50 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 34. 



This proclamation may be seen in Hollinslied and 

 in Camden's Aimals* 



After the death of Queen Elizabeth — 

 " The Family of Love (or Lust rather)," according 

 to Fuller, " presented a tedious petition to King James, 

 so that it is questionable whether his Majesty ever 

 graced it with his perusall, wherein they endeavoured 

 to cleave themselves from some misrepresentations, and 

 by fawning expression to insinuate themselves into his 

 Majesty's good opinion." 



After printing the petition Fuller proceeds : — 

 " I finde not what elfect this their petition produced, 

 whether it was slighted and the petitioners looked upon 

 as inconsiderable, or beheld as a few frantick folk out 

 of their wits, which consideration alone often melted 

 their adversaries' anger into pity unto them. The 

 main design driven on in the petition is, to separate 

 themselves from the Puritans (as persons odious to 

 King James), that they might not fare the worse for 

 their vicinity unto them ; though these Familists could 

 not be so desirous to leave them as the others were 

 glad to be left by them. For if their opinions were so 

 senseless, and the lives of these Familists so sensuall as 

 is reported, np puritij at all belonged unto them." 



The Family of Love, after being exposed and 

 ridiculed both in " prose and rime," finally " gave 

 up the ghost," and was succeeded by another 

 " wicked sect" denominated the Ranters. 



Edwaed F. Rimbault. 



rUNISIIMENT OF DEATH BY BURNING. 



A wonian was strangled and burnt for coining 

 m front of the Debtors' door, Newgate, on the 10th 

 of Marcli, 1789. I believe this to be the last in- 

 stance in which this old punishment was inflicted, 

 at least in the metropolis. The burning part of 

 the ceremony was abolished by the 30 Geo. III., 

 c. 48., and death by hanging made the penalty for 

 women in cases of high or petty treason. E. S. S.W.'s 

 informants are wrong in supposing that the crimi- 

 nals were burnt whilst living. The law, indeed, 

 prescribed it, but the practice was more humane. 

 They were first strangled ; although it sometimes 

 happened that, through the bungling of the exe- 

 cutioner, a criminal was actually burnt alive, as 

 occurred in the celebrated case of Katherine Hayes, 

 executed for the murder of her husband in IT1&. 

 The circumstances of this case are so remarkable, 

 that, having referred to it, I am induced to re- 

 capitulate the chief of them, in the belief that they 

 will interest your readers. Hayes, who was pos- 

 sessed of some little property, lodged with his wife 

 Katherine in Tyburn, now Oxford Road. Mrs. 

 Hayes prevailed upon two men, named Bill ings (who 

 lodged in the house) and Wood, a friend of Hayes, 

 to assist her in murdering her husband. To facilitate 



• It was reprinted in Notes and Queries, Vol. i. 

 p. 17. 



that object, Hayes was induced to drink the enor- 

 mous quantity of seven bottles (at that time full 

 quarts) of Mountain wine, besides other intoxicat- 

 ing drinks. After finishing the seventh bottle he 

 fell on the floor, but soon after arose and threw 

 himself on a bed. There, whilst in a state of stupe- 

 faction, he was despatched by Billings and Wood 

 striking him on the head with a hatchet. The 

 murderers then held council as to the best mode 

 of concealing their crime, and it was determined 

 that they should mutilate and dispose of the body. 

 They cut off the head, Mrs. Hayes holding a pail 

 to catch the blood ; and she proposed that the 

 head should be boiled until the flesh came from 

 the skull. This advice was rejected on account of 

 the time which the process suggested would occupy, 

 and Billings and Wood carried the head in the 

 pail (it was at night) to the Horseferry at West- 

 minster, and there cast it into the Thames. On 

 the following day the murderers separated the 

 limbs frota the body, and wrapping them, together 

 with the trunk, ui two blankets, carried them to 

 Marylebone fields, and placed them in a pond. 

 Hayes' head not having been carried away by the 

 tide, as the luiirderers expected it would have been, 

 was found floating at the Horseferry in the morn- 

 ing. The attention of the authorities was drawn 

 to the circumstance, and the magistrates being of 

 opinion that a murder had been committed, caused 

 the head to be washed and the hair combed out, 

 and then had it placed on a pole and exposed to 

 public view in St. Margaret's churchyard, in the 

 hope that it might lead to the discovery of the 

 suspected crime. Great crowds of persons of all 

 ranks flocked to St. Margaret's churchyard to see 

 the head, and amongst the rest a young man named 

 Bennett, who perceiving the likeness to Hayes, 

 whom he knew, immediately went to Mrs. Hayes 

 on the subject; but she assured him that her hus- 

 band was alive and well, which satisfied him. A 

 journeyman tailor, named Patrick, also went to see 

 the head, and on his return told his fellow work- 

 men that it was Hayes. These workmen, who also 

 had known Hayes, then went to look at the head, 

 and felt the same conviction. It happened that 

 Billings worked at the same shop in which these 

 men were employed in Monmouth Street, and 

 when he came to work next morning, they told him 

 of the circumstance. Billings, however, lulled 

 their suspicions by declaring that he had left Mr. 

 Hayes at home that morning. After the head had 

 been exhibited for four days in the churchyard, 

 the magistrates caused it to be jjlaced in spirits, in 

 a glass vessel, and in that state it continued to be 

 exposed to public view. Two friends of Hayes, 

 named Ashley and Longmore, who had seen the 

 head without imagining that it was his, some time 

 after called on Mrs. Hayes, on separate occasions, 

 to inquire for her husband, whose absence began 

 to be noticed. Ashley and Longmore were mutual 



