For much of the history of our legal system, being brought to trial was almost inevitably followed by conviction and frequently punishment by sentence of death, even for minor offences - as late as 1833, a nine-year-old boy was condemned by the court to be hanged for stealing ink worth only 2d.
The nobility were privileged to be executed quickly by beheading, commoners were strangulated by hanging and frequently their dead bodies were drawn and quartered. Woman were frequently burned alive instead.
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Many accused chosed a horrendous death by "Peine Forte et Dure" rather than suffer almost the inevitable execution and dispossession of their dependents which followed trial.
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HANGING
The last prisoner to be hanged, drawn and quartered in England was executed in 1810 (the quartering of the dead bodies of criminals continued until 1870). Hanging by strangulation was practiced until about 1830 when the more humane method of hanging by dropping through a trap door (which process snapped the neck) became the norm. The hanging of criminals was public until 1868.
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It was estimated that just short of 13,000 converged on Maumbury Rings in Dorchester to witness the execution of the 19-year-old Mary Channings for the murder of her husband by poisoning.
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DORSET
In his later years, Dorset's famous writer Thomas Hardy recalled how in hhis youth he had witnessed a labourer of his own age who was hanged - his friends tying weights to his legs so that he might die quickly as he was so thin.
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