Elizabeth Gaunt (died 23 October 1685) was an English woman sentenced to death for treason after having been convicted for involvement in the

Rye House Plot The Rye House Plot of 1683 was a plan to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother (and heir to the throne) James, Duke of York. The royal party went from Westminster to Newmarket to see horse races and were expected to make the ...

. She was the last woman executed for a political crime in England. Gaunt was an Anabaptist shop-keeper in London. She and her husband William lived in the parish of St Mary,

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

. They were involved in Whig politics. She was the daughter of Anthony Fothergill of Brownber,

Ravenstonedale Ravenstonedale is a village and large civil parish in Cumbria, on the watershed between the River Lune and River Eden. The village lies south west of Kirkby Stephen. The parish includes the village of Newbiggin-on-Lune and several smaller sett ...

, and was well known to give shelter to persecuted people, such as victims of religious and political oppression. According to

Bishop Burnet Gilbert Burnet (18 September 1643 – 17 March 1715) was a Scottish philosopher and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was highly respected as a cleric, a preacher, an academic, ...

, she spent "her life in acts of charity, visiting the

gaol A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, English language in England, standard English, Australian English, Australian, and Huron Historic Gaol, historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention cen ...

s and looking after the poor of what persuasion soever they were". She helped one of the participants of the failed Rye House Plot of 1683, James Burton, to escape to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

. After his arrest in 1685, Burton implicated her as an accomplice in the hope of saving his life. She was in fact not involved in the conspiracy and the trial against her was seen as a show trial.

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment phil ...

wrote, "He received a pardon as a recompense for his treachery and she was burnt alive for her charity." She was sentenced to death for treason in the Old Bailey on 19 October 1685. Gaunt considered the trial to be a

martyrdom A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

and reportedly behaved with such good humour that the audience was moved to tears. She was executed by burning, and, as she was denied strangulation, she was literally burned alive.

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

witnessed the execution and reported that she "died with a constancy, even to a cheerfulness, that struck all that saw it."''Protestantism, Politics, and Women in Britain, 1660-1714'' by Melinda Zook

References

* http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/burning.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20120425060634/http://www.thegloriousrevolution.org/docs/elizabethgaunt.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaunt, Elizabeth Year of birth unknown 1685 deaths People of the Rye House Plot Executed British people People convicted of treason against England People executed by the Kingdom of England by burning Executed English women English Anabaptists Executed people from Cumbria 17th-century English businesswomen 17th-century English businesspeople