Particulars of the Trials and Execution of Thomas Thos. Maynard, William Newitt, Stephen Sandford, and William Leslie, Who were Executed this Morning at the Old Bailey

Execution broadside printed with an account of the crimes and sentences of the prisoners tried at the Old Bailey due for public execution on 31st December 1829. Printed by Thomas Birt the broadside includes a generic woodcut engraving of the Newgate gallows and the crowd of spectactors. The account notes that Thomas Maynard (aged 36), Richard Hubbard Jones and Joseph William West were all tried for the same crime of forgery. Whilst Maynard was executed on 31st December, Jones also found guilty was transported for seven years and West was acquitted. Of the other prisoners referred to on the broadside William Newitt (aged 36) was executed for sheep stealing. Stephen Sandford (aged 24) and William Leslie (aged 31) convicted of burglary were also executed whilst Robert Dennington and William Williams were also convicted of stealing but reprieved from execution.

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 usually 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 including in this case 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.