Farewell to the World of Richard Bishop, Who Now Lies Under Sentence..
Annoyed to Death [Broadside]. [Execution]. Bishop, Richard. Farewell to the World of Richard Bishop, Who Now Lies Under Sentence of Death in Maidstone Gaol, For the Murder of Alfred Cartwright. London: H. Disley, Printer, [1868]. 9-1/2" x 7-1/2" verse broadside. Main text in two columns separated by rules. Some toning, creasing and a few minor stains, contemporary annotations to verso, otherwise fine. $500. * A broadside ballad issued before the public hanging of Bishop for the murder of his neighbor, Cartwright. The murder was provoked by a shouting match between Bishop and another man on a nearby street that woke Cartwright. Irritated, he called the police. Bishop was arrested and an angry Cartwright followed him and the policemen, proclaiming angrily that he intended to press charges against his noisy neighbor. Angered by his taunting, Bishop broke free of the police and stabbed Cartwright to death. Bishop was sentenced at the Old Bailey but hanged outside Maidstone Prison, Kent, 27 days later. It was the last public execution to take place in Kent, less than a month before the last public execution in England, which occurred in London on May 26, 1868. Our copy is probably a printer's proof. It is printed on scrap paper watermarked 1844 and has an unrelated annotation dated 1848 to its verso.
Price: $500.00
Book number 65858