Deborah Churchill

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. 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. Hunt extracted money from wealthy clients by blackmailing them and whenever Churchill was arrested, he ensured her release by bribing officials. 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. 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.