Description

[003804] [Cato Street Conspiracy] The Execution and Dying Behaviour of A. Thistlewood and His Unhappy Associates Who Suffered at the Old Bailey on Monday Last, May the 1st, for High Treason. London: Printed By P. Hondy for W. Byers, . First Edition. Folio. Unbound. Broadside. Fair. Single sided printed broadside, approximately 230mm x 345mm in size, n.d. but 1820

Lightly browned and lightly creased, a couple of small holes to text catching letters but with no loss of sense, three words replaced in neat manuscript to first line of text, and date added beneath second column of title, otherwise good

Woodcut illustration to head. Neither the printer or publisher appear in the BBTI

Execution broadside relating the deaths of five of the Cato Street conspirators, who were hanged and then decapitated. The Cato Street conspiracy was a plan to assassinate the whole British cabinet at its monthly dinner. Thistlewood had already been tried for high treason after the Spa Fields riots, but was acquitted after the exposure of an ‘agent provocateur’. The Cato Street conspiracy was similarly exposed to state machinations, the government spy George Edwards, (his memoirs were published later the same year), instigated many aspects of the plot and informed the state about every element

For an excellent modern look at the conspiracy, see Gattrell, Conspiracy on Cato Street – A Tale of Liberty and Revolution in Regency London. No copies located in Library Hub