The devastations occassioned by the rioters of London firing the new goal of Newgate

The so-called Gordon Riots began as a protest against the Papists Act, 1788, which was intended to reduce official discrimination against British Catholics by, for example, allowing them to join the armed forces without having to take a religious oath, and to purchase and inherit land. It began on 2nd June when a crowd of 50,000 people, led by Lord George Gordon, marched across London to deliver a petition to the House of Commons. Upon reaching Westminster, some of the protesters started to riot. That night rioters began attacked the Catholic chapels of foreign embassies and to destroy the property of wealthy Catholics. On the 6th June, protestors attacked Newgate Prison where some of the rioters had been imprisoned, and succeeded in freeing the prisoners.

This engraving, an illustration to Barnard’s New and Complete History of England, 1783, shows the prison on fire while rioters, waving hats, bludgeons, pick-axes and a flag inscribed ‘No Popery’, fling furniture onto a bonfire.

The army finally quelled the riots on 7 June. About 285 people were shot dead and another 200 were wounded. Around 450 rioters were arrested and 26 were executed at 13 sites across the capital to demonstrate the re-establishment of state control and reinforce, to all Londoners, the consequences of rioting.