An Authentic History of the Cato-Street Conspiracy / With the trials at large of the conspirators, for high treason and murder, a description of their weapons and combustible machines, and every particular connected with the rise, progress, discovery, and termination of the horrid plot

by George Theodore Wilkinson

Very early on Monday morning, the bar, which had previously been bounded but by one rank of spectators, was enclosed by a second, and the assembling populace soon began to assume the appearance of a crowd. They stood in immense masses by the time the clock struck five.

An idea partially prevailed, that the area immediately without the rail which encompassed the scaffold, where on ordinary occasions spectators are allowed to stand, would be cleared out when the constables arrived, and this induced many to take their stations beyond the first barrier. This apprehension turned out to be well-founded; and, at a quarter past five, those who had been for hours clinging to the inner rail were obliged reluctantly to abandon the situations in which they had proposed to witness the execution. No exceptions were made; and none but officers, and those engaged to assist in the preparations, were suffered to remain. Compelled to retire from the immediate vicinity of the scaffold, they attempted to take up a position beyond the first rail, but they were again disappointed, and the officers still pressed on them till they had retreated beyond the second bar, which was placed at the very extremity of the Old Bailey, on a line with Newgate-street.

The lamp-iron which is fixed in the wall of the prison between the corner of the street and the Debtor’s door had been climbed by three persons, and that at the corner was taken possession of in the same way. Both were now relieved from the load which they had sustained for hours. The pump, and the lamps above it, were crowded to an extraordinary degree. The situation appeared one of danger, but those who had taken the trouble to ascend it were suffered to remain.

When the crowd had passed the second bar (that which crossed the road from the end of Newgate-street), it was immediately lined with constables. In the opposite direction, a similar course was taken, and a bar erected a little below the Felons’ door precluded on that side any closer approach.

An extensive area was thus taken from the ground which the populace on ordinary occasions are suffered to occupy. The precautions adopted on this occasion greatly surpassed those resorted to on that of Bellingham’s execution; but placards like those then addressed to the populace, warning them of the danger of pressing forward too eagerly, from the more efficient measures taken to guard against the pressure of the crowd, were thought unnecessary.

Between five and six o’clock a great quantity of sawdust was brought out and deposited beneath the scaffold on which the decollations were to be performed. It was shortly afterwards transferred to the top of it, and at the same time black cloth was brought, and the scaffold erected in the rear of the drop was completely covered with it. The posts which sustained the chains above it received the same sable attire; and while these preparations were in progress, every avenue leading into the Old Bailey was carefully secured by strong wooden rails fixed across, and guarded by constables.

At twenty minutes before six, a party of the Foot Guards (sixty-one in number) came out of the prison by the felons’-door; they passed down Brown’s-yard, opposite Newgate, where they were ordered to remain till their services should be required. At the same time, a detachment moved down Newgate-street towards the City, to secure the peace of the metropolis, should it be in any manner threatened.

Before six o’clock, the City-Marshals arrived; and Mr. Sheriff Rothwell made his appearance at the same moment. He was not accompanied by his colleague, the Junior Sheriff. He carefully inspected the preparations for the awful business of the morning. The crowd, before repressed beyond the felons’-door, were about this time compelled to move still lower down towards Ludgate-hill.

Mr. Alderman Wood also arrived on the spot very early in the morning; and, on first going into Mr. Brown’s office, expressed considerable indignation at his not being suffered to commune with the convicts when he called at Newgate on Sunday; stating that the gaol was no longer under the direction of the city, but under that of Lord Sidmouth, orders having been issued from the Secretary of State’s office, to suffer no one to see these convicts, unless by a properly authenticated order.

At six o’clock the constables assembled in immense numbers, and the firemen from the different insurance-offices were among them.