Life, Trial, Execution of John Barrett, For Embezzling at the General Post Office. Together With The Copy of a Letter Which he Sent to his Wife

Execution broadside printed with an account of the crimes, trial and execution of John Barrett convicted of embezzling the General Post Office. Printed by John Vandenburg Quick the broadside includes a generic woodcut engraving of the Newgate gallows with a crowd of spectators and a transcript of the dying confessional letter written by Barrett to his wife before his execution. Barrett, aged 24, was indicted with William Kay, aged 14, on a number of charges of stealing letters, including money, from the General Post Office where Barrett worked. However, Kay was acquitted and Barrett was found guilty, although not of all the crimes, and sentenced to death.

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 spectators. 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 often be quickly changed to accommodate 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.