…In King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England, in 1808
No cite, but I remember reading her nine year old brother was hanged at the same time.
Can anyone expand on this?
The crime?
The consequences?
I don’t have any references, but it will most likely have been for stealing. The death penalty was often dished out for offences that seem trivial in our eyes.
Problem is that records from back then aren’t so good. She may have been sentenced to death but the sentence may not have actually been carried out. Children were always being sentenced to death.
This discussion mentions the girl in passing…
As Mangetout says, it was usually for property offences but there were a whole range of other things that could get you a death sentence.
Charles Dickens crusaded against the bloody code and wrote Great Expectations as part of his crusade.
As regards the girl, This site gives an account of an oddly similar story but this time it is a 7 year old boy and his 11 year old sister who are hanged. This takes place in 1708 rather than 1808. But it does also happen in Kings Lynn.
It sounds suspiciously similar to me.
Having read your links, I make you right on that one… seems like an early urban myth.
Even though, as you say, capital punishment was widespread in those days I would have thought that hanging a seven year old would have caused outrage in some circles at the time.
I’m sure I heard of it originally (Sorry, no cite) from a Seventies edition of ‘The Guinness Book Of Records’.
The lack of any mention in
The Newgate Calendar I found strange.
I doubt that hanging a 7 year old for a crime would have been seen as an outrage in any circle back then.
What is that term when one allocates cultural norms upon other cultures?
Cultural relativity.
“Nobody was quite sure how many there were, but they included such crimes as stealing turnips, associating with gypsies, cutting down a tree, damaging a fishpond, writing threatening letters”
Wonder what happened to gypsies who associated with other gypsies…
Not ethnocentrism?
Ethnocentrism is pride in one’s culture or ethnicity over another’s, but not necessarily forcing it upon others.
An example would be the highly xenophobic and ethnocentric Chinese of the Medieval Era. Their “Celestial Empire” was in their eyes far superior to that of any other but rarely if ever did they ever attempt to force any aspect of their culture among those barbaric Westerners, aside from forcing them to trade only at Guangzhou. If I still had my old Traditions & Encounters textbook, I could find the title of a rather humorous letter written by some Chinese ruler or another to the Kind of England fobbing him off when he asked for trading priviledges at ports other than Guangzhou.
I’m now bracing for a powerful rebuttal proving me wrong. 
If true, this was less than 200 years ago.
My grandfather was born just 80 years later.
It is part of my culture, I’ve probably met people who’ve met people who were alive when/if it happened.
The fact that I’ve heard of the ‘case(s)’ should confirm that it wasn’t a run-of-the-mill event.
Then again, it was (allegedly) in Norfork…
Quite right, but nobody was talking about forcing values upon others. We, when looking at a case of a 7 YO girl being executed, tend to think that it is barbaric. Meaning that we, ourselves, wouldn’t ever do such a thing, and shame on those unenlightened bruts that do.
To me, that is the working definition of ethnocentrism. We are saying that our way (not executing children) is best, and your way (executing children) is wrong and misguided.
I have trouble believing that. Things I’ve read that are about the 11-1200’s have mentioned people being horrified about things done to young children, including blinding and hanging. Though these particular children were hostages, it seemed to be more their youth that was objectionable, rather than their innocence, since similar things done to adult hostages didn’t earn as much scorn and horror.
This hanging would be legal in the United States under current law.
Well, I’m figuring that most of the victims would be really poor lower class street urchins-NOT little Miss Nellie Olsen with the pink bow in her hair.
Hanging a seven-year old girl for stealing would be legal under current United States law? Which United States would these be, dear heart?
It’s true, Eve. This is from today’s Police Blotter section of the SF Chronicle:
[sub]
Today’s Public Hangings
Julia Pfieiffer, dob 06/13/96, theft of apples
Matt Davis, dob 08/18/93, possession of stolen matchsticks
Bob Middagh, dob 12/25/92, shoplifting boot polish
[/sub]
Cite?
We may execute mentally retarded individuals 16 years of age in these United States, but I sincerely believe that we don’t impose the death penalty on individuals under 12 under any circumstances.
What I believe Dr. Paprika is getting at is that most states do not actually have laws on the books regarding the sentencing of minors. The legality of sentences for minors is based on judicial precedent rather than statute.
However, the chances of a prosecutor seeking the death penalty for a seven year old girl and the judge not throwing the case out, AND the jury unanimously (outside Louisiana) determining that a seven year old deserved to die are perhaps not very high.
People, of any age, are not put to death in the United States for stealing.
Yet.