Plead the belly

Definition

The medieval English common-law principle that a pregnant woman could not be executed until after the birth of her child. A woman convicted of a capital offence could plead her belly at sentencing; if the court’s appointed “jury of matrons” examined her and confirmed the pregnancy, sentence was stayed until delivery. In practice the stay was often a permanent reprieve, as political circumstances frequently changed during the wait and the original sentence was rarely revived. Both Anne Bonny and Mary Read pleaded the belly at sentencing at Spanish Town, Jamaica, in November 1720; both pregnancies were confirmed; Read died in gaol of fever before delivery, and Bonny’s subsequent fate is undocumented.