The Ordinary of Newgate, His Account of the Behaviour, Confessions, and Dying Words, of the Malefactors who were Executed at Tyburn On Monday the 5th of this Instant June, 1732...

Bookseller Notes

Newgate was the most notorious prison in London, which for over six hundred years was renowned for its appalling conditions. 'The Ordinary of Newgate was the chaplain of Newgate prison, and it was his duty to provide spiritual care to prisoners who were condemned to death. One of the perquisites of the position was the right to publish an account of the prisoners' last dying speeches and behaviour on the scaffold, together with stories of their lives and crimes. Sold at the affordable price of three or six pence, print runs ran into the thousands. As a result, this was a profitable sideline for the Ordinary, earning him up to 200 a year in the early eighteenth century' (The Proceedings of the Old Bailey [online], 1674-1913). The Ordinary's accounts 'are a valuable source of information about both elite attitudes towards criminality and the lives, attitudes, and dying behaviour of executed convicts' (Ibid.) Neither of these issues is recorded in ESTC, but the 1732 appears in The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913.Both of these issues carry advertisements at the end, the later one announcing the publication of 'Select Trials' (ESTC T82604, total of 8 copies, 4 on either side of the Atlantic). The earlier one advertises 'The Best Water in the World... [for the ] ITCH, and a Panacea, while the penultimate page advertises the fifteenth edition on Onania.