Dignitaries of the City of London receiving official addresses while imprisoned in a cell in the Tower of London. Engraving, 1771.

Three dignitaries of the City of London carrying out their official business, wearing their robes of office, while imprisoned in a cell in the Tower of London as a result of a defiant challenge to the House of Commons. The three prisoners are the Lord Mayor of London, Brass Crosby, reading a petition from Camarthen; John Wilkes in alderman's robes holding a petition from Pembroke; and Richard Oliver in the same robes receiving a petition from Camarthen. In March 1771, during a struggle between the City of London and the House of Commons, Crosby, Oliver and Wilkes had arrested a mesenger from the Commons, for which, from 27 March 1771, Crosby and Oliver were imprisoned in the Tower of London (Wilkes avoided imprisonment). In April 1771 the Lord Mayor received addresses from various counties and cities including the three Welsh counties named. The petitions are presented by Watkin Lewes, a Welshman, a City attorney and prominent City Whig, who became an Alderman of the City of London in 1772, and was knighted in 1773. Crosby and Oliver were released from the Tower on 8 May 1771 and were conducted in a triumphal procession to the Mansion House, the Lord Mayor's residence