Convict Broadside: Lamentation of James Tawell.

London: Paul, Printer 18, Great St. Andrew Street, 7 Dials, and at 52, Fashion Street, Brick Lane, Spitalfields, Ca. 1845. A rare broadside not recorded in the Broadside Ballads Online at the Bodleian; nor Trove, the State Library of Tasmania, UCSB English Broadside Ballad Archive; and not one of the broadsides concerning John Tawell recorded in Ferguson (4179, 4180, 4181, 4182). In 2011 an unrecorded Tawell broadside was offered with the title "The Last Farewell"; our copy is titled "Lamentation of James Tawell".

John Tawell (1784 - 1845) was transported to Botany Bay in 1820 for forgery, although the broadside records his destination as "Van Diemonds (sic) Land". Once he was paroled, Tawell worked as the first chemist (pharmacist) in Sydney; he conducted various other businesses and helped establish the first Quaker community in Australia.

Over time he prospered and with his wife returned to London in the late 1830s. After his first wife's death, Tawell remarried, and during the marriage had an affair with a woman named Sarah Hart, with whom he had several children. Facing financial difficulties, in 1845 Tawell decided to poison his mistress using prussic acid, a remedy at the time for varicose veins.

Tawell's case is notable as it is the first in which the use of telecommunications-- the telegraph-- led to his eventual arrest. He was seen in distinctive dark Quaker attire boarding a train near his mistress' house; this was reported to the police who used a telegraph to contact London, so that by the time Tawell's train reached Paddington Station, the police there were able to follow him.

The telegraph message read:
A MURDER HAS GUST BEEN COMMITTED AT SALT HILL AND THE SUSPECTED
MURDERER WAS SEEN TO TAKE A FIRST CLASS TICKET TO LONDON BY THE
TRAIN WHICH LEFT SLOUGH AT 742 PM HE IS IN THE GARB OF A KWAKER
WITH A GREAT COAT ON WHICH REACHES NEARLY DOWN TO HIS FEET HE IS
IN THE LAST COMPARTMENT OF THE SECOND CLASS COMPARTMENT

Tawell's defense was handled by Sir Fitzroy Kelly, and his trial became a sensation. He was found guilty of the murder of Sarah Hart at the Aylesbury Assizes, and hanged in March of 1845.

This fine strong and dark impression has the text printed in two columns below the profile portrait. At the top of the sheet the title is printed in bold capitals. Single sheet, 7 x 9 3/4". A mild horizontal crease at the center; originally tipped into an album with evidence of its previous location in each of the four corners. Very good condition. Item #23125

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