The saying “bold as brass” is said to be inspired by Brass Crosby (1725-1793), whose defence of the freedom to print leaked documents landed him in the Tower of London when he was the city’s Lord Mayor in 1771.

This article accompanies my essay on the ideology of information transparency.

The radical lawyer, alderman and parliamentarian pledged when he was sworn into office that he would protect Londoners’ rights at the risk of his life. He was already at odds with the national government after he ordered the London constabulary to stop Royal Navy press gangs from seizing men on the street. But the bigger confrontation came when he refused to pass sentence on John Miller, the printer of the London Evening Post, who had enraged Parliament by publishing leaked reports of its debates, which were considered privileged and not for public consumption.

Many London newspapers were committing this offence at the time, sometimes thinly disguising the transcripts by using false names for MPs and as meetings of the “Robin Hood Society” or the “Senate of Magna Lilliputia.”

Crosby not only set Miller free, but charged the messenger Parliament sent to arrest Miller with assault. When he was summoned to the Commons, Crosby declared his own guilt and insisted on being sent to the Tower. Protesters gathered on its lawn to burn effigies of prominent politicians. On his release six weeks later, the city was illuminated by bonfires and celebrations. At the end of Crosby’s mayoralty (terms were only a year), an obelisk was erected in his honour in St. George’s Circus.

After Crosby’s stand, no one was prosecuted for printing parliamentary debates. Publishers vied for the business, but by the 1830s it was dominated by a printer named Thomas Curson Hansard, who put his name on the title page. The House took over the publication in 1909, but the printer’s name is still used as the traditional term for records of parliamentary proceedings all over the Commonwealth.

Sources: Northern Echo, Evening Gazette, Wikipedia, findagrave.com, historyhome.co.uk.