John Pass or Paas (c.1783–1832) was an English engraver and murder victim.

Life

Pass was an established copper plate engraver in Pentonville, London. He made plates for ''The History, Civil and Ecclesiastical, and Survey of the Antiquities of Winchester'' (1798–1801) by John Milner.

John Wilkes John Wilkes (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English Radicalism (historical), radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlese ...

the London bookseller, who was from

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

, knew him at the end of the 18th century, and took him on for illustrations of his ''Encyclopaedia Londoniensis''. Pass produced plates for volume 13 of the work. John Paas (name used legally) was murdered in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

by James Cook, in a criminal case that attracted wide attention. He was aged 49, a partner in the firm Paas & Co. of

High Holborn High Holborn ( ) is a street in Holborn and Farringdon Without, Central London, which forms a part of the A40 route from London to Fishguard. It starts in the west at the eastern end of St Giles High Street and runs past the Kingsway and ...

, London, engravers. He was in Leicester as a travelling salesman of specialist hardware. Cook, a printer and bookbinder, was exhibited on a

gibbet Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet () was also used as a method of public ex ...

after being hanged, the last British criminal to be so treated.

Paas & Co.

The firm of C. and A. Paas & Co. was in business at various Holborn addresses in the second half of the 18th century. One of the partners, Cornelius Paas, an engraver from Germany, came to London around 1765.

Notes

External links

British Library, Untold lives blog, ''Credit Crunch leads to Murder'' 18 October 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pass, John 1832 deaths English engravers People murdered in England Year of birth uncertain