Deborah Churchill
{{short description|Churchill [alias Miller], Deborah (1677/1682–1708), murderer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| birth_date = c.1677
| death_date = 1708
}}
Deborah Churchill (c. 1677–1708) was a British pickpocket and prostitute executed for being an accomplice to murder in 1708.
Life
Deborah Churchill was born in Norfolk to a respectable family in about 1677.{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Alexander|title=A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts and Cheats of Both Sexes: Previously published 1719 and 1926|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HVFGAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA251|year=2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-136-48423-0|pages=251–54}} Her first marriage was with John Churchill, an Army Ensign who died of alcoholism. She had two children by him.
Criminal Career
Churchill later cohabited with a Richard Hunt in London, became a prostitute and picked the pockets of her clients.{{cite book|last=Nash|first=Jay Robert|title=Look for the Woman: A Narrative Encyclopedia of Female Prisoners, Kidnappers, Thieves, Extortionists, Terrorists, Swindlers and Spies from Elizabethan Times to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D9zaCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA80|year=1986|publisher=M. Evans|isbn=978-1-4617-4772-7|page=80}} Hunt extracted money from wealthy clients by blackmailing them and whenever Churchill was arrested, he ensured her release by bribing officials.{{Cite web |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/churchill-deborah-1677-1708 |title=Churchill, Deborah (1677–1708) |website=encyclopedia.com |access-date=21 November 2017}} One account stated that she had been to the Clerkenwell Bridewell 28 times and was once sentenced to New Prison for the theft of 104 guineas. On another occasion, she was liable for a large debt and to escape it duped a soldier into marrying her and on their wedding night escaped; her husband thus became responsible for her debt and she could not be prosecuted.
Murder of Martin Were
In 1708, she was moving through Drury Lane closely followed by Hunt and his two friends, William Lewis and John Boy. She tried to pick the pocket of a merchant, Martin Were, but he pushed her to the ground instead. Immediately the three men reached the spot and on Churchill's insistence stabbed Were. The three men fled to Holland and only Churchill was apprehended.
Trial and Execution
On 26 February 1708, she was ordered to be executed for being an accessory. However, to escape the sentence, Churchill falsely informed the court that she was pregnant. This delayed her execution by seven months.{{cite book|last=McLynn|first=Frank|title=Crime and Punishment in Eighteenth Century England|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xFT3XAcALhgC&pg=PA104|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-09316-6|page=104}} When the court learned of her lie, it ordered for the sentence to be carried out immediately and she was executed in Tyburn on 17 December 1708 before a large audience whom she asked to pray for her. An entry on her appears in The Newgate Calendar.{{cite book|last= Jackson|first=William|title=The New and Complete Newgate Calendar|url=https://archive.org/details/b28774978_0002|year=1795|publisher=Alexander Hogg|pages=[https://archive.org/details/b28774978_0002/page/115 115]–17}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- {{Cite ODNB|id=67090|title=Deborah Churchill}}
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=phVlAAAAcAAJ A pamphlet published after Churchill's execution]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Churchill, Deborah}}
Category:Criminals from Norfolk
Category:British people convicted of theft
Category:English female criminals
Category:English female prostitutes
Category:18th-century British women