Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

A commemorative pearlware jug, c.1812, printed to one side with a profile portrait of John Bellingham, the reverse with a pugilist scene of the boxers Molineaux and Cribb, within silver lustre borders, 19cm.

Bellingham, a merchant broker, had journeyed to Russia where he was imprisoned twice between 1804 and October 1808. Returning to Britain the following year, Bellingham petitioned Parliament for compensation for what he considered his unreasonable imprisonment but this was not forthcoming. On the evening of 11th May 1812 as the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, entered the lobby of the House of Commons Bellingham shot him dead. At his Old Bailey trial on 15th May, Bellingham said his preference had been to shoot the British Ambassador to Russia but went on to say 'I trust that this serious lesson will operate as a warning to all future ministers'. Bellingham was found guilty and hanged on 18th May 1812. Perceval, the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated, having been laid to rest on 16th May.