According to David Nokes, the trial took place at Taunton assizes on March 29, 1800 in the Great Hall of the castle. It attracted a great deal of attention and he says that the court was excessively crowded. The Bath Chronicle reported 2,000 people in attendance.

Although Mrs. Leigh-Perrot's friends were there, the report of the rest of the onlookers doe not make them sound particularly genteel, does it?

Nokes says, "Looking around her, Mrs. Leigh-Perrot could see row upon row of eager, leering faces, and, here and there, the paler countenances of well-wishers and friends."