The Annals of Newgate; Or, Malefactors Register. 4 Vols. 1776. Plates

1776. London: Printed for J. Wenman, 1776. 4 vols.. London: Printed for J. Wenman, 1776. 4 vols. Illustrated Accounts of "The Most Notorious Malefactors" of Eighteenth-Century Britain Villette, John, Primary Author. The Annals of Newgate; Or, Malefactors Register. Containing a Particular and Circumstantial Account of the Lives, Transactions, And Trials of the Most Notorious Malefactors, Who Have Suffered an Ignominious Death for Their Offences, viz. for Parricide, Murder, Treason, Robbery, Burglary, Piracy, Coining, Forgery, And Rapes: From the Commitment of the Celebrated John Sheppard, To the Acquittal of the Equally Celebrated Margaret Caroline Rudd. Including a Period of Fifty Years and Upwards, Both in Town and Country. Calculated To Expose the Desormity of Vice, The Infamy and Punishments Naturally Attending Those who Deviate from the Paths of Virtue; And Intended as a Beacon to Warn the Rising Generation Against the Temptations, The Allurements, And the Dangers of Bad Company. The Former Part Extracted from Records; And the Histories and Transactions of the Modern Convicts, Communicated by the Unhappy Sufferers Themselves, Since the Author has Been Appointed to His Present Office. By the Rev. Mr. Villette, Ordinary of Newgate, And Others. London: Printed for J. Wenman, 1776. Four volumes. 37 copperplates, 3 are frontispieces in Volumes I-III. One plate in Volume I misbound (it faces p.396, not p.395). All plates present, text complete. Octavo (8-1/4" x 5-1/4"). Contemporary tree-calf, raised bands, lettering pieces and gilt ornaments to spines, gilt tooling to board edges, marbled endpapers. Light rubbing and a few minor nicks and scratches to boards, somewhat heavier rubbing to extremities, hinges cracked or starting. Moderate toning, light foxing in a few places, some offsetting from plates, leaves B1-B2 (pp.1-4) in Volume III just beginning to detached, but secure. A handsome set. $3,000. * Only edition. Presented as a "beacon to warn the rising generation," Villette's chronicle provides accounts of some of the most infamous criminals of eighteenth-century England, such as Sarah Malcolm, Eugene Aram, Elizabeth Brownrigg and Richard Turpin. The plates, some of them quite lurid, depict criminals, crimes and execution. OCLC locates 6 copies in North American law libraries (Case Western Reserve University, Harvard, Library of Congress, University of Cincinnati, University of Michigan, Yale). English Short-Title.