1556 August 1
Joan Waste was burnt as a heretic in Windmill Pit, on the Burton Road,
at Derby. (She was a blind woman, who, during the reign of Edward VI, had
attended the services of the Church. After Queen Mary came to the throne
she was accused before the Bishop of the Diocese of maintaining that the
Sacrament was only a memorial or representation of the body of Christ,
and the elements were mere bread and wine.
This opinion she was required to renounce; but, persisting in it, she
received sentence of condemnation. After a sermon in the church she was
led to the stake on the Burton Road, and there burned, holding Roger Waste,
her brother, by the hand, praying and desiring those around her to pray.
1608
Woman executed at Tapton Bridge, Chesterfield, the Assizes having been
held at Chesterfield owing to the prevalence of the plague at Derby.
1665 March 14
Woman pressed to death in the County of Derby, as a mute.
(This awful punishment was pronounced on those who refused to plead
and remained mute.
Before the inflection of the sentence the accused was warned three
times of the penalty which would attend obstinate silence, and allowed
a short time for consideration.
If the prisoner still persisted in silence, the Judgement of Penance,
as it was termed, was thus pronounced: "That you be taken back to the prison
whence you came to a low dungeon into which no light can enter; that you
be laid on your back on the bare floor, with a cloth round your loins,
but elsewhere naked; that there be set on your body a weight of iron, as
great as you can bear - and greater; that you have no sustenance save,
on the first day three morsels of the coarsest bread, on the second day
three draughts of stagnant water from the pool nearest the prison door,
on the third day again three morsels of bread as before, and such bread
and such water alternately from day to day until you die".
This is the last known instance of this awful penalty being carried
into effect).
1693
Girl in farm service at Swanwick burnt for murdering her master.
This was the last case in Derbyshire of death by burning at the stake.
1732 March 23
Rosamund Clerenshaw executed for poisoning Hannah Hewitt at Derby.
( executed in her shroud).
1819 March 22
Hannah Docking publicly hanged (aged 16), for attempted poisoning of
another little girl.
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