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Auction: 5011 - Stamps & Covers of the World
Lot: 628

Crime and Punishment Crimes Conspiracy 1799 (6-7 Aug.) entire letter, with additional letter enclosure, from a prisoner (W.H. Proberts) at Newgate Gaol to Lord Belgrave in Westminster, the enclosure warning of a plot to kill Belgrave which the writer has learned from another prisoner, also included is a letter dated 2nd September from five other signatories (all described as ´printers´) at the prison who confirm Proberts´s story, however the letter´s postscript (which refutes reports of ´our being in the habit of going to get drunk with the felons´) suggests that this matter was more convoluted than immediately apparent – the five men seem very eager to point out that they were housed in a completely different part of the prison from the conspirators and therefore collusion between them was impossible (a strange and seemingly unnecessary statement, especially given that the men were accusers rather than defence witnesses! - and perhaps more pertinently: if the two groups of men had little or no contact then how were they so certain of their accusation?); a fascinating group Estimate £ 280-320

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£190