print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 2000,0521.33
- Title
- Object: Bethnal-Green Company of Irish Impresst Volunteers
- Description
-
Satire on the raising of volunteer companies; Justice Wilmot leading a band of ragged and crippled soldiers. late 1770s
Etching
- Production date
- 1777-1779
- Dimensions
-
Height: 388 millimetres
-
Width: 493 millimetres (cut)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- In the late 1770s local volunteer companies were formed throughout the British Isles to substitute for regular soldiers sent to fight the American Revolution; these were stood down at the end of the American war in 1783, but raised again in the 1790s. For illustrations of the uniforms of London local volunteer companies, see Rowlandson's series of 1798 (press mark: PD 170*.a.4); the Bethnal Green Volunteers are nos. 15 and 16. For other satires on local volunteer companies, see BM Satires 5551 and 5552.
The imaginary volunteer company shown here has been raised from among the poor Irish inhabitants of Bethnal Green. A number of the officers are clearly intended to be identified. Sir John Eardley Wilmot, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, is represented as 'Just Ass Wilmot' with his dog near the front of the 'Company'; he co-ordinated the search for Spitalfield rioters - many of whom were Irish silk weavers - in 1771 and his house at Bethnal Green was demolished during the Gordon Riots in 1780.
Neither Richard Simpson, the designer of this print, nor Robert Wilson, the engraver, is known and the names may be fictitious.
Verses with chorus 'Doodle, &c.'. appear on satirical prints going back as far as 1741, BMSat 2479, etc.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2001 May-Sep BM, P&D, 'Paper Assets' (no cat.)
- Associated events
- Associated Event: American War 1776-83
- Acquisition date
- 2000
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2000,0521.33
