Arson, Treason and Plot: Britain, America and the Law, 1770-1777

The problems of arson, treason and national security became entangled in the politics of Britain and its Atlantic empire between 1770 and 1777. Fears of French military terrorism were compounded by the increasingly violent resistance of the American colonies. Two dockyard fires in Portsmouth, in 1770 and 1777, and the attack on, and burning of, the royal navy ship Gaspee off Rhode Island in 1772, provoked both legal and political difficulties for the British government. New laws on arson and treason were passed yet proved almost impossible to implement in full outside England

Running away and returning home: the fate of English convicts in the American colonies

The myth of return – that many English criminals transported to the American colonies ran away and returned home – dominated eighteenth-century views of the punishment. In both criminal biographies and political discussion this was widely believed. Yet data from both sides of the Atlantic suggest that few in fact returned successfully. The systems of surveillance in the colonies, designed to detect and recapture escaping slaves, servants and convicts, were effective. Also, the difficulties they faced in trying to return were for many convicts, particularly women, insuperable. This article analyses the fates of convicts from the north and west of England, their patterns of running away, and the characters of those few who managed to return.Le mythe du retour – selon lequel de nombreux criminels anglais déportés vers les colonies américaines s’échappaient et retournaient chez eux – dominait dans les représentations de la peine au XVIIIe siècle. Cette croyance était largement partagée dans les biographies des criminels et des débats politiques. Pourtant, les données issues des deux rives de l’Atlantique suggèrent que ces retours étaient peu fréquents. Les systèmes de surveillance des colonies, conçus pour détecter et reprendre les esclaves, les serviteurs et les bagnards, étaient efficaces. En outre, les difficultés qu’affrontaient les fuyards pour revenir étaient insurmontables pour beaucoup d’entre eux, en particulier les femmes. Cet article analyse les destinées des bagnards du nord et de l’ouest de l’Angleterre, la manière dont ils s’enfuyaient et les caractéristiques de ceux, peu nombreux, qui parvenaient à revenir

Gonorrhoea treatment failure caused by a Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain with combined ceftriaxone and high-level azithromycin resistance, England, February 2018.

We describe a gonorrhoea case with combined high-level azithromycin resistance and ceftriaxone resistance. In February 2018, a heterosexual male was diagnosed with gonorrhoea in the United Kingdom following sexual intercourse with a locally resident female in Thailand and failed treatment with ceftriaxone plus doxycycline and subsequently spectinomycin. Resistance arose from two mechanisms combining for the first time in a genetic background similar to a commonly circulating strain. Urgent action is essential to prevent further spread

Banishment in the Early Atlantic World: Convicts, Rebels and Slaves

Banishing troublesome and deviant people was fundamental to the early modern Atlantic world. Whetehr Irish or Scottish rebels, English criminals, gypsies, native Americans, or African slaves, many people were in danger of being processed by law and banished to another place