Notes and Queries, Number 34, June 22, 1850 | Page 2

actively engaged in teaching their doctrines. He travelled
about the country to disseminate them; and was likewise author of a
little book, in reply to Roger's Displaying of the sect, printed in the
same year.
At the close of the year 1580 the sect was increasing so rapidly in
England, that the government took active measures for its suppression,
and the Queen issued a proclamation to search for the "teachers or
professors of the foresaid damnable sect," and to "proceed severelie
against them." {50} This proclamation may be seen in Hollinshed and
in Camden's Annals.[1]
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
cleare 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 effect 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, no purity 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.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
[Footnote 1: It was reprinted in NOTES AND QUERIES, Vol. i. p. 17.]
* * * * *
PUNISHMENT OF DEATH BY BURNING.
A woman was strangled and burnt for coining in front of the Debtors
door, Newgate, on the 10th of March, 1789. I believe this to be the last
instance 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 criminals 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 executioner, a criminal was actually burnt alive, as occurred in
the celebrated case of Katherine Hayes, executed for the murder of her
husband in 1726. The circumstances of this case are so remarkable, that,
having referred to it, I am induced to recapitulate the chief of them, in
the belief that they will interest your readers. Hayes, who was
possessed of some little property, lodged with his wife Katherine in
Tyburn, now Oxford Road. Mrs. Hayes prevailed upon two men,
named Billings (who lodged in the house) and Wood, a friend of Hayes,
to assist her in murdering her husband. To facilitate that object, Hayes
was induced to drink the enormous quantity of seven bottles (at that
time full quarts) of Mountain wine, besides other intoxicating 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
stupefaction, 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 Westminster, and there cast it into the Thames. On the
following day the murderers separated the limbs from the body, and
wrapping them, together with the trunk, in 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 murderers expected it
would have been, was found floating at the Horseferry in the morning.
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