Untitled historic item (004070)

2nd edition. 72pp [4]. With a 'striking likeness' portrait of Martin as frontispiece, and a ground plan of York Minster. In blue card wrappers (heavily worn at edges, marked, chipped along spine). Page edges worn and some faint, occasional spotting internally else neat and clean. Martin, a tanner and press-ganged sailor, was twice committed to a lunatic asylum. A religious zealot, deeply aggrieved at the Church of England, he set fire to York Cathedral in 1829, causing extensive damage. He was captured a week later and his trial the following month became a national cause celebre, coming just months after the trial of Burke and Hare in Edinburgh. Martin was convicted but avoided the death penalty, the judge finding him insane and committing him to Bethlem Royal Hospital (Bedlem), where he spent the rest of his life. 8vo. Hard to find. LHD records 11 copies (University of London, Wellcome Library etc). Chapbooks, chapbook, jonathan martin, arson, york minster, york, yorkshire, fire, crime, law and order, justice, criminal justice, cathedral, mental health, manic depressive, bedlem,