View of the Body of John Williams... S.n., c.1811.
A Rare Contemporary Witness to the Ratcliffe Highway Murders: The Macabre Procession of John Williams. [Williams, John (1783/4?-1811)]. View of the Body of John Williams the Supposed Murderer of the Families of Marr and Williamson, And Self-Destroyer, Approaching the Hole Dug to Receive It, In the Cross Road, At Cannon Street Turnpike. [London?: S.n., 1811?]. 7-1/4" x 9-1/4" (18.5 x 23 cm) engraving, image size 6-1/4" x 8-1/2" (15.9 x 21.5 cm). Moderate toning, 3 vertical fold lines, faint offsetting to image, light foxing near top-edge. Very good. $500. * A remarkably rare, contemporary engraving documenting the macabre aftermath of the Ratcliffe Highway Murders. In December 1811, London was paralyzed by the brutal bludgeoning of the Marr and Williamson families. The prime suspect, sailor John Williams, committed suicide in his cell before he could face trial. Deprived of a public execution, the authorities paraded Williams's corpse through the streets of Wapping on a raised platform to satisfy the baying crowds. This engraving captures the "Self-Destroyer" in his ceremonial finery-a frilled shirt and striped waistcoat-just as his body reaches the "staked" burial pit at the Cannon Street Turnpike. This ephemeral print served as a gruesome souvenir for a public obsessed with the case. While the murders inspired Thomas De Quincey's On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts, contemporary visual records of the procession are vanishingly rare. No copies located on OCLC or Library Hub.
Price: $500.00
Book number 86031