Smithfield was one of the most important locations for
public executions
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
in the medieval and modern
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
. The following people were among those executed there.
Traitors
People charged with and convicted of
treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
(or high treason):
*
William Wallace
Sir William Wallace ( gd, Uilleam Uallas, ; Norman French: ; 23 August 1305) was a Scottish knight who became one of the main leaders during the First War of Scottish Independence.
Along with Andrew Moray, Wallace defeated an English army a ...
(23 August 1305)
*
Wat Tyler
Wat Tyler (c. 1320/4 January 1341 – 15 June 1381) was a leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England. He led a group of rebels from Canterbury to London to oppose the institution of a poll tax and to demand economic and social reforms. Wh ...
(1381)
*
Sir John Bulmer (1537)
*
Ann Bigod (1537)
*
Edward Arden
Edward Arden (c. 1542–1583) was an English nobleman and head of the Arden family, who became a Catholic martyr.
Arden lived in Park Hall, Castle Bromwich, an estate near modern-day Birmingham. He was a recusant Catholic and kept a priest, Hugh ...
(1583), beheaded; his head put on
London Bridge
Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...
and his body quartered and placed on the city's gates
[Chalmers' General Biographical Dictionary]
Heretics
People charged with and convicted of
heresy
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
:
*
William Sawtrey
William Sawtrey, also known as William Salter (died March 1401) was an English Roman Catholic priest and Lollard martyr. He was executed for heresy.
Sawtrey was born in Norfolk, England. He was a follower of John Wycliffe, the leader of an early ...
(1401)
*
John Badby
John Badby (1380–1410), one of the early Lollard martyrs, was a tailor (or perhaps a blacksmith) in the west Midlands, and was condemned by the Worcester diocesan court for his denial of transubstantiation.
Badby bluntly maintained that when C ...
(1410)
*
Thomas Bagley (1431)
*
Richard Bayfield
Richard Bayfield (died 27 November 1531) was an English Protestant martyr.
A graduate of the University of Cambridge, he became a Benedictine monk and Chamberlain of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. At some time in 1522, an Augustinian rector at Cam ...
(1531)
* John Tewkesbury (1531)
*
James Bainham
James Bainham (died 30 April 1532) was an English lawyer and Protestant reformer who was burned as a heretic in 1532.
Life
According to John Foxe he was a son of Sir Alexander Bainham, who was sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1497, 1501, and 1516; a ...
(1532)
*
John Frith (1533)
* Andrew Hewet (1533)
*
John Lambert John Lambert may refer to:
*John Lambert (martyr) (died 1538), English Protestant martyred during the reign of Henry VIII
*John Lambert (general) (1619–1684), Parliamentary general in the English Civil War
* John Lambert of Creg Clare (''fl.'' c. ...
(1538)
*
John Forrest
Sir John Forrest (22 August 1847 – 2 SeptemberSome sources give the date as 3 September 1918 1918) was an Australian explorer and politician. He was the first premier of Western Australia (1890–1901) and a long-serving cabinet minister i ...
(1538)
* Two Dutch Anabaptists, a man and a woman (1538)
* William Collins (1540)
*
Robert Barnes (1540)
*
Thomas Gerrard
Thomas Gerard (1500?–1540) (Gerrard, also Garret or Garrard) was an English Protestant reformer. In 1540, he was burnt to death for heresy, along with William Jerome and Robert Barnes.
Life
He matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, ...
(1540)
*
William Jerome
William Jerome Flannery, September 30, 1865 – June 25, 1932) was an American songwriter, born in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York of Irish immigrant parents, Mary Donnellan and Patrick Flannery. He collaborated with numerous well-known composers a ...
(1540)
*
Richard Fetherston
Richard Fetherston (Fetherstone, Featherstone) (died 30 July 1540) was an English Roman Catholic priest. He was Archdeacon of Brecon"Pedro de Ribadeneyra’s 'Ecclesiastical History of the Schism of the Kingdom" p303: Leiden, Brill, 1683 and Cha ...
(1540)
*
Edward Powell
Edward Powell (c.1478 – 30 July 1540) was a Welsh Roman Catholic priest and theologian, in opposition to Henry VIII of England. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1886.
Life
Powell was born in Wales. He was M.A. of the University of Oxf ...
(1540)
*
Thomas Abel
Thomas Abel (or Abell) (ca. 1497 – 30 July 1540) was an English priest who was martyred during the reign of Henry VIII. The place and date of his birth are unknown.
He was educated at Oxford, where in 1516 he took the degree of Master of ...
(1540)
*
Anne Askew
Anne Askew (sometimes spelled Ayscough or Ascue) married name Anne Kyme, (152116 July 1546) was an English writer, poet, and Anabaptist preacher who was condemned as a heretic during the reign of Henry VIII of England. She and Margaret Chey ...
(1546)
*
Nicholas Belenian
Anne Askew (sometimes spelled Ayscough or Ascue) married name Anne Kyme, (152116 July 1546) was an English writer, poet, and Anabaptist preacher who was condemned as a heretic during the reign of Henry VIII of England. She and Margaret Cheyne ...
(1546)
*
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
(1546)
*
John Lascelles
John Lassells (also Lascelles; died 1546) was an English sixteenth-century courtier and Protestant martyr. His report to Archbishop Thomas Cranmer initiated the investigation which led to the execution of Queen Catherine Howard.
Life
Lassells was ...
(1546)
*
Joan Bocher
Joan Bocher (died 2 May 1550 in Smithfield, London) was an English Anabaptist burned at the stake for heresy during the English Reformation in the reign of Edward VI. She has also been known as Joan Boucher or Butcher, or as Joan Knell or Joan of ...
(1550)
*
John Rogers (1555)
*
Thomas Tomkins
Thomas Tomkins (1572 – 9 June 1656) was a Welsh-born composer of the late Tudor and early Stuart period. In addition to being one of the prominent members of the English Madrigal School, he was a skilled composer of keyboard and consort mus ...
(1555)
*
John Cardmaker (1555)
*
John Warne
John Warne is an American musician who has been active since 1996. He is best known for being the bassist for the Christian rock band Relient K as well as being a founding member of the Christian punk band Ace Troubleshooter. His hometown is Min ...
(1555)
*
John Bradford
John Bradford (1510–1555) was an English Reformer, prebendary of St. Paul's, and martyr. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London for alleged crimes against Queen Mary I. He was burned at the stake on 1 July 1555.
Life
Bradford was born i ...
(1555)
*
John Leaf (1555)
*
John Philpot
John Philpot (1516–16 January 1557) was an Archdeacon of Winchester and an English Protestant martyr whose story is recorded in ''Foxe's Book of Martyrs''. He was the third son of Sir Peter Philpot and was born at Compton, Hampshire, in 1516 ...
(1555)
*
Thomas Whittle (1556)
*
Bartholomew Green (1556)
*
Thomas Brown (1556)
*
John Tudson (1556)
*
John Went (1556)
*
Isobella Forster (1556)
*
Joan Lushford (1556)
*
William Tyms, burnt 24 April (1556)
*
Robert Drake, burnt 24 April (1556)
*
Richard Spurge, burnt 24 April (1556)
*
Thomas Spurge, burnt 24 April (1556)
*
George Ambrose, burnt 24 April (1556)
*
John Cavel, burnt 24 April (1556)
*
John Rough (1557)
*
Robert Southain (1558)
*
Roger Holland (1558)
*
Nicholas Horner (1590)
*
Bartholomew Legate
Bartholomew Legate (c. 157518 March 1612) was an English anti-Trinitarian martyr.
Legate was born in Essex and became a dealer in cloth. This also cites:
* T. Fuller, ''Church History of Britain'' (1655)
*S. R. Gardiner, ''History of England'', ...
(1612)
References
{{reflist
Smithfield
People executed by the Kingdom of England
Smithfield, London