author

Thomas Bedworth

1764–1815

A rare and unsettling voice from early 19th-century crime writing, remembered for a prison confession published just before execution. The surviving record turns a notorious murder case into a stark first-person tale of guilt, fear, and public punishment.

1 Audiobook

The Power of Conscience, exemplified in the genuine and extraordinary confession of Thomas Bedworth delivered to one of the principal officers of Newgate, the night before his execution on September 18, 1815, for the murder of Elizabeth Beesmore in Drury lane. Relating his horrible sufferings until compelled to surrender to public justice by the constant supernatural visitations of the murdered woman, and the frequent appearance of her apparition. From the original paper now in the possession of the publisher. Including interesting particulars of Bedworth's former life, his behaviour before execution, and an original and full report of the Common Serjeant's address on passing sentence.

The Power of Conscience, exemplified in the genuine and extraordinary confession of Thomas Bedworth delivered to one of the principal officers of Newgate, the night before his execution on September 18, 1815, for the murder of Elizabeth Beesmore in Drury lane. Relating his horrible sufferings until compelled to surrender to public justice by the constant supernatural visitations of the murdered woman, and the frequent appearance of her apparition. From the original paper now in the possession of the publisher. Including interesting particulars of Bedworth's former life, his behaviour before execution, and an original and full report of the Common Serjeant's address on passing sentence.

by Thomas Bedworth

About the author

Born in 1764 in Bloxwich, Staffordshire, Thomas Bedworth is known today for The Power of Conscience Exemplified in the Genuine and Extraordinary Confession of Thomas Bedworth, a work published in 1815 around the time of his execution. Library and catalog records identify him with that text and describe him as the man executed on September 18, 1815, for the murder of Elizabeth Beesmore.

Sources connected with the original publication say that he entered the Royal Navy in 1804 and remained in service until 1813. His confession was presented to readers as a true account delivered in Newgate on the night before his death, mixing autobiography, sensational crime narrative, and moral warning in a way that was common in popular print of the period.

Because so little independently verified biographical detail survives, Bedworth is best understood less as a conventional author than as the central figure in a grim historical document. What makes the book memorable is that it preserves a dramatic piece of Georgian criminal literature at the point where personal testimony, publishing, and public spectacle meet.