Popgun Plot Explained

The Popgun Plot was an alleged 1794 conspiracy by three members of the London Corresponding Society to assassinate King George III by means of a poison dart fired from an airgun.^[1] Three members, Paul Thomas LeMaitre, John Smith, and George Higgins, were arrested in late 1794, and Robert Thomas Crossfield in December 1795. All four were acquitted of treason in May 1796, on the grounds that the chief witness against them was dead.^[2]

Further reading

• Book: Paul Thomas LEMAITRE. High treason! Narrative of the arrest, examinations before the Privy Council, and imprisonment of P. T. L., accused of being a Party in the Pop-Gun Plot, or a pretended Plot to kill the King, etc. 1795. P. T. Lemaitre.

Notes and References

1. Book: Gregory Claeys. Politics of English Jacobinism: Writings of John Thelwall. 1 November 2010. Penn State Press. 978-0-271-04446-0. 501–.
2. Book: Mary Thale. Selections from the Papers of the London Corresponding Society 1792-1799. 4 August 1983. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-24363-6. 220–.