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The Cato Street Conspiracy
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At the end of the 18th century
and in the first three decades of the19th, Britain was still
predominantly agricultural. But society was changing. Rural
living was giving way to industrialisation and urbanisation.
To add to these upheavals, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars
- which had lasted for more than two decades - unemployed
soldiers and sailors began to flood the labour market.
This newly industrialised world produced inflation, food
shortages and new patterns of factory employment, and it was
during this time of social change that a climate of discontent
and radicalism developed. A series of riots and industrial
unrest occurred. The government responded with a series of
repressive measures, including the Combination Acts of 1799,
which forbade the gathering of working men with a common purpose.
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Conspirators' Hideout in Cato
Street
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Davidson Addresses
the Court
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In 1820, a small group
led by Arthur Thistlewood, a prominent radical in London, protested
against the harshness of these measures. The group became known
as the Cato Street conspirators, after the street near Edgware
Road, London, where they last met. The group included a man
named William Davidson, a 'Mulatto'
born in Jamaica. Thistlewood's group aimed to overthrow the
government by assassinating the entire Cabinet while they were
dining at Lord Harrowby's home in Grosvenor Square. |
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The authorities received an intelligence report about
the conspiracy and stormed the room in Cato Street. Thistlewood
killed a policeman in the fracas. After his arrest, one of
the conspirators, James Ings, described how the plan was that
he would be the first to enter the room at Lord Harrowby's
house, armed with a pair of pistols, a cutlass and a knife.
He intended to behead every member of the Cabinet, then take
away the heads of Lords Castlereagh and Sidmouth in bags to
display them on spikes on Westminster Bridge.
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'A man of colour'
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The Execution of
William Davidson
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During proceedings
at the Central Criminal Court, William Davidson protested his
innocence. It was argued that the evidence of a man named Edwards,
an agent provocateur, was unreliable. Edwards seems actually
to have instigated the murders, and it was on his evidence that
the conspirators were convicted. A number of other witnesses
provided statements, including John Davey, who confirmed that
Davidson, 'a man of colour', was a cabinet maker.
In his defence before the court, Davidson told the jury '...you
may suppose that because I am a man of colour I am without
any understanding or feeling and would act the brute; I am
not one of that sort; when not employed in my business, I
have employed myself as a teacher of a Sunday-school...'.
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The presiding judge responded '...you may rest most perfectly
assured that with respect to the colour of your countenance,
no prejudice either has or will exist in any part of this
Court against you; a man of colour is entitled to British
justice as much as the fairest British subject'.
When sentences on the Cato Street conspirators were passed,
five of the conspirators were transported. Davidson and four
others charged with high treason were hanged on 1 May 1820.
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The Newgate Calendar states that 'William Davidson
was the son of the Attorney-General of Jamaica and a native
woman of colour. He was sent to England to receive an education
suitable to the rank of his father. In Liverpool he studied
mathematics; later on he was impressed into the king's service.
He received a legacy from his mother of £1,200 and set
up a business in Birmingham. After a failed attempt at marriage
to the daughter of a Liverpool tradesman, Davidson married a
Mrs Lane who was left with six children, two of them being Davidson's
sons.' |
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References and Further Reading
Costello, R., Black Liverpool, Liverpool, 2001
Edwards, P., and Dabydeen, D., Black Writers in Britain
1760-1890, Edinburgh, 1991
Fryer, P., Staying Power: The History of Black People
in Britain, London, 1984
Herzog, D., Poisoning the Minds of the Lower Orders,
New York, 1972
Knapp, A. and Baldwin, W., Newgate Calendar, vol.
IV, pp. 253-72, London, 1826
Wilkinson, G. T., An Authentic History of the Cato Street
Conspiracy (1820), New York, 1972
For more information on Chartism, see:
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/struggle_democracy/trade_unionism.htm
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