Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • Chapter 12 - Edwards the Spy: 1819–20

  • from Part Three - Thistlewood: His Story
  • Vic Gatrell, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    Conspiracy on Cato Street
    Published online:
    06 April 2022
    Print publication:
    12 May 2022, pp 263-282

  • Summary

    Edwards spied on Spencean meetings for the Bow Street police office from January 1818 onwards. He insinuated himself into the radical bookseller Richard Carlile’s life, befriended the butcher Ings in Carlile’s bookshop, and attached himself to Thistlewood on the latter’s release from gaol in May 1819. Between November and 23 February 1820 he reported Thistlewood’s every move to the police and home office.On 13 December Thistlewood told Edwards his latest plan – to murder the whole cabinet at their next cabinet dinner. For weeks later, with false starts and much wishful thinking, this plan was played with until Sidmouth ordered a cabinet dinner at Harrowby’s mansion to be falsely advertised. This feint provoked the conspirators to action. The chapter ends with an account of Edwards’s and the turncoat conspirators’ misfortunes after the executions.