The New Meeting. The New Meeting. This edifice, erected in the year 1730, was a considerable pile; its walls lofty and substantial; in so much as to have survived the rage of the flames, and the still fiercer and more dangerous fury of the Mob... De cet endroit la populace se rendit à la Vieille Eglise des Prebytétiens (Old Meeting) qui fut ruinée de fond en comble.
Drawn by P.H. Witton Jun.r Engraved by W.m Ellis.
[London. Published, 1 May 1792, by J.Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard.]
Aquatint with descriptive text in English and French. Sheet 406 x 260mm. 16 x 10¼". Laid on album page, foxing.
The New Meeting Chapel following its destruction during the Priestley Riots, the Birmingham Riots of 1791, which targeted religious Dissenters, most notably the politically and theologically controversial Joseph Priestley. On 14th July 1791, rioters approached the Quaker House until it was decided that the Quakers never troubled themselves with anything, and thus convinced themselves to attack the New Meeting Chapel, where Priestley presided as minister. From "Views of the Ruins of the Principal Houses destroyed during the Riots at Birmingham. 1791." On the 14th of July, 1791, a party having met at an hotel to celebrate the anniversary of the French revolution, collected together as a mob, and proceeded for several days their devastations, setting fire to several meeting-houses and private mansions, but on the arrival of the military from Oxford and Hounslow, order was restored: at the ensuing assizes four of the ring-leaders were convicted, two of whom suffered the penalty of the law. Shortly after this occurrence barracks were erected on the Vauxhall-road, near the town, consisting of a range of handsome buildings, enclosing a spacious area for the exercise of cavalry, and a smaller for parades, a riding-school, a magazine, and an hospital.
[Ref: 21105] £140.00
[London. Published, 1 May 1792, by J.Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard.]
Aquatint with descriptive text in English and French. Sheet 406 x 260mm. 16 x 10¼". Laid on album page, foxing.
The New Meeting Chapel following its destruction during the Priestley Riots, the Birmingham Riots of 1791, which targeted religious Dissenters, most notably the politically and theologically controversial Joseph Priestley. On 14th July 1791, rioters approached the Quaker House until it was decided that the Quakers never troubled themselves with anything, and thus convinced themselves to attack the New Meeting Chapel, where Priestley presided as minister. From "Views of the Ruins of the Principal Houses destroyed during the Riots at Birmingham. 1791." On the 14th of July, 1791, a party having met at an hotel to celebrate the anniversary of the French revolution, collected together as a mob, and proceeded for several days their devastations, setting fire to several meeting-houses and private mansions, but on the arrival of the military from Oxford and Hounslow, order was restored: at the ensuing assizes four of the ring-leaders were convicted, two of whom suffered the penalty of the law. Shortly after this occurrence barracks were erected on the Vauxhall-road, near the town, consisting of a range of handsome buildings, enclosing a spacious area for the exercise of cavalry, and a smaller for parades, a riding-school, a magazine, and an hospital.
[Ref: 21105] £140.00