Edward Marcus Despard, an Irish officer in the service of the British Crown, gained notoriety as a colonial administrator for refusing to recognise racial distinctions in law and, following his recall to London, as a republican conspirator. Despard's associations with the London Corresponding Society, the United Irishmen and United Britons led to his trial and execution in 1803 as the alleged ringleader of a plot to assassinate the King.
Attributed to George Romney
A friend from Caribbean service, Horatio Nelson
Etching by Barlow, based on sketch taken at his trial, January 1803
London Corresponding Society
The London Corresponding Society (LCS) was a federation of local reading and debating clubs that in the decade following the French Revolution agitated for the democratic reform of the British Parliament. In contrast to other reform associations of the period, it drew largely upon working men and was itself organised on a formal democratic basis.
London: London Corresponding Society: Handbill advertising a petition to the House of Commons for Parliamentary Reform
LCS speakers address the crowds at Copenhagen Fields, 1795. John Gale Jones on hustings to the left.