the throat with a knife and disposing of the body down a privy emptying into the River Thames. Contrary to popular assertion, given in two contemporary pamphlets, the child was not strangled by him. The next morning, he returned to Shropshire. When the body was found "by a Strange Providence", Atkinson eventually made a full confession. Foulkes was tried and convicted at the Old Bailey sessions, 16 January 1678–9. After receiving sentence he manifested great penitence, and was visited by several eminent divines, among whom was Gilbert Burnet. William Lloyd, dean of Bangor, who came to him the very evening after his condemnation, managed to obtain for him, through Compton, Bishop of London, a few days' reprieve, which he employed in writing forty pages of cant, entitled "An Alarme for Sinners: containing the Confession, Prayers, Letters, and Last Words of Robert Foulkes, … with an Account of his Life. Published from the Original, Written with his own hand, … and sent by him at his Death to Doctor Lloyd", quarto, London 1679. He speaks of his unfortunate companion with ill-concealed malignity. On the morning of 31 January 1678–9 he was executed at Tyburn, "not with other common felons, but by himself", and was buried by night at St. Giles-in-the-Fields. References 1630s births 1679 deaths English people convicted of murder 17th-century English criminals People executed by Stuart England People executed at Tyburn English Protestant ministers and clergy Executed people from Shropshire People executed by the Kingdom of England by hanging 17th-century executions by England Anglican priests convicted of crimes People executed for murder Members of the clergy convicted of murder