Elizabeth Butchill

Little of Butchill's early life is known except that she came from Saffron Walden, Essex.^[1] In about 1777, Butchill—unmarried—moved to Cambridge to live with her uncle and aunt, William and Esther Hall.^[2] Like her aunt, she worked as a college bed maker at Trinity College.^[3] On 6 January 1780 Butchill spent the day in bed groaning and complaining of colic. She was tended to by her aunt in the morning and later in the evening. On 7 January the body of a new-born girl was found in the river near the Halls' home on the grounds of the college.^[2] At an inquest, the coroner—Mr Bond—determined that the baby had died of a fractured skull.^[1][2] William Hall believed that the infant was Butchill's and arranged for a surgeon to examine her.^[2] On examination, she admitted that she had given birth to the baby. She said that the child was born alive and that she had thrown her down a "necessary" (toilet) into the river and buried the placenta.^[1]

Butchill was charged by the coroner's jury with wilful murder.^[2] Unusually for an unmarried woman, she was not charged as the mother, that is, under the Concealment of Birth of Bastards Act 1623 (21 Jas. 1. c. 27).^[1] Under this act, it was a capital offence for a mother to conceal the birth of a child.^[1] Butchill was simply tried for murder, and convicted.^[2] Despite pleading for mercy, she was sentenced to death and her body was to be anatomized. She was executed on 17 March 1780 at Cambridge.^[1] According to The Newgate Calendar, on the day of her death, she was "firm, resigned, and exemplary ... reconciled to her fate".^[2]