[Bristol Riots 1831, Criminal Broadside, Capital Punishment, Hanging]

[Bristol Riots 1831, Criminal Broadside, Capital Punishment, Hanging] Execution At Bristol, of the four leading Rioters convicted at the late Special commission, and executed on Friday at the Town Jail for destroying the Bridewell. and other public buildings, int he city of Bristol. Christopher Davis, William Clarke, Thomas Gregory, and Joseph Keys, Nottingham: Thompson, Printer, Toll House Hill, [1832], 37cm x 16cm, woodcut vignette of execution before the jail with a crown in attendance, silked

The Bristol Riots of 1831 were a reaction to the statement in Parliament of Bristol’s Recorder (senior judge) Sir Charles Wetherell, that the people of Bristol were not in favour of reform. In fact, Bristolians had gathered a petition of 17,000 signatures supporting the Reform Bill which would have allocated more voting right to the city. Wetherell was an MP for Boroughbridge, a ‘Rotten Borough’ in Yorkshire where just 48 men were eligible to vote. Before Wetherell came on his annual visit to Bristol, public meetings were organised in Queen Square on 10, 11 and 12 October. Demonstrators met Wetherell on his arrival in Bristol on 29 October, then full scale rioting broke out, and angry crowds of protesters held the city for two days. Wetherell escaped dressed as a woman.