Comments on: My Cousin, Ned Despard – Hero Or Traitor? https://spitalfieldslife.com/2026/10/07/my-cousin-ned-despard-hero-or-traitor/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Wed, 07 Oct 2026 08:37:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 By: Bru https://spitalfieldslife.com/2026/10/07/my-cousin-ned-despard-hero-or-traitor/#comment-2182262 Wed, 07 Oct 2026 08:37:00 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=208220#comment-2182262 Cherry, this has the makings of a good historical novel. Go for it!

]]> By: Bridget Whelan https://spitalfieldslife.com/2026/10/07/my-cousin-ned-despard-hero-or-traitor/#comment-2182245 Wed, 07 Oct 2026 07:34:35 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=208220#comment-2182245 This is an exciting and extraordinary example of family history (most of our ancestors didn’t leave much of a paper trail) . I want to know more about Ned & his wife Catherine and I have just subscribed to Cherry’s blog.

I hope that at least some of the 20,000 who watched his execution were supporters raging against the injustice being done. Public executions were banned some 60 years later, not out of a sensibility that death should not not be a form entertainment, but because crowds would give support & encouragement to those waiting execution.

I also wonder if Ned was from Portarlington, my father’s home town in the midlands of Ireland which had a large Huguenot population

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