Today is the 223rd anniversary of Edward Despard’s execution
February 21, 1803
Executed for high treason
Edward Despard was a British officer and administrator known for his radicalism and progressive views on race. He was born in 1751 to the landowning class and of Huguenot descent. At the age of fifteen, he enlisted in the military alongside his elder brothers and served in the Caribbean and Central American theaters of the American Revolution. This likely influenced his views on race when following the war, he became the Superintendent of the Bay of Honduras.
In Honduras, Despard distributed land without "any distinction of age, sex, character, respectability, property or colour", antagonizing the established white landowners who protested against being made equal with the natives and African Americans. Despard argued that British law made no distinction for race, and though charges against him were dismissed, he lost his position in the government.
In 1790, married the daughter of a black woman from Jamaica, Catherine, and his public mixed race marriage added further to his controversy upon his return to England. Later on, Catherine and their son, James, would be erased from the Despard family tree.
At this point, with the War of the First Coalition and the French Revolution, Despard found himself influenced by Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man and took a revolutionary stance against the British Prime Minister, William Pitt. He would become entangled with British republicanism and spend two years in prison from 1798-1800, likely for being involved with the Irish Rebellion.
On November 16, 1802, Despard was arrested on accusations of high treason. He had been named as the ringleader of a conspiracy to capture the Tower of London and Bank of England and assassinate King George III. To his death, Despard would deny the charges, and it is uncertain if he was only a figurehead used by conspirators or if he had been truly involved.
His wife, Catherine, pleaded with the Prime Minister and King, but only managed to change his sentence from disembowelment to hanging. On February 21, 1803, Despard was executed, using his last words to attest to his innocence and inspire onlookers to revolution. The government, however, had anticipated this, and prevented crowds from gathering and kept the military on hand.
Much information on Edward Despard is blurry and warped as a result of the enemies he made or simply misinterpretations. Signs in Carlisle, Pennsylvania name him as a prisoner of war in 1776 alongside Major John Andre, hanged for a separate treason conspiracy, though in actuality, it was his elder brother John Despard who was involved.
References
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Marcus-Despard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Despard#
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=30321
