Thomas Walker (1749-1817), the Manchester reformer, was tried together with others in Lancaster for sedition and conspiracy to overthrow the constitution. A warrant was originally issued in May 1793 on a charge of High Treason, but the government failed to secure the second witness required for such a prosecution, and settled for the lesser charges of conspiracy and sedition. The case was weakened when the key witness acknowledged to Walker in the presence of his lawyers that he had been bribed to make false accusations, although he changed his story again in the course of the trial.

See Thomas Walker, The whole proceedings of the trial of an indictment against Thomas Walker ... [etc.] for a conspiracy to overthrow the Constitution and ... (Manchester, 1794).