List of people hanged, drawn and quartered explained

To be hanged, drawn and quartered was a penalty in England, Wales, Ireland and the United Kingdom for several crimes, but mainly for high treason. This method was abolished in 1870.

Date executed Name Notes
3 October 1283Dafydd ap GruffyddThe last independent ruler of Wales, and the first prominent person to be executed in this manner[1]
23 August 1305Treason in the Wars of Scottish Independence
1318Rebellion and treason[2]
3 March 1323 Andrew Harclay, 1st Earl of CarlisleTreason in the Wars of Scottish Independence[3]
24 November 1326 For sodomy; contemporary accounts differ on whether he died from the full sentence of being hanged, drawn, and quartered
4 July 1381Aftermath of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt[4] [5]
15 July 1381Aftermath of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt[6]
1381–1382 John Buk Aftermath of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt[7]
1381–1382 Richard de Leycester Aftermath of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt
6 May 1382 Aftermath of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt[8]
1388 Thomas UskAccused of misleading King Richard II[9]
1400 Executed for plotting the overthrow of Henry IV of England in the Epiphany Rising
1401 Allowed Owain Glyndŵr to escape capture, and therefore disemboweled and dismembered
1404 John Cerle Killed the Duke of Gloucester and therefore Johannes Cerle was hanged, drawn, and quartered[10]
1459 William Overy Squire to James, Earl of Ormond and Wiltshire, leader of the Irish Lancastrians; Overy attempted to arrest Richard, Duke of York as a traitor to the (Lancastrian) King Henry VI but was arrested himself, tried before the Duke and hanged, drawn and quartered for treason, as the Duke of York was at the time calling himself Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and so an attack on his person was judged to be treason.[11] [12] [13]
1539 The last Abbot of Glastonbury executed on Glastonbury Tor for treason, alongside two of his monks, John Thorne and Roger James who suffered the same fate.
1541 Executed for "Succeeding the King in the Queen's affections" [14]
1550 Executed for leading the Prayer Book Rebellion[15]
1554 Sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered for Wyatt's rebellion, but the sentence was commuted to beheading[16]
May 1554 William Thomas (scholar)Accused of planning to murder Mary I of England
1577One of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales executed under anti-Catholic laws[17] [18]
1577Edmund CampionOne of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales executed under anti-Catholic laws
5 July 1581Miller, known as one of the Wexford Martyrs. Hanged, drawn and quartered in Wexford, Ireland as punishment for aiding the escape of James Eustace, 3rd Viscount Baltinglass and several Catholic priests from Ireland, and for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy.[19] [20]
1 December 1581Catholic priest, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales[21]
20 September 1586Executed as one of many involved in the Babington plot
20 September 1586Executed as one of many involved in the Babington plot
20 September 1586 Chidiock Tichborne
20 September 1586 Henry Donn
20 September 1586 Robert Barnewell
20 September 1586 John Savage
1586 Edward Havington Executed as one of many involved in the Babington plot, part of the second group which was required by Elizabeth I to hang until "quite dead" before disemboweling and quartering after public outcry at the horror of the drawing and quartering of 20 September 1586
1586 Charles Tilney Executed as one of many involved in the Babington plot, hung until "quite dead" before disemboweling and quartering[22]
1586 Edward Jones Executed as one of many involved in the Babington plot, hung until "quite dead" before disemboweling and quartering
1586 John Charnock Executed as one of many involved in the Babington plot, hung until "quite dead" before disemboweling and quartering
1586 John Travers Executed as one of many involved in the Babington plot, hung until "quite dead" before disemboweling and quartering
1586 Executed as one of many involved in the Babington plot, hung until "quite dead" before disemboweling and quartering
1586 Executed as one of many involved in the Babington plot, hung until "quite dead" before disemboweling and quartering
24 July 1594Catholic priest, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales[23] [24]
1595English doctor executed for allegedly poisoning Elizabeth I. Later believed to be innocent.
7 June 1603 For plotting against Elizabeth I.[25]
30 January 1606 For involvement in Gunpowder Plot
30 January 1606 For involvement in Gunpowder Plot
30 January 1606 John GrantFor involvement in Gunpowder Plot
30 January 1606 For involvement in Gunpowder Plot
30 January 1606 For involvement in Gunpowder Plot
30 January 1606 For involvement in Gunpowder Plot
30 January 1606 For involvement in Gunpowder Plot
30 January 1606 For involvement in Gunpowder Plot, but he managed to cheat the executioner by jumping from the scaffold while his head was in the noose, breaking his neck. His lifeless body was nevertheless drawn and quartered, and his body parts distributed to "the four corners of the kingdom".
28 August 1628 Catholic priest, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales[26] [27]
10 September 1641 Catholic priest, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales[28] [29] [30]
30 May 1643 For his activities in the English Civil War
30 May 1643 For his activities in the English Civil War
30 May 1643 For being a priest
1653 Executed for his part in the Irish Rebellion of 1641[31] [32]
28 June 1654John SouthworthCromwell ordered that surgeons sew the corpse back together so that it could be sent to Douai College for burial[33]
7 July 1658 For the plot against the Lord Protector set on foot by agents of Charles II in 1658, and for complicity in which Sir Henry Slingsby and John Hewet were executed[34]
13 October 1660 For regicide of Charles I
1663 Thomas Oates Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot[35]
1663 Samuel Ellis Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 John Nettleton, sr.Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 John Nettleton, jr. Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 Robert Scott Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 William Tolson Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 John Forster Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 Robert Olroyd Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 John Asquith Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 Peregrine CorneyExecuted for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 John SnowdenExecuted for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 John Smith Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 William AshExecuted for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 John Errington Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 Robert Atkins Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 William Colton Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 George Denham Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 Henry Watson Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 Richard Wilson Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 Ralph Rymer Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
1663 Charles Carre Executed for participating in the Farnley Wood Plot
18 January 1676 Joshua TefftUnlawfully fighting with Indians[36]
1678 William Staley First victim of the Popish Plot[37]
1 July 1681 Oliver PlunkettLast victim of the Popish Plot
1685 over 200 Charged with treason following the Monmouth Rebellion, their remains were parboiled, tarred, and displayed on poles, trees and lampposts; only when James II conducted a progress through the area were they removed and buried
16 February 1788 Robert Keon Hanged, drawn, and quartered for murder in a private quarrel[38]

John and Henry Sheares, Irish patriots, were hanged on 14 July 1798, outside of Newgate Prison

1766Nicholas Sheehyan Irish Catholic Priest who was hung, drawn and quartered for supposedly aiding the murder of John Bridges(Though there are claims that Bridges survived) [39]
20 September 1803 Hanged and then beheaded once dead[40] for high treason in the Irish Rebellion of 1803.[41] [42] [43] He was also the last person to be executed in this way

Notes and References

  1. https://books.google.com/books?id=KlfSAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA104 Rishanger, William, 1250?–1312? and Henry T. Riley, Willelmi Rishanger, Quondam Monachi S. Albani, Et Quorundam Anonymorum, Chronica Et Annales, Regnantibus Henrico Tertio Et Edwardo Primo, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores (Rolls Series) 28.2, London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1865, p. 104
  2. Michael . Prestwich . 10.1093/ref:odnb/53089 . Middleton, Sir Gilbert . 2004.
  3. Henry Thomas Riley, Thomae Walsingham, Quondam Monachi S. Albani, Historia Anglicana. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1863, Vol 1. p. 169 https://hdl.handle.net/2027/inu.32000007946074?urlappend=%3Bseq=160 "Deinde tractus, suspensus, et in quartas divisus est; et partes quatuor principalibus civitatibus Angliae sunt transmissae; caput ejus super pontem Londoniarum fixum est, versus partes respiciens Scoticanas."
  4. Aslet, Clive. "Fobbing" in Villages of Britain : The Five Hundred Villages That Made the Countryside. Bloomsbury, 2010.
  5. Randal Bingley, Fobbing, Life and Landscape (Pheon Heritage in association with Thurrock Council Museum, 1997)
  6. cs2 . Prescott . Andrew . Ball, John (d. 1381) . 2004 . 2008 . 22 August 2010 . 10.1093/ref:odnb/1214.
  7. Powell, Edgar (1896). The Rising of 1381 in East Anglia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 1404665. p. 48 https://hdl.handle.net/2027/yale.39002005399267?urlappend=%3Bseq=64
  8. Powell, Edgar (1896). The Rising of 1381 in East Anglia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 1404665. p. 25 https://hdl.handle.net/2027/yale.39002005399267?urlappend=%3Bseq=41
  9. cs2 . Waldron . Ronald . Usk, Thomas (c.1354–1388) . 2004 . 2008 . 22 August 2010 . 10.1093/ref:odnb/28030.
  10. Haydon, Frank Scott, 1822–1887. Eulogium (historiarum Sive Temporis). London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, 1863. Vol 3 p. 402. https://books.google.com/books?id=Ivs9AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA402. "Johannes Cerle tractus, suspensus, et vivus depositus, et tandem ductus Londoniae tractus ibidem et suspensus demum decollatus est atque in quartas divisus."
  11. Web site: History of the Viceroys of Ireland: With Notices of the Castle of Dublin and Its Chief Occupants in Former Times. Sir John Thomas. Gilbert. 24 October 1865. J. Duffy. Google Books.
  12. Web site: The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ireland under the Tudors (vol. I), by Richard Bagwell, M.A.. www.gutenberg.org.
  13. Web site: The Statutes at Large: From the third year of Edward the Second, A.D. 1310, to the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth years of James the First, A.D. 1612, inclusive. 24 October 1765. B. Grierson. Google Books.
  14. Letters and Papers; Weir, Henry VIII, p. 454
  15. Nichols, John Gough (1852). Chronicles of the Grey friars of London. Camden Society, p. 65
  16. cs2 . Hamilton . Dakota L. . Thomas, William (d. 1554) . 2004 . 2005 . 20 August 2010 . 10.1093/ref:odnb/27242.
  17. cs2 . Trudgian . Raymond Francis . Mayne, Cuthbert [St Cuthbert Mayne] (bap. 1544, d. 1577) ]. 2004 . 2008 . 19 August 2010 . 10.1093/ref:odnb/18440.
  18. cs2 . Graves . Michael A. R. . Campion, Edmund [St Edmund Campion] (1540–1581) ]. 2004 . 2008 . 19 August 2010 . 10.1093/ref:odnb/4539.
  19. Web site: Lambert, Matthew | Dictionary of Irish Biography. www.dib.ie.
  20. Web site: Wexford Martyrs: 7 facts about Six Irish Catholics hanged, drawn and quartered by Elizabeth I for treason in 1581. Aidan. Lonergan. The Irish Post.
  21. Simpson, Richard. Edmund Campion: A Biography. New ed., ed., J. Hodges, 1896. p. 457. url= https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b55231?urlappend=%3Bseq=471
  22. Francis Edwards, S.J., Plots and plotters in the reign of Elizabeth I. (Dublin: Four Courts, 2002), p. 164.
  23. Web site: Publications. 24 October 1908. Google Books.
  24. Web site: Oct 25 - The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
  25. Thomas M. McCoog, The Society of Jesus in Ireland, Scotland, and England (Brill, 2017), p. 68.
  26. Arrowsmith [alias Bradshaw, Rigby], Edmund [formerly Bryan] (1585–1628), Jesuit]. 2004 . 10.1093/ref:odnb/699 . 978-0-19-861412-8 .
  27. Web site: "The Lancaster priest executed for his zeal", Catholic Herald, 26 August 2010.
  28. Camm, Bede (1907). "Ven. Edward Ambrose Barlow". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  29. Web site: Blessed Ambrose Barlow, O.S.B. . St Ambrose Barlow Website . 4 August 2003 . https://web.archive.org/web/20030804214618/http://www.stambrosebarlow.co.uk/visitor/html/ambrose.htm . 10 September 2013.
  30. Web site: Tyldesley . PJ . Sir Thomas Tyldesley 1612–1651 . Tyldesley Family History . 13 December 2008.
  31. Web site: BBC - Northern Ireland - A Short History . www.bbc.co.uk . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090101050458/http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/ashorthistory/archive/intro99.shtml . 2009-01-01.
  32. Web site: Sir Felim O'Neill - Irish Biography.
  33. cs2 . Morrill . John . Southworth, John [St John Southworth] (1592–1654) ]. 2004 . 19 August 2010 . 10.1093/ref:odnb/67460.
  34. Ashton, Edward. 2.
  35. Drake, Francis. Eboracum : Or, the History and Antiquities of the City of York, from Its Origin to This Time. Together with an Account of the Ainsty, or County of the Same, and a Description and History of the Cathedral Church, from Its First Foundation to the Present Year. Illustrated with Seventeen Copper-Plates. in Two Volumes. Printed for T. Wilson and R. Spence, High-Ousegate, 1788, vol 1. p. 60. https://books.google.com/books?id=WmVZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA175
  36. Web site: Joshua Tefft. Espy Project Execution Records. 5 March 2024.
  37. Web site: William Staley (Stayley) - National Portrait Gallery.
  38. James Kelly "'That Damn'd Thing Called Honour'" Cork University Press 1995 pp194-196
  39. The Roman Catholic Church – Waterford County Museum Archived 20 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  40. Web site: Irish Historical Mysteries: The Grave of Robert Emmet. 7 May 2013.
  41. Brooke-Tyrrell . Alma . 1983 . Focus on Thomas Street . Dublin Historical Record . 36 . 3 . 107–117 . 30100607 .
  42. Dawson . T. . 1971 . Between the Steps . Dublin Historical Record . 24 . 3 . 65–75 . 30103977 .
  43. Book: Howell . Thomas Bayly . Howell . Thomas Jones . Cobbett's Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason: And Other Crimes and Misdemeanor from the Earliest Period to the Present Time ... from the Ninth Year of the Reign of King Henry, the Second, A.D.1163, to ... [George IV, A.D.1820] . 1820 . R. Bagshaw . 65–75 . en.

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