Imagine helping someone, even giving them your life savings, and then having them turn on you to save their own skin. Does this sound incredibly unfair?
This happened to a very saintly woman named Elizabeth Gaunt. Because she was so kind and good-natured she was betrayed and martyred.
This is what happened.
During the 1680’s, several members of an opposing political party plotted to assassinate King Charles II as he passed by a place known as Rye House. Although the conspirators abandoned the plot, they were betrayed to the government. James Burton, one of the men implicated in the plan pleaded with Elizabeth Gaunt to hide him from his pursuers for the sake of his family. Believing that it was what God would expect, she not only helped him escape but she also gave him her precious savings. She was the kind of woman who always helped her friends. Everyone knew that if you needed help, Elizabeth was the one you would turn to.
However in England in 1685, it didn’t matter if you were a kindly old woman, much loved by your neighbors. If the authorities were angry because of your political or religious beliefs, you could face a death sentence.
The government issued a proclamation that any one who gave evidence leading to others who took part in the plot against King Charles II would be given immunity from prosecution. The current king, King James II hated the people who helped the plotters to escape so much that he preferred to pardon the actual conspirators, and to prosecute those who helped them. This does not make sense to us, but James Ii was a cruel and vindictive man. James Burton saw this as a way to save his skin. He made a deal with the authorities: He would testify against Elizabeth, the woman who had saved his life, if they would grant him the promised immunity. The government agreed to this and James Burton won himself a pardon.
Elizabeth Gaunt’s trial took place on October 19, 1685 at the Old Bailey.
James Burton, his wife, Mary, and his widowed daughter, Mary Gilbert, all testified against her.
She did not deny knowing Burton, but she insisted that she did not ‘contrive to send him away’. There were no witnesses in Elizabeth Gaunt’s defense and there was no evidence presented to prove anything disloyal about her other than that she had assisted Burton. Still the wicked jurors found her guilty. They told her, “That you are to be carried back to the place from whence you came, from thence you are to be drawn upon a hurdle to the place of execution, and there you are to be burned to death; and the Lord have mercy upon your soul.”
This was grossly unfair, but King James II and his political allies considered this to be the best way to strike terror in the hearts of their religious enemies. Giving a pardon to those cowards who would betray innocent people was a good way to try and round up all those who had different religious beliefs than the King. It also kept the population in servitude to the king.
Before she was led to her execution, Elizabeth wrote a lengthy letter that told of her innocence. She said in part, “I write these few lines, to signify I am well reconciled to the way of my God towards me, . . and I desire to offer up my all to him, it being but my reasonable service. . . And therefore, let none think it hard, or be discouraged, at what hath happened unto me; for he doth nothing without cause, in all his ways, and righteous in all his works;. . neither do I find in my heart the least regret of anything that I have done, in the service of my Lord and Master Jesus Christ, . . and I bless his holy name, I did but relieve an unworthy, poor, distressed family, & lo I must dye for it; well, I desire in the Lamb-like nature of the Gospell to forgive all that are concerned, & to say, Lord, lay it not to their charge; but I fear it will not; nay I believe, when he comes to make inquisition for blood, it will be found at the door of the furious Judge: . . . my blood will also be found at the door of the unrighteous Jury, who found me guilty upon the single oath of an out-lawd man.” These were the final thoughts of this saintly woman.
On October 23, Elizabeth Gaunt was burnt to death at Tyburn, which was the punishment for treason for women. On the day of her death, the onlookers knew that her sentence was not just, and they wept for her. Elizabeth held up the Bible and claimed that she had aided Burton’s wife and children ‘in obedience to the contents of this book. William Penn, who witnessed Elizabeth Gaunt’s execution, later wrote that ‘she died with a constancy, even to a cheerfulness, that struck all that saw it’. Penn also reported that “she calmly arranged the straw around her to hasten her burning and that she ‘behaved herself in such a manner that all the spectators melted in tears. When the huge crowd, that stood round, saw this foul deed, many wept aloud and uttered lamentations and prayers for their murdered country-woman, and there was rage in their hearts against the men who had disgraced the name of their country and brought this sainted martyr to her death”. Since that terrible day, no woman has suffered death in England for any political offense.
Elizabeth Gaunt’s only crime was to be kind to the wrong person. She was a tender and generous woman and should not have been killed for aiding a poor family.
If our country was in the middle of a political upheaval and the government issued unfair decrees, we may be faced with difficult choices. Elsewhere on this blog, we have told the stories of other women who faced such hard decisions – Corrie ten Boom, Sophie Scholl, Lady Jane Gray and many others. I pray to God that we will have a strong enough desire to follow God’s Word that we will choose to help others even if it costs us a great deal. Elizabeth Gaunt was a fine example of a courageous woman who not only gave all she had to help someone else, but she even forgave the man who betrayed her in a very Christ-like way. I hope that we could all have her courage if ever need be.
