“He took her with him to Sicily, hoping that a change of scene might wear out the remembrance of early woes. She was an amiable and exemplary wife, and made an effort to be a happy one; but nothing could cure the silent and devouring melancholy that had entered into her very soul. She wasted away in a slow, but hopeless decline; and at length sank into the grave, the victim of a broken heart.”
COLONEL EDWARD MARCUS DESPARD, JOHN FRANCIS, JOHN WOOD, AND OTHERS.
EXECUTED FOR HIGH TREASON.
THE professed object of the plot, in which these misguided men were engaged, was neither more or less than the overthrow of the Government, and the destruction of the Royal Family.
The men, who were found guilty of being concerned in the project, were Edward Marcus Despard, aged fifty, a colonel in the army; John Francis, a private soldier, aged twenty-three; John Wood, a private soldier, aged thirty-six; Thomas Broughton, a carpenter, aged twenty-six; James Sedgwick Wratton, a shoemaker, aged thirty-five; John Macnamara, a carpenter, aged fifty; and Arthur Graham, a slater, aged fifty-three.
Colonel Despard, the ill-starred leader of the conspirators, was descended from a very ancient and respectable family, in the Queen’s County in Ireland. He was the youngest of six brothers, all of whom, except the eldest, had served their country, either in the army or navy.
In 1766 he entered the army as an ensign in the 5th regiment; and he afterwards served in the same regiment as a lieutenant; and in the 79th he successively held rank as lieutenant, quarter-master, captain-lieutenant, and captain. From his superior officers he received many marks of approbation, particularly from General Calcraft, of the 50th, General Meadows, and the Duke of Northumberland. He had been, for the last twenty years before his execution, detached from any particular corps, and intrusted with important offices.
In 1779, he was appointed chief engineer to the St. Juan expedition, and conducted himself so as to obtain distinguished praise. He also received the thanks of the council and assembly of Jamaica, for the construction of public works there, and was, in consequence of these services, appointed, by the governor of Jamaica, to be commander-in-chief of the island of Rattan and its dependencies, and of the troops there; and to rank as lieutenant-colonel and field-engineer; and he commanded, as such, on the Spanish Main in Rattan, and on the Musquito shore, and Bay of Honduras. After this, at Cape Gracias á Dios, he put himself at the head of the inhabitants, who voluntarily solicited him to take the command, and retook from the Spaniards Black River, the principal settlement of the coast. For this service he received the thanks of the governor, council, and assembly of Jamaica, and of the king himself. In 1783, he was promoted to the rank of colonel. In 1784, he was appointed first commissioner for settling and receiving the territory ceded to Britain by the sixth article of the definitive treaty of peace with Spain, in 1783; and he so well discharged his duty as colonel, that he was appointed superintendant of his majesty’s affairs on the coast of Honduras, which office he held much to the advantage of the crown of England, for he obtained from that of Spain some very important privileges. The clashing interests, however, of the inhabitants of this coast produced much discontent, and the colonel was, by a party of them, accused of various misdemeanours to his majesty’s ministers.
He now came home, and demanded that his conduct should be investigated; but, after two years’ constant attendance on all the departments of government, he was at last told by the ministers, that there was no charge against him worthy of notice, and that his Majesty had thought proper to abolish the office of superintendant at Honduras, otherwise he should have been reinstated in it; but he was then, and on every occasion, assured, that his services should not be forgotten, but that they should, in due time, meet their reward.
Irritated by continued disappointments, he began to vent his indignation in an unguarded manner, and thus rendering himself liable to suspicion, he was for a considerable time confined in Cold Bath-fields’ Prison, under the provisions of the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act, then recently passed. On his liberation it was found that his passions were not cooled by the imprisonment which he had undergone; and inflamed against the government himself, he at length succeeded in gaining over to his views others whose causes of complaint were even more trivial than those of their leader. Their proceeding soon became so notorious, that it was determined that the existence of the society which they had formed was no longer consistent with public safety; and in consequence of representations which were made, a search-warrant was issued, which was placed in the hands of the police for execution. A strong body of constables having assembled, they all proceeded to the Oakley Arms, Oakley-street, Lambeth, where they found and apprehended Colonel Despard and about forty other persons assembled in a room together, the greater part of whom were men of indifferent character, and of low station in life. The prisoners were on the following day carried to Union Hall, to be examined by the magistrates sitting there; and in the end Colonel Despard, and thirty-two of his companions, were committed to Horsemonger-lane Gaol to await the final and determinate investigation of their cases before a jury.