Life and Adventures of Ambrose Gwinett

Unknown artist

<i>The Life and Adventures of Ambrose Gwinett</i> was published by John Trumbull in 1784. The full title of this edition was <i>The Life and Adventures of Ambrose Gwinett, Apprentice to an Attorney at Law, Who, for a murder which he never committed was tried, condemned, executed, and hung in chains in Old England, yet lived many years afterwards, and in his travels found the man in the West Indies actually alive for the supposed murder of who he had been really executed.</i> While this title gives an apt description of the book’s plot, it is interesting to note how it changed from its original title in 1770 which was <i>The Life and Adventures of Ambrose Gwinett, Well Known to the Public as the lame Beggar Man, who for many years swept the way between the Meuse-Gate and Spring Gardens, Charing Cross, taken almost literally from his own mouth</i>. While the story purported to be a true tale, it is widely acknowledge to have been written by dramatist Isaac Bickerstaff.