Burned at the Stake: The Life and Death of Mary Channing
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About this ebook
In 1706, nineteen-year-old Mary Channing was convicted of poisoning her husband and became the last woman to be burned at the stake in Dorset. Despite the likely culpability of her lover, and her impressive attempts to defend herself, the jury took only half an hour to find her guilty, having accepted the groundbreaking toxicological evidence by prosecutors. When the day finally arrived, Mary’s execution was made into something of a county fair, with ten thousand spectators gathering to see the young mother consigned to the flames upon the floor of Dorchester’s ancient Roman amphitheater, Maumbury Rings.
More than three hundred years after her barbaric demise, Mary’s fate still holds a macabre fascination, as it did then for author Thomas Hardy, for whom it became an obsession. Hardy recorded the details of Mary’s execution in his notebooks, expressed doubt of her guilt, and used her as the inspiration for his poem, “The Mock Wife”. Yet while Mary Channing has been granted a kind of grim celebrity, as well as an established place in the annals of female murderers, a measure of compelling sympathy for her case is another lasting aspect of her legacy is this “dramatic and fascinating” chronicle of a woman accused (Ripperologist Magazine).
Summer Strevens
Born in London, Summer Strevens now lives and writes in Dorset. Capitalising on a life-long passion for historical research, Summer has embraced writing as a full time occupation. As well as penning feature articles of regional historical interest, her published books include Burned at the Stake: The Life and Death of Mary Channing, The Yorkshire Witch: the Life & Trial of Mary Bateman, Haunted Yorkshire Dales, York Murder & Crime, The Birth of the Chocolate City: Life in Georgian York, The A-Z of Curiosities of the Yorkshire Dales, Fashionably Fatal and Before They Were Fiction.
Read more from Summer Strevens
The Yorkshire Witch: The Life & Trial of Mary Bateman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First Forensic Hanging: The Toxic Truth that Killed Mary Blandy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for Burned at the Stake
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A fascinating, horrific account of the last woman to be burned at the stake in Dorset. In 1706, 19 year old Mary Channing was executed in the old Roman amphitheatre outside Dorchester, for the murder of her husband. Because murder of a husband was considered as a crime against the natural order, she had been convicted of Petty treason, the penalty for which was being burnt at the stake. The author gives a vivid account of her life as a spoilt girl from a wealthy family who loved the high life, partying and dalliance with various men. Her family decided to put her onto the straight and narrow by marrying her to a boring but respectable gentleman, however Mary despised him, denied him her conjugal favours, and went right on spending him into bankruptcy with her love of luxury and partying. Her unwanted husband soon sickened and died, after Mary had been seen to order a quantity of mercury from an apothecary, and she was charged with his murder. In a desperate attempt to avoid execution, Mary "pleaded her belly", revealing she was pregnant by another man, and thus saving herself until the baby was born. However, when the baby was only a few weeks old, she was torn away from it, dragged out to the old amphitheatre and chained to a stake. She was supposed to be humanely strangled before being burnt, but horrifically the strangulation failed, and she was burnt alive. Her tragic story may have been forgotten, but for the West Country's most famous writer, Thomas Hardy, who was obsessed with her story, wrote about it, and turned Mary into the model of one of his characters in The Mayor of Casterbridge. This is a great little book, full of pathos, tragedy, great historical detail and superb writing skill, it is a wonderful account of life in the English countryside of the early 18th century, in all its wonder and ugliness.
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Burned at the Stake - Summer Strevens
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