1746 Tryals of the Rebel Lords : Jacobite Treason Trials : Lord Lovat : Culloden

THE WHOLE PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF PEERS, UPON THE INDICTMENTS AGAINST WILLIAM EARL OF KILMARNOCK, GEORGE EARL OF CROMERTIE, AND ARTHUR LORD BALMERINOFOR HIGH TREASON IN LEVYING WAR AGAINST HIS MAJESTY . . . [BOUND WITH], PROCEEDINGS AGAINST SIMON LORD LOVAT.

London: Samuel Billingsley, [1746 & 1747].

First Edition, folio (35cm), [iv] 39pp (1) blank; PROCEEDINGS AGAINST LORD LOVAT (bound without 1747 title page and imprimatur leaf): 188pp, errata. Contemporary calf, raised bands. Wear to leather with loss to upper rear joint and top edge, binding sound, pastedowns loose. Localised insect damage to a small area of the inner margin of the prelims. Contemporary ink shelf number to verso of endpaper. No other inks. The second, larger work, was bound with a closed tear to the inner edge, with no loss to text that I can see. Tears with loss to outer edge of several leaves (pp113-116) with no loss to text. 

These large format printed proceedings of key Jacobite treason trials are relatively common in institutions but scarce in commerce. This is the first time I've encountered either work, both of which were published exclusively by Order of the House of Peers' by Samuel Billingsley. The imprumatur, facing the title, signed by the Lord Chancellor forbid any other Person to Print the same.' All four defendants whose trials and convictions are detailed here were put to death, with Lord Lovat's death in April 1747 being the last execution by beheading in Britain.

EXCERPT TAKEN FROM THE BOOK

"What remains for me, is a very painful, though a necessary part. It is, To pronounce that Sentence, which the Law has appointed for Crimes of this Magnitude; - a Sentence full of Horror! Such as the Wisdom of our Ancestors has ordained, as One Guard about the Sacred Person of the King, and as a Fence about this excellent Conftitution, to be a Terror to Evil-doers, and a Security to them that do well. The Judgement of the Law is, and this High Court doth award; That You, William Earl of Kilmarnock, George Earl of Cromertie, and Arthur Lord Balmerino, and every of you, return to the Prison of the Tower, from whence you came; from thence you must be drawn to the Place of Execution; when you come there you must be hanged by the Neck, but not till you are dead; for you must be cut down alive; then your bowels must be taken out, and burnt before your faces; then your Heads must be severed from your Bodies, and your Bodies mudt be divided each into Four Quarters, and these must be at the King's Disposal, and God Almighty be merciful to your souls" 

(GC)