Aris’s Birmingham Gazette – Proclaimation by the King on the Birmingham Riots

By the KING.
A PROCLAMATION.

GEORGE R.

WHEREAS it hath been represented unto Us, that a great number of disorderly persons, in and about the Town of Birmingham, in our county of Warwick, did, on the fourteenth day of July instant, assemble themselves in a tumultuous manner, and for several days thereafter, and during the time aforesaid, did set fire to, burn, or otherwise destroy, sundry dwelling houses, mills, and other buildings, with the furniture and other effects found in the same, to divers of our subjects belonging in the said Town of Birmingham, and in other places thereunto adjacent in our Counties of Warwick and Worcester; and also two Meeting-houses belonging to Protestant Dissenters in the Town of Birmingham aforesaid; and did also by force, or terror, illegally take money from divers of our subjects: We therefore, taking the same into our most serious consideration, have thought fit, by and with the advice of our Privy Council, to publish and declare our resolution, that the authors, abettors, and perpetrators of the said offences be prosecuted as expeditiously as may be, according to the due course of law: And we do hereby enjoin and require all Justice of the Peace, Sheriffs, Mayors, Bailiffs, Constables, and all other our loving subjects, to be aiding and assisting to the utmost of their power in detecting, apprehending, and bringing to justice the said offenders: And we are graciously pleased to promise, that if any person shall discover any other person or persons, who are guilty of any of the said offences, so as that the person or persons discovered may be prosecuted for the same, such discoverer shall have and receive as a reward, upon conviction of such offender or offenders, the sum of ONE HUNDRED POUNDS for each and every such offenders, and also our gracious pardon for the said offences, in case the person making such discovery shall himself be liable to be prosecuted for the same, except the person who first began to set fire to, burn, or destroy the said dwelling-houses, mills, and other buildings: And the Commissioners for executing the office of Treasurer of our Exchequer, are hereby required to make payment accordingly of the said rewards.

Given at our Court at St. James’s, the twenty-seventh day of July, One thousand seven hundred and ninety-one, in the thirty-first year of our reign.

GOD SAVE THE KING.