Philobiblon: Edward Harrison

Sunday, July 25, 2004

Edward Harrison

Browsing through some 17th-century pamphlets in the British Library (as one does), I came across the following:

The Confessions, Prayers, discourses and last dying sayings of Mr Edward Harrison, who was try'd and convicted and deservedly sentenced the Sixth and Ninth of this Instand April 1692, for the late unheard of Murder of Dr Clench, and accordingly Executed in Holbourn, on Friday the Fifteenth following ... this Day about the Hour of Eleven, carried from Newgate to Holbourn, against Furnivals-Inn, where a Gibbet was Erected."



The execution site is about 50m from where I live, so I couldn't help being interested, although the pamphlet reads like it was written entirely by the Ordinary of Newgate, being full of pious injunctions to friends and other young males not to follow in his footsteps. Frustrating it contains no information about him and his crimes. Does it ring any bells out there?
 
Natalie


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