An Account of the Trial, Execution and Dying Behaviour of Henry Fauntleroy, Esq.

Execution broadside printed with an account of Henry Fauntleroy's crimes, trial and his last days in prison before his public execution in November 1824. Henry Fauntleroy (1784-1824) was found guilty of forgery and embezzlement. A partner in a Marylebone banking firm he forged his clients’ signatures to embezzle funds which he used to finance extra marital affairs. The scandal of his crime attracted considerable public attention in the popular press, much of it favourable to his case and, as noted on the broadside, 13,000 signed a petition to demand his reprieve from execution. Despite the petition and two appeals Fauntleroy was hanged outside Newgate a month after his conviction before a crowd of up to 100,000 Londoners. The broadside includes two woodcut illustrations - one a generic depiction of the Newgate gallows, the other showing Fauntleroy in the condemned cell, his wife and child weeping at his knee. Below the account of the trial is printed a verse entitled 'Prison Thoughts'.

Until 1868 public hangings were a popular form of entertainment for the London crowd. Such occasions provided an opportunity for cheap printers and street vendors to 'turn a penny on the street' by selling accounts of the crimes, trial and 'dying speeches' of executed criminals as souvenirs to the baying spectactors. As soon as the trap fell the street vendors began running amongst the crowd selling the broadsides. Execution broadsides were published by a small number of printers many of whom, such as Thomas Birt, James Catnach and James Pitts were based around the Seven Dials area of London. Spelling and grammar was often poor and the details not always accurate. Although usually printed between the end of the trial and the date of the execution (usually a gap of a few weeks) they could often be quickly changed to accomodate last minute information such as reprieves and dying confessions. The printers often used battered woodcuts, and, for the gallows scene used a stock block with a pierced central section to allow the sex and required number of hanging figures to be changed as required. Female criminals were depicted by using a block for a male figure, cut square at the knee to represent a skirt.