The Cato Street Conspiracy, a Source of Inspiration

The Cato Street Conspiracy

by Donna Hatch

The murder plot in my newest Regency Romance, The Suspect’s Daughter was inspired by a true event in England known as the Cato Street Conspiracy.

The early 1800’s in England was a time of social and economic upheaval. Upon the ending of the long-term Napoleonic wars, unemployed career soldiers and sailors flooded the workforce. Industrial change was taking England from a largely agricultural country to one of large industry. Many of the working class were hungry and feeling oppressed. Riots erupted which the government crushed. Laws grew more and more restrictive.

In 1820, a group of ten Londoners decided the government needed to be overhauled, and came up with a radical and brutal idea. They planned to storm a house where the prime minister and his cabinet would be having dinner, shoot and behead the leaders, and then parade around the slums with the heads.

Thankfully, this mass murder was averted largely in part due to an undercover government agent whom some believe was a Bow Street Runner. I never learned his name. Government agents stormed the meeting, which was held in a flat on Cato Street, and arrested the conspirators. But the radicals didn’t go peacefully. They fought back, killing one of the officers.

Newgate Prison

The conspirators were tried for high treason. Five were transported, and the rest were hanged at Newgate Prison (pictured) and then beheaded. I guess they authorities wanted to be thorough.

Though the events are different in my story, and the characters are fictitious, the case inspired the conspiracy plot (with my own spin, of course) in my newest Regency Romance, The Suspect’sDaughter, book 4 of the award-winning Rogue Hearts Series, with Grant Amesbury as the hero.

The Suspect’sDaughter, book 4 of the Rogue Hearts Series

Determined to help her father with his political career, Jocelyn sets aside dreams of love. When she meets the handsome and mysterious Grant Amesbury, her dreams of true love reawaken. But his secrets put her family in peril.

Grant goes undercover to capture conspirators avowed to murder the prime minister, but his only suspect is the father of a courageous lady who is growing increasingly hard to ignore. He can’t allow Jocelyn to distract him from the case, nor will he taint her with his war-darkened soul. She seems to see past the barriers surrounding his heart, which makes her all the more dangerous to his vow of remaining forever alone.

Jocelyn will do anything to clear her father’s name, even if that means working with Grant. Time is running out. The future of England hangs in the balance...and so does their love.

The Suspect’sDaughter, is available from Amazon