York by Summer Strevens

Author:Summer Strevens
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752494364
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2013-06-18T04:00:00+00:00

Quite how Elizabeth was expected to appreciate the ‘spirit of lenity in the common law’ that Sir Henry thought she should is beyond modern comprehension, but the contemporary view of Elizabeth’s crime was coloured entirely by the patriarchal society of the eighteenth century, appallingly unfair though that reality may have been.

Elizabeth Boardingham was not condemned alone, however, as Thomas Aikney, her lover and accomplice in murdering her husband John, was sentenced to death also – but by hanging of course.

Elizabeth’s late husband John Boardingham was no stranger to York Gaol himself, having spent frequent spells in prison for smuggling, leaving Elizabeth alone to raise their five children. In October 1775, still in her early thirties and understandably dissatisfied with her feckless and unreliable husband, Elizabeth ran away to Lincolnshire with Aikney, leaving the care of her children to her husband. However, whether through guilt or worry at leaving her offspring in such questionable custody, within three months Elizabeth had returned to the marital home. The reconciliation was flimsy to say the least, and with Elizabeth’s patience worn through she pressured Aikney into agreeing to murder her husband. On the night of 13 February 1776, Aikney went to the Boardingham residence and stabbed John twice before running away. John managed to stagger out in to the street and, pulling the knife from his body, shouted, ‘Murder! Murder!’ before collapsing dead.

Elizabeth and her lover were soon arrested, and Aikney admitted to murdering John Boardingham but accused Elizabeth of repeatedly coercing him to do so. They were both found guilty and scheduled for execution on the same day. Elizabeth was variously described as ‘showy’ and ‘worthless’, and was somewhat younger in years than her husband, she was also portrayed in the press at the time as a broad, tough woman. When it came to the time of their execution, observers claimed that Elizabeth shook Aikney’s hand as they parted for the last time, although Rede’s York Castle In The Nineteenth Century has an account which states that, ‘An inhabitant of York, who perfectly remembers the occurrence, informs us “That her associate in crime, a very young man, was hanged as an accessory”, and that Elizabeth turned to him and asked him to kiss her at the stake, which he refused.’

The three other cases of women being burnt in York for the petty treason of murdering their husbands before the execution of Elizabeth Boardingham, were those of Elizabeth Webster in 1744, Mary Ellah in 1757 and Ann Sowerby in 1767.

Webster was tried for the poisoning of her husband John and convicted at the Summer Assizes of 1743. However, because Elizabeth was pregnant her execution was held over until after the birth of her son, who was christened William in York Castle Gaol on Michaelmas Day, 29 September 1743. Elizabeth’s sentence was finally carried out on 5 March 1744. There is no record as to what became of the orphaned William Webster. While a prison birth in the eighteenth century was not the most auspicious

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