A subscription is opened for the relief of the wives and children of sundry persons detained in prison by the late suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act (1794)

Thomas Hardy, secretary and founder of the London Corresponding Society (LCS), and Daniel Adams, secretary of the Society for Constitutional Information, were arrested on 12 May 1794 on charges of high treason. In the coming weeks the authorities pursued a systematic round-up and interrogation of leading reformers. Within two weeks of the initial arrests Habeas Corpus was suspended and the imprisoned radicals were forced to endure nearly six months in gaol without trial. This broadside announces the opening of a subscription to assist the detained reformers and their families. According to Francis Place, onetime president of the LCS, ‘the subscription was for the twofold purpose of supporting the families and providing legal assistance but as raising money for the latter purpose was illegal it was not mentioned’. By mid-November 1794, £314 had been raised and several new members had begun collecting for the fund in place of John Williamson, a shoemaker.