Richard
Tidd was born in Lincolnshire in 1775. He moved to London
in his youth and became a shoemaker at 5 Hole-in-the-Wall Passage,
a slum alley near Gray's Inn Lane. At first he did well as a shoemaker
but the outbreak of war with France created a slump in his business.
The father of eight children, and now desperately poor, Tidd joined
the British army. Using a false name, he deserted as soon as he received
his bounty payment. Tidd claimed that he did this several times during
the next few years.
In 1806 Tidd helped the Radical candidate, Sir
Francis Burdett, in his bid to be elected to the House
of Commons for Middlesex. In order to vote for Burdett he falsely
claimed he was a Middlesex freeholder. Tidd was charged with perjury
but before he could be arrested he fled to Scotland where he stayed
for the next five years. In 1814 Tidd was back in London. Over the
years his political ideas had become more revolutionary and he was
now a follower of Thomas Spence.
After the death of Spence in 1814, James Watson
and Arthur Thistlewood helped form
the Society of Spencean Philanthropists.
Other members of the group included John Brunt,
James Ings, William
Davidson, Thomas Preston and John Hopper. The government became
very concerned about this group and employed a spy, John
Castle, to join the Spenceans and report on their activities.
In October 1816 Castle reported to John Stafford,
supervisor of Home Office spies, that a small group of Spenceans were
planning to overthrow the British government.
On 2nd December 1816, the Spencean group organised a mass meeting
at Spa Fields, Islington. The speakers at the meeting included Henry
'Orator' Hunt and James Watson. The
magistrates decided to disperse the meeting and while Stafford and
eighty police officers were doing this, one of the men, Joseph Rhodes
was stabbed. Four leaders of the group, James
Watson, Arthur Thistlewood, Thomas
Preston and John Hopper were arrested and charged with high treason.
Richard Tidd continued to attend Spencean
meetings in London. Tidd was particularly incensed by the Peterloo
Massacre and afterwards talked about the possibility of killing
Lord Castlereagh and Lord
Sidmouth for their role in this event.
On 22nd
February 1820, George Edwards pointed
out to Arthur Thistlewood an item
in the New Times that several members of the British government
were going to have dinner at Lord Harrowby's house at 39 Grosvenor
Square. Richard Tidd agreed to join Thistlewood and and twenty-seven
other Spenceans in the plot to kill the government ministers dining
at Lord Harrowby's house on 23rd February.
On the
23rd February Thistlewood's gang assembled in a hayloft in Cato
Street, a short distance away from Grosvenor Square. However,
government ministers were not meeting at the home of Earl of Harrowby.
The Spenceans had been set up by George Edwards,
a government spy who had infiltrated the Spencean
Society. Thirteen police officers led by George Ruthven stormed
the hayloft. Several members of the gang refused to surrender their
weapons and one police officer, Richard Smithers, was killed by Arthur
Thistlewood. Four of the conspirators, Thistlewood, John
Brunt, Robert Adams and John Harrison escaped out of a window,
but the police spies knew who they were and all four were arrested
during the next couple of days.
Eleven men were eventually charged with being involved in the Cato
Street Conspiracy. Charges against Robert Adams were dropped when
he agreed to give evidence against the other men in court. On 28th
April 1820, Richard Tidd, Arthur Thistlewood,
James Ings, John Brunt,
and William Davidson were found guilty
of high treason and sentenced to death. John Harrison, James Wilson,
Richard Bradburn, John Strange and Charles Copper were also found
guilty but their original sentence of execution was subsequently commuted
to transportation for life. Richard Tidd was executed at Newgate
Prison on the 1st May, 1820.
(1)
The Traveller (May, 1820)
The executioner, who trembled much, was a long time tying
up the prisoners; while this operation was going on a dead silence
prevailed among the crowd, but the moment the drop fell, the general
feeling was manifested by deep sighs and groans. Ings and Brunt were
those only who manifested pain while hanging. The former writhed for
some moments; but the latter for several minutes seemed, from the
horrifying contortions of his countenance, to be suffering the most
excruciating torture.
(2) George Theodore Wilkinson, An Authentic
History of the Cato Street Conspiracy (1820)
Thistlewood struggled slightly for a few minutes, but each
effort was more faint than that which preceded; and the body soon
turned round slowly, as if upon the motion of the hand of death.
Tidd, whose size gave cause to suppose that he would "pass"
with little comparative pain, scarcely moved after the fall. The struggles
of Ings were great. The assistants of the executioner pulled his legs
with all their might; and even then the reluctance of the soul to
part from its native seat was to be observed in the vehement efforts
of every part of the body. Davidson, after three or four heaves, became
motionless; but Brunt suffered extremely, and considerable exertions
were made by the executioners and others to shorten his agonies.
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