[Anthony McKenrot [Mackenroth; MacKenrot], lunatic who tried to serve subpoena on Napoleon Bonaparte.] Two Autograph Petitions Signed (both 'Anthony Mc:Kenrot') from Newgate to the Prince Regent and home secretary Lord Sidmouth, with covering letter.

Author: 
[Anthony McKenrot [Mackenroth; MacKenrot], lunatic; Prince Regent [George IV]; Lord Sidmouth [Henry Addington, Viscount Sidmouth]; John Beckett [Newgate Prison; Bethlem Hospital; Napoleon Bonaparte]
Publication details: 
The two petitions and the covering letter to John Beckett of the Home Office, Whitehall, all three dated from State Side Newgate [Prison], 24 May 1816.
£750.00
SKU: 23159

Anthony Mckenrot's attempt to serve a writ on the captive Napoleon Bonaparte is well-described by Colin Fox ('Napoleon Bonaparte: POW'), in The Journal of the Friends of St Helena, 2016. Mckenrot (also MacKenrot or Mackenroth) who was of German extraction, was a lawyer, merchant and prize agent on the Caribbean island of Tortola, who criticised Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane (1758-1832) for failing to act against a French squadron off the island in 1806. His obsession grew with the years, and his claims of Cochrane's cowardice and financial impropriety became increasingly extravagant. By 1814 he had settled in England, and in that year he published a book on the affair. On Cochrane's return from America the following year he brought an action for libel against McKenrot, and in his defence McKenrot contrived to subpoena Napoleon himself. In August 1815, while Napoleon was being held captive on the Bellerophon off Plymouth, McKenrot attempted personally to serve the writ on Napoleon and on his captor Admiral Lord Keith, this farcical attempt involving McKenrot's pursuit of Keith from ship to ship via a hired boat. The affair to which the present documents relate is a separate matter, dating from the period immediately following the Portsmouth fiasco, and is reported in Times, 25 December 1815 ('HATTON GARDEN. - […] Mr. Anthony Mackenrot […] charged with forging bills to the amounts of many thousands of pounds […] committed to Newgate for trial.'). By 1821 McKenrot was in Bethlem Hospital (Bedlam), and he is said to have died there. The three documents in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. ONE: Covering Autograph Letter Signed to 'J. Beckett Esq', i.e. John Beckett (1775-1847), Under Secretary of State for the Home Department (for whom see History of Parliament). 1p, 4to. Bifolium endorsed on reverse of second leaf. Reads: 'Sir! I take the liberty of inclosing to you a Petition to H. R. H. The Prince Regent, and another of the same Tenor to the Rt. Honble. Lord Viscount Sidmouth, H.M. Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, which I request you to lay before His Royal Highness, and the Noble Lord, having the honour to be with greatest respect | Sir! | Your most obedient, | most humble Servant | A. Mc:Kenrot'. TWO: Petition to the Prince Regent. 1p, folio. Headed: 'To His Royal Highness The Prince Regent of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. | The humble Petition of Anthony Mc:Kenrot a Prisoner in His Majestys Gaol of Newgate'. States that in a trial 'on a Charge of Forgery on the thirteenth day of January last past', the judge Sir Alexander Thompson instructed the jury to find McKenrot not guilty by reason of insanity. 'The Petitioner humbly submitteth, that since his imprisonment it hath pleased Divine Providence in its infinite Wisdom and mercy, to remove his deplorable affliction, and to restore him to the full possession of his reason, as the Gentleman charged with the medical attendance of this Prison can prove, which however he declined to certify until called upon so to do by His Majestys Government'. McKenrot is ready to establish the truth of his statement, and states that 'his imprisonment must necessarily deprive him of all means of supporting himself and his Family, and that a state of Want and literal Starvation being brought upon himself and his innocent Wife and Children can by no Construction of the Statute enter in to the wise Views of the Legislation, and much less be compatible with the benignity of Royal Mercy'. The petition concludes in the usual form, with McKenrot praying for his liberty, 'upon due proof being made of the recovery of his mental Sanity'. THREE: Petition to Lord Sidmouth. 1p, folio. Headed: 'To the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Sidmouth His Majestys Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department. | The Humble Petition of Anthony Mc:Kenrot a Prisoner in His Majesty's Gaol of Newgate'. The text of this version conforms with that of Item Two. From the distinguished autograph collection of the psychiatrist Richard Alfred Hunter (1923-1981), whose collection of 7000 works relating to psychiatry is now in Cambridge University Library. Hunter and his mother Ida Macalpine had a particular interest in the illness of King George III, and their book 'George III and the Mad Business' (1969) suggested the diagnosis of porphyria popularised by Alan Bennett in his play 'The Madness of George III'.