In 1820 a radical plot was hatched in the heart of London. Its aim was nothing less than the assassination of the British Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, and his entire cabinet.
Now known as the Cato Street Conspiracy, the plot was driven by grievances against repressive government policies and was led by a former soldier named Arthur Thistlewood. His ambitious plan was to ambush a cabinet dinner and wipe out the top of the British government in one fell swoop.
However, things didn’t go to plan and the Cato Street Conspirators found themselves in jail, or dead. While assassination attempts on political figures are nothing new, this one stands out.
Why? Because many believe that Lord Liverpool and his cabinet orchestrated the plot themselves.
The Beginnings
One would think the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, won by Britain, would have ushered in a period of prosperity and growth for one of the world’s most powerful nations. In reality, the fight against Napoleon had drained Britain’s coffers and left an almost unimaginable human toll.
The nation was entering troubled waters and needed a steady hand at the wheel. And as it happened, it didn’t get it.
As the nation’s starving populace began to protest the draconian policies which followed the Napoleonic Wars its government became increasingly oppressive. The trouble peaked in August of 1819 when 60,000 peaceful protesters gathered on St. Peter’s Field, near Manchester to let the government know how unhappy they were.
The government responded by sending in troops who killed 11 and seriously injured 400 (women and children among them). It became known as the Peterloo Massacre.
Shortly afterward the Tory government, led by Lord Liverpool, made things worse by bringing in the “Six Acts”, a series of incredibly oppressive laws designed to keep the people in control. The acts did everything from limiting free speech to giving the courts greater powers to prosecute dissenters and banning free assembly.
It was under this atmosphere that a group known as the Spencean Philanthropists, led by Arthur Thistlewood and his right-hand man George Edwards formed. They had one mission: wipe out the heads of the British leadership and form their own provisional government.
The Plot
On the evening of Wednesday 23 February 1820, a group of around thirty men gathered on the top floor of an old, abandoned building in Cato Street, London. They had been plotting for months and things had reached a head. It was time to carry out what Thistlewood called the “West End Job”.
The group had learned from The New Times that an important dinner was being held that night at the home of Lord Harrowby, Lord President of the Council in the Government, in Grosvenor Square. Distinguished figures like the Prime Minister, the entirety of the British Cabinet, the Duke of Wellington, and the Foreign Secretary, Lord Castlereagh were all supposed to be there.
To corner such an assembly of important men in one place was too good as opportunity to pass up. It would be like shooting some very big fish in an incredibly small barrel.
Thistlewood’s plan was brutal. One of his men would knock on the front door saying he had a parcel for the homeowner. Half the gang would then force their way inside and bind all the servants, killing them if they fought back.
The other half, led by Thistlewood, would head straight to the dining room. They would then rain down grenades on the assembled ministers, finishing off any survivors with guns and knives.
One of the group, James Ings, who was a retired butcher would then get to work. Working his way around the room, he would cut off the deceased ministers’ heads ready for display on the spikes of Westminster Bridge.
With the government quite literally beheaded Thistlewood then planned on taking the King Street Barracks, the Bishop of London’s house, the Light House barracks in Gray’s Inn Lane, and the Bank of England. With the bloodshed finished the conspirators would then set up shop in Mansion House, founding their provisional government.
It was hoped that as news spread of what they had done London’s downtrodden masses would rise up and help the conspirators. They were convinced that within hours men from all over the nation would flock to join the “Committee of Public Safety.”
It never happened.
The Setup
Instead, many of the Spencean Philanthropists left the building on Cato Street in handcuffs. They had been betrayed by one of their own. Edwards, Thistlewood’s most trusted confidant, had been a police spy from the beginning.
Many believe the entire plot was the work of the Home Office. There is evidence that they came up with the plot and fed it to their inside man, Edwards.
He then gave the idea, in detail, to Thistlewood who gave the plan his go-ahead. As they plotted Edwards fed his handlers intel on what the conspirators were doing. When it became clear the conspirators were ready to act, the Home Office placed an advertisement for a fake cabinet dinner in the paper.
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While the plotters readied themselves for their raid on the dinner, the local police, known as the Bow Street Runners, were waiting outside the Cato Street hideout. Once everyone was present and accounted for the police struck.
The police, backed up by the Coldstream Guards, stormed the building and arrested the majority of the plotters there. In the ensuing fight one officer, Richard Smithers, lost his life.
A handful of rebels, including Thistlewood, escaped but didn’t remain free for long. The next day The London Gazette carried an announcement from the Home Secretary.
The government was offering a £1,000 bounty for any info that led to Thistlewood’s arrest. That same day a neighbor sold out the coup leader and at 9 am he was arrested as he slept.
A total of 13 conspirators were arrested, all charged with treason. They were interrogated throughout February and March and took part in meetings at the Privy Council where they were forced to sit face-to-face with the men they had hoped to kill. It must have all been a bit awkward.
These meetings were more about government showboating than actual interrogations. The government got to look powerful while the various conspirators vented and told them how much they wanted to kill their captors. As Thistlewood put it while staring down Wellington, “I would rather kill that damned villain Wellington than any of them.”
Following their last meeting with the Privy Council the plotters were split up. Eight went to the Tower of London while the rest were sent to sweat it out at the infamous Coldbath Fields Prison. Thistlewood was put in the Bloody Tower, England’s favorite holding cell for traitors.
The trial took place in April and the plot’s leaders, having nothing to hide following their Privy Council rants, pleaded guilty. Thistlewood and four of his most loyal men were found guilty and sentenced to being hanged, quartered, and beheaded. Five others were sentenced to death but had their sentences commuted to transportation.
On May 1 1820 Thistlewood and his four companions were marched out in front of a 100,000-strong crowd at Newgate Prison. The people they had hoped to save had gathered to watch the traitors die, some of them even paying for the privilege.
According to one account, as the men waited to hang one of them, Ings, began to sing Death or Liberty. The stoic Thistlewood told him to shut up, saying, “Be quiet, Ings. We can die without all this noise.”
It’s been claimed the Tory government set up the conspiracy and entrapped the Spencean Philanthropists because it knew it was in real danger of revolts. If so it seems their plan worked. The failure of this plot and the gruesome fates met by its leaders dissuaded other radical groups from acting in the following years.
This isn’t to say change didn’t come. The Cato Street conspiracy may have been a setup, but it highlighted very real threats. The government had to recognize the growing social and political discontent. Ultimately these concerns led to the Great Reform Act of 1832, which made changes to England’s outdated, unrepresentative, and sometimes corrupt electoral system.
Top Image: An 1820 cartoon showing members of the Government dancing round a Maypole, on which is mounted the heads of the executed members of the Cato Street Conspiracy. Source: Samuel William Fores / Public Domain.
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