Lincoln's Inn Fields

Lincoln's Inn Fields is London's largest public square, originally medieval cattle pasture that became famous as the site of high-profile political executions. In 1586, Anthony Babington was executed at the site for plotting against Queen Elizabeth I, and on July 21, 1683, Lord William Russell was beheaded there by Jack Ketch. Furthermore, the Bank of England charter was sealed at number 66 in 1694.

London Β· from the walk β€œBeneath the Bar: Lincoln's Inn & Legal London” Β· audio ~3 min Β· Generated

Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PL

Who was executed by Jack Ketch in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1683?

Take a deep breath. You're standing in Lincoln's Inn Fields... London's largest public square. It looks peaceful now, doesn't it? Office workers eating their lunch on the benches. People playing tennis on those courts over there. But beneath these manicured lawns lies a history soaked in blood and betrayal.......... What were these grounds before they became a grand square? Just two muddy fields... called Cup Field and Purse Field... used as rough cattle pasture since the Middle Ages. Turnstiles were placed around the area to let pedestrians pass through without the animals escaping, and remarkably, some of those old pathways survive today as the lanes called Great and Little Turnstile.......... In fifteen eighty-six, this open ground witnessed its first recorded horror. It was chosen as the site for the execution of Anthony Babington and his fellow conspirators, Catholic plotters who had schemed to assassinate Queen Elizabeth the First and free Mary Queen of Scots. Because there were so many of them, the executions took place over two days... and because the conspirators had been known to meet in the area, it was decided this would be an appropriate place for them to die. The crowd numbered in the thousands.......... But the event that Truly haunts this square happened almost a century later. Lord William Russell was beheaded by Jack Ketch on the twenty-first of July, sixteen eighty-three, right here in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Russell was a leading Whig politician, executed for allegedly plotting to murder King Charles the Second and his Catholic brother James.......... Now here's where it gets truly grim. Russell was said to have paid Ketch a generous sum of money beforehand for a quick and painless end. But Ketch was Notorious for his incompetence. He was so inept that he took Four axe blows to separate the head from the body. According to a famous pamphlet of the time, after the first botched strike, Russell reportedly looked up at his executioner and said... "You dog, did I give you ten guineas to use me so inhumanely?"

...... The outrage was so great that Ketch published a pamphlet apologising for it! He blamed Russell himself, claiming the lord had not positioned his head properly on the block. Because of his botched executions, the name Jack Ketch became a proverbial term for death, Satan, and executioners across England.......... But history had the final word. The Whig-aligned William and Mary reversed Lord Russell's attainder in sixteen eighty-nine, declaring him a martyr for English liberty. In eighteen ninety-seven, the London County Council placed a brass tablet in the floor of the shelter in the Fields, claiming to mark the exact spot where Lord Russell suffered... though historians believe it was probably placed in the Wrong location.......... Look around you once more. At number sixty-six, the charter of the Bank of England was sealed in sixteen ninety-four. The square hosted a theatre from sixteen sixty-one to eighteen forty-eight, where John Gay's The Beggar's Opera first performed. From cattle pasture to execution ground to the birthplace of English banking... Lincoln's Inn Fields has quietly shaped the story of this city for over six hundred years.

Nearby stories