Anne Greene — the scullery maid who survived her own execution

Anne Greene, born in 1628 in Steeple Barton, Oxfordshire, was a scullery maid who was hanged at Oxford Castle on 14 December 1650 for the alleged murder of her stillborn child, pronounced dead, and then revived when her coffin was opened before she could be dissected. She later married, had three children, and died in 1659, nine years after her execution.

Key facts

  • Born: 1628
  • Birthplace: Steeple Barton
  • Died: 1659
  • Country: Kingdom of England
  • Occupation: scullery maid

Early life and employment

Greene was born in 1628 in Steeple Barton, a village in Oxfordshire, in the Kingdom of England. In the 1640s, as a teenager, she left her birthplace to work in Duns Tew, a nearby village, where she found a position as a scullery maid in the household of Sir Thomas Reade, a justice of the peace.

The pregnancy and trial

In 1650, Greene claimed she had been seduced by Geoffrey Reade, Sir Thomas Reade’s grandson, who was 16 or 17 years old at the time. She said she was unaware of her pregnancy until she miscarried in a privy at approximately 17 weeks gestation, following physically demanding work turning malt.

At her trial, a midwife testified that the fetus was too underdeveloped to have ever been alive, and several fellow servants reported that Greene had experienced health problems for approximately one month before the miscarriage. Despite this medical testimony supporting her account of a stillbirth, the jury found her guilty of murder and the court sentenced her to death.

The execution

Greene was hanged at Oxford Castle on 14 December 1650. At her own request, friends pulled her swinging body downward, and a soldier struck her four or five times with the butt of his musket to hasten death. After approximately half an hour she was pronounced dead and cut down. Her body was then handed over for an anatomy session scheduled to take place at 130 High Street, Oxford.

Revival and recovery

When the coffin was opened at 130 High Street, those present discovered Greene was still breathing. Physicians set to work on her rather than proceeding with dissection. After 14 hours of treatment she was able to speak again. Within four days she could eat solid food, and within one month she had made a full recovery.

Greene reportedly had no memory of the hanging itself after recovering consciousness. A contemporary observer compared her returning memory to ‘a clock whose weights had been taken off a while and afterwards hung on again.’

Aftermath and later life

Following her full recovery, Greene returned to Steeple Barton. She took the coffin in which she had lain as a souvenir of the ordeal. She later married and bore three children. According to Robert Plot’s 1677 work The Natural History of Oxfordshire, she died in 1659, nine years after her execution.

Her case was recorded in the 1659 English edition of Denis Petau’s The History of the World, and Plot’s 1677 Natural History of Oxfordshire was the first published account to confirm that she had married, had children, and to give the year of her death. A 1982 article in the British Medical Journal revisited the case under the title ‘Miraculous deliverance of Anne Green: an Oxford case of resuscitation in the seventeenth century,’ examining it through the lens of seventeenth-century medicine.

Did you know

  • After recovering consciousness, Greene reportedly had no memory of the hanging itself. A contemporary observer likened her recovering memory to “a clock whose weights had been taken off a while and afterwards hung on again.” (executedtoday.com)
  • The anatomy session for which Greene’s body had been delivered was scheduled to take place at 130 High Street, Oxford. As of the early 21st century, that address houses a restaurant. (theoxfordsausage.com)
  • A comparable case occurred in Oxfordshire about 7 years after Greene’s in 1650, involving another servant named Elizabeth Russell, who also survived hanging. Unlike Greene, Russell was taken by magistrates and hanged again from a nearby tree. (herstoricaltours.co.uk)

Data sources

Data updated: 2026-10-29