The Trial and Execution of those Unfortunate Men that Suffered this Morning fronting the Debtor's Door of Newgate

Execution broadside printed with an account of the trial and execution of Robert Savage, aged 21 and Joseph Binfield, aged 22, found guilty of burglary and stealing items from the home of Robert Bigg in Islington and also the trial and execution on the same day of James Johnson, aged 23, and Joseph Taylor, aged 31, found guilty of stealing. The broadside includes a 'dying confessional' letter from Robert Savage written in his cell to his Mother and a woodcut engraving representing the gallows and the crowd witnessing the public execution that took place in May 1826. The printer Charles Piggott also issued a broadside recounting the same events.

Until 1868 public hangings were a popular form of entertainment for the London crowd. Such occasions provided an opportunity for cheap printers and street vendors to 'turn a penny on the street' by selling accounts of the crimes, trial and 'dying speeches' of executed criminals as souvenirs to the baying spectactors. As soon as the trap fell the street vendors began running amongst the crowd selling the broadsides. Execution broadsides were published by a small number of printers many of whom, such as Thomas Birt, James Catnach and James Pitts were based around the Seven Dials area of London. Spelling and grammar was often poor and the details not always accurate. Although ususally printed between the end of the trial and the date of the execution (usually a gap of a few weeks) they could be quickly changed to accomodate last minute information such as reprieves and dying confessions. The printers often used battered woodcuts, and, for the gallows scene used a stock block with a pierced central section to allow the sex and required number of hanging figures to be changed as required. Female criminals were depicted by using a block for a male figure, cut square at the knee to represent a skirt.