The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd
Subtitle: forgery and betrayal in eighteenth-century London
By: Donna T. Andrew and Randall McGowen.
Contributors: McGowen, Randall, 1948-
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 346
Subjects: Perreau, Daniel, d. 1776 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Perreau, Robert, d. 1776 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Rudd, Margaret Caroline, b. 1744 or 5 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Forgery) -- England -- London.; Forgers -- Great Britain.
Genres: Trials, litigation, etc.
Description: "The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd tells the remarkable story of a complex forgery uncovered in London in 1775. Like the trials of Martin Guerre and O. J. Simpson, the Perreau-Rudd case - filled with scandal, deceit, and mystery - preoccupied a public hungry for sensationalism. Peopled with such familiar figures as John Wilkes, King George III, Lord Mansfield, and James Boswell, the story acts as a prism to reveal the hopes, fears, prejudices, and deep anxieties of this period of English capitalism.

Above all, the case presents a parable of the 1770s, when London was the center of European finance and national politics, of fashionable life and tell-all journalism, of empire achieved and empire lost.".

"The crime, a hanging offense, came to light with the arrest of identical twin brothers, Robert and Daniel Perreau, after the former was detained trying to negotiate a forged bond. At their arraignment they both accused Daniel's mistress, Margaret Rudd, of being responsible for the crime. The brothers' trials coincided with the first reports of bloodshed in the American colonies at Lexington and Concord and successfully competed for space in the papers.

From March until the following January, people could talk of little other than the fate of the Perreaus and the impending trial of Mrs. Rudd. The participants told wildly different tales and offered strikingly different portraits of themselves. The press was filled with letters from concerned or angry correspondents.

The public, deeply divided over who was guilty, was troubled by evidence that suggested not only that fair might be foul, but that it might not be possible to tell which was which."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 325-334) and index.