He was christened Paul Thomas at St Martin in the Fields in 1776, the son of John and Frances Lemaitre.
He was tried for treasonable practices.
As a brief summary the following account was extracted from pages 207-8 of the book Some account of the Parish of St Clement Danes (Westminster) Past and Present by John Diprose and should be read against the background of the fear in the UK of a revolution similar to the one which had recently taken place in France. It describes the circumstances surrounding the indictment for treasonable practices and Lemaitre’s subsequent battle for his freedom etc.
Under the heading “Portugal Street”:
This street was, at the close of the last century, the scene of the celebrated sensational, yet pretended, “Pop Gun Plot” of 1794, a plot to kill the king with a poisoned arrow! It appears the unsettled state of the country caused a plan to be published in 1793, to bring about “The British Convention of Delegates of the People associated to obtain Universal Suffrage and Annual Parliaments” in which plan the “London Corresponding Society” and the “Constitutional Society” were deeply interested. The “Convention”, however, was never held —for Thomas Hardy, the Secretary of the first named society, and eleven others were prosecuted for high treason. Of these, Hardy, John Horne Tooke and John Thelwall were tried and acquitted, while Parliament, on the 23rd of May 1794, passed an “Act to empower His Majesty to secure and detain such persons as His Majesty shall suspect are conspiring against his person and Government”. It is not our purpose to enter fully into the well-known sensational character of those times; suffice to say that one John Smith, of the “Pop Gun”, Portsmouth Street and George Higgins were duly arrested on the charge of “high treason”, examined repeatedly by the Privy Council, and ultimately discharged; but another member of the society, the unfortunate Paul Thomas Lemaitre, aged eighteen, appears to have suffered worst. Arrested, while working as a gold watch case maker at his cousin’s house, 13 Denmark Street, Soho, he was charged with “treasonable practices”, as being a “delegate” of the London Corresponding Society, as being in connexion with Smith, to assassinate the King by means of a poison arrow! Arrested Saturday evening, the 27th of September 1794, he was for the next three days examined closely by the Privy Council, was, on the evidence of a forged letter, and one Thomas Upton (who had sworn to be revenged on him for seconding him, Upton, being turned out of the society), imprisoned, being the first person sent to the new prison at Cold Bath Fields; was kept within this “British Bastille”, as he called it, for thirty-two weeks (during which time his mother had died of grief), and finally liberated on the 9th of May 1795, on giving bail of £50. Some months after, he was unnecessarily summoned before the Privy Council and, after more delay, was, with John Smith of the “Pop Gun” (whom he knew “as a member of the society, and one of whom I have frequently bought pamphlets &c”) and George Higgins, tried at the Old Bailey, the 11th May 1796, and discharged. This, then, was the “plot”, but poor Lemaitre’s case was for years before Parliament- various members endeavoured to get him redress, among whom Henry Warburton got a petition drawn up for him so lately as August 1846…………”.
Various other accounts of the London Corresponding Society reveal Lemaitre was an active and, despite his age, a prominent member. The membership was largely made up of artisans and a census in 1793 revealed 10 watch case makers were included, though not named. Elsewhere in the records a John Baxter was identified as a silversmith. A John Baxter is listed on pages 299-300 of Grimwade’s book as a case maker who first entered a mark in 1794 although nothing else has been found to link the two.
Grimwade p.288 records Ann Macaire (nee Lemaitre) and Peter Desvignes having entered a mark in partnership at Goldsmiths Hall in 1793 as gold workers from 13 Denmark Street, Soho, being the address at which Lemaitre was arrested.
His incarceration did not end in 1796. As Thomas Paul Lemaitre, born in 1777, he was listed in a court register of 1798 committed to trial from Newgate prison where he had been sent on the order of the Secretary of State on charges of treasonable practices. These records do not show other than his being removed to Reading gaol in August 1799. The register recorded no verdict. It seems there may have been no trial.
The Times newspaper of 16th December 1800 reported Lemaitre had petitioned the House of Commons in forceful terms that he had been tried for High Treason and acquitted, no evidence having been produced against him, but had then been confined in Cold Bath Fields Prison, where he suffered much bodily injury, and that he had been subsequently arrested and at length confined in Reading gaol where he now remained. He lost the vote in the House to decide whether his petition should be accepted.
Lemaitre was apparently at liberty by September 1801 when he married Caroline Coe at Christ Church, Spitalfields ; they were both from that parish.
As P T Lemaitre he entered a mark in 1802 at Goldsmiths’ Hall as a case maker from 34 Castle Street, Holborn.
His daughter Caroline Julia was christened in 1804 at St Andrew, Holborn from the same address.
*In 1808 he was made free in the Cordwainers Company.
No evidence has been found on the internet for this freedom. It was presumably gained by paying a small fine as redemption.
In 1812 his children William Frind (born 1807), Frian Frederick (born 1808) and Hanson Edward (born 1812) were all christened together at St Andrew, Holborn.
The London Gazette of May 1813 recorded he was bankrupt.
Paul Thomas Lemaitre is listed on page 193 of Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World as free in the Clockmakers Company from 1815-24.
*In 1817 he was at 23 Gracechurch Street as an agent for Brady’s Domestic Weighing Machines and Gushe’s Raised Letters and in 1818 at the same address as agent for Liverpool Tell-Tale Balance and Slater’s Cooking & Washing Apparatus and as a clock and watch maker.
As a widower in 1825 he married Elizabeth Woodhams at St James, St Pancras; they were both from that parish.
*Two more of their children, for whom no christening records have been traced, were born in Hammersmith in 1826 and Bushey, Hertfordshire in 1829.
In 1828 he was shown as a watch maker from Stanmore on the apprentice indentures signed for his son Frian Frederick.
*In 1832 he was in Berbice in the West Indies as an Assistant Protector of Slaves.
*He was shipwrecked in Pevensey Bay in 1833.
The christening record of his daughter Paulina Charistina in 1833 at St John the Evangelist shows her father as a “gent” from Stanmore.
The record of the family on the 1841 UK Census has not yet been found.
The 1851 UK Census listed him aged 74 years as a Colonial Office Civil Servant living at 8 Park Cottage, Hammersmith.
The 1861 UK Census records he was retired and living in Waterloo Place, Hammersmith.
His burial aged 87 years, late of the same address, was recorded at St James, St Pancras in 1864.
* With acknowledgements to Brian Wood for his website family tree.