Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers (18 August 1720 – 5 May 1760) was an English nobleman, notable for being the last peer to be hanged, following his conviction for murdering his steward.

[citation needed] Ferrers had a family history of insanity, 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.

[4] In the following April, Ferrers was tried for murder by his peers in Westminster Hall, with the Attorney General, Charles Pratt KC (later 1st Earl Camden), leading for the prosecution.

[2][a] On 5 May 1760, aged 39, dressed in a light-coloured suit embroidered with silver (the outfit he had worn at his wedding), he was taken in his own carriage from the Tower of London to Tyburn and there hanged by Thomas Turlis.

Caroline Powys witnessed the procession and wrote in her Journal:- 1760 - may 6 Earl Ferrers was carried from the Tower to Tyburn executed by a party of Horse and Foot Guards, a Clergyman and the two Sherifs were in the Coach with him he poor unhappy man was drest in his wedding suit, dating as he himself said his whole unhappy conduct from a forced marriage He observed that the apparatus, and being made a spectacle of to so vast a multitude was greatly worse than death itself the procession was two hours & 3/4 from setting out, the Landau & six in which he was ye Sheriffs each in their Chariots one mourning Coach and a Hearse attended, and return’d thro’ Lincolns Inn Fields about one, I think I never shall forget a procession so moving, to know a man an hour before in perfect health then a Lifeless course, yet a just victim to his Country, for the abuse of [f.7] of that power his rank in Life had given him a Title too, his rank indeed caused his punishment, as the good Old King, in answer to numerous petitions of his greatly to be pitied Family made this memorable speech, “ That for the last years of his Life, he had been beyond his most Sanguine hopes successful, for which he should ever return thanks to God, and on his part he had and always would endeavor to Administer justice as he ought, as Events had shown by the punishment of his most exalted Subjects.” This was a noble answer.

yet none could help pitying this unhappy Lord, his intellects most probably was rather more in fault than his heart in the murder for which he Suffer’d, and had he been low born his majesty would have shewn more Mercy without such strict Justice.