Author: PAKMER, THOMAS FYSHE. [1747-1802] (Defendant).
Title: The Trial of the Rev. Thomas Fyshe Palmer, before the Circuit Court Justiciary, held at Perth, on the 12th and 13th September, 1793. On an Indictment for Seditious Practices with an Appendix.
Description: First Edition; Demy 8vo; pp. 195; later binding in quarter calf and papered boards, title lettered in gilt on spine, (lacking frontis portrait ?), good copy. Edinburgh; W. Skirving by J Robertson; n.d. (1793) Palmer had revised a draft petition complaining to the government against war taxation, and a claim for universal suffrage and shorter terms of parliament. The authorities were alarmed by the petition and he was arrested and tried for sedition. he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years transportation. Palmer left England for Australia in the "Surprise", along with so-called Scotish Martyrs, Thomas Muir, William Skirving and Maurice Margarot, the vessel arrived at Port Jackson, New South Wales in October 1794. Whilst serving his seven-year sentence in Sydney Palmer did not suffer the usual convict restraints, and he engaged in several business enterprises. Ferguson 166 calling for portrait frontispiece.

Keywords: gea scotish martyrs history transportation true crime