Folios 283-284. Letter [unsigned] describing the founding of the 'armed association'...

Folios 283-284. Letter [unsigned] describing the founding of the 'armed association' by a few of the most desperate members of the London Corresponding Society meeting at [John] Shelmerdine's house in the Borough [Southwark] to be trained to arms. The arms were to be supplied by [Samuel] Williams, a gun engraver in the Tower, and paid for out of quarterly contributions supervised by a committee. [George] Orr, a Camberwell tailor with service in the French army, was to drill them. Shelmerdine's reputation in the neighbourhood having suffered as a result, the association had split and found new meeting places, one at [Thomas] Spence's, who sells pigs' meal, and one at a smith's shed near the back of the prison in Tothill Fields. The writer had regularly attended these meetings, participated in drill, and procured his own arms in order to be useful to the state.