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Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers (August 18, 1720 - May 5, 1760) was the last aristocrat hanged in England.
The 4th Earl Ferrers, descendant of an ancient and noble family, was the son of Robert, Lord Ferrers, who, in 1711, was created, by Queen Anne, Viscount Tamworth and Earl Ferrers. At the age of 20, he quit his estates and Oxford education, and during the time he spent in Paris he plunged into every kind of excess. Ferrers inherited his title in 1745 and with it he inherited estates in Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire. He resided, however, at Staunton Harold Hall in North-West Leicestershire. In 1752, he married the youngest daughter of Sir William Meredith. Ferrers was also a cousin to Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, the prominent Methodist lady and supporter of George Whitefield, though he was not involved in the Methodist revival.
It was said that there was insanity in his family, and from an early age his behaviour seems to have been eccentric, and his temper violent, though he was quite capable of managing his business affairs. Significantly, in 1758, his wife obtained a separation from him for cruelty. The Ferrers estates were then vested in trustees, the Earl Ferrers secured the appointment of an old family steward named Johnson, as receiver of rents. This man faithfully performed his duty as a servant to the trustees, and did not prove amenable to Ferrers personal wishes. On January 18, 1760, Johnson called at the earls mansion at Staunton Harold, Leicestershire, by appointment, and was directed to his lordships study. Here, after some business conversation, Lord Ferrers shot him. In the following April Ferrers was tried for murder by his peers in Westminster Hall. His defence, which he conducted in person with great ability, was a plea of insanity, and it was supported by considerable evidence, but he was found guilty. According to Horace Walpole, "Lord Ferrers was not mad enough to be struck with Lady Huntingdon's sermons. The Methodists have nothing to brag of his conversion, though Whitefield prayed for him." Ferrers subsequently said that he had only pleaded insanity to oblige his family, and that he had himself always been ashamed of such a defence.
On May 5, 1760, dressed in a lightcoloured suit, embroidered with silver, he was taken in his own carriage from the Tower of London to Tyburn and there hanged. It has been said that as a concession to his order the rope used was of silk.
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