Confession, Though Not the Dying Speech of Ab Thornton.

1818. Nottingham: Ordoyno, Printer, [1818]. Rare,. Nottingham: Ordoyno, Printer, [1818]. Rare, An Unrecorded Broadside about a Landmark Case [Broadside]. Thornton, Abraham [c.1793-1860]. Confession, Though Not the Dying Speech of Ab. Thornton, Who Ought to Have Been Hanged and Gibetted a Twelve-Month Ago for the Inhuman Rape and Murder of Mary Ashford, Near Birmingham, On the 27th of May, 1817. Nottingham: Ordoyno, Printer, [1818]. 9-1/2" x 6-3/4" broadside mounted to later backing sheet, text in single column below headline. Moderate toning, light soiling, horizontal and vertical fold lines to broadside, a few tiny holes to text and small chip to left edge, no loss to legibility, ink library stamp to verso of backing sheet. Rare. $3,500. * Abraham Thornton, a bricklayer, was accused of the rape and murder of Mary Ashford when she was found dead the morning after a dance where the two had been seen together. Thornton admitted that the two had been consensually intimate, but denied the charges of rape and murder. Eyewitness accounts backed up his story, and in the absence of other evidence he was acquitted of both charges. Public outcry around his acquittal led to Mary's brother William invoking an "appeal of murder." This uncommon legal practice allowed a retrial of a defendant acquitted for murder but, crucially, gave the defendant the right to trial by battle. Thornton invoked that right and was released after William Ashford declined the challenge. (The case resulted in the abolition of appeals by murder and thus the end of trial by battle.) Despite his protestations of innocence, the public was thoroughly convinced of his guilt, as our broadside indicates. After several attempts to find a ship that would take him, he left for America on November 12, 1818. Contrary to the claims of this broadside, he never confessed to the murder. It also records Ashford's epitaph, placed by a local reverend as "a warning to female virtue, and an humble monument to female chastity." The printer of this broadside, "Ordoyno" of Nottingham, is Charles Sambrook Ordoyno (1766-1826) who was a successful publisher and printer in Nottingham, specializing in salacious pamphlets describing trials, murders and hangings. This broadside is rare and appears to be unrecorded. No copies located on OCLC or Library Hub. Not at Harvard or the British Library. (Inventory #: 82024)