Execution of Thomas Aikenhead

Date: January 8, 1697 • Location: London, United Kingdom

Scottish student Thomas Aikenhead became the last person in Great Britain to be executed for blasphemy.

Thomas Aikenhead was a Scottish student from Edinburgh, who was prosecuted and executed at the age of 20, on a charge of blasphemy under the Blasphemy Act 1661 and Blasphemy Act 1695. He was the last person in Great Britain to be executed for blasphemy. His execution occurred 85 years after the death of Edward Wightman (1612), the last person to be burned at the stake for heresy in England.