly did perceive,
Clippings and Fileings on the floor
which carelesly they chanc't to leave;
A File, and Shears, likewise there was,
and Melting-pot, which they did use,
And all things for their purpose fit,
the blinded world for to abuse.

For which to Prison they were sent,
until their Tryal for to lye,
And time they had for to repent,
to make their peace before they dye:
Two of them Sentence did receive,
upon a Hurdle drawn to be,
And Burnt to Ashes in the Flames,
where people all the same might see.

This wretched woman being one
which here is brought unto your view,
To pay for her transgression,
because she proved so untrue:
A Spectacle of misery,
she doth appear in this same place,
Being bound the Law to satisfie,
and end her life in great disgrace.

All you good Christians who are here,
and see her sad and woful fall,
Pray that with patience she may beat,
and unto Christ for mercy call:
Who knows but that the Lord on high,
In mercy may her her soul receive,
And free her from all misery,
if firmly she in him believe.

Let her Example warn you all,
to have the Lord still in your mind;
Least to such crimes you hap to fall,
and unto Sin you be inclin'd:
Beware of filthy averice,
and strive your lives for to amend,
Do not presume to follow vice,
least you come to untimely end.

A dreadful thing it is you see,
her body in the flames to burn,
But worse when soul, and body both,
into eternal Flames shall turn.
Therefore once more I say beware,
and strive Gods mercy to imbrace,
And let it be your onely care;
to find a Heavenly resting place.

Method of Punishment

burning

Crime(s)

clipping gold coins

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Smithfield

Printing Location

London[?] : Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright and J. Clarke

Tune Data

Recording is another song in that tune
Anon-The_Clippers_execution_or_Treason-Wing-C4716-1648_07-p1.tif
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:28 +1000
<![CDATA[The Bloody Butcher, And the two wicked and cruel Bawds:]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/899

Title

The Bloody Butcher, And the two wicked and cruel Bawds:

Subtitle

Exprest in a woful Narrative of one Nathaniel Smith a Butcher, who lived in Maypole-Alley near the Strand; his Wife having been all day in the Market selling of Meat, in the evening went with her Husband to an Alehouse, where they stay'd till ten of the clock. and then went home together, and being in their lodging, demanded of her the Money she had taken that day, but she (being great with child and peevish) refused to give it him, he taking his Butchers-knife in his hand stabb'd her in the back, whereof she instantly dyed, for which he was Apprehended, Condemned, and Executed at Tyburn, April the 24th. 1667. As also another Relation of a Ravisher, who in a Bawdy-house (assisted by two Women) ravished a Girle.

Synopsis

2 stories: one of domestic violence ending in murder, the other of the rape of a child with two women as accessories.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Glasgow University Library - Euing, Shelfmark: Euing Ballads 20; EBBA 31663

Set to tune of...

Transcription

What horrid execrable Crimes,
Possess us in these latter Times;
Not Pestilence, nor Sword, nor Fire,
Will make us from our Sins retyre.

Two sad Relations that befel
Us in this Month, I shall you tell,
As dismal dreadful Deeds they be,
As ever you did hear or see.


One was the Murther of a Wife,
By wrathful Hand, and bloody Knife;
T'other declares those that defil'd,
The Virgin body of a Child.

A Butcher, as we understand,
Liv'd near the May-pole in the Strand;
Nathaniel Smith, who lost his life,
For the sad slaughter of his wife.

After so many years their hands,
Had been conjoyn'd in wedlock bands,
Whereby came many Children small,
One wretched hour confounds them all.

This Butchers Wife did keep a Seat
I'th Market-place to sell her Meat;
And was by all report that's made,
A careful house-wife in the Trade.

One fatal Evening being come,
From Market, to her latest home,
She and her Husband both went then,
To a Victualling-house and staid till ten.

The second part, to the same tune.

Then went together home, where when
A little season they had been;
He in a bold imperious way,
Demands the Coin she took that day.

She being with Child, and fretful too,
What he commands she would not do;
Which, with his drink begat a rage,
Nothing but Murther could asswage.
Words made his passion mount up higher
She was the bellows, he the fire:
Words are but wind, buy yet they do,
Pierce through the Soul and Body too.

The Devil had subdued him there,
And whisper'd Murther in his ear;
Which he impatient of delay,
Doth perpetrate the readiest way.

With a strong long sharp-poynted knife,
Into the back he stabs his wife:
Flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone,
With one dead-doing blow is gone.

She faltred, fainted, fell down dead,
Upon the ground her bloud was shed;
The little Infant in the womb
Received there both Life and Tomb.

Then was he Apprehended, by
Some Neighbours that did hear her cry
But Murther, murther, and for this,
He judgd and Executed is.

Let this a warning be to those,
Whose Passions are their greatest Foes:
And let all Women have a care,
To stir those that impatient are.

Ten angry words with wrath and knife,
Has kil'd a husband and a Wife;
An Infant too, which makes up Three,
And ruin'd a whole family.

But mischiefs seldome come alone,
My Muse hath yet another Groan;
A sigh, a tear, and much of moan,
To tell a Deed but lately done.

There was one Mary, a grand Bawd,
That liv'd by Lechery and Fraud;
Assisted by her Daughter Bess,
Did keep a house of wickedness.

They liv'd at Westminster, where they,
Many a Virgin did betray:
Those wicked actions made them rue,
This fact they did, which I'le tell you.

It seems a fellow thither came,
To pacifie his lustful flame;
Having a fire of Drink before,
Came to be quenched by a Whore.

They being destitute, did meet,
A Neighbours Daughter in the street;
A pretty Child, and as 'tis told,
By many, but of Ten years old.

Yet she is tempted in by them,
To serve their turn in that extream,
And then deliver'd up to One,
Was more a Devil than a Man.

Unto this weak unwary Child,
That was unfit to be defil'd;
In order to their base Design,
They give it Brandy, Ale, and Wine.

Their hot Guest for a Wench doth call,
They brought him One, but very small;
It serv'd his turn, and he did fly,
At his small Game, they standing by,

The Child resisted and cryed out,
The old Bawd choak'd her with a Clout
Stop'd in the mouth; the Fellow spoil'd,
With furious lust the fainting Child.

The Fellow having Ravished,
This tender Child, away he fled:
But what he was, or who, is known
Not as I hear, to any one.

The two that held, and stopt her breath,
Most justly now have suffer'd Death;
Such pitty 'tis that he is free'd,
By flight, that did the filthy Deed.

Thus have I told you Two sad Crime,
Committed in these worst of Times;
Let all that hear me now, by this,
Take warning not to do amiss.

Return to God, reform your Lives,
Men be not bitter to your wives:
Wives love you Husbands, for bad words
Have drawn a hundred thousand swords.

Let Love and Patience both agree,
To keep us all in Amity;
Then all our bloody Broyls will cease,
God save the King, and send us Peace.


Method of Punishment

hanging

Crime(s)

murder, rape

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Tyburn

Printing Location

London, Printed by E. Crowch, for F. Coles, / T. Vere, and J. Wright.
Euing_1_20_2448x2448.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:28 +1000
<![CDATA[The Araignement of John Flodder and his wife,]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/896

Title

The Araignement of John Flodder and his wife,

Subtitle

at Norwidge, with the wife of one Bicks, for burning the Towne of Windham in Norfolke, upon the xi. day of June last 1615. Where two of them are now executed, and the third reprived upon further confession. To the tune of Fortune my foe.

Synopsis

After the town of Windham, Norfolk, is burned, three people are convicted of arson: John Flodder and his wife, and a Mrs. Bicks, all known vagrants. Bicks repents before her execution, but Flodder is unrepentant. He is hung in chains, while his wife is given a temporary reprieve due to pregnancy. Because of this, she confesses that a second fire was planned and that Bicks' husband was party to the plan. The audience is advised to exile beggars and vagrants from their towns.

Digital Object


Image / Audio Credit

Magdalene College - Pepys Library, Pepys Ballads Pepys 1.130-131r; EBBA 20056

Set to tune of...

Transcription

BRave Windham late, whom Fortune did adorne,
With Buildings fayre, & fresh as Sommers morne:
To coale-blacke Ashes now, quite burned downe,
May sorrowing say, I was a gallant Towne.
Yea all my state and glory is put by,
For mourning on the ground my Buildings lye:
My Goods consum'd, my Dwellers brought full low,
Which now goe wandring up and downe in woe.
Three hundred dwelling Houses of account,
Which did to fourtie thousand pounds amount,
Are all consumd and wasted quite away,
And nothing left, but ruine and decay.
Woe worth the causers of this blacke misdeed,
That makes a thousand hearts with sorrow bleed:
A thousand hearts with wringing hands may say,
In Windham towne this was a wofull day.
The deed was done by such unhallowed hands,
Whose rigour card not for a thousand Lands,
The Earth it selfe, if that it flam'd with fier,
Were as these damned harlets did desier.
One Flodder and his cursed wife, were those,
Which wrought this famous towne these sodaine woes:
Confederate with one Bickes wife; which three,
Unto this cursed action did agree.
As Rogues and Beggars wandring up and downe,
They went to seeke reliefe from towne to towne:
And lived by the usage of bace sinne,
As custome trayneth all such livers in.
[?] sure the Divell or else some Feend of his,
[?] aved them unto this foule amisse,
With Fire to wast so brave a Market towne,
That florisht faire, with Riches and Renowne.
A Fier that was devised of the Divell,
A Fier of all the worst, and worse then evill:
Wilde fier it was, that could not quenched bee,
A Ball thereof [la]y kindling secretly,
Within an Eaves, not seene of any man,
A Match gave fier, and so it first began:
In Service time, when people were at Prayers,
As God required, and not on worldly cares.
A time that such a chaunce could hardly bee
Prevented by mans helpe, as man might see:
For on a sodaine kindled so the flame,
That mazed people could not quench the same.
Within two howers the towne was burned quite,
And much good Wealth therin consumd outright:
The Free-schoole house, with many a gallant Hall
With Aged people, and poore Children small.
Such woes were never seene in any place,
Nor never men remaind in heavier case:
Strange doubts were made how first the fire begun
That hath so many good mens states undone.
At last this Flodder, with his wandring Mates,
Which daily beg'd for food at rich mens Gates,
Examined were, where soone their guiltie tongues
Confest the chiefe occasions of these wronges.
And so with hearts bespotted with blacke shame,
They were araigned, and judged for the same,
To suffer death, a recompence to make,
For this offence, they thus did undertake.

The Second part of the Araignement of Flodder and his wife etc.
To the same tune.

ANd when their day of death drew neere at hand,
According to the Judges just commaund,
Before ten thousand peoples wondring eyes,
This Flodder like a damned monster dyes,
A selfe-wild Papist, of a stubborne heart,
That would but small submission from him part:
But boldly died as though he had done well,
And not been guiltie of this fact of Hell.
His hated body still on Earth remaines,
(A shame unto his kin) hangd up in Chaines:
And must at all no other Buriall have,
But Crowes & Ravens mawes to make his grave
But Bicks his wife in signe of penitence,
With weeping teares bewayled her offence:
And at her death, confest with grieved minde,
This deed beyond the reach of Woman-kind.
And how most leawdly she had lived long,
A shamefull life, in doing deeds of wrong:
And trode the steps of Whoredome day by day,
Accounting sinne and shame, the better way.
And how that shee, was will'd to put her hope
At last, to have a Pardone from the Pope
For all her sinnes: for which, she did repent,
And sayd, no Pope, but Christ was her content.
And as for Flodders wife, the chiefe herein,
And damded leader to this wilfull sinne,
Being bigg with child, reprived was therefore,
To give that life, which in her Wombe she bore.
But having now deliverance of her Child,
All further hopes of life, are quite exild.
Yet hope of life, hath made her now confesse,
The Townes proceeding dangers and distresse.
And how the rest should all have burned beene,
So with a second Fire to waste it cleane:
And how the Husband of the woman dead,
Had given consent to have this mischiefe spread.
Likewise one Hicks, a fellow of good age,
She sayd, his credite and his word did gage,
To be a furtherer to this damned deed,
That now hath made a thousand hearts to bleed.
But let no such accursed wretch as this,
The course of Law and Justice looke to misse:
But with repentance true prepare for death,
As most unworthy of a minuts breath.
And now let Englands Townes both farre & neere
With wisedome still prevent like chance, & feare,
And weed away from every place and Cittie,
Such idle Drones, you cherish with your pittie.
Yet in your hearts let Charitie remaine,
And freely give, to buyld this Towne againe.
And in your Prayers desire the Lord of heaven,
That bountious guiftes may thereunto be given.
Our royall King, with good and gracious hand,
Have graunted them, the bounties of our Land:
In every Church that gathering there may bee,
As by his Letter patents we may see.

Method of Punishment

hanging in chains

Crime(s)

arson

Gender

Date

Printing Location

Imprinted at London for John Trundle, dwel-
ling in Barbican at the signe of the No body.
The names in the Kings Letters Pattents, to
gather up the mony, are these following.
John Moore.
Steven Agas.
Robert Carre.
John Doffeelde.
William Horsnell.
Esa Freeman.
Robert Agas.
William Rowse.
The Countries and Cities, graunted for these
men to gather in, are these following.
London and Westminster: Middlesex, Essex, Kent,
Hartford, Surry, and Sussex: with the Cities of
Canterburie, Rochester, and the Cinque Ports,
with the Citie of Chester.
PepysC_1_130r_131r_2448x2448.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:27 +1000
<![CDATA[THE Unfaithful Servant; AND The Cruel Husband.]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/895

Title

THE Unfaithful Servant; AND The Cruel Husband.

Subtitle

Being a perfect and true account of one Judith Brown, who together with her Master Iohn Cupper, conspired the Death of her Mistris, his Wife, which accordingly they did accomplish in the time of Child-bed, when she lay in with two Children, by mixing of her Drink with cruel Poyson; for which Fact she received due Sentence of Death at the late Assizes in the County of Salop, to be Burned; which was accordingly Executed upon the Old Heath near Shrewsbury, on Thursday the Twenty-first day of August, 1684.

Synopsis

A maid, in love with her master, conspires to poison her mistress shortly after she has given birth. It does not mention the sentence of the husband. (he is hanged in chains)

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Magdalene College - Pepys Library, Pepys Ballads 2.151; EBBA 20769. Audio recordings by (1) Hannah Sullivan, (2) EBBA.

Set to tune of...

Transcription

YOung Maidens all beware, that sees my Dismal state,
Endeavour now to shun the Snare, before it is too late.
I was a Servant Maid, and liv'd most happily,
Until at last I was betray'd, to this Debauchery.
Too late I do lament, my very heart doth bleed,
That ever I did give consent, to that most wicked deed.
My yielding to his ways, his wicked base desire,
Yea, by that means I end my days, in cruel flames of Fire.
Our Sins was at their grow, that none but them we blame,
To be indeed the cause we both did end our days in shame.
We could not be content, with what we first had done,
But afterwards we did invent, in worse extreams to run.
Then with my Master I, did take the cause in hand,
Resolv'd my Mistris she should dye by our most cruel hand.
Her Life we did betray, to satisfie our will.
When she alas! in Child-bed lay, poor Soul she thought no ill.
Strong poyson we contriv'd
this was our hanious Sin,
That she of Life might be depriv'd pool Soul when she lay in.
My conscience strove with me, but I a wicked elf,
Desired that my Master he, should give it her himself.
But we did disagree, as you may understand,
For Conscience would not suffer me to put it in her hand.
Though neither he nor I, had power to do this deed,
Yet all this would not satisfie, but still we did proceed.
In what she was to drink we mixt the poyson strong.
That she might take it & not think, the least of any wrong.
By which at length she dyed, and I was left behind,
To dye a cruel death beside, the horror of my mind.
Alas! you may behold,
my sad and dismal doom,
Both hands & heart, and e'ry part, in flames you'l see consume.
The Sorrow of my heart, in this extremity,
Although it is my due desert, I do for mercy cry.
Farewel my wordly Friends, and my offences foul,
Good Lord forgive me all my sins, have mercy on my Soul.
In this devouring flame, my life must now expire,
Alas my sins I needs must blam[e]
I end my days in fire.
To you that come to see, a woful sinners fall,
O let those cruel flames now be, a warning to you all.
By me a warning take, and do not run astray,
And God will never you forsake, if you his Laws obey.

Method of Punishment

burning

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Old Heath, near Shrewsbury

Printing Location

Printed for J. Deacon, at the Angel in Guilt-spur-street, without Newgate.

Tune Data

Reference: The Rich Merchant Man (Simpson 1966, pp. 602-604), or George Barnwell

Notes

See also:
A just account of the horrid contrivance of John Cupper, and Judith Brown his servant, in poysoning his wife. [microform] Who were tryed at the assizes held at Shrewsbury; Cupper to be hang'd in chains, and Judith Brown to be burnt. Together with their dying confessions. Published by me William Smith, rector of Bitterley, their minister, to prevent false reports. (NLA, copy of BL and Bodleian originals, on EEBO)
PepysC_2_151_2448x2448.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:27 +1000