Prudence Lee facts for kids
Prudence Lee (died 10 April 1652) was an English woman who was executed for murder in London.
She was put on trial for murdering her spouse Philip Lee. Philip Lee was reportedly "a very wicked liver and kept the company of strange women" and habitually unfaithful, and Prudence Lee had stabbed him with a knife after a public argument resulting from her discovering him in the company of another woman at an alehouse in Rotten Row on Old Street.
She was judged guilty as charged. Since the murder of a husband was defined as petty treason, the punishment was death by burning.
She was executed at Smithfield in London on 10 April 1652. She is known as the last woman to be executed in England for murder by burning alive.
Her case was the subject of a contemporary pamphlet treatise, The Witch of Wapping (1652).
