"Two groups of persons who are candidates for the place of hangman. Inscribed labels issue from the persons of four of them. Two men sit side by side on a settee, wearing curiously shaped crowns or coronets, one (left) shaped like a wall. The former holds a paper inscribed "To J------e G------m" showing that he is Justice Gillam, who ordered the soldiers to fire on the Wilkite mob outside the King's Bench Prison on 10 May 1768 (see British Museum Satires No. 4201). He says: "Everyone knows my abilities as a Man-killer". His companion says: "Let the Place be held by Commission and let the two Kennedies & my self, be Lords Commissioners of the Rope". Behind, and to the left of the settee three persons stand together: A rough-looking man, flourishing a stick says: "I wont accept of ye Office without a Peerage to Support its Dignity". Next him is a Judge in wig and robes. On the right., their backs to a window, stand three men; Sir Fletcher Norton in his Speaker's robes, and the horns which indicate that he is 'Sir Bullface Double Fee', see British Museum Satires No. 4238, 4462, and index, says: "B------n S------h has spoil'd ye Trade, if Murderers were to be hang'd ye Place might be worth acceptce". He stands between the two Kennedy brothers and is alluding to the reprieve (for transportation) of one of them, the other having been acquitted. "B------n S------h" may be intended for Sir Sidney Stafford Smythe, a baron of the Exchequer. This reprieve was for the murder of a watchman in a drunken brawl, and was believed to be due to the influence of the young men's sister, Polly or Kitty Kennedy, see 1935,0522.2.2 and British Museum Satires No., 4463. It was made a political question by Parson Horne and others, see Walpole, 'Memoirs of the Reign of George IV', 1845, iv. 110-11; Stephens, 'Memoirs of Horne Tooke', i. 185. 1770."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title from item., Publication date from British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed to and within plate mark., Probably an illustration in The Oxford magazine, v. 4, page 113., Temporary local subject terms: Law: judge -- Law: speaker -- Emblems: crown of the City of London -- Furnishings: settee -- Paddle -- Hangmen: Tom Turlis -- Kennedy Brothers' reprieve -- Matthew Kennedy -- Patrick Kennedy -- Justice Samuel Gillam, Magistrate of Surrey, 1715-1793? -- Nicknames: Sir Bullface Double-fee (i.e., Sir Fletcher Norton)., and Mounted to 13 x 18 cm.
