The Great Oyer of Poisoning: The Trial of the Earl of Somerset For the Poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, in the Tower of London and Various Matters Connected Therewith, From Contemporary MSS.

London: Richard Bentley, 1846 Richard Bentley, "Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty", London 1846. 551 pp. Hard cover, rebound in sturdy, modern red buckram with gilt title to spine. Includes tissue-guarded frontispiece of Sir Thomas Overbury, taken from "an Extra- Rare Print by R. Elstracke." A second plate is within, of Frances, Countess of Somerset. Condition: Very Good. Binding is sound and firm. Pages are toned but clean. Small chip missing from corner of title page. ** This sad and salacious document details the trial for murder and poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury in 1613, at the hands of the conniving Lady Frances Somerset (née Howard), who was revealed to have smuggled arsenic-laced treats and a septic enema to her victim. The Howards had manipulated King James I (and VI of Scotland) into imprisoning Overbury, whose only crime was in protesting the marriage of Frances to his good friend, Somerset. Frances was revealed as the poisoner, and she and her husband had their death sentences commuted to a lifetime imprisonment in the Tower of London. It was a great scandal at the time, and several ancillary witnesses were convicted as accessories. The author, Andrew Amos, Esq. is described as a "late member of the Supreme Council of India, Recorder of Nottingham, Oxford and Banbury; Auditor and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge etc." . First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good.