Trials and Sentences of the Prisoners at the Old Bailey

Broadside reporting the trials and sentences of the prisoners found guilty at the Old Bailey sessions in 1827. The broadside reports that the majority of prisoners found guilty and sentenced to death were reprieved from execution. The prisoners included William Harris a sweep aged 16 convicted of stealing a watch, three Jewish boys Isaacs, Barnard & Moses found guilty of pickpocketing and transported for 14 years, Elizabeth Ryder sentenced to death but reprieved for assaulting Charles Marsh Pigram and stealing a silver watch.

Such broadsides were popular with Londoners hungry for news of impending public executions in the capital. 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 those due for execution. Criminal and 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.