The Trial at Large of Arthur O'Connor, Esq. John Binns, John Allen, Jeremiah Leary, and James Coigley, for High Treason... on Monday the 21st and Tuesday the 22d of May, 1798, at Maidstone;... By James Fergusson.

Bookseller Notes

'The Binns brothers were closely involved with both Arthur O'Connor, editor of The Press, the semi-official paper of the United Irishmen, and Father James Coigley, a Catholic priest who acted as an emissary from the United Irishmen to both France and the United Englishmen. Early in 1798 John travelled to Kent seeking to arrange passage to France for O'Connor and Coigley. On 28 February he was arrested in Margate, together with O'Connor, Coigley, and their two servants. Charged with high treason, the five were imprisoned in the Tower of London before being tried at the assizes held in Maidstone in May. Leading members of the parliamentary opposition testified on O'Connor's behalf and the government was reluctant to reveal the origins of its secret information on the United Irishmen. As a result all were acquitted, except Coigley, who had been arrested with incriminating correspondence in his pocket, and who was executed on 7 June' (ODNB). Coigley (or Quigley)'s sentence was to be 'hanged, but not till he is dead; his heart and bowels to be taken out and burned before his face, his head to be severed from his body, and his body to be divided into four quarters.' Hanging, drawing and quartering was not abolished in England until the Forfeiture Act of 1870.Various versions of this sensational trial were published in its immediate aftermath, both in England (London and Maidstone) and Ireland (Dublin and Cork). Of this particular edition ESTC records 5 copies, 2 in the UK (not in the BL), and 3 in Ireland.