Crime.- Hewitt (John) A Journal of the Proceedings of J. Hewitt, Coventry, one of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace...in Cases of Riot and Tumult, Coining, Murder, Burglary and Felony..., London...Birmingham...Coventry, for the author, [1779]; The Proceedings of J. Hewitt, Alderman..., Birmingham, for the author, 1783, together 2 works in 1 vol., occasional light spotting or browning, a couple of contemporary ink annotations, ex-Rugby School copy with bookplate of M.H.Bloxam, contemporary half calf, rubbed, rebacked, 4to

⁂ An extraordinary and very scarce collection of memoirs and reports by the Coventry magistrate, John Hewitt (1719-1802). "Hewitt was an exceedingly zealous magistrate, prosecuting felons and transporting criminals. He carried on lengthy exchanges of letters with leading government figures of the day, soliciting their support for his actions to keep the peace. The 1750s and 1760s undeniably were decades of widespread civil disorder in the midlands, especially on account of the price of bread, and Hewitt made a stand against the rioters. His experiences of the disorders seem to have encouraged him to publish in 1779 a journal of his proceedings as magistrate, which was a strange mixture of cases he had brought successfully to justice, explanations of criminal law, and descriptions of some notorious local murders and thefts. His chief ambition, however, was to catch the Coventry gang, a group of highly skilled and well-known coiners led by Thomas Lightoler, who ultimately turned king's evidence and fled to Austria, leaving his fellow criminals to be executed at Lancaster in 1768...Hewitt also tried to stop prostitution in Coventry and to enforce appropriate behaviour on Sundays, and he published a handbook for the use of constables (1779)...". [Joan Lane in ODNB].