Research Catalog

The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd : forgery and betrayal in eighteenth-century London

Title

The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd : forgery and betrayal in eighteenth-century London / Donna T. Andrew and Randall McGowen.

Author

Andrew, Donna T., 1945-

Publication

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2001]
©2001

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	KD372.P47 A53 2001	Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

McGowen, Randall, 1948-

Description

xii, 346 pages, 16 pages of plates : map, portraits; 25 cm

Summary

"The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd tells the remarkable story of a complex forgery uncovered in London in 1775. Like the trials of Martin Guerre and O.J. Simpson, the Perreau-Rudd case - filled with scandal, deceit, and mystery - preoccupied a public hungry for sensationalism. Peopled with such familiar figures as John Wilkes, King George III, Lord Mansfield, and James Boswell, the story acts as a prism to reveal the hopes, fears, prejudices, and deep anxieties of this period of English capitalism. Above all, the case presents a parable of the 1770s, when London was the center of European finance and national politics, of fashionable life and tell-all journalism, of empire achieved and empire lost." "The crime, a hanging offense, came to light with the arrest of identical twin brothers, Robert and Daniel Perreau, after the former was detained trying to negotiate a forged bond. At their arraignment they both accused Daniel's mistress, Margaret Rudd, of being responsible for the crime. The brothers' trials coincided with the first reports of bloodshed in the American colonies at Lexington and Concord and successfully competed for space in the papers. From March until the following January, people could talk of little other than the fate of the Perreaus and the impending trial of Mrs. Rudd. The participants told wildly different tales and offered strikingly different portraits of themselves. The press was filled with letters from concerned or angry correspondents. The public, deeply divided over who was guilty, was troubled by evidence that suggested not only that fair might be foul, but that it might not be possible to tell which was which."--Jacket.

Alternative Title

Perreaus & Mrs. Rudd

Subject

Genre/Form

Trial and arbitral proceedings.
Trials, litigation, etc.
Comptes rendus de procès et d'arbitrage.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-334) and index.

Contents

To the Hanging Tree -- Alarming Crimes and Unsettling Stories -- The Press and the Case -- Passing Fair -- Fashion and its Discontents -- Private Credit and Public Confidence -- Debating the Law -- Writing Her Life: Mrs. Rudd's Life Stories -- Mrs. Rudd on Trial -- "If Innocents Should Suffer" -- Looking Back.

ISBN

0520220625
9780520220621

LCCN

00066655

OCLC

ocm45466171
45466171
SCSB-8872700

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library