1790: 30 George 3 c.48: The (Women’s) Treason Act.

1790: 30 George 3 c.48: An act for discontinuing the judgement which has been required by law to be given against women convicted of certain crimes, and substituting another judgement in lieu thereof.

[Preamble.]

WHEREAS it is expedient that the judgement which has been required by law to be given and awarded against any woman or women in the cases of high treason, or of petit treason, should be no longer continued: be it enacted by the King’s most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same,

[From June 5, 1790, women convicted of high treason, &c. to be hanged.]

That from and after the fifth day of June one thousand seven hundred and ninety, the judgement to be given and awarded against any woman or women convicted of the crime of high treason, or of the crime of petit treason, or of abetting, procuring, or counselling any petit treason, shall not be, that such woman or women shall be severally drawn to the place of execution, and be there burned to death; but that such woman or women, being so convicted as aforesaid shall be severally drawn to the place of execution, and be there hanged by the neck until she or they be severally dead; any law or usage to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding.

[Women convicted of petit treason, &c. to be liable to the same punishment as persons convicted of wilful murder, as specified in act 25 Geo. 2. c.37.]

II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any woman or women shall be convicted of the crime of petit treason, or of abetting, procuring, or counselling any petit treason, then and in every such case, such woman or women shall be subject and liable to such further pains and penalties as are particularly specified and declared with respect to persons convicted of wilful murder, in an act passed in the twenty-fifth year of rthe eign of King George the Second, (intituled, An act for better preventing the horrid crime of murder); and the court before whom any such woman or women shall be convicted, shall pass sentence at such time, and shall give such orders with respect to the time of execution, the disposal of the convict’s body after execution, and all such other matters and things as are directed to be given by the said act, with respect to persons convicted of wilful murder.

[If, on June 5, 1790, any woman shall be under sentence to be burnt, his Majesty may order her to be hanged.]

III. And be it further enacted, That if, on the fifth day of June one thousand seven hundred and ninety, any woman or women, having been convicted of the crime of high treason, or of the crime of petit treason, shall have had judgement to be burned to death, the execution of which sentence shall then remain to be done, it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty if he shall think proper, by warrant under the hand of one of his majesty’s principal secretaries of state, to alter such sentence, and to order, instead thereof, that such woman or women so attainted as aforesaid shall, in execution of such judgement, be hanged by the neck until she or they shall be severally dead; any law to the contrary thereof notwithstanding.

[Women convicted of high treason, to be liable to the like forfeitures, &c. as heretofore.]

IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid That whenever any woman or women shall be convicted of the crime of high treason, or of the crime of petit treason, or of abetting, procuring, or counselling any petit treason, and judgement shall be given thereon according to the directions of this act, then, and in every such case, such woman or women, being so attainted of such crimes respectively, shall be subject and liable to such and the like forfeitures, and corruption of blood, as they severally would have been in case they had been severally attainted of the like crimes before the passing of this act.

Source: Pickering, Statutes At Large, volume 37.

Further reading: Devereaux, The Abolition of the Burning of Women in England Reconsidered; Wikipedia: Burning of Women in England; Treason Act 1790.