Execution of James Any Bird Bell, at Maidstone, for Murder.
The Execution of a Teenage Murderer [Broadside]. [Execution]. Bell, John Any Bird [d.1831]. Execution of James Any Bird Bell, At Maidstone, For Murder. [London]: J. Catnach, Printer, [1831]. 15" x 10" broadside hinged (with two small circular stickers at top-edge) onto 24" x 17" board. Text in two columns separated by woodcut border under headline and two woodcut vignettes, two columns of verse on either side of third woodcut illustration at foot of text. Moderate toning, light soiling at edges, light creasing at head, upper right corner lacking without loss to text, clean tear to upper right corner affecting last letter of headline and border around right image with small hole to border. Rare. $3,000. * Fourteen-year-old John Any Bird Bell confessed to killing Richard Faulkner Taylor, thirteen, presumably for the small sum of money Taylor was carrying home. His younger brother, James (with whom John Any Bird is often confused in contemporary accounts), apparently a witness to the crime, testified against him at trial, where he was convicted of murder. Bell was the youngest person executed in England in the nineteenth century. This broadside appears to be unrecorded. No copies located on OCLC or Library Hub.
Price: $3,000.00
Book number 73870