Timeline of capital punishment in Britain.

Hanging has been the principal form of execution in Britain since the 5th Century, although other methods such as drowning, burial alive, hurling from cliffs, beheading, boiling alive, burning at the stake and shooting have been used at various times.

• 5th Century. Hanging first introduced as a method of execution in Anglo-Saxon Britain.
• 1196. William Fitz Osbert became the first to hang at Tyburn (for sedition).
• 1212. King John is reputed to have ordered the hanging of 28 young men and boys at Nottingham Castle. They were the sons of rebel Welsh chieftains whom he had taken hostage.
• Circa 1540, during the reign of Henry VIII, there were 11 capital crimes defined : High treason, including counterfeiting coin, petty treason, murder, rape, piracy, arson of a dwelling house or barn with corn in it, highway robbery, embezzling ones master’s goods, horse theft, robbing churches and robbing a person in a dwelling house.
• 1st of June 1571. The "Triple Tree" introduced as a permanent gallows at Tyburn - for the execution of John Storey who was hanged, drawn and quartered for treason.
• 23rd of June 1649. 23 men and one woman executed at Tyburn for burglary and robbery requiring 8 carts. This was almost certainly the largest number of ordinary criminals put to death in a single execution in Britain.
• 1671. The Coventry Act made it a capital crime to lie in wait with intent to put out an eye, disable the tongue or slit the nose. It came into being after Sir John Coventry had been attacked in Covent Garden and had his nose slit.
• 25th August 1682. The Bideford Witches, Temperance Lloyd, Susanna Edwards & Mary Trembles were hanged for witchcraft at Heavitree gallows Exeter. These were the last confirmed witchcraft executions in England.
• 26th August 1685. The "Bloody Assizes" began in the aftermath of the Monmouth Rebellion. Some 320 people were executed as a result. The men being mainly hanged, drawn and quartered. The first execution was that of 67 year old Lady Alice Lisle who was beheaded for treason at Winchester on the 2nd of September having been convicted of sheltering two traitors.
• 1699. The Shoplifting Act defined shoplifting to the value of 5 shillings (25 pence) as a capital crime.
• 1706. Abolition of literacy test for Benefit of Clergy.
• 1708. Michael Hammond aged 7 and his sister aged 11 were reputedly hanged at Lynn for felony. If true, Michael would have been the youngest person ever to suffer the death penalty in Britain. It seems that their ages were given incorrectly although both were quite young.
• 1712. Jane Wenham becomes the last woman to be convicted of witchcraft at Hertford. She was later reprieved.
• 1713. An Act of Parliament of this year made stealing from a dwelling house in the value of 40 shillings (£2) a capital crime.
• 1717. Transportation to the Colonies (America) came into use but ceased in 1775 due to the American War of Independence, being restarted in 1787 when prisoners were first sent to Australia. The number of executions rose sharply during the years from 1775 – 1786.
• May 1723. The Waltham Black Act made poaching and damage to forests and parks a hanging offence. Over the next few years, its wide provisions increased the number of capital crimes from 30 to 150. These extended to such "appalling crimes" as blacking the face or using a disguise whilst committing a crime.
• 1736. Witchcraft ceases to be a capital crime.
• 1752. Under the Murder Act of 1752. A person convicted of murder was to be hanged within 48 hours, unless that would have been a Sunday in which case the execution was carried out on the following Monday. This Act mandated the dissection or gibbeting of the murderer's body after execution. Gibbeting was not applied to women prisoners.
• 22nd of June 1752. 17 year old murderer, Thomas Woolford, became the first person to be hanged (at Tyburn) and then dissected (anatomised) at Surgeon's Hall.
• 5th of May 1760. Lawrence Shirley the Fourth Earl of Ferrers is hanged at Tyburn for the murder of a servant using the "New Drop" for the first time. (The only Peer of the Realm to hang for murder) The "Triple Tree" was removed from Tyburn and replaced with a portable gallows.
• 7th of November 1783. John Austin becomes the last person to be hanged at Tyburn (for highway robbery).
• 9th of December 1783. First hangings outside at Newgate (in the Old Bailey). Edward Dennis and William Brunskill hanged 9 men and a woman at once on the "New Drop." It was quite usual to hang prisoners in large batches at this time, men and women together. The largest number executed in one day was on the 2nd of February 1785 when 20 men were hanged in two batches for a variety of offences, none of them murder.
• 8th of March 1784. Mary Bailey becomes the last person to be burned at the stake for Petty Treason (the murder of her husband).
• 1787. Transportation resumes, this time to Australia and is used to commute the death sentence for many capital felonies. In the decade 1784 -1793, there were 434 hangings ordered by the London and Middlesex Sessions (which became the Old Bailey). In the next 10 years, this dropped to 165 and to 119 in the decade. It is estimated that some 150,000 people were transported to Australia.
  1804 -1813. Prisoners convicted of a first time felony (other than murder, coining forgery and arson) frequently had their death sentences commuted to transportation and this practice carried on until 1867 by which time no one was hanged for a crime other than murder. The minimum time of transportation was two years, however, criminals could also be sentenced to 5, 7, 10, 14, 20 or 21 years or for life. Only about 5% of those sentenced to transportation actually ever returned to Britain. Transportation was formally abolished in 1887.
• 18th of March 1789. The last burning at the stake took place at Newgate when Catherine (or Christian) Murphy was executed for High Treason coining. (see Burning at the stake)
• 5th of June 1790. Burning at the stake for women convicted of High Treason and Petty Treason abolished.
• 1793. Burning at the stake as the punishment for Petty Treason (the murder by a woman of her husband) was abolished and replaced by hanging.
• 1810. English and Welsh law listed 222 capital felonies at this time. This huge number is reached because English law subdivided many offences, e.g. there were at least 7 forms of capital arson defined. In practice, there were only about 20 offences for which people were actually executed.
• From at least 1800, judges had discretion to commute death sentences, e.g. to transportation. Scottish law had just 16 capital offences, although these were only reduced to 4 in 1887. At the Old Bailey, only murderers could be reprieved by judges. All others were dealt with by the Privy Council. In the Assizes courts, judges could offer commutation to all condemned criminals. In all cases, the condemned could petition the Monarch, but there was far too little time for this to succeed normally.
• 1814. The last hanging under the "Waltham Black Acts" took place on the 12th of August 1814 when William Potter was hanged for the crime of cutting down an orchard. Even the judge petitioned for a reprieve! The Black Acts were all but repealed in 1823.
• 1st of May 1820. Last hanging drawing and quartering - that of the Cato Street conspirators for treason outside Newgate. (See hanged, drawn and quartered) They were in fact only drawn to the gallows and then hanged and beheaded, the quartering being omitted.
• 27th of November 1822. Last hanging for stealing in a shop (shoplifting) William Reading at Newgate.
• 1823. It is probable that the death penalty for shoplifting was abolished in this year.
• 1825. The crime of Petty Treason was abolished, the offence being reclassified as ordinary murder.
• 31st of December 1829. Last hanging for forgery - Thomas Maynard at Newgate. This crime was reclassified as non capital in 1832.
• 16th of December 1830. Last hangings at Execution Dock, Wapping - George Davis and William Watts executed for piracy.
  In all, 26 men were hanged at Execution Dock during the 19th century, mainly for murder and piracy, after conviction in the High Court of the Admiralty.
• 1831. A boy of just 9 was reputed to have been hanged at Chelmsford for arson. However, it is probable that William Jennings was in fact 19. There is little evidence of young children actually being hanged in the 19th century, although they were regularly sentenced to death up to 1836/7.
• 1st of August 1832. The Anatomy Act becomes law ending the dissection of murderers. At the same time, it was enacted that the bodies of those executed “shall be buried within the precincts of the prison in which they were last confined.”
• 10th of August 1832. James Cook was the last man to be hanged and gibbeted for murder at Leicester.
• 26th of July 1833. Last hanging of a juvenile – Thomas Knapton, aged 17, is hanged for the rape of 19 year old Frances Elstone
• 1832-1837. Sir Robert Peel's government introduced various Bills to reduce the number of capital crimes. Shoplifting, sheep, cattle and horse stealing removed from the list in 1832, followed by sacrilege, letter stealing, returning from transportation (1834/5), forgery and coining (1836), arson, burglary and theft from a dwelling house (1837), rape (1841) and finally attempted murder in 1861.
  The last hangings for robbery took place at Shrewsbury on the 13th of August 1836 when Lawrence Curtis and Patrick and Edward Donnelly were executed. The last hanging for arson was that of Daniel Case at Ilchester in Somerset on the 31st of August 1836.
• 1834. Hanging in chains or gibbet irons after death was finally abolished.
• 1836. The Murder Act of 1752 was repealed. A period of 14 – 27 days between sentence and execution became normal.
• 1836. The Prisoner’s Counsel Act required there be proper defence counsel for those charged with serious crimes.
• 1837. Capital punishment remains available for only 16 crimes.
• 1837. The Record's Report was abolished and Old Bailey judges could commute the sentence of death on non murderers.
• 1837. The Piracy Act imposes the death penalty for offences of piracy involving "assault with intent to murder." It was last used in 1860, although 5 men were to be hanged at Newgate for murder and piracy on the 22nd of February 1864.
• 1843. The M’Naghten Rules were introduced in the wake of the murder of Sir Robert Peel the Prime Minister’s private secretary by Daniel M’Naghten. These rules gave the first proper legal definition of insanity. M’Naghten was acquitted on the basis that he was suffering from delusions.
• 1853. The Penal Servitude Act of 1853 introduced the modern concept of prison as a punishment in itself rather than merely as a place to hold people awaiting trial, execution or transportation. Section 9 of the Act provided for the freeing on licence of convicts after serving a suitable period of the sentence.
• 1861. The Home Secretary takes over the power of reprieve/commutation of death sentences from the judiciary and Privy Council.
• 1861. Criminal Law Consolidation Act reduced the number of capital crimes to 4: Murder, High Treason, Arson in a Royal Dockyard, (this was a separate offence, not High Treason) and Piracy.
• 27th of August 1861. Last execution for attempted murder when Martin Doyle suffered at Chester. Doyle was hanged after Royal Assent was given to the 1861 Act, however, his execution was legal as the offence was committed and the indictment signed before the Act came into force.
• 22nd of March 1868. Last fully public hanging in Scotland - that of Joseph Bell at Perth.
• 2nd of April 1868. Last public hanging of a woman - Francis Kidder at Maidstone for murder.
• 11th of May 1868. Third reading of The Capital Punishment within Prisons Bill by parliament.
• 12th of May 1868. Last nominally public hanging in Scotland. Robert Smith was executed outside Dumfries prison but the authorities ensured that the public saw very little.
• 26th of May 1868. Last fully public hanging in England - Michael Barrett at Newgate for the Fenian bombing at Clerkenwell which killed 7 people.
• 29th of May 1868. Parliament passes the Capital Punishment (Amendment) Act, ending public hanging as such, and requiring executions to be carried out behind prison walls. However the Act did allow the sheriff of the county in which the execution took place the discretion to admit newspaper reporters and other witnesses, including the victim’s relatives to the hanging.
• Members of the press, the murder victims family and other persons specifically invited by the Governor of the prison and the Sheriff of the county were permitted to witness executions.
• 13th of August 1868. First nominally private hanging : 18 year old Thomas Wells executed at Maidstone for murder.
• 8th of September 1868. Alexander Mackay becomes the first person to be hanged in private in Newgate's new execution shed for the murder of his mistress.
• Debtors Act of 1869 abolished imprisonment for debt.
• 1872. William Marwood introduces the "long drop" for the hanging of William Frederick Horry on the 1st of April 1872 at Lincoln. This method did not become universal until 1877 however.
• 11th of August 1875. Last fully public hanging in the British Isles when Joseph Phillip Le Brun was executed for murder on the island of Jersey.
• 1877. The Prison Act brings prisons under the control of the Home Office.
• 1878. Horsemonger Lane (The County Prison for Surrey) closes and its functions transferred to Wandsworth prison. 131 men and 4 women were executed at Horsemonger Lane between 1800 and 1877.
• 8th of October 1878. First hanging at Wandsworth - that of Thomas Smithers for murder. In all, 134 men and one woman (Kate Webster) were executed at Wandsworth up to 1961 with Henryk Neimasz becoming the last on the 8th of September of that year.
• 1884. The Criminal Lunatics Act of 1884 required the Home Secretary to order a medical examination, by two qualified medical practitioners, of any prisoner under sentence of death, where there was reason to believe that the prisoner was insane.
• 1886. A committee set up under the chairmanship of Lord Aberdare to examine execution procedures and reported in 1888.
• 1888. The Home Office issued a ruling that three clear Sundays were now to elapse between sentence of death and execution and hangings were not to take place on a Monday.
• 1892. First Home Office table of drops issued.
• 1901. Rule requiring tolling of prison bell during executions amended to only toll after the hanging had been carried out.
• 1902. Ending of the flying of a black flag over the prison after an execution.
• 1902. Closure of Newgate prison in London. Male executions transferred to Pentonville prison and female ones to Holloway prison. George Woolfe becomes the last to be hanged at Newgate on the 6th of May of that year for the murder of his girlfriend. A total of 1,120 men and 49 women were executed at Newgate over the 119 year period from the 7th of November 1783 (after the move from Tyburn) to May 1902. Of this total 3 women were burnt at the stake for coining.
• 30th of September 1902. John MacDonald is the first of 120 men to be hanged at London's Pentonville prison. 2 men were hanged for treason (Roger Casement and Theodore Schurch) and six men were hanged for espionage (spying) during World War II. All other executions were for murder.
• 1902. Holloway prison converted to become London's first female only prison.
• 3rd of February 1903. Annie Walters and Amelia Sach, the "Finchley Baby Farmers" became the first of 5 women to be hanged at Holloway. (see Baby farmers) (The others were Edith Thompson, Styllou Christofi and Ruth Ellis.)
• 1907. The Court of Criminal Appeal comes into being in England and Wales. Appeal courts were set up in Scotland in 1927 and Northern Ireland in 1930.
• 4th of November 1914. Charles Fremd becomes the oldest man to be hanged in Britain in the 20th century. He was a 71 year old German born grocer who had murdered his wife at Leytonstone and was hanged by John Ellis at Chelmsford.
• 1908. The execution of persons under 16 outlawed by the Children's Act of that year.
• 1913. Second and final Home Office table of drops issued. This continued in use until abolition.
• 1922. The Infanticide Act of 1922 made the killing of a newborn baby by its mother no longer a capital crime.
• 1931. Sentence of Death (Expectant Mothers) Act 1931. Pregnant women were no longer to be hanged after giving birth. (Mary Ann Cotton became the last to suffer at Durham Castle on the 24th of March 1873, her baby being taken from her before execution).
• 18th November 1932. Last death sentence passed on a juvenile – 16 year old Harold Wilkins for murder. He was reprieved.
• 1933. The Children and Young Persons Act prohibits the death sentence for persons under 18 at the time of the crime.
• 1938. The Infanticide Act of 1922 was amended to remove the death penalty for women who killed their babies in the first year of life.
• 3rd of January 1946. William Joyce - better known as "Lord Haw Haw" hanged for High Treason. Last execution for this offence.
• 4th of January 1946. Theodore Schurch became the last person to be executed for offences committed under the Treachery Act of 1940.
• April 1948. The House of Commons votes to suspend capital punishment for 5 years but this is overturned by the House of Lords.
• 10th of November 1953. Last hanging under military jurisdiction - Private J.J. Itumo of 3rd (Kenya) KAR convicted of murder in Malaya as it was then known.
• Britain’s last double (side by side) hanging took place at Pentonville on Thursday, the 17th of June 1954, when 22 year old Kenneth Gilbert and 24 year old Ian Grant were hanged for the murder of George Smart, the hotel night porter at Aban Court Hotel in Kensington, London.
• 13th of July 1955. Ruth Ellis becomes the last woman to hang. (see Ruth Ellis)
• March 1956. Death Penalty (Abolition) Bill passed by Parliament on second reading. This was also overturned by the House of Lords.
• March 1957. As a half measure, Parliament passed the 1957 Homicide Act. This limited the death sentence to 5 categories of murder which became capital murder, (other homicides were now classified as non capital murder.)
  Capital murder was defined as:
  Murder committed in the course or furtherance of theft.
  Murder by shooting or explosion.
  Murder whilst resisting arrest or during an escape.
  Murder of a police or prison officer.
  Two murders committed on different occasions.
• March 1957. The defence of diminished responsibility is incorporated into English law by Section 2(1) of the Homicide Act 1957.
• 23rd of July 1957. John Vickers becomes the first to be executed under the provisions of the new Act, at Durham prison.
• 22nd of December 1960. Anthony Miller, aged 19, becomes the last teenager to be hanged in the UK, at Barlinnie Prison Glasgow for the murder of John Cremin.
• 15th of August 1963. The last hanging in Scotland, 21 year old Henry Burnett executed at Craiginches Prison in Aberdeen for the murder of seaman Thomas Guyan.
• 13th of August 1964. Peter Anthony Allen (at Walton Prison Liverpool) and Gwynne Owen Evans - real name John Robson Walby, (at Strangeways Prison Manchester) become the last to be hanged. The executions taking place simultaneously at 8.00 a.m.
• 1st of November 1965. Last passing of the death sentence in England - on David Chapman at Leeds. He was subsequently reprieved and his sentence commuted to life in prison.
• 8th of November 1965. Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act passed which effectively abolished capital punishment but provided for another vote on it "within 5 years." Treason, piracy with violence and arson in Royal Dockyards remained capital crimes.
• 16th & 18th of December 1969. The House of Commons and House of Lords respectively confirmed abolition of capital punishment for murder.
• 1971. Arson in Royal Dockyards ceased to be a capital offence, or in fact any specific offence.
• 7th of July 1986. Kevin Barlow (along with Australian Brian Chambers) were hanged in Malaysia's Pudu prison in Kuala Lumpur for drug trafficking, the first Briton to die for this offence.
• 21st of July 1989. Derek Gregory becomes the second and to date, last Briton to hang for drug trafficking, also in Malaysia.
• 10th of July 1992. Anthony Teare became the last person to be sentenced to death in the British Isles for a contract killing in the Isle of Man. The sentence wasn't commuted: the Manx Appeal Court ordered a retrial in 1994, by which time hanging had been removed from the Isle of Man Criminal Code. The new sentence was therefore life in prison.
• 1994. The last House of Commons vote on the reintroduction of the death penalty was defeated by 403 to 159.
• April 16th, 1996. John Martin Scripps becomes the last Briton to hang for murder in Singapore.
• 1998. Death penalty abolished for crimes committed under military jurisdiction.
• 20th of May 1998. On a free vote during a debate on the Human Rights Bill, MP’s decided by 294 to 136, a 158 majority, to adopt provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights outlawing capital punishment for murder except "in times of war or imminent threat of war." The Bill incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into British law.
• July 31st, 1998. The Criminal Justice Bill of this year removed High Treason and piracy with violence as capital crimes, thus effectively ending capital punishment.
• 27th of January 1999. The Home Secretary (Jack Straw) formally signed the 6th protocol of the European Convention of Human Rights in Strasbourg, on behalf of the British government formally abolishing the death penalty in the UK. It had been still theoretically available for treason and piracy up to 1998 but it was extremely unlikely that even if anyone had been convicted of these crimes over the preceding 30 years, that they would have actually been executed. Successive Home Secretaries had always reprieved persons sentenced to death in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man where the death sentence for murder could still be passed and the Royal Prerogative was observed.

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