THE
CHRONICLES OF CRIME
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THE
CHRONICLES OF CRIME ;^^
OB,
BEING
A SERIES OF MEMOIRS AND ANECDOTES
OP
NOTOEIOUS CHARACTERS
WHO HAVE OUTRAGED THE LAWS OF GREAT BRITAIN FROM THE EARLIEST
PERIOD TO 1841.
|
COMPRISINO |
||
|
COINERS. |
HOUSEBREAKERS. |
PIRATES. |
|
EXTORTIONERS. |
INCENDIARIES. |
PICKPOCKETS |
|
FORGE as. |
IMPOSTORS. |
RIOTERS. |
|
FRAUDULENT BANKRUPTS. |
MURDEREHS. |
SliAReERS |
|
FOOTPADS. |
MUlINKEKS. |
TRAITDRS. |
|
HIGHWAYMEN. |
MONEY-DROPPERS. |
&e., &o. |
INCLUDING
A NUMBER OF CURIOUS CASES NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.
EMBELLISHED WITH FIFTY-TWO ENGRAVINGS.
FitOM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY " PHIZ."
BY CAMDEN PELHAM, ESQ.,
OF THE INNEB TEMPLE, BABEISTEB-AT-LAW.
VOL. I.
4^^ 0 LONDON ::tp :l ' T. MILES & CO., 95, UPPER STREET.
^)1887. - /H
toNDON :
PKINTED BY J. S. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMIIED, CITY ROAD.
SEP 1 4 1967
PREFACE.
Few words are necessary to introduce to our readers a work, the character and the object of which are so legibly written upon its title-page. " Chronicles of Crime " must comprise details, not only interesting to every person concerned for the welfare of society, but useful to the world in pointing out the consequences of guilt to be equally dreadful and inevitable. It is to be regretted that in most of the works of the present day, little attention is paid to the ultimate moral or beneficial effects to be produced by them upon the public mind; and that while every effort is made to afford amusement, no cai'e is taken to produce those general impressions, so necessary to the maintenance of virtue and good order. The advantages of precept are everywhere admitted and extolled ; but still more effectual are the lessons which are taught through the influence of example, whose results are but too frequently fatal. The representation of guilt with its painful and degrading consequences, has been universally considered to be the best means of warning youth against the danger of temptation ; — the benefits to be expected from example are too plainly exhibited by the inflic- tion of punishment to need repetition ; and the more generally the effects of crime are shown, and the more the horrors which precede
vi PREFACE.
detection and the deplorable fate of the guilty are made known, the greater is the probability that the atrocity of vice may be abated and the security of the public promoted.
Having said thus much in recommendation of the object of this work, a few words as to its precise character may be added. Amusement and instruction are alike the results which are hoped to be secured. It is admitted by men, whose desire it is to make themselves acquainted with human nature, that jails and other places of confinement afford them a wide field for contemplation. The study of life, in all its varieties, is one no less interesting than useful. The ingenuity of thieves, depicted in their crimes, is a theme upon which all have opportunities to remark, in their passagre through a life of communication with the world ; and no less worthy of observation are the offences of men, whose outrages or cruelties have rendered them amenable to the laws, framed for the protection of society. All afford matter of contemplation to the mind, most likely to be attended with useful results. It may be observed that to persons of vicious inclination, effects the opposite to those which are suggested may be produced ; but an answer as conclusive as it is just may be given to any such remark. The consequences of crime are as clearly exhibited as its motives and its supposed advantages, and few are hardy enough to declare or to exhibit a carelessness for punishment, or a contempt for the bitter fruits of their misdeeds. Presenting an example, therefore, of peculiar usefulness, it is trusted that the work will be found no less interesting than instructive. Combining these two most im- portant qualities to secure its success, it is hoped that the patron- age afforded it will be at least commensurate with the pains which have been bestowed upon its production.
PREFACE. Vll
It will be observed that in the preparation of these pages much care has been taken to preserve those features only which are likely to be acceptable to society. The most scrupulous attention has been paid to the rejection of such instances of guilt, the circum- stances of which might be deemed unfit for general perusal. In a compass so circumscribed as that to which the work is confined, it would be impossible to give the history of every criminal who has undergone punishment for his offences, during the period to which our Chronicles extend : neither is that the object of the work. It is intended to embrace within its limits all those cases wnich from their details present outlines of attraction. The earlier pages are derived from sources of information peculiarly within tne reach of the Editor, while those of a later period are com- piled from known authorities as accurate as they are complete.
The comparison of the offences, and of the punishments of the last century, with those of more recent date, will exhibit a marked distinction between the two periods, both as to the atrocity of the one, and the severity of the other. Those dreadful and frequent crimes, which would disgrace the more savage tribes, and which characterised the lives of the early objects of our criminal proceedings, are now no longer heai'd of; and those chai-acters of blood, in which the pages of our Statute-book were formerly written, nave been wiped away by improved civilisation and the milder feelino;s of the people. It is but just to say that the provi- sions of a wise Parliament have not been unattended with proper results. Humanity has been permitted to temper the stern demands of justice ; and however atrocious, it must be admitted, some of the crimes may be which have been recently perpetrated, and however numerous the offenders, it cannot be denied that the
viii PREFACE.
general aspect of the state of crime in this country is now infinitely less alarming than formerly.
The necessity for punishment as the consequence of crime, can neither be doubted nor denied. Without it the bonds of society must be broken — government in no form could be upheld. If, then, example be the object of punishment, and peace and good order, nay, the binding together of the community, be its effects, how useful must be a work, whose intention is to hold out that example which must be presumed to be the foundation of a well-ordered society
The cases will be found to be arranged chronologically, which, it is presumed, will afford the most satisfactory and the most eaf'y mode of reference. This advantage is, however, increased by the addition of copious indices.
London, July 1, 1840.
CONTENTS.
Note. — The offence mentioned opposite to each name is that alleged against the person
charged.
PAGE
Adams, Agnes. Forgery . . . 505 Alden, Marthg,. Murder . . 445 Allen, George. Murder . . 444 Allen, Willuim. Returned Trans- port 330
ARJiiT&r.E- Richard. Forgery . . 506
Aslett, Robert. Embezzlement . 410 Atkins, James, alias JHill, alias Jack
the Painter. Arson . . . 2G9
Attaway, James. Burglary . . 226 Aram, Eugene. Murder . .168
AvEBSHAW, Lewis Jeremiah. Murder 347
Bailey, Richard. Burglary . . 226
Balfoue, Alexander. Murder . 3
Balmerino, Lord. Treason . . 107 Baltimore, Lord. Rape . .213 Barrington, George, alias Waldi'on.
Pickpocket 363
Bateman, Mary. Murder . . 458 Bellingham, John. Murder . . 527 Benson, Mary, alias Phipoe. Murder 358 Birmingham Riots (1780) . . . 326 Blackburn, Joseph. Forgery . . 575 Blake, Joseph, alias Blueskin. Burg- lary 35
Blandy, Mary. Parricide . . 1 48 Bodkin, John, and Dominick. Mur- der 105
Bolland, James. Forgery . . 229
Bounty, Mutiny of . . . . 328
Bourne, John. Consph-acy . . 332
Bradford, Jonathan. Murder . 107
.BjUi.NT, Mary. Returned Transport 330
Bristol, Countess of, alias Duchess of Kingston. Bigamy . . .
Broadric, Ann. Murder Brown, Nicol. Murder . . . Brown, Joseph. Murder Brownrigg, Elizabeth. Murder . . Burt, Samuel. Forgery . Burgh, Rev. Richard. Conspiracy . Butcher, John. Returned Transport BuTTERwoRTH, William. Murder Buxton, James. Murder . ,
Caddell, George. Murder . Cameron, Dr. Archibald. Treason Campbell, Alexander. Murder Campbell, Mungo. Murder Carr, John. Forgery Carroll, Barney. Cutting and Maim
ing
Carson, Thomas. Murder Caulfield, Frederick. Murder . Chandler, William. Perjury . Charteris, Col. Francis. Rape . Clayton, John. Burglary Cobby, John. Murder CIolley, Thomas. Murder Cook, Thomas. Murder Cooke, Arundel. Cutting and Maiming Cooper, James. Murder CoucuMAN, Samuel. Mutiny Coyle, Richard. Piracy Cox, Jane. Murder . CuMMiNGS, John. Conspiracy I Chosswell. John. Conspiracy .
250 343 157 456 204 316 332 330
7 154 452 227 124
197 590 141 145
76
522
127
138
8
31 454 131
84 507 332
49
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Dagoe, Hannah. Robbery . . . l'J7 Davis, James. Conspiracy . . 332 Dawson, Daniel. Poisoning Race- horses 524
Dawson, James. Treason . .122 De Butte, Louis,.a/ia« Mercier. Mur- der 272
Dk la Motte, Francis Heni-y. Tiea-
son . . . . . .301
Derwentwater, Earl of. Treason . 19 Despard, Col. Edward Marcus. Trea- son . . • . . . 3f"9 DiGNUM, David Brown. Fraud . . 268 Diver, Jenny, alias Mary Young.
Pickpoclcet ..... 96
Dixo.N", Margaret. Murder . . 71
D'JD"), Dr. William. Forgery . . 274 Do.sallv, James. Robbery . . 292
DowNiE, David. Treason . . 335
Dramattf, Julin Peter. Murder . . 9 Drew, Charles. Parricide . .102 DuNXAN, William. Murder . . . 436 DuRNFORD, Abraham, Robbery . 292
Elby, William. Murder . . . 10 Emmet, Robert. Treason . . 382
Farmery, William. Murder . . 236 Farrell, James, alias Buck. Murder 202 Favey, James, alias O'Coigley. Trea- son . . . . . . 360
Fenmng Elizabeth. Murder • . 569 Ferguson, Ricliard, alias Galloping
Dick. Robbery . , . . 371
Ferrers. Eurl. Murder . . 181
Fleet Marriages . . . . 159
Foster, George. Murder . . 380
Francis, John. Treason . . . 389
Fryer, James. Burglary . . 288
Gadesby, William. Robbery . . 325 Galloping Dick, alias Richard Fergu- son. Robbei'y .... 371 Gardelle, Theodore. Murder . 188
Gentleman Harry, a/jas Henry Sterne.
Robbery 315
Gidley, George. Murder . .199
GbODERE, Capt. Samuel. Murder . 103
PAG8
Gordon, Thomas. Murder . . 318 Gow, John. Piracy . . .72
Grant, Jeremiah. Burglary . . 588 Gregg, William. Treason . .12
Grierson, Rev. Jno., unlawful perform- ance of the Marriage Ceremony . 159 Griffenburg, Elizabeth. Accessory to
a Rape 213
Griffiths, William. Robbery . 234
Guest, William. Diminishing the Coin of the Realm . . . .203
Hackman, the Rev. James. Murder 289
Hadfield, James. Treason . . 370
Hatfield, John. Forgery . . 394
Haggerty, Owen. Murder . .. 437
Hajiilton, Col John. Manslaughter 16 Ham.mond, John. Murder . .127
Hardwick, James. Conspiracy . 34.9
Harris, Sanuiel. Murder . . . 211
Harvey, Anne. Accessory to a R.ipe 213
Hawden, John. Conspiracy . . 349
Hawes, Nathaniel. Robbery . . 28
Hayden, James. Conspiracy . . 349
Hayes, Catherine. Murder • . 65
Haywood, Richard. Robbery . 417
Heald, Joseph. Murder . . 378
Hebberfield, William. Forgery . 521
Henderson, Matthew. Murder . 116
Henley, John. Conspiracy . . 349
Hill, James, alias Jack the Painter . 269
Hodges, Joseph. Cross-dropping . 351
Hollovvay, John. Murder . . 437
Holmes, John. Body-stealing . 273
Horne, William Andrew. Murder . 179
Horner, Thomas. Burglary . . 288
Housden, Jane. Murder . . 18
Hunter, the Rev. Thomas. Murder 1 Hutchinson, Amy. Murder . .133
Jackson, the Rev. Mr. Treason . 346
Jack the Painter, alias Hill. Arson 269
Jacobs, Simon. Conspiracy . . 349
Jeffries, Elizabeth. Murder . 152
Jenkins, William. Burglary . 522
Jennison, Francis. Murder . . 342
Jobbins, William. Arson . . 324
Johnson, William. Murder . . IS
Jones, Laurence. Robbery . . 333
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Arson & Murder 453
18
552
19
4
107
Kearixge, Matthew
Keele, Richard. Murder
Kendall, Richard. Robbery
Kenmure, Lord. Ti-eascn
KiDD, Capt. John. Piracy
Kilmarnock, Earl of. Treason
King, William. Cutting and Maiming 197
Kingston, Duchess of, aluis Countess of
Bristol. Bigamy. . . . 250
Knight, Thomas. Mutiny . .131
Lancey, Capt. John. Arson . . 156 Layer, Christopher. Treason . 32 Lazarus, Jacob. Murder . . . 227 Le Maitre, Peter. Steahng . . 267 Leonard, John. Rape . . . 235 Lilly, Nathaniel. Returned Trans- port 330
LiSLE,a/iasMajor J. G. Semple. Swind- ling 564
London, Riots of .... 295 Lovat, Lord. Treason . . .118 Lowe, Edward. Arson . . . 324 LowTHER, William. Murder . 18 Luddites, TJie 549
Magms, Harriet. Child-stealing . 510 Mauony, Matthew. Murder . . 103 Malcolm, Sarah. Murder . . 79 Male, Samuel. Robbery . . 236
Marrs, Murder of the . . .513 Martin, James. Returned Transport 330 Massey, Capt. John. Piracy . . 30 Mathison, James. Forgery . . 295 Mayne, Robert. Mutiny . .196
M'Can, Townley. Conspiracy . . 332 M'Canelly, John. Burglary . . 151 Merritt, Amos. Burglary . .237 Mercier, Francis, alias De Butte.
Murder ..... 272 Metyard, Sarah, and Sarah Morgan.
Murder 210
Mills, John. Murder . . . 132
Mills, Richard. Murder . .127
M'Ilvena, Michael. Unlawfully per- forming the Marriage Ceremony . 560 Mitchell, Samuel Wild. Murder . 415 Mitchell, James. Murder . . 562 M'KiNLiE, Peter. Murder . . 199
M'Naughton, John. Mui-der . 191
P/.GR
Morgan, Edward. Murder and Arson 158 Morgan, John. Mutiny Morgan, Luke. Burglary Mutiny of the Bounty Mutiny at THE Nore
Newton, William. Robbery Nicholson, Philip. Murder Nore, Mutiny at . North, John. Murder
O'Coigley, James, alias Favey. Trea son
Page, William. Robbery
Paleotti, Marquis de. Murder
Palmer, John. Burglary .
Parker, Richard, Mutiny
Parsons, William. Returned Trans port ....
Patch, Richard. Murder
Perfect, Henry. Fraud
Perreau, Robert and Daniel. For- gery
Phillips, Thomas. Robbery .
Phillips, Morgan. Murder and Arson
Phillips, John. Conspiracy .
Phipoe, Maria Theresa, alias Mary Benson. Murder
Phipps, Thomas, sen. and jun. For- gery ....
PiCTON, Thomas. Unlawfully apply ing the Torture ...
PoRTEOUS, Captain John. Murder
Porter, Solomon. Murder
Price, John. Murder
Price, George. Murder .
Price, Charles. Forgery
Probin, Richard. Cross-dropping
QuiNTiN, St., Richard. Murder
Rann, John, alias Sixteen- stringed
Jack. Robbery Ratcliffe, Charles. Treason . Richardson, John. Pii-acy Riots, Birmingham (1780) Riots of London Roach, Philip. Piracy Ross, Norman. Murder
131 151 328 353
300 555 353 311
360
1G5
25
448
353
142 430 419
244
27
294
34.<5
358
319
423 81
227 26 87
312
351
199
242 118
84 326 295
34 136
xh
CONTENTS,
Rowan, Archibald Hamilton. Sedi- tion 340
RuDD, ilai-garet Caroline. Forgery . 249
Ryan, John. Arson and Murder . 453
Ryland, WOliam Wynne. Forgery . 308
Sawyer, William. Murder . . SfiC ScoLDWELL, Charles. Stealing . . 330 Semple, Major J. G. Swindling . 564 Sheeby, Father. Murder ... 202 Sheppard, James. Treason . . 24 Sheppard, John. Burglary • . 38 Simmons, Thomas. Murder . . 450 Sixteen-stringed Jack. Robbery . 242 Sligo, the Marquis of. Enticing Sea- men from H.il. Navy . . 526 Smith, John. Robbery . . . 11 Smith, John. Mutiny . . . 195 Smith, Robert. Robbery . . . 379 Smith, Fi-ancis. Murder . . 399 Solomons, John. Conspiracy . . 349 Spencer, Barbara. Coining . . 27 Spiggot, William. Robbery . . ib. Sterne, Henry, alias Gentleman
Harry. Robbery . . .315
Swan, John. Murder . . . . 152
Tapner, Benjamin. Murder . . 127 Terry, John. Murder . . . 378 Thomas, Charles. Forgery . . 506 Thornhill, Richard. Manslaughter 15 TiLt-EY, William. Conspii-acy . . 349 TowNLEY, Fiancis. Treason . . 122 Trusty, Christopher. Returned Trans- port 310
Tr.'iPiN, Richard. Robbery . . 89
Tyrce, David. Treason . . . 307
.»AGB
Underwood, Thomas. Robbery 325
Vaijx, James Hardy. Privately Steal- ing 481
Waldron, George, alias Barrington.
Pickpocket .... 363
Wall, Joseph. Murder . . . 374 W^ALSH. Benjamin. Felony . .511
Watt, Robert. Treason . . . 335
Weil, Levi and Asher. Murder . 227
White, HutFey. Robbery . . 552
White, Charles. Murder . . . 103
Whiting, Michael. Murder . . 509 Whitmore, John, alias Old Dash.
Rape 504
Wild, Jonathan. Receiving Stolen
Goods 51
Wilkinson, the Rev. Mr. Unlaw'fully performing the JIarriage Cere- mony 208
Wilkes, John. Sedition . . 220
Williamson, John. Murder . . 208
Williamsons, Murder of the . . 513
Williams, Peter. Body-stealing . 273 Williams, Renwick. Cutting and
Maiming 320
WiNTON, Earl of. Treason . . 19 Woodburne, John. Cutting and
Maiming . . . . . 31
Wood, Joseph. Robbery . . 325
Wood, John. Treason . . . ZS9
York, William. Murder . .127
Young, Mary, alias Jenny Diver.
Pickpocket .... 96
Zekerman, Andrew. Murder . 199
THE
CHEONICLES OF CEIME,
OR,
THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR.
THE REV. THOMAS HUNIER.
EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF HIS PUPILS.
The case of this criminal, who was executed in the year 1700 for tlie barbarous murder of his two pupils, the children of a gentleman named ^ordon, an emment merchant, and a baillie, or alderman of the City of Edmburgh, IS the first on our record; and, certainly, for its atrocity, deserve^ to be placed at the head of the list of offences which follows its melancholy recital. From the title of the oiFender, it will be seen that he was a preacher of the word of God ; and that a person in his situation in life should sufi-er so ignominious an end for such a crime, is indeed extraor- dinary; but how niuch more horrible is the fact which is related to us, that on the scaffold when all hope of life and of repentance was past, he ex- pressed his disbelief in that God whom it was his profession to uphold and whose omnipotence it had been his duty to teach !
The malefactor, it would appear, was born of most respectable parents, lis father being a rich farmer in the county of Fife, and at an early age he wassenttotheUmversity of St. Andrew's for his education. His success m the pursuit of classical knowledge soon enabled him to take the degree of Master of Arts, and his subsequent study of divinity was attended with as fayourable results Upon his quitting college, in accordance with the practice of the time he entered the service of Mr. Gordon in the capacity of chaplain, m whicn situation it became his duty to instruct the sons of his employer, children respectively of the ages of eight and ten years. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon, the two boys, their sister (a girl mT^p' \^'' themse ves), Mr. Hunter, a young woman who attended upon Mrs. Gordon and the usual menial servants. The attention of Hunter was attracted by the comeliness of the lady's-maid, and a connexion of a trmimai nature was soon commenced between them. The accidental dis- covery of this intrigue by the three children, was the ultimate cause of the deliberate murder of two of them by their tutor.
The young woman and Hunter had retired to the apartment of the latter but, having omitted to fasten the door, the children entered and saw enough to excite surprise in their young minds. In their conversation
VOL. I.
2 NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR.
subsequently at meal-time, they said so much as convinced their parents of what had taken place, and the servant-girl was instantly dismissed ; while the chaplain, who had always been considered to be a person of mild and amiable disposition and of great genius, was permitted to remain, upon his making such amends to the family as were in his power, by apologir'ing for .1 is Ludiscretion, From this moment, however, an inveterate hatred for the childi'en arose in his breast, and he determiued to satisfy his revenge upon them by murdering them all. Chance for some time marred his plans, but he was at length enabled to put them into execution as regarded the two boys. It appears that he was in the habit of taking them t ) walk in the fields before dinner, and the girl on euch occasions usually accompanied them, but at the time at which the murder of her brothers was perpe- trated she was prevented from going with them. They were at the country- seat of IMr. Gordon, situated at a short distance only from Edinburgh, and an invitation having been received for the whole family to dine in that city, Mrs. Gordon desired that all the children might accompany her and her husband. The latter, however, opposed the execution of this plan, and the little girl only was permitted to go with her parents. The intention of the murderer to destroy all the children was by this means frustrated ; but he still persevered in his bloody purpose with regard to the sons of his bene- factor, whom he determined to murder while they were yet in his power. Proceeding with them in their customary walks, they all sat down together to rest; but the boys soon quitted their tutor to catch butterflies, and to gather the wild flowers which grew in abundance around them. Their aiurdei'er was at that moment engaged in preparing the weapon for their slaughter, and presently calling them to him, he reprimanded them for disclosing to their parents the particulars of the scene which they had wit- nessed, and declared his intention to put them to death. Terrified by this threat, they ran from him; but he pursued and overtook them, and then throwing one of them on the ground and placing his knee on his chest, he soon despatched his brother by cutting his throat with a penknife. This first victim disposed of, he speedily completed his fell purpose, with regard to the child whose person he had already secured. The deed, it will be observed, was perpetrated in open day ; and it would have been remarkable, indeed, if, within half a mile of the chief city of Scotland, there had been no human eye to see so horrible an act. A gentleman who was walking on the Castle Hill had a tolerable view of what passed, and immediately ran to the spot where the deceased children were lying ; giving tlie alarn? as he went along, in order that the murderer might be secured. The latter, having accomplished his object, proceeded towards tlie river to drown himself, but was prevented from fulfilling his intention ; and having been seized, he was soon placed in safe custody, intelligence of the frightful event being meanwhile conveyed to the parents of the unhappy children.
The ]:nsoner was within a few days brought to trial, under the old Scottish law, by which it was provided that a murderer, being found witli the blood of his victim on his clothes, should be proseciited in the Sherift"s Court, and executed within three days. The frightful nature of the case rendered it scarcely uncharitable to pursue a law so vigorous according to its letter, and a jury having been accordingly impanelled, the prisoner was brought to trial, and pleaded guilty, adding the horrible announcement of his regret that Miss Gordon had escaped from his revenge. The sentence
NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR.
of death was passed upon the culprit by the sheriff, but it was directed to be carried into effect with the additional terms, that the prisoner should first have his right hand struck oft'; tliat he should then be drawn up to the gibbet, erected near the locality of the murder, by a rope ; and that after execution, he should be hanged in chains, between Edinburgh and Leith, the weapon of destruction being passed through his hand, wliich should be advanced over his head, and fixed to the top of the gibbet. The sentence, barbarous as it may now appear, was carried into full execution on the 2*2nd of August, 1700 ; and frightful to relate, he, who in life had professed to be a teacher of the Gospel, on his scaffold declared himself to be an Atheist. His words were, " There is no God — or if there be, I hold him in defiance.' The body of the executed man, having been at first suspended in chains according to the proti?D terms of his sentence, was subsequently, at the desire of Mr. Gordon, reU) loved to the outskirts of the village of Broughton, near Edinburgh.
ALEXANDER BALFOUR.
CONVICTED OF MURDER.
The case of this criminal is worthy of some attention, from the very remarkable circumstances by which it was attended. The subject of this sketch was born in 1687, at the seat of his father. Lord Burley, near Kinross ; and having studied successively at Orwell, near the place of his birth, and at St. Andrews, so successfully as to obtain considerable credit, he returned home, being intended by his father to join the army of the Duke of Marlborough, then in Flanders. Here he became enamoured of ISliss Robertson, the governess of his sisters, however ; and in order to break off the connexion he was sent to make the tour through France and Italy, thi young lady being dismissed from the house of her patron. Balfour, befort his quitting Scotland, declared his intention, if ever the young lady should marry, to murder her husband ; but deeming this to be merely an empty threat, she was, during his absence, united to a IMr. Syme, with whom she went to live at Inverkeithing. On his return to his father's house, he learned this fact, and immediately proceeded to put his threat into execu- tion. Mrs. Syme, on seeing him, remembering his expressed determination, screamed with affright ; but her husband, unconscious of offence, advanced to her aid, and in the interim, Balfour entering the room, shot him through the heart. The offender escaped, but was soon afterwards appreliended near Edinburgh ; and being tried, was convicted and sentenced to be be- headed by the maiden *, on account of the nobility of his family.
• Different countries have different modes of inflicting capital punishments. Belieading was a militaiy punishment among the Romans, known by the name of decollatio. Among them the head was laid on a cippus, or block, placed in a pit dug for the purpose ; in the army, without the vallum ; in the city, -nithout the walls, at t place near the porta decumana. Preparatory to the stroke, the criminal was tied to a stake, and whipped with rods. In the early ages the blow was given with an axe ; but in after-times with a sword, which was thought the more reputable manner of dying. The execution was but clumsily performed in the lirst times; but afterwards they grew more expert, and took the head off clean, with one circular Mroke.
In England, beheading is the punishment of nobles; being reputed not to derogate from
KEW NEWGATE CALENDAR.
The subsequent escape of the criminal from au ignominious end is n.'4 the least remarkable part of his case. The scafltbld was actually erected for the purpose of his execution ; but on the day before it was to take place his sister went to visit him, and, being very like him in face and stature, they changed clothes, and he escaped from pi'ison. His friends havinor provided horses for him, he proceeded to a distant village, where he lay concealed until an opportunity was eventually offered him of quitting the kingdom. His father died in the reign of Queen Anne, but he had first obtained a pardon for his son, who succeeded to tlie title and honours of tlie fixmily, and died in the year 1752, sincerely penitent for his crime.
CAPTAIN JOHN KIDD,
SURNAMED THE WIZARD OF THE SEAS, AND DARliY MULLINS. HANGED FOR PIRACY.
The first-named subject of this memoir was born at Greenock, m Scotland, and was bred to the sea ; and quitting his native land at an early age, he resided at New York, where he eventually became possessed
uobility, .IS luinging docs. In France, during the revolutionary government, the practice of beheading by means of an instrument cilled a guillotine (so denominated from the n.-ime of its inventor) was exceedingly general. It resembles a kind of instrument long since used foi the same purpose in Scotland, and called a maiden.
It is universally known, that, at the execution of King Charles the First, a man in a vizor performed the office of executioner. This circumstance has given rise to a variety of conjectures and accouT.ts ; in some of which, one William Walker is said to be the executioner; in others, it is supposed to be a Richard Brandon, of whom a long account was published in an Exeter newspaper of 1784. But William Lilly, ii. his "History of his Life and Times," has the foIlo\ving remarkable passage. " Many have curiously inquired who it was that cut off his (the king's) head : I have no permission to speak of such things ; only J, us much I say, he that did it, is as valiant and resolute a man as lives, and one of a coiLjttent fortune." When examined before the j arliament of Charles II., he states, " That the next Sunday but one after Charles the First was beheaded, Robert Spavin, secretary to Lieutenant-Gcneral Cromwell at that time, in\ited himself to dine with me, and brought Anthony Pierson and several others along with him to dinner. That their principal discourse all dinner time was only who it was that beheaded the king. One said it was the common hangman ; another, Hugh Peters ; others also were nominated, but none concluded. Robert Spa^•^n, so soon as dinner was done, took me by the hand and carried me to tlie south window : saith lie, ' These are all mistaken; the) have not named the man that did the fact ; it was Lieut. Colonel Joice. I was in the room wLen he fitted himself for the work; stood behind him when he did it; when done, went in with him again. There is no man knows this but my master, (viz. Cromwell.) Commissary Ireton, and myself.' — 'Doth not Mr. Rushworth know it.?' saith I. — 'No, he doth not know it,' saith Spavin. The same thing Spavin hath often related to me when we were alone."
The following description of the Maiden, by Mr. Pennant, may not prove uninteresting : — " This machine of deaili is now destroyed ; but I saw one of the same kind in a room under the Parliament-house in Ediubui-gh, where it was introduced by the Regent !Morton, who took a model of it as he passed through Halifax, and at length suffered by it himself. It is in form of a painter's easel, and about ten feet high; at four feet from the bottom is the cross bar on which the felon lays his head, which is kept down by another placed above. In the inner edges of the frame are grooves ; in these is placed a sharp axe, with a vast weight of lead, sup- ported at tlie very summit with a peg : to that peg is fastened a cord, which the executioner catting, the axe falls, and does the affair effectually, without suffering the unhappy criminal to undergo a repetition of strokes, as has been the case in the common method. 1 must .idd, that if the sufferer is condemned for stealing a horse or cow, the string is tied to the 'oeast, which, on being whipped, puile out the peg, and becomes the executioner."
NEW NEWGATK CaLKND.VR. 5
of a small vessel, with which he traded among the pirates, and obtained a eomplete knowledge of their haunts. Ilis ruling passion was avarice, although he was not destitute of tliat courage which became necessary in the profession in which he eventually embarked. His frequent remarks upon the subject of piracy, and the fiicility with which it might be checked, having attracted the attention of some considerable planters, who had recently suffered from the depredations of the marauders who infested the seas of the AVest Indies, obtained for him a name which eventually proved of great service to him. The constant and daring interruption:^ offered to trading ships, encouraged as they were by the inhabitants of North America, who were not loath to profit by the irregularities of the pirates, having attracted the attention of the Government, the Earl of Bellamont, an Irish nobleman of distinguished character and abilities, was sent out to take charge of the government of New England and New York, with special instructions upon the subject of these marine depredators. Colonel Livingston, a gentleman of property and consideration, was con- sulted upon the subject by the governor ; and Kidd, who was then possessed of a sloop of his own, was recommended as a fit ])erson to be employed against the pirates. The suggestion met the approbation of Lord Bellamont ; but the unsettled state of public aff.iirs rendered the further intervention of Government impossible; and a private company, consisting of the Duke of Slirewsbury, the Lord Chancellor Somers, the Earls of Romney and Oxford, Colonel Livingston, and other persons of rank, agreed to raise 6000/. to pay the expenses of a voyage, the purpose of which was to be directed to the removal of the existing evil ; and it was agreed that the Colonel and Capt. Kidd, who was to have charge of the expedition, should receive one-fifth of the profits. A commission was then prepared for Kidd, directing him to seize and take pirates, and to bring them to justice ; but the further proceedings of the Captain, and of his officers, were left unprovided for.
A vessel was purchased and manned, and she sailed under the name of the " Adventure," from London for New York, at the end of the year 1695. A French ship was seized as a prize during the voyage ; and the vessel subsequently proceeded to the Madeira Islands, to Buonavista, and St. Jago, and thence to ]Madagascar, in search of further spoil. A second prize was subsequently made at Calicut, of a vessel of 130 tons burden, which was sold at Madagascar ; and, at the termination of a few weeks, the " Adventure " made prize of the " Quedah Merchant," a vessel of 400 tons burden, commanded by an Engbshman named Wright, and officered by two Dutch mates and a French gunner, and whose crew consisted of Moors. Tiie captain having carried this vessel into IMadagascar, he burned the " Adventure," and then proceeded to divide the lading of the prize with his crew, taking forty shares for himself.
He seems now to have determined to act entirely apart from his owners, and he accordingly sailed in the " Quedah jNIerchant " to the West Indies. At Anguilla and St. Thomas's, he was refused refreshments; but he eventually succeeded in obtaining supplies at J\Iona, between Porto Rico and liispaniola, through the instrumentality of an Englishman named Button. This man, who thus at first affected to be friendly to the pirate, eoon showed the extent to which his friendship was to be relied upon. He Bold a sloop to Kidd, in which the latter sailed, leaving the " Quedah
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Merchant" in his care ; but on proceeding to Boston, New England, he found his friend there before him, having disposed of the " Quedah JMercliant" to the Spaniards, and having besides given information of his piratical expedition. He was now immediately seized by order of Lord Bellamont, before whom he endeavoured to justify his proceedings, by contending that he had taken none but lawful prizes ; but his lordship transmitted an account of the whole transaction to England, requiring that a ship might be sent to convey Kidd home, in order that he might be punished. A great clamour arose upon this, and attempts were made to show that the proceedings of the pirate had been connived at by the projectors of the undertaking, and a motion was made in the House of Commons, that " The letters- patent granted to the Earl of Bellamont and others, respecting the goods taken from pirates, were dishonourable to the king, against the law of nations, contrary to the laws and statutes of this realm, an invasion of property, and destructive to commerce." Though a negative was put on this motion, yet the enemies of Lord Somers and the Earl of Oxford continued to charge those noblemen with giving counten- ance to pirates ; and it was even insinuated that the Earl of Bellamont was not less culpable than the actual offenders. Another motion was in con- sequence made to address his Majesty, that " Kidd might not be tried till the next session of parliament ; and that the Earl of Bellamont might be directed to send home all examinations and other papers relative to the affair." This was carried, and the king complied with the request which was made. As soon as Kidd arrived in England, he was sent for, and examined at the bar of the house, with a view to show the guilt of the parties who had been concerned in sending him on the expedition ; but nothing arose to criminate any of those distinguished persons. Kidd, who was in some degi'ee intoxicated, made a contemptible appearance at the bar of the house ; and a member, who had been one of the most earnest to have him examined, violently exclaimed, " I thought the fellow had been only a knave, but unfortunately he happens to be a fool likewise." Kidd was at length tried at the Old Bailey, and was convicted on the clearest evidence ; but neither at that time, nor afterwards, did he charge any of his employers with being privy to his infamous proceedings.
He was executed with one of his companions, at Execution Dock, on the 23d of May, 1701. After he had been tied up to the gallows, the rope broke, and he fell to the ground ; but being immediately tied up again, the Ordinary, who had before exhorted him, desired to speak with him once more ; and, on this second application, entreated him to make the most careful use of the few further moments thus providentially allotted to him for the final preparation of his soul to meet its important change. These exhortations appeared to have the wished-for effect ; and he died, profess- ing his charity to all the world, and his hopes of salvation through the merits of his Redeemer.
The companion in crime of this malefactor, and his companion also at the gallows, was named Darby IMullins. He was bora in a village in the north of Ireland, about sixteen miles from Londonderry ; and having resided with his father, and followed the business of husbandry till he was about eighteen, the old man then died, and the young one went to Dublin : lint he had not been long there before he was enticed to go to the West Indies, where he was sold to a planter, witli whom he resided four years.
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At the expiration of that term he became his own master, and followed the business of a waterman, in whicli he saved money enough to purchase a small vessel, in which he traded from one island to another, till tlie time of the earthquake at Jamaica in the year 1691, from the effects of which he was preserved in a miraculous manner. He afterwards went to Kiuorston, where he kept a punch-house, and then proceeding to New York, he married ; but at the end of two years his wife dying, he unfor- tunately fell into company with Kidd, and joined him in liis piratical ])ractices. He w^as apprehended, with his commander, and, as we have already stated, suffered the extreme penalty of the law with him.
GEORGE CADDELL.
EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF MISS PRICE, WHOM HE HAD SEDUCED.
This delinquent was a native of Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire, where he was articled to an apothecary. Having served his time, he proceeded to London to complete his studies in surgery, and he then entered the service of ^Ir. Randall, a surgeon at Worcester, as an assistant. He was here admired for his extremely amiable character, as well as for the abilities which he possessed ; and he married the daughter of his employer, who, iiowever, died in giving birth to her first child. He subsequently resided with Mr. Deau, a surgeon at Lichfield ; and during his employment by that gentleman he became enamoured of his daughter, and would have been married to her, but for the commission of the crime which cost him his life.
It would appear that he had become acquainted with a young woman named Elizabeth Price, who had been seduced by an ofl&cer in the army, and who supported herself by her skill in needle -woi'k, residing near Mr. Caddell's abode. An intimacy subsisted between them, the result of which was the pregnancy of IMiss Price ; and she repeatedly urged her paramour to marry her. ]\Ir. Caddell resisted her importunities for a considerable time, until at last Miss Price, hearing of his paying his addresses to Miss Oean, became more importunate than ever, and threatened, in case of his non-compliance with her wishes, to put an end to all his prospects with that young lady, by discovering everything that had passed between them. Hereupon Caddell formed the horrid resolution of murdering Miss Price. He accordingly called on her on a Saturday evening, and requested that she would walk in the fields with him on the afternoon of the following day, in order to adjust the plan of their intended marriage. Thus deluded, she met him at the time appointed, on the road leading towards Burton- upon- Trent, at the Nag's Head public-house, and accompanied her supposed lover into the fields. They walked about till towards evening, when they sat down under the hedge, and after a little conversation, Caddell suddenly pulled out a knife, cut the w^retched woman's throat, and made his escape In the distraction of his mind, he left behind him the knife with whicli he had perpetrated the deed, together with his case of instruments. On his returning home it was observed that he appeared exceedingly confused, though the reason of the perturbation of his mind could not be guessed at ; but, on the follomng morning. Miss Price being found murdered in the field, great
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numbers of peopie went to see the body. Among tliem was the woman of tlie house where she lodged, who recollected that she had said she was going to walk with Mr. Caddell ; and then the instniments were examined, and were known to have belonged to him. He was in consequence taken into custody, and committed to the gaol of Staflford ; and, beinw soon afterwards tried, was found guilty, condemned, and executed at Stafford on the 21st of July, 1701.
THOMAS COOK.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
The death of this person exhibits the singular fatality which attends some men who have been guilty of crime. Cook was the son of a butcher, who was considered a person of respectability, residing at Gloucester. He was apprenticed to a barber-surgeon in London ; but nmning away before his time had expired, he entered the service of one of the pages of honoilr to "William III.; but he soon after quitted this situation to set up at Gloucester as a butcher, upon the recommendation of his mother.
Restless, however, in every station oflife, he repaired to London, where he commenced prize-fighter at May-fair ; which, at this time, was a place greatly frequented by prize-fighters, thieves, and women of bad ctiaracter. Here puppet-shows were exhibited, and it was the favourite resort of all the profligate and abandoned, until at length the nuisance increased to such a degree, that Queen Anne issued her Proclamation for the Suppression of Vice and Immorality, wnth a particular view to this fair ; in consequence of which the justices of peace issued their warrant to the high constable, who summoned all the inferior constables to his assistance. When they came to suppress the fair, Cook, with a mob of about thirty soldiers, and other persons, stood in defiance of the peace-officers, and threw brickbats at them, by which some of them were wounded. Cooper, a constable, being the most active. Cook drew his sword and stabbed him in the belly, and he died of the wound at the expiration of four days. Hereupon Cook fled to Ireland, and, as it was deposed upon his trial, while he was in a public house, he swore in a profane manner, for which the landlord censured him, and told him there were persons in the house who would take him in cus- tody for it ; to which he ansv/ered, " Are there any of the informing dogs in Ireland ? we in London drive them ; for at a fair called May-fair, there was a noise which I went out to see — six soldiers and myself — the constables played their parts with their staves, and I played mine; and, when the man dropped, I wiped my sword, put it up, and went away."
The fellow was, subsequently, taken into custody, and sent to Chester, whence being removed to London, he was tried at the Old Bailey, was convicted, and received sentence of death.
After conviction he solemnly denied the crime for which he had been condemned, declaring that he had no sword in his hand on the day the constable was killed, and was not in company with those who killed him. Havinff received the sacrament on the 2 1st of July, 1703, he was taken from Newgate to be carried to Tyburn ; but, when he had got to Hi^h
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Hnlborn, opposite Bloomsbury, a respite arrived for him till the follow- ing Friday. On his return to Newgate he was visited by numbers of his acquaintance, who rejoiced on his narrow escape. On Friday he received another respite till the 11th of August, but on that day he was executed.
JOHN PETER DRAMATTI.
EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF HIS WIFE.
This unfortunate man was the son of Protestant parents, and was l>orn at Saverdun, in the county of Foix, and province of Languedoc, in France. He received a religious education ; but when he arrived at years of maturity, he left his own country, and went into Germany, where he served as a horse-grenadier under the Elector of Brandenburgh, who was afterwards King of Prussia. When he had been in this condition about a vf^ar^'he came over to England, and entered into the service of Lord Haversham, and afterwards enlisted as a soldier in the regiment of Colonel de la Meloniere. Having made two campaigns in Flanders, the regiment was ordered into Ireland, where it was dismissed from farther service ; in consequence of which Dramatti obtained his discharge.
He now became acquainted with a widow, between fifty and sixty years of age, who pretended that she had a great fortune, and was allied to the royal family of France; and he soon married her, not only on account of her supposed wealth and rank, but also of her understanding English and Irish, thinking it prudent to have a wife who could speak the language of the country in which he proposed to spend the remainder of his life. As soon as he discovered that his wife had no fortune, he went to London and offered his services to Lord Haversham, and was again admitted as one of his domestics. His wife, unhappy on account of their separate residence, wished to live with him at Lord Haversham's, which he would not consent to, saying, that his lordship did not know he was married.
The wnfe now began to evince the jealousy of her disposition, and fre- quent quarrels took place between them, because he was unable to be with her so freqiiently as she desired.
At length, on the 9tli of June, 1703, Dramatti was sent to London from his master's house at Kensington, and calling upon his wife at her lodgings near Soho-square, she endeavoured to prevail upon him to stay with her. This, however, he refused ; and finding that he was going home, she went before him, and stationed herself at the Park-gate. On his coming up, she declared that he should go no further, unless she accompanied him ; but he quitted her abruptly, and went onwards to Chelsea. She p\irsued him to the Bloody Bridge, and there seized him by the neckcloth, and would have strangled him, but that he beat her off with his cane. He then attacked her with his sword ; and having wounded her in so many places as to conclude that he had killed her, his passion immediately began to subside, and, falling on his knees, he devoutly implored the pardon of God for the horrid sin of which he had been guilty. He went on to Kensing- ton, where his fellow-servants observing that his clothes were bloody, he
VOL. I. c
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siaid he had been attacked by two men in Hyde Park, who woald hav* robbed him of his clothes, but that he defended himself, and broke tVie head of one of them.
The real fact, however, was subsequently discovered ; and Draniatti bcmcr taken before a magistrate, to whom he confessed his crime, the boay of Ins wife was found in a ditch betw^een Hyde Park and Chelsea, and a track of blood was seen to the distance of twenty yards ; at the end of which a piece of a sword was found sticking in a bank, which fitted the other part of the sword in the prisoner's possession. The circumstances attending the murder being proved to the satisfaction of the jury, the culprit was found guilty, condemned, and, on the 21st of July, 1 70^3, was executed at Tvbum.
WILLIAM ELBY.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
This vouno- man was born m the year 1667, at Deptford, in Kent, Aud served his time with a blockmaker at Rotherhithe, during which he becanr; acquainted with some women of ill fame. After the term of his appren- ticeship had expired, he kept company with young fellows of such bad character, that he found it necessary to enter on board a ship to prevent worse consequences. Having returned from sea, he enlisted as a soldier ; but while in this situation he committed many small thefts, in order to support the women with whom he was connected. At length he deserted from the army, assumed a new name, and prevailed on some of his com panions to engage in housebreaking.
Detection soon terminated his career, and in September 1704, he was
indicted for robbing the house of Barry, Esq. of Fulham, and
murdering his gardener. Elby, it seems, having determined on robbing the house, arrived at Fulham soon after midnight, and had wrenched open one of the windows, at which he was getting in, when the gardener, awaking, came down to prevent the intended robbery with a light in liis liand. Elbv, terrified lest he should be known, seized a knife and stabbed him to the heart, and the poor man immediately fell dead at his feet. This done, he broke open a chest of drawers, and stole about two hundred and fifty pounds, with which he repaired to his associates in London.
The murder soon became the subject of very general conversation, and Elby being at a public-house iu the Strand, it was mentioned, and he became so alai-med on seeing one of the company rise and quit the house, that he suddenly ran away, without paying his reckoning. The landlord was enraged at his being cheated ; and learning his address from one of his companions, he caused him to be apprehended, and he was eventually committed for trial on suspicion of being concerned in the robbery and murder.
On his trial he steadily denied the perpetration of the crimes with which he was charged ; and his conviction would have been very doubtful, had uot a woman with whom he cohabited become an evidence, and sworn that he came from Fulham with the money the morning after the commission of ihe fact. Some other persons also deposed that they saw him come
THE NEW NEWGATE CALETSDAR, 11
out ot Mr. Barry's house on the morning the murder was committed ; and he was found guilty, and having received sentence of death, was executed at Fulham, on the 13th September, 1704, and was hung in cnains near the same place.
JOHN SMITH.
CONVICTED OF ROBBERY.
Though the crimes committed by this man were not particularly atrocious, nor his life sufficiently remarkable for a place in this work, yet the circumstances attending his fate at the place of execution are perhaps more singulai- than any we may have to record. He was the son of a farmer at IMalton, about fifteen miles from the city of York, who bound him apprentice to a packer in London, with whom he served his time, and afterwards worked as a journeyman. He then went to sea on board a man- of-war, and was at the expedition against Vigo; but on his return from that service he was discharged. He afterwards enlisted as a soldier in the regiment of Guards commanded by Lord Cutts ; but in this station he soon made bad connexions, and engaged with some of his dissolute com- panions as a housebreaker. On the 5th of December, 1705, he was arraigned on four different indictments, on two of which he was convicted. While he lay under sentence of death, he seemed very little affected with his situation, absolutely depending on a reprieve, through the interest of his friends. An order, however, came for his execution on the 24th day of the same month, in consequence of which he was carried to Tyburn, where he performed his devotions, and was turned off in the usual manner ; but when he had hung near fifteen minutes, the people present cried out, " A reprieve !" Hereupon the malefactor was cut down, and, being conveyed to a house in the neighbourhood, he soon revived, upon his being bled, and other proper remedies applied.
When he perfectly recovered his senses, he was asked what were his feelings at the time of execution ; to which he repeatedly replied, in substance, as follows : — " That when he was turned off, he, for some time, was sensible of ver}'' great pain, occasioned by the weight of his body, and felt his spirits in a strange commotion, violently pressing upwards ; that having forced their way to his head, he, as it were, saw a great blaze, or .glaring light, which seemed to go out at his eyes with a flash, and then he lost all sense of pain. That after he was cut down, and began to come to himself, the blood and spirits, forcing themselves into their former cliannels, put him, by a sort of pricking or shooting, to such intolerable pain, that he could have wished those hanged who had cut him down." From this circumstance he was called " Half-hanged Smith." After this narrow escape from the grave. Smith pleaded to his pardon on the 20tli of February, and was discharged ; yet such was his propensity to evil deeds, that he returned to his former practices, and, being apprehended, was again tried at the Old Bailey, for housebreaking ; but some difficulties arising in the case, the affair was left to the opinion of the twelve judges, who determined in favour of the prisoner. After this second extraordinary escape, he was a third time indicted ; but the yrosecutor happenmg to die before the day
12 niE NEW NfWGATE CALENDAR.
of trial, he once more obtained that libei'ty wliich his conduct phowe'^ ^e had not deserved.
yVo have no account of what became of tliis man after tliis third reraaric- able incident in his favour ; but Christian charity inclines us to hone trat he made a proper use of the singular dispensation of Providence evidenced in his own person.
It was not unfrequently the case, that, in Dublin, men were formerly seen walking about who, it was known, had been sentenced to suffer the extreme penalty of the law, and upon whom, strange as it may appear to im(>nlightened eyes, the sentence had been carried out. The custom until lately was, that the body should hang only half an hour; and, in a mis- taken lenity, tlie sheriff, in whose hands was entrusted the execution of the law, would look away, after the prisoner had been turned off, while tlie friends of the culprit would hold up their companion by the waistband of his breeches, so that the rope sliould not press upon his throat. They would, at the expiration of the usual time, thrust their " deceased" friend into a cart, in which they would gallop him over all the stones and rough ground they came near, which was supposed to be a never-failing recipe. in order to revive him, professedly, and indeed in reality, with the intention of "waking" him. An anecdote is related of a fellow named ]\lahony, who had been convicted of the murder of a Connaught-man, in one of the numerous 3Iunster and Connaught wars, and whose execution had been managed in the manner above described ; who, being put into the cart in a coffin by his Munster friends, on his way home was so revived, and so overjoyed at finding himself still alive, that he sat upright and gave three hearty cheers, by way of assuring his friends of his safety. A " jontleman " who was shocked at this indecent conduct in his defunct companion, and who was, besides, afraid of their scheme being discovered and thwarted, immediately, w'ith the sapling which he carried, hit him a thump on the head, which effectually silenced his self-congratulations. On their arrival at home, they found that the " friendly " warning which had been given to the poor wretch, had been more effectual than the hangman's rope ; and the wailings and lamentations which had been employed at the place of execution to drown the encouraging cries of the aiders of the cri- minal's escape, were called forth in reality at his wake on the same night. It was afterwards a matter of doubt whether ^he fellow who dealt the unfortunate blow ought not to have been charged with the murder of his half- hanged companion; but "a justice" being consulted, it was thought no one could be successfully charged with the murder of a man wlio was already dead in law.
WILLIAM GREGG.
EXECUTED FOR HIGH TREASON.
The treason of which this offender was convicted was that of " adhering to the Queen's enemies, and giving them aid, without the realm," which was made a capital offence by the statute of Edward III.
It appears tliat Gregg was a native of JNIontrose, in Scotland, and having received such instruction as the grammar-schools of the place afforded, he
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oompletcd his education at Aberdeen university, where he pursued these studies which were calculated to fit him for the profession of the church, for which he was intended. London, however, held forth so many attrac- tions to his youthful eye, that the wishes of his relatives were soon overruled ; and having visited that city, Avith good introductions, he was, after some time, appointed secretary to the ambassador at the court oi Sweden. But while performing the duties of his office, he was guilty of so many and so great excesses, that he was at length compelled to retire, and London once more became his residence. His good fortune placed him in a situation alike honourable and profitable, but his dishonest and traitorous conduct in his employment, was such as to cost him his life, and to involve his employers in political difficulties of no ordinary kind. Having been engaged by Mr. Secretary Harley, minister of the reigning sovereign. Queen Anne, to write despatches, he took advantage of the knowledge which he thus gained, and voluntarily opened a communication with the enemies of his country. England, it will be remembered, was at this time in a situation of no ordinary difficulty; and the position of her Majesty's ministers, harassed as they were by the opposition of their political antagonists, was rendered even more difficult by the disclosures of their traitorous servant.
We shall take the advantage affin-ded us by Bishop Burnet's History, of laying before our readers a more authentic account of this transaction than is given by the usual channels of information to which we have access. He says, " At this time two discoveries were made very unlucky for Mr. Harley : Tallard wrote often to Chamillard, but he sent the letters open to the secretary's office, to be perused and sealed up, and so be con- veyed by the way of Holland. These were opened upon some suspicion in Holland, and it appeared that one in the secretary's office put letters in them, in which, as he oftered his services to the courts of France and St. Germains, so he gave an account of all transactions here. In one of these he sent a copy of the letter that the Queen was to write in her own hand to the Emperor; and he marked what parts were drawn by the secretary, and what additions were made to it by the lord treasurer. This was the letter by which the Queen pressed the sending Prince Eugene into Spain ; and tliis, if not intercepted, would have been at Versailles many days before it could reach Vienna.
" He wdio sent this wrote, that by this they might see what service he could do them, if well encouraged. All this was sent over to the Duke of Marlborough ; and, upon search, it was found to be written by one Gregg, a clerk, whom Harley had not only entertained, but had taken into a particular confidence, without inquiring into the former parts of his life ; for he was a vicious and necessitous person, who had been secretary to the Queen's envoy in Denmark, but was dismissed by him for his ill qualities. Harley had made use of him to get him intelligence, and he came to trust him with the perusal and sealing up of the letters, which the French prisoners, here in England, sent over to Fi'ance ; and by that means he gof, into the method of sending intelligence thither. He, when seized on, either ui)on remorse or hopes of pardon, confessed all, and signed his confession : apon that he was tried, and, pleading guilty, was condemned as a traitor, for corresponding with the Queen's enemies.
" At the same time Valiere and Bara, whom Harley had employed as
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nis spies to go often over to Calais, under the pretence of bringinc him intelligence, were informed against, as spies employed by France to get intelligence from England, who earned over many letters to Calais and Boulogne, and, as was believed, gave such information of our trade and convoys, that by their means we had made our great losses at sea. They were often complained of upon suspicion, but they were always protected by Harley ; yet the presumptions against them were so violent, that thev were at last seized on, and brought up prisoners."
The Whigs took such advantage of this circumstance, that Mr. Harley was obliged to resign ; and his enemies were inclined to carry matters still further, and were resolved, if possible, to find out evidence enough to affect his life. AV'ith this view, the House of Lords ordered a committee to examine Gregg and the other prisoners, who were very assiduous in the discharge of their commission, as will appear by the following account, written by the same author : —
" The Lords who were appointed to examine Gregg could not find out much by him : he had but newly begun his designs of betraying secrets, and he had no associates with him in it. He told them that all the papers of state lay so carelessly about the office that every one belonging to it, even the door-keepers, m.ight have read them all. Harley's custom was to come to the office late on post-nights, and, after he had given his orders, and wrote his letters, he usually went away, and left all to be copied out when he was gone. By that means he came to see every thing, in particular the Queen's letter to the Emperor. He said he knew the design on Toulon in May last, but he did not discover it ; for he had not entered on his ill practices till October, This was all he could say.
" By the examination of Valiere and Bara, and of many others who lived about Dover, and Avere employed by them, a discovery was made of a constant intercourse they were in with Calais, under Harley's protection. They often went over with boats full of wool, and brought back brandy, though both the import and export were severely prohibited. They, and those who belonged to the boats carried over by them, were well treated on the French side at the governor's house, or at the commissary's : they were kept there till their letters were sent to Paris, and till returns could be brought back, and were all the while upon free cost. The order that was constantly given them was, that if an English or Dutch ship came up with them, they should cast their letters into the sea, but that they should not do it when French ships came up with them : so they were looked on by all on that coast as the spies of France. Tliey used to get what infor- mation they could, both of merchant-ships and of the ships of war that lay in the Downs, and upon that they usually went over ; and it happened that soon after some of those ships were taken. Th.ese men, as they were Papists, so they behaved themselves insolently, and boasted nmch of their power and credit.
"•'• Complaints had been often made of them, but they were always protected ; nor did it appear that they ever brought any information of importance to Harley but once, when, according to what they swore, they told him that Fourbin was gone from Dunkirk, to lie in wait for the Russian fleet, which proved to be true ; ne both went to watch for them, and he took the greater part of the fleet. Yet, thougli this was a single piece of intelligence that they ever brought, Harley took so little notice of
THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR. 15
it, ttat lie gave no advertisement to the Admiralty concerning it. This particular excepted, they only brought over common news, and the Paris Gazeteer. These examinations lasted for some weeks : when they were ended, a full report was made of them to the House of Lords, and they ordered the whole report, with all the examinations, to be laid before the Queen."
Upon the conviction of Gregg, both houses of parliament petitioned the Queen that he might be executed; and, on the ti8th April, 1708, he was accordingly hanged at Tyburn.
While on the scaffold, he delivered a paper to the sheriffs of London and Middlesex, in which he acknowledged the justice of his sentence, declared his sincere repentance of all his sins, particularly that lately committed against the Queen, whose forgiveness he devoutly implored. He also expressed his wish to make all possible reparation for the injuries he had done ; and testified the perfect innocence of Mr. Secretary Harley, whom he declared to have been no party to his proceedings. He professed that he died a member of the Protestant church ; and declared that the want of money to supply his extravagances had tempted him to commit the fatal crime, which cost him his life.
It is a remarkable circumstance in the life of this offender, that while he was corresponding with the enemy, and taking measures to subvert the government, he had no predilection in favour of the Pretender. On the contrary, he declared, while he was under sentence of death, that " he never thought he had any right to the throne of these realms."
RICHARD THORNHILL, ESQ.,
CONVICTED OF MANSLAUGHTER, IN KILLING SIR C. PEERING IN A DUEL.
This was a case which arose out of the practice of duelling, which has always existed almost peculiarly among the higher classes of society Mr. Thornhill and Sir Cholmondeley Deering having dined together on the 7t!i of April, 1711, in company with several other gentlemen, at the Toy at Hampton Court, a quarrel arose, during which Sir Cholmondeley struck Mr. Thornhill. A scuffle ensuing, the wainscot of the room broke down, and Thornhill falling, the other stamped on him, and beat out some of his teeth. The company now interposed, and Sir Cholmondeley, convinced that he had acted improperly, declared that he was willing to ask pardon ; but Mr. Thornhill said, that asking pardon was not a proper retaliation for the injury that he had received ; adding, " Sir Cholmondeley, you know where to find me." Soon after this the company broke up, and the parties went home in different coaches, without any farther steps being taken towards their reconciliation.
On the next day, the following letter was written by Mr. Thornhill :^
"AimlSth, 1711. « Sir, — I shall be able to go abroad to-morrow morning, and desire you will give me a meeting with your sword and pistols, which I insist on The worthy gentleman who brings you this will concert with you the timti
16 THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR.
and place. I think Tothill Fields will do well ; Hyde Park will not at this time of year, being full of company.
" I am your humble servant,
" Richard TnoRXHiLr,.
On the 9th of April, Sir Cholmondeley went to the lodgings of Mr Thornhill, and the servant showed him to the dining-room. He ascendeJ with a bnice of pistols in his hands ; and soon afterwards, ]\Ir. Thornhill coming to him, asked him if he would drink tea, but he declined. A hackney-coach was then sent for, and the gentlemen rode to Tothill Fields, where, unattended by seconds, they proceeded to fight their duel. They fired their pistols almost at the same moment, and Sir Cholmondeley, being mortally wounded, fell to the ground. Mr. Thornhill, after lament- ing the unhappy catastrophe, was going away, when a person stopped him, told him he had been guilty of murder, and took him before a justice oi the peace, who committed him to prison.
On the 18th of May, Mr. Thornhill was indicted at the Old Bailey ses- sions for the murder ; and the facts already detailed having been proved, the accused called several witnesses to show how ill he had been used by Sir Cholmondeley ; that he had languished some time of the wounds he had received ; during which he could take.no other sustenance than liquids, and that his life was in Imminent danger. Several persons of distinction swore that Mr. Thornhill was of a peaceable disposition, and that, on the contrary, the deceased was of a remarkably quarrelsome temper; and it was also deposed, that Sir Cholmondeley, being asked if he came by his hurt through unfair usage, replied, " No : poor Thornhill ! I am sorry for him ; this misfortune ^^as my own fault, and of my own seeking. I heartily forgive him, and desire you all to take notice of it, that it may be of some service to him, and that one misfortune may not occasion another."
The jury acqiiitted Mr. Thornhill of the murder, but found him guilty of manslaughter ; in consequence of which he was burnt in the hand.
COLONEL JOHN HAMILTON.
CONVICTED OF MANSLAUGHTER AS SECOND IX A DUEL.
There was no occurrence which at the time occupied so much of the public attention, and excited so much general interest, as the duel which took place in the year 1711, between the Duke of Hamilton and Lord Mohun ; in which, unhappily, both the principals fell.
The gentleman who is the subject of the present notice, was the second of the noble duke, and appears to have been connected witli him by the ties of relationship. At the sessions held at the Old Bailey, on the 1 1th of September, he was indicted for the murder of Charles Lord JNIohun, Baron of Oakhampton, on the 15th of November preceding; and at the same time he vfas indicted for abetting Charles Lord j\Iohun, and George Macartney, Esq., in the murder of James, Duke of Hamilton and Brandon. Colonel Hamilton pleaded not guilty; and evidence Avas then adduced, which showed that Lord IMohun having met the Duke of Hamilton at the cliam-
THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR. ]7
hers of a master in chancery, on Thursday the 13tli of Novcmher, a mis- nuderstanding arose between them respecting the testimony of a witness.
On the return home of his lordship, he directed that no person should be admitted to liim, except Mr. INIacartney ; and subsequently he went with that o-entleman to a tavern. The Duke of Hamilton and his second. Colonel Hamilton, were also at the tavci'n ; and from thence they all pro- ceeded to Hyde Park. The only evidence which exhibited the real circum- stances immediately attending the duel, was that of William Morris, a proom, who deposed that, " as he was walking lis horses towards Hyde Park, he followed a hackney-coach with two gentlemen in it, whom he saw alight by the Lodge, and walk together towards the left part of the ring. They were there about a quarter of an hour, when he saw two other gentlemen come to them ; and, after liaving saluted each other, one of them, who he was since told was the Duke of Hamilton, threw off his cloak ; and one of the other two, who he now understands was Lord Mohun, his surtout coat, and all immediately drew. The duke and lord pushed at each other but a very little wdiile, when the duke closed, and took the lord by the collar, who fell down and groaned, and the duke fell upon him. That just as Lord ]\Iohun was dropping, he saw him lay hold of tlie duke's sword, but could not tell whether the sword was at that time in his body ; nor did he see any wound given after the closing, and was sure Lord 3Iohun did not shorten his sword. He declared he did not see the seconds fight; but they had their swords in their hands, assisting their lords."
It further appeared that the bodies of the deceased noblemen were examined by Messrs. Boussier and Amie, surgeons ; and that in that of the duke, a wound was found between the second and third ribs on his right side ; and also that there were wounds in his right arm, which had cut the artery and one of the small tendons, as well as others in his right and left leg. There was also a wound in his left side between liis second and third ribs, which ran down into his body, and pierced the midriff and caul : but it ajiju'ared that the immediate cause of the sudden death of his grace was tiie wound in his arm. It was further proved, as regarded the body of Lord Mohun, that there was a wound between the short ribs, quite through his belly, and another about three inches deep in the upper part of his thigh ; a large wound, about four inches wide, in his groin, a little higher, which was the cause of his immediate death ; and another small wound on his left side ; and that the fingers of his left hand were cut.
Tije defence made by the prisoner was, that "the duke called him to go abroad with him, but he knew not anytliing of the matter till he came into the field."
Some Scottish noblemen, and other gentlemen of rank, gave Mr. Hamilton a very excellent character, asserting that he was brave, honest, and inoftln- sive ; and the jury, having considered of the affair, gave a verdict of " Man- slaughter;" in consequence of which the prisoner prayed the benefit of the statute, which was allowed him.
At the time the lives of these noblemen were thus unfortunately sacri- ficed, many persons thought they fell by the hands of the seconds ; and some writers en the subject subsequently affected to be of the same opinion : but nothing appears in the written or printed accounts of the transaction, nor did anything arise en the trial, to warrant so ungenerous a suspicion ; it is therefore but justice to the memory of all the parties to discredit sucli insinuations.
VOL, I. D
13 THE NEW NEWGATE CALEMDAR.
WILLIAM LOWTHER AND RICHARD KEELE,
EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER JF EDWARD PERRY, A TURNKEY OF CLERKENWEtL
PRIDEWELL.
William Lowther was a native of Cumberland, and being bound to the master of a Newcastle ship which traded to London, he became acquainted with low abandoned company in the metropolis. Richard Keele was a native of Hampshire, and served his time to a barber at Win- chester ; and on coming to London, he married and settled in his own business in Rotherhithe : but not living happily witli his wife, he parted from her, cohabited with another woman, and associated with a number of disorderly people.
On the 10th of December, 1713, they were indicted at the Old Bailey, for assisting Charles Houghton in the murder of Edward Perry. The case was as follows : — The prisoners, together with two other desperate oftenders, of the name of Houghton and CuUum, having been convicted of felony at the Old Bailey, were sentenced to be kept to hard labour in Clerkenwell Bridewell for t^vo years. On their being carried thither, Mr. Boreman, the keeper, thought it necessary to put them in irons, to prevent their escape. This they all refused to submit to ; and Boreman having ordered the irons, they broke into the room where the arms were deposited, seized wliat they thought fit, and then attacked the keeper and his assist- ants, and cruelly beat them. Lowther bit off part of a man's nose. At this time. Perry, one of the turnkeys, was without the gate, and desired the prisoners to be peaceable ; but, advancing towards them, he was stabbed by Houghton, and, during the fray, Houghton was sliot dead. Tiie prisoners being at length victorious, many of them made their escape ; but the neighbours giving their assistance, Keele and Lowther, and several others, were taken and convicted on the clearest evidence.
Some time after conviction, a smith went to the prison to take measure of them for chains, in which they were to be hung, pursuant to an order from tlie secretary of state's office; but they for some time resisted him in this duty.
On the morning of execution (tlie 13th December, 1713), they were carried from Newgate to Clerkenwell Green, and there hanged on a gallows ; after which, their bodies were put in a cart, drawn by four horses, decorated with plumes of black feathers, and hung in chains.
WILLIAM JOHNSON AND JANE HOUSDEN.
EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF SPURLING, A TURNKEY IN THE OLD BAILEY.
It is not a little remarkable that two instances should have occurred within so short a space of time as nine montlis, in which the officers of the Crown should have fallen victims to the exertions which they were com- pelled to make in the discharge of their duties. The male prisoner in this ease, William Johnson, was a native of Northamptonshire, where he served his time to a butcher, and, removing to London, he opened a shop in New-
TRK NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR. I'J
port Market ; but business not succeeding to his expectation, he pursued a variety of speculations, until at length he sailed to Gibraltar, where he was appointed a mate to one of the surgeons of the garrison. Having saved some money at this place, became back to his native country, ■where he soon spent it, and then had recourse to the highway for a supply. Being apprehended in consequence of one of his robberies, he was convicted, but received a pardon. Previously to this he had been acquainted with Jane Housden, his fellow in crime, who had been tried and convicted of coining, but had obtained a pardon; but who, in September, 1714, was again in custody for a similar ofience. On the day that she was to be tried, and just as she was brought down to the bar of the Old Bailey, Johnson called to see her ; but Mr. Spurling, the head turnkey, telling him that he could not speak to her till her trial was ended, he instantly drew a pistol, and shot Spurling dead on the spot, in the presence of the court and all the ])ersous attending to hear the trials, Mrs. Housden at the same time encouraging him in the perpetration of this singular nmr- der. The event had no sooner happened, than the judges, thinking it unne- cessary to proceed on the trial of the woman for coining, ordered both the parties to be tried for the murder ; and there being many witnesses to the deed, they were convicted, and received sentence of death. From this time to that of their execution, which took place September 19th 1714, and even at the place of their death, they behaved as if they were wholly insensible of the enormity of the crime which they had committed ; and notwithstanding the publicity of their offence, they had the confidence to deny it to the last moment of their lives : nor did they show any signs of compunction for their former sins. After hanging the usual time, Johnson was hung in chains near Holloway, between Islington and Highgate,
THE EARL OF DERWENTWATER, LORD KEXxMURE. THE EARL OF WINTON, AND OTHERS,
EXECUTED FOR TEEASON.
The circumstances attending the crime of these individuals, intimately connected as they were with the history of the Royal Family of England, must be too well known to require them to be minutely repeated. On the accession of George the First to the throne of Great 13ritain, the question of the right of succession of King James the Third, as he was termed, which had long been secretly agitated, began to be referred to more openly ; and his friends, finding themselves in considerable force in Scot- land, sent an invitation to him in France, where he had taken refuge, to join them, for the purpose of making a demonstration, and of endeavouring to assume by force, that which was denied him as of right. The noble- men, whose names appear at the head of this article, were not the least active in their endeavours to support the title of the Pretender, by enlisting men under his standard ; and their proceedings, altiiough conducted with all secrecy, were soon made known to the government. The necessary steps were immediately taken for quelling the anticipated rebellion ; and many persons were apprehended on suspicion of secretly aiding the rebels, and were committed to tiaol.
20
TUE NEW NEWGATE CALE.NDAF!.
Meanwhile the Earl of Mar, the chief supporter of tlie Pretender, wag in open rebellion at the liead of an army of 3000 men, which was rapidly increasing, marchinp- from town t) town in Scotland, proclaiming the Pre- tender as King of England and Scotland, by the title of James III. An attempt was made by stratagem to surprise the castle of Edinburgh; and with tliis object, son)e of the king's soldiers were base enough to receive a bribe to admit those of the Earl of ]Mar, who were, by means of ladders of • rope, to scale the walls, and surprise the guard ; but the Lord Justice Clerk, having some suspicion of the treachery, seized the guilty, and many of them were executed.
Tlie rebels were greatly chagrined at this failure of their attempt ; and the French king^ Louis XIV., from whom t?iey hoped for assistance, dying about this tinw, the leaders became disheartened, and contemplated the abandonment of their project, until their king could appear in person among them.
They were aided, however, by the discontent which showed itself in another quarter. In Northumberland the spirit of rebellion was fermented by Thomas Forster, then one of the members of parliament for that county ; who, being joined by several noblemen and gentlemen, attempted to seize the large and commercial town of Newcastle, but was driven back by the friends of the government. Forster now set up the standard of the Pre- tender, and proclaimed him the lawful king of Great Britain and Scotland, wherever he went ; and, eventually joining the Scotch rebels, he marched with them to Preston, in Lancashire. They were there attacked by Ge- nerals Carpenter and AVills, who succeeded in routing them, and in making 1500 persons prisoners; amongst whom wei*e the Earl of Derwentwatei and Lord AVidrington, English peers ; and the Earls of Nithisdale, Win- ton, and Carnwarth, Viscount Kenmure, and Lord Nairn, Scotch peers.
These noblemen, with about three hundred more rebels, were conveyed to London ; while the remainder, taken at the battle of Preston, were sent to Liverpool, and its adjacent towns. At Highgate, the party intended for trial in London was met by a strong detachment of foot-guards, ^Yho tied them back to back, and placed two on each horse ; and in this ignomi- nious manner were they held up to the derision of the populace, the lords being conveyed to the Tower, and the otliers to Newgate and other prisons.
The Earl of Mar, on the day of the battle, attempted to cross the Forth, btit was prevented by a squadron of the British fleet, which had anchored off Edinburgh ; and Sir John ^Mackenzie, on the part of the Pretender, having fortified the town of Inverness, Lord Lovat, (at this tmie an adlie- rent of the reigning monarch, but subsequently a friend to the cause of the Stuarts, for aiding whose rebellion in 1745 he was beheaded,) armed his tenants, and drove him from his fortifications. The Pretender subsequently manaoed to elude the vigilance of the British ships appointed to prevent his landing, and crossing the Channel in a small French vessel, disembaiked in Scotland, with only six followers ; but having obtained the assistance of a few half-armed Higlilanders, on the 9th of January 1716, he made a public entry into the palace of Scone, the ancient place of coronation for the Scottish kings. He there assumed the functions of a king, and so mueli of the powers of royalty as he was able to secure, and issued a proclama- lion for his coronation. The Duke of Argyle, at this time with his army
THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR. f>l
in winter quarter? at Stirling, however, determined to attack tlie rebel forces, and advancing upon tliem, tb.ey fled at his approach. The Pre- tender having been encouraged to rebel by France, was in anticipation of receiving succour at the hands of the French king, and in the hope of sonif, aid reaching him, he proceeded to Dundee, and thence to Montrose, where soon rendered hopeless by receiving no news of the approach of the forei oners, he dismissed his adherents. The king's troops pursued and put several to death ; but the Pretender, accompanied by the Earl of JMar, and some of the leaders of the rebellion, had the good fortune to get on board a ship lying before Montrose ; and, in a dark night, put to sea, escaped the EnglLsli fleet, and landed in France.
The unfortunate noblemen who had been secured were, meanwhile, com - mitted to the custody of the keeper of the Tower ; and the House of Com- mons unanimously agreed to impeach them, and expel Forster from his seat as one of their members ; while the courts of common law proceeded with the trials of those of less note. The articles of impeachment beino- sent by the Commons, the Lords sat in judgment; Earl Cowper, the Lord Chancellor of England, being constituted Lord High Steward.
All the Peers who were charged, except the Earl of Winton, pleaded guilty to the indictment, but oftered pleas of extenuation for their guilt, in hopes of obtaining mercy. In that of the Earl of Derwentwater, he sug- gested that the proceedings in the House of Commons, in impeaching him, were illegal.
Proclamation was then made, and the Lord High Steward proceeded to pass sentence upon James Earl of Derwentwater, William Lord Widdrincr- ton, William Earl of Nithisdale, Robert Earl of Carnwarth, AYilliam Viscount Kenmure, and William Lord Nairn.
His lordship having detailed the circumstances attending their impeach- ment, and having answered the argumentative matter contained in their pleas, and urged in extenuation of their offences, proceeded to say, —
*■' It is my duty to exhort your lordships to think of the aggravations. as well as the mitigations (if there be any), of your offences ; and if I could have the least hopes that the prejudices of habit and education would not be too strong for the most earnest and charitable entreaties, I would beg you not to rely any longer on those directors of your consciences by whose conduct you have, very probably, been led into this miserable condition (in allusion to their lordships being members of the Roman Catholic church) ; but that your lordships would be assisted by some of those pious and learned divines of the church of England, who have constantly borne that infallible mark of sincere Christians, universal charity.
" And now, my lords, nothing remains but that I pronounce upon you (and sorry I am that it falls to my lot to do it) that terrible sentence of the law, which must be the same that is usually given against the meanest offender of the like kind.
" The most ignominious and painful parts of it are usually remitted, by the grace of the crown, to persons of your quality ; but the law, in tliis case, being deaf to all distinctions of persons, requires I should pronounce, and accordingly it is adjudged by this court,
" That you, James earl of Derwentwater, William lord Widdrington. William earl of Nithisdale, Robert earl of Carnwarth, ^Villiam viscount
22 THE NEAV NEWGATE CALENDAR.
Kcnmure, and William lord Nairn, and every of you, return to the prison of the Tower, from whence you came ; from thence you must be drawn to the place of execution ; when you come there, you must be hanged by the neck, but not till you be dead ; for you must be cut down alive ; then your bowels must be taken out, and burnt before your faces ; then your heads must be severed from your bodies, and your bodies divided each into four quarters ; and these must be at the king's disposal. And God Almighty be merciful to your souls."
After sentence thus passed, the lords were remanded to the Tower, and on the 1 hth of February orders were sent to the lieutenant of the Tower, and the sherifts, for their execution. Great solicitations were made in favour of them, which not only reached the court, but the two houses of parliament, and petitions were delivered in both, which being supported, occasioned debates. That in the House of Commons went no farther than to occasion a motion for adjournment, so as to prevent any farther interpo- sition there ; but the matter in the House of Peers was carried on with more success, where petitions were delivered and spoke to, and it was carried by nine or ten voices that they should be received and read. The question was also put, whether the King had power to reprieve, in case of impeadiment ; and this being carried in the affirmative, a motion was made to address his majesty to desire him to grant a reprieve to the lords under sentence; but the movers only obtained, this clause, viz., " To re- prieve such of the condemned lords as deserved his mercy ; and that the time of the respite should be left to his majesty's discretion."
The address having been presented, his majesty replied : —
" That on this, and other occasions, he would do what he thought most consistent with the dignity of his crown, and the safety of his people."
The great parties which had been made by the rebel lords, as was said, by the means of money, and the rash expressions too common in the mouths of many of their friends, as if the government did not dare to execute them, did not a little contribute to hasten their execution ; for on the same day that the address was presented, the :23rd of February, it was resolved in council, that the Earl of Derwentwater and the Lord Ken- aiure should be beheaded on the next day ; and the Earl of Nithisdale, apprehending he should be included in the warrant, succeeded in making his escape on the evening before, in a woman's riding-hood, supposed to have been conveyed to him by his mother on a visit.
On the morning of the 24th of February, three detachments of the life, guards went from Whitehall to Tower-hill, and, having taken their stations round the scaffi)ld, the two lords were brought from the Tower at ten o'clock, and, being received by the sherifts at the bar, were conducted to the transport-office on Tower-hill. At the expiration of about an hoiir, the Earl of Derwentwater sent word that he was ready ; on which sir John Fryer, one of the sheriffs, walked before him to the scaftbld, and, when there, told him he miglit have what time he pleased to prepare himself for death.
His lordship desired to read a paper which he had written, the substance of which was, that he was sorry for having pleaded guilty ; that he acknow- V^d^red no kino- but king James the Third, for whom he had an inviolable £tl"ection : that the kingdom wonld never be happy until the ancient con-
THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR. 2U
stitution was restored, and lie wished that his death miglit contrihute to that end. His lordsliip professed to die in the liunian Catholic faith, and said at the end of the speech which he delivered, that " if that Prince who then governed had given him life, he shonld have thought himself obliged never more to take up arms against him." He then read some prayers, and kneeled to see how the block would fit him ; and having told the executioner that he foi'gave him, as well as all his enemies, he desired him to strike when he should repeat the words "Sweet Jesus" the third time. He immediately proceeded to prepare himself for the blow of the axe, and having placed his neck so that it might be fairly struck, he said, '\Sweet Jesus, receive my spirit! Sweet Jesus, be merciful unto me! Sweet Jesus — " and was proceeding in his prayer, when his head was severed from his body at one blow. The executioner then took it up, and carrying it to the four corners of the scaffold, said, " Beheld the head of a traitor. — Cod save Kmg George."
The body was directly wrapped in black baize, and being carried to a coach, was delivered to the friends of the deceased : and the scaffold having been cleared, fresh baize was put on the block, and new saw-dust strewed, so that no blood should appear. Lord Kenmure was then conducted to the place of execution.
His lordship was a Protestant, and was attended by two clergymen. He declined saying much to them, hoAvever, telling one of them that he had prudential reasons for not delivering his sentiments ; which were sup- posed to arise from his regard to Lord Carnwarth, who was his brother-in- law, and who was then interceding for the royal mercy. Lord Kenmure having finished his devotions, declared that he forgave the executioner, to whom he made a present of eight guineas. He was attended by a surgeon, who drew his finger over that part of the neck where the blow was to be struck ; and being executed as Lord Derwentwater had been, his body was delivered to the care of an undertaker.
George, Earl of Winton, not having pleaded guilty with the other lords, was brought to his trial on the 15th of March, when the principal matter urged in his favour was that he had surrendered at Preston, in consequence of a promise from General Wills to grant him his life : in answer to which it was sworn that no promise of mercy was made, but that the rebels sur- rendered at discretion.
The circumstances of the Earl of Winton having left his house with four- teen or fifteen of his servants well mounted and armed, his joining the Earl Carnwarth and Lord Kenmure, his proceeding with the rebels through the various stages of their march, and his surrendering with the rest, were fully proved : notwithstanding which, his counsel moved in arrest of judg- ment ; but the plea on which this motion was founded being thought insuffi- cient, his peers unanimously found him guilty. The Lord High Steward then pronounced sentence on him, after ha,ving addressed him in forcibk terms, in the same manner as he had sentenced the other peers.
The Earls of Winton and Nithisdale afterwards found msans to escape out of the Tower ; and Messrs. Forster and M'Intosh escaped from New- gate : but it was supposed that motives of mercy and tenderness in the Prince of Wales, afterwards George the Second, favoured the flight of all tnese gentlemen.
This rebellion occasioned the untimely death of many other persona
24 THE NE'.V NEWGAXK CALENDAK.
Five were executed at Manchester, six at Wigan, and eleven at Preston ; but a considerable number was brought to London, and, being arraigned in tlie Court of Exchequer, most of tliem pleaded guilty, and suflered the utmost ricrour of the law.
JAMES SHEPPARD.
EXECUTED FOR HIGH TREASON.
Tins is a very singular case of treason ; for though tlie crime for which Sheppard suffered was committed three years after the rebellion was quelled, yet the same misjudged opinions urged this youth to enthusiasm in the cause of the Pretender as those which actuated the former offenders. It is still more singular that he, neither being a Scotchman born, nor in any way interested in the mischiefs which he contemplated, should, unsolicited, volunteer in so dangerous a cause.
James Sheppard was the son of Thomas Sheppard, glover, in Soutl;- wark ; but his father dying when he was about five years of age, he was sent to school in Hertfordshire, whence his uncle, Dr. liinchclifte, removed him to Salisbury, where he remained at school three years. Being at Salisbury at the time of the rebellion, he imbibed the principles of his school-fellows, many of whom were favourers of the Pretender ; and he A'as confirmed in his sentiments by reading some pamphlets which were then put into his hands.
AVhen he quitted Salisbury, Dr. Hinchcliffe put him apprentice to JNIr. Scott, a coach-painter in Devonshire-street, Bishopsgate ; and he continued in this situation about fourteen months, when he was apprehended for the crime which cost him his life.
Sheppard, having conceived the idea that it would be a praiseworthy action to kill the king, wrote a letter, which he intended for a nonjuriug minister of the name of Leake ; but, mistaking the spelling, he directed it " To the Rev. jNIr. Heath." The letter was in the following terms : —
" Sir, — From the many discontents visible throughout this kingdom, I infer that if the prince now reigning could be by death removed, our king being here, he might be settled on his throne witliout much loss of blood. For the more ready effecting of this, 1 propose that, if any gentleman will pay for my passage into Italy, and if our friends will entrust one so young with letters of invitation to his majesty, I will, on his arrival, smite tlie usurper in his palace. In this confusion, if sufficient forces may be raised, l;is majesty may appear ; if not, he may retreat or conceal himself till a fitter opportunity. Neither is it presumptuous to hope that this may suc- ceed, if we consider how easy it is to cut the thread of human life ; how great confusion the death of a prince occasions in the most peaceful nation ; and how mutinous the people are, how desirous of a change. But we will suppose the worst — that I am seized, and by torture examined. Now, that this may endanger none but myself, it will be necessary that the gentlemen who defray my charges to Italy leave England before my departure ; that J be ignorant of his majesty's abode ; that I lodge with some whig ; th;it you abscond ; and that this be communicated to none. But, be the event as it will, I can expect nothing less than a most cruel death ; which, tha;
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1 n;ay the better support, it will be requisite that, from my arrival till the attempt, I every day receive the Holy Sacrament from one who shall be ignorant of the design. "• James Sheppard."
Having carried it to Mr. Leake's house, he called again for an answer but he was apprehended, and carried before Sir John Fryer, a magistrate.
When he was brought to his trial, he behaved in the most firm and composed manner ; and, after the evidence was given, and the jury had found him guilty of high treason, he was asked why sentence should not be passed on him according to law, when he said " He could not hope for mercy from a prince whom he would not own." The Recorder then proceeded to pass sentence on him ; in pursuance of which, he was executed at Tyburn on the 17th March, 1718. He was attended by a non-juring clergyman up to the time of his execution, between whom and the ordinary the most indecent disputes arose, extending even up to the time of his arriving at the scaffold, when the latter quitted the field and left the other to instruct and pray with the malefactor as he might think proper.
THE MARQUIS DE PALEOTTI,
EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF HIS SERVANT.
Tuis nobleman was at the head of a noble family in Italy, and was born at Bologna. In the reign of Queen Anne he was a Colonel in the imperial army. The Duke of Shrewsbury, being at Rome, fell in love with and paid his addresses to the sister of the JMarquis; and the lady having been married to him in Germany, they came to England. The Marquis quitting the army at the peace of Utrecht, visited England to see his sister ; and being fond of an extravagant course of life, and attached to gaming, he soon ran in debt for considerable sums. His sister paid his debts for some time, till she found it would be a burdensome and endless task ; and she therefore declined all further interference. The habits of the Marquis, however, were in nowise changed, and being one dav walking in the street, he directed his servant, an Italian, to go and borrow some money. The servant, having met with frequent denials, declined going : on which the Marquis drew his sword and killed him on the spot.
He was instantly apprehended, and committed to prison ; and being tried at the next sessions, was convicted on full evidence, and received sentence of death. The Duke of Shrewsbury being dead, and his duchess having little interest or acquaintance in England, it appears that no endeavours were used to sav" him from the punishment which awaited him, and he was executed at Tyburn on the 17th of March, 1718.
Italian pride had taken deep root in the mind of this man. To his last moment it was predominant. He petitioned the sheriffs that his body should not be defiled by touching the unhappy Englishmen doomed to suffer with him, and that he might die before them, and alone. The sheriffs, in coui'tesy to a stranger, granted this request, and thus, in his last struggle, he maintained the superiority of his rank.
TOL. 1.
26 THK NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR.
JOHN PRICE,
COMMONLY CALLED JACK KETCH, EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
Although the circumstances attending the crime of this malefuctcr d^ not present any features of general interest, the fact of the offender having tiUerl tlie office of public executioner, and of his being deprived of life on that very scaftbld on which he had exercised the functions of his revolting office, render the case not a little remarkable. It would appear that the jirisoner was bom of decent parents, in the parish of St. Martin' s-in-tbf Fields, London ; and tliat his father, who was in the service of his country having been blown u]) at the demolition of Tangiers, he was put apprentice to a rag merchant. His master dying, he ran away and went to sea, and served with credit on board different ships in the navy, for the space of 18 years ; but at length was paid off and discharged from further service.
The office of public executioner becoming vacant, it was given to him, and but for his extravagance, he might have long continued in it, and subsisted on its dreadfully-earned wages. On returning from an execution, however, he was arrested in Holborn for debt, which he discharged, in part, with the wages he had tliat day earned, and the remainder with the produce of three suits of clothes, which he had taken from the bodies of the executed men ; but soon afterwards he was lodged in the JMarshalsea prison for other debts, and there he remained for want of bail ; in consequence of which one William Marvel was appointed in his stead. He continued some time longer in the jMarshalsea, when he and a fellow- prisoner broke a hole in the wall, through which they made their escape. It was not long after this that Price committed the offence for which he was executed. He was indicted on the 20th April, 1718, for the murder of Elizabeth, the wife of William AYhite, on the 13th of the preceding month.
In the course of the evidence it appeared that Price met the deceased flear ten at night in ]\Ioorfields, and attempted to ravish her ; but the poor woman (who w^as the wife of a watchman, and sold gingerbread in the streets) doing all in her power to resist his villanous attacks, he beat her so cruelly that streams of blood issued from her eyes and mouth, one of her arms was broken, some of her teeth were knocked out, her head was bruised in a most dreadful manner, and one of her eyes was forced from the socket. Some persons, hearing the cries of the unhappy creature, repaired to the spot, took Price into custody, and lodged him in the watch-house ; and the woman, being attended by a surgeon and a nurse, was unable to speak, bat she answered the nurse's questions by signs, and in that manner described what had happened to her. She died, after having languished four days. The prisoner, on his trial, denied that he was guilty of the murder; but he was found guilty and sentenced to death. He then gave himself up to the use of intoxicating liquors, and continued obstinately to deny his guilt until the day of execution. He then, however, admitted the justice of his punishment, but said that he was in a state of intoxication when he committed the crime for which he suffered. He was executed on tli) 21st May, 1718 at Bunhill-row, and was afterwards hung in chaina al H Uoway.
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It maybe remarked, that tlils case affords a striking instance of the absence of the effect of example : for, however much tlie miserable calling of the unhappy man may have hardened his mind, and i-endered him callous to thos-o feelings of degradation which would arise in the heart of any ordinary jierson, placed in a similar situation, it cannot be supposed that his fear (;f the dreadful punishment of death could have been in any degree abated by his having so frequently witnessed its execution in all its horrors.
BARBARA SPENCER,
STRANGLED, AND THEN BURNED, FOR COINING.
This is the first case on record, in which any person appears to have been executed for counterfeiting the coin of the realm. The punishment for this offence, at first, of necessity, severe, to check the alarming preva- lence of the crime, has long since been materially mitigated ; and although the evil still exists to a great degree, it lias been diminished very con- siderably in consequence of the judicious steps taken by the officers of the Mint.
In the month of May, 1721, Barbara Spencer, with two other women, named Alice Hall, and Elizabeth Bray, were indicted for high treason, in counterfeiting the king's current coin of the realm. The evidence went to ))rove the two latter prisoners to be agents only, and they were acquitted ; while Spencer appeared to be the princij)al, and she was found guilty, and sentenced to be burned. It turned out that the prisoner liad before been guilty of similar offences, and the sentence was carried into execution, although not in its direct terms. The law which then existed was, indeed, that women, convicted of high or petit treason, should be burned ; but the v/isdom and humanity of the authorities provided a more easy death, in directing that the malefactor should be strangled, while tied to the stake, and that the body should afterwards be consumed by fire.
While under sentence of death, the prisoner behaved in the most inde- cent and turbulent manner ; nor could she be convinced that she had been guilty of any <;rime in making a few sliillings. She was for some time very impatient under the idea of her approaching dissolution, and was particularly shocked at the thought of being burned ; but at the place of execution, she seemed willing to exercise herself in devotion, but was much interrupted by the mob throwing stones and dirt at her.
She was strangled and burned at Tyburn on the 5th of July, 1721.
Wli^LIAM SPIGGOT. AND THOMAS PHILLIPS.
EXECUTED FOR HIGHWAY ROBBERY.
This case is rendered worthy of notice, by the fact that, the prisoners refusing to plead, they were placed under the torture. They were indicted for a robbery upon the king's highway ; but refused to plead until some of their property, which had been taken from them, was returned. This was denied them by the Court, under the provisions of the statute of tlio
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4 th & 5th William and Mary ; and as, in spite of all entreaties, they persisted in their refusal, to deny or confess the charge against them, the Court ordered that the judgment ordained by law should be read to them. This was,
" That the prisoner shall be sent to the prison from whence he came, and put into a mean room, stopped from the light, and shall there be laid on the bare ground, without any litter, straw, or other covering, and with- out any garment about him, except something to hide his privy members. He shall lie upon his back, his head shall be covered, and his feet shall bo bare. One of his arms shall be drawn with a cord to one side of the room, and the other arm to the other side ; and his legs shall be served in the like maimer. Then there shall be laid upon his body as much iron or stone as he can bear, and more. And the first day after he shall have three morsels of barley bread, without any drink ; and the second day he shall be allowed to drink as much as he can, at three times, of the water that is next the prison-door, except running water, without any bread ; and this shall be his diet till he dies ; and he against whom this judgment shall be given, forfeits his goods to the king."
The reading of this sentence producing no effect, they were ordered back to Newgate, there to be pressed to death ; but when they came into the press-room, Phillips begged to be taken back to plead. The favour was granted, though it might have been denied to him ; but Spiggot was put under the press, and he continued half an hour, with tl^ree hundred and fifty pounds' w^eight on his body; but, on the addition of fifty pounds more, he also begged to plead.
They were in consequence brought back, and again arraigned ; when, the evidence being clear and positive against them, they were convicted, and received sentence of death ; in consequence of which they were exe- cuted at Tyburn on the 8th of February. 17:21.
The priscmer Phillips, after sentence, behaved in a manner which exhi- bited that he was a person of the most abandoned character. His compa- nion was more attentive to his devotions ; but Phillips declared that he did not fear to die, for that he was sure of going to heaven. It appeared, from the declarations of the prisoners, that they had been very successful in their depredations ; in the commission of which they were accompanied by a clergyman named Joseph Lindsay, and a lunatic, who had escaped from Bedlam, named Burroughs. The mad prattling of the latter caused the apprehension of his companions, while the evidence of the former tended materially to secure their conviction.
It is almost needless to add, that that remnant of barbarity, the torture, has long since been abolished.
NATHANIEL HAWES.
TORTURED AND AFTERWARDS EXECUTED FOR ROniiEK^.
The case of this prisoner may not prove uninteresting, as connected witli that last detailed.
Nathaniel Hawes was a nauve of Norfolk, in w- hich county he was born m the year 1701. His father was a grazier in good circumstances; but dying while the son was an iufant. a relation in Hertfordsliire took care of his education.
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At a proper age he was a^jprenticod to an upliolstercr in London ; but, becoming connected with people of bad character, he robbed his master when he had served only two years of his time, for which he was tried at the Old Bailey, and, being convicted, was sentenced to seven years' trans- portation.
His sentence was, however, withdrawn on his becoming evidence against the receiver of the stolen property. But the warning which he had re- ceived was of no avail ; and after having been once in custody for a rob- bery, when he was again admitted king's evidence, he soon joined a fellow with wjiom he had become acquainted in prison, and meeting a gentleman on Finchley Common, they demanded his money, swearing to murder him, if he did not give it to them.
The gentleman quitted his horse, and at the same moment seized the pistol which was placed at his throat by the robber, and, presenting it to the latter, told him to expect death if he did not surrender himself. His companion having fled, H awes was now as terrified as he had been inso- lent, and made no opposition ; and the driver of a cart coming up just at the moment, he was easily made prisoner, conveyed to London, and committed to Newgate. When the sessions came on, and he was brought to the bar, he refuged to plead to his indictment, alleging as a reason for so doing, that he would die, as he had lived, like a gentleman : — " The people," said he, " who apprehended me, seized a suit of fine clothes, which I intended to have gone to the gallows in ;' and unless they are returned, 1 will not plead ; for no one shall say that I was hanged in a dirty shirt and ragged coat."
On this, sentence was pronounced that he should be pressed to death ; whereupon he was taken from the Court, and, being laid on his back, sustained a load of two hundred and fifty pounds' weight about seven minutes ; but, unable any longer to bear the pain, he entreated he might be conducted back to the Court. He then pleaded not guilty ; but the evidence against him being conclusive, he was convicted, and sentenced to die.
He was executed at Tyburn on the 22nd of Decembei, 1721.
The subject of torture may not be inaptly illustrated by an account given by Stedman of a scene witnessed by him at Surinam, when a young man, a free negro, was tortured for the murder of the overseer of the estate of Altona in the Para Creek. He says, ''This man having stolen a sheep to entertain a favourite young woman, the overseer, who burned with jea- lousy, had determined to see him hanged ; to prevent which, the negro shot him dead among the sugar-canes. For these offences, of course, he was sentenced to be broken alive upon the rack, without the benefit of the covp de grace, or mercy-stroke. Informed of the dreadful sentence, he composedly laid himself down upon his back on a strong cross, on which, with his arms and legs extended, he was fastened by ropes. The execu- tioner, also a black man, having now with a hatchet chopped off his left hand, next took up a heavy iron bar, with which, by repeated blows, he broke his bones to shivers, till the marrow, blood, and splinters flew about the field ; but the prisoner never uttered a groan nor a sigh ! The ropes being next unlashed, I imagined him dead, and felt happy ; till the magis- trates stirring to depart, he writhed himself from the cross, when he fell on the grass, and damned them all as a set of barbarous rascals. .At the same
30 THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR
time, removing his right hand by the help of his teeth, he rested his head on part of the timber, and asked the by-standers for a pipe of tobacco, which was infamously answered by kicking and spitting on him, till I, with some American seamen, thought proper to prevent it. He then begged his hea<i might be chopped off, but to no purpose. At last, seeing no end to his misery, he declared, ' that though he had deserved death, he had not expected to die so many deaths : however,' said he, ' you Chris- tians have missed your aim at last, and I now care not, were I to remain thus one month longer.' After which he sung two extempore songs with a clear voice ; the subjects of which were to bid adieu to his living friends, and to acquaint his deceased relations that in a very little time he should be with them, to enjoy their company for ever in a better place. This done, he calmly entered into conversation w^th some gentlemen concerning his trial, relating every particular with uncommon tranquillity. ' But,' said he abruptly, ' by the sun it must be eight o'clock, and by any longer dis- course 1 should be sorry to be the cause of your losing your breakfast.' Then casting his eyes on a Jew, whose name was Deveries, ' Apropos, sir,' said he, ' won't you please to pay me the ten shillings you owe me ? ' ' For what to do ? ' ' To buy meat and drink, to be sure : don't you perceive I'm to be kept alive ? ' Which speech, on seeing the Jew stare like a fool, the mangled wretch accompanied with a loud and hearty laugh. Next, observing the soldier that stood sentinel over him biting occasionally a piece of dry bread, he asked' him how it came to pass that he, a tchite man, should have no meat to eat along with it. ' Because I am not so rich,' answered the soldier. ' Then I will make you a present, sir,' said the negro. ' First pick my hand that was chopped off, clean to the bones ; next begin to devour my body till you are glutted ; when you will have both bread and meat, as best becomes you : ' which piece of humour was followed by a second laugh. And thus he continued until I left him. which was about three hours after the dreadful execution."
Subsequently, on proceeding to the spot, the writer discovered that after the poor wretch had lived thus more than six hours, he was knocked on the head by the commiserating sentinel ; and that having been raised upon a gallows, the vultures were busy picking out the eyes of the mangled corpse, in the skull of which was clearly discernible the mark of the soldier's musket.
CAPTAIX JOHN MASSEY.
EyECDTED FOR PIRACY.
Captai.s Massey was the son of a gentleman of fortune, who gave hun an excellent education. When young, he grew weary of home ; and his father havinw procured him a commission in the army, he served with great credit as lieutenant under the command of the Duke of Marlborough, during the wars in Flanders, in the reign of Queen Anne. After this he went with his regiment to Ireland, and at length got appointed to the rank of lieutenant and engineer to the Royal African Company, and sailed in one of their ships to direct the building of a fort. The ship being ill sup- plied with provisions, the sufferings of the crew were inexpressibly great. Those who lived to get on shore drank so grtedily of the frc^h water, that
1
TflK NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR. 31
tliey wtre thrown into fluxes, which destroyed them so rapidly, thut onlv Captain Massey and a very few of his people were still alive, these, bein"« totally unable to build a fort, and seeing no prospect of relief, began to abandon themselves to despair ; but at this time a vessel happening to come near the shore, they made signals of distress, on which a boat was sent off to their assistance.
They were no sooner on board than they found the vessel was a pirate ; And, distressed as they had been, they too hastily engaged in their lawless plan, rather than run the hazard of perishing on shore. Sailing from hence, they took several prizes ; and at length on the ship reaching Jamaica, Mr. Massey seized the first opportunity of deserting; and repairing to the governor, he gave such information, that the crew of the pirate vessel were taken into custody, convicted, and hanged. Massey might have been provided for by the governor, who treated him with singular respect, on account of his services to the public ; but he declined his generous offers, through an anxiety to visit his native country. On his sailing for England, the governor gave him recommendatory letters to the lords of the admi- ralty ; but, astonishing as it may seem, instead of his being caressed, he was taken into custody, and committed till a session of admiralty was held for his trial, when he pleaded guilty, and received sentence of death.
His sentence was subsequently carried out, although it may readily be supposed that that due attention was scarcely given to the case which the interests of the prisoner demanded.
ARUNDEL COOKE, ESQ. AND JOHN WOODBURNE.
EXKCUTED FOR CUTTING AND MAIMING.
The prosecution of these offenders took place under tlie provisions of a statute, j)assed in tlie reign of Charles the Second, commonly called " Sir John Coventry's Act," the origin of which we have elsewhere described, and which has since been followed by an enactment, more extensive in its operation, called " Lord EUenborough's Act."
Mr. Cooke, who by virtue of his profession as a barrister was entitled to the rank of esquire, was born at Bury St. Edmunds, in Suffolk, and was a man of considerable fortune at the time of his execution. Wood- burne, his companion in crime, was a labouring man in his service, who, having a family of six children, was induced to join in the commission of the crime, of which he was found guilty, upon the promise of the payment to him of 100/. for his aid in the diabolical plan. Mr. Cooke, it appears, was married to the daughter of Mr. Crisp, the victim of his attack. The latter was a gentleman of very large property, and of infirm habit of body, aad having made his will in favour of his son-in-law, the latter became anxious to possess the estate, and determined, by murdering the old gentle- man, to secure its immediate transfer to himself. For this purpose, he pro- cured the co-operation of Woodburne on the terms wliich we have already mentioned, and Christmas evening of the year 17iJl was fixed upon for the perpetration of the intended murder. Mr. Crisp was to dine with his son-in-law on that day, and Woodburne was directed to lie in wait in the churchyard, which lay between the houses of the old gentleman and his fa.va- in-law, behind a tomb-stone, in the evening, when, at a given signal, he was to fall upon and kill the former. The time arrived when Mr. Crisp
32 THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR.
was to depart, and uptm his going out, Mr. Cooke followed him, and thcr. aided his assistant in a most violent attack upon his father-in-law. The old man was left for dead, but in spite of the wounds which he had received, he crawled back to his daughter, to whom he communicated his suspicions, that her husband was the originator of the murderous attempt which had been made.
Woodburne was impeached by his sudden disappearance; and the affair having created a great deal of excitement in the neighbourhood, he was followed and secured, and then he exposed the enormity of his offence, by confessing the whole of the circumstances attending its commission. Mr. Cooke was also taken into custody, and a bill of indictment was preferred at the ensuing assizes, at Bury St. Edmunds, upon which the two prisoners were tried and found guilty.
Upon their being called up to receive sentence of death, Cooke desired to be heard : and the court complying with his request, he urged that "judgment could not pass on the verdict, because the act of parliament simply mentions an intention to maim or deface, whereas he was firmly resolved to have committed murder." He quoted several law cases in favour of the arguments he had advanced, and hoped that judgment might be respited till the opinion of the twelve judges could be taken on the case.
Lord Chief Justice King, however, who presided on this occasion, declared that he could not admit the force of Mr. Cooke's plea, consistently with his own oath as a judge : " for (said he) it would establish a principle in the law inconsistent with the first dictates of natural reason, as the greatest villain might, when convicted of a smaller offence, plead that the judgment must be arrested, because he intended to commit a greater. In the present instance tlierefore judgment cannot be arrested, as the intention is naturally in^plied when the crime is actually committed."
Sentence of death was then passed, and the prisoners were left for execution. After condemnation, the unhappy man "Woodburne exhibited signs of the most sincere penitence ; but his wretched tempter to crime conducted himself with unbecoming reserve and moroseness, steadily denying his guilt, and employing his most strenuous exertions to procure a pardon.
The 3d April, 1722, was at length fixed for the execution of the sentence, and Cook was hanged at four in the morning of that day, in obedience to a request which he made, in order that he should not be exposed to the public gaze ; while AVoodburne was turned oft", in the afternoon, on the same gallows. The execution took place at Biiry St Edmunds, the crime jiaving been committed withm a mile of that place.
CHRISTOPHER LAYER, ESQ.
EXECUTED FOR HIGH TREASON.
Mr. Layer was a barrister of considerable standing and reputation, at the time when he was convicted and executed on a charge of bemg the projector of a scheme for the destruction of the king, and the subversion of the government, which had for its object the elevation of the Pretender to the throne of England. ^
Numerous were the plots which had been laid for the same purpose, he...
THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR. 33
frequent were the proceedings which had been had upon complaints laid before the various courts of criminal justice in the kingdom, since the year l7lo, when the rebellion first broke out; but the plan laid by Mr. Layei was one of those which gained the greatest degree of notoriety. This infatuated man had received a liberal education, and was a member of the society of the Inner Temple ; but being impressed with the possibility of the success of a scheme for the dethronement of the existing monarch, and the elevation of the Pretender to the rank, to which it was contended that he was entitled, he made a journey to Rome, in order to confer with that prince upon the propriety of putting his design into execution, promising that he would effect so secret a revolution in England, that no person in authority should be apprised of the scheme until it had been actually completed. Having procured the concurrence of the prince, he instantly returned to London, and proceeded to the completion of his preparations His plan was to hire an assassin to murder the king on his return from Kensington ; and, this being done, the other parties engaged in the plot were to seize the guards ; and the Prince of Wales and his children, and the great officers of state, were to be secured, and confined during the confusion that such an event would naturally produce.
Mr. Layer having settled a correspondence with several Roman Catholics, non-jurors, and other persons disafiected to the government, he engaged a small number of disbanded soldiers, who were to be the principal actors in the intended tragedy. A meeting of the whole of the partisans having, however, been held at Stratford, they talked so loudly of the plot, that their designs were suspected, and information was conveyed to the autho- rities ; upon which Mr. Layer was taken into custody, under a secre- tary of state's warrant, and conveyed to the house of a king's messenger for security. His chambers being searched, papers were found, the con- tents of which sufficiently indicated his intentions, and witnesses as to repeated declarations on his part, in reference to the rebellion, having been discovered in the persons of two women, who were living under his pro- tection, it was determined that a prosecution should be instantly commenced against him. But it was not until he had nearly given his jailers the slip, that this dttermination was carried into execution with effect; for it appears that the prisoner became convinced of the practicability of an escape from the room where he was confined, through an ale-house, which was situated at the back of the messenger's house, and resolved to make the attempt to procure his liberty. He therefore formed a rope of his blanket, and, dropping from the window of his apartment, he fell into the yard below, unscathed ; but in his descent, he overset a bottle-rack, and from the noise which was caused, the family of the house was disturbed Mr. Layer managed, nevertheless, to gain the street in the confusion which prevailed ; but being instantly pursued by officers, he was traced to have taken a boat at the Horse Ferry, Westminster, from thence to St. George's Fields; and he was at length overtaken at Xewington Butts. On the following day he was committed to Newgate ; and a Grand Jury of the county of Essex having found a true bill against him for high treason, his trial came on before Chief Justice Pratt, and the other judges of the Court of King's Bench, in the month of January 1723, when, after an inquiry, which lasted sixteen hours, he was found guilty, and sentenced if death in the customary manner.
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As he had some important aflfiiirs to settle, from the nature of his pro- fession, the court did not order his execution till more than two months after he had been condemned ; and the king repeatedly reprieved him, to prevent his clients being sutterers by his affairs being left in a state of confusion.
After conviction, 3Ir. Layer was committed to the Tower ; and at length the sheriffs of London and ^Middlesex received a warrant to execute the sentence of the law. He was carried to Tyburn on a sledge, on the 15th ^Larch 17'23, to be hanged, being dressed in a suit of black, full trimmed, and wearino- a tie-wig. At the place of execution he was assisted in his devotions by a nonjuring clergyman ; and when these were ended, he spoke to the surrounding multitude, declaring that he deemed King James (so he called the Pretender) his lawful sovereign. He said that King George was a usurper, and that damnation would be the fate of those who sup- ported his government. He insisted that the nation would never be in a state of peace till the Pretender was restored, and therefore advised the people to take up arms in his behalf. He professed himself willing to die for the cause, and expressed great hopes that Providence would eventually support the right heir to the throne. His body having been suspended during the accustomed time, it was quartered, and the head was after- wards exposed on Temple Bar. Among others concerned in this strange scheme was Lord Grey, an ancient nobleman of the Roman Catholic reli- gion, who died a prisoner in the Tower, before the necessary legal proceed- ings against him could take place.
PHILIP ROACH,
EXECUTED FOR PIRACY AND MURDER.
This fellow was a native of Ireland, and having, during his youth, fol- lowed a seafaring life, he was advanced to the position of first mate, on board a "West-Indiaman, which sailed to and from Barbadoes. Having, however, become acquainted with a fisherman named Neale, who hinted to him that large sums of money might be acquired by insuring ships, and then causing them to be sunk, to defraud the insurers, he was wicked enough to listen to this horrid idea ; and, being recommended to a gentle- man who had a ship bound to Cape Breton, he got a station on board, next in command to the captain, by whom he was entrusted with the management of the vessel.
On the voyage, it would appear that he would have abstained from carrying out his diabolical plan ; but having brought some Irishmen on board with him, they persisted in pursuing their original design, or in de- manding that the vessel should be seized. Accordingly, one night, when the captain and most of the crew were asleep. Roach gave orders to two of the seamen to furl the sails ; which being immediately done, the poor fel- lows no sooner descended on the deck, than Roach and his associates mup dered them, and threw them overboard. At this instant a man and a boy at the yard-arm, observing wliat passed, and dreading a similar fate, hur- ried towards the topmast-head, when one of the Irishmen, named Cullen, followed them, and, seizin^ the boy, threw him into the sea. The man.
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thinking to effect at least a present escape, descended to tlie main-deck ; but he was instantly butchered, and committed to the deep. The noise occasioned by these transactions had alarmed the sailors below, and they luu-ried up with all possible expedition ; but were severally seized and murdered as fast as they came on deck, and were thrown into the sea. At length the master and mate came on the quarter-deck ; but they were doomed to share the same fate as their unhappy shipmates.
These execrable murders being perpetrated, the nmrderers determined to commence pirates, and that Roach should be the captain, as tlie reward uf Ills superior villany.
They had intended to sail up the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; but as they were witliin a few days' voyage of the Bristol Channel, when the bloody tragedy was acted, and found themselves short of provisions, they put into Portsmouth ; and, giving the vessel a fictitious name, they painted her afresh, and then sailed for Ilotterdam. At this city they disposed of their cargo, and took in a fresh one ; and being unknown, an English gentle- man, named Annesley, shipped considerable property on board, and took his passage with them for the port of London ; but the villains threw this unfortunate gentleman overboard, after tliey liad been only one day at sea. When the ship arrived in the river Thames, Mr. Annesley's friends made inquiry after him, in consequence of his having sent letters to England, describing the ship in wliich lie proposed to embark ; but Roach denied any knowledge of the gentleman, and even disclaimed his own name. Not- withstanding his confident assertions, it was rightly presumed who he was, and a letter which he sent to his wife being stopped, he was taken into custody, and canned before the secretary of state for examination. While there, having denied that he was the person he was taken to be, his inter- cepted letter was shown to him ; on which he instantly confessed his crimes, and was committed to take his trial. He was subsequently hanged at Execution Dock, on the otli of August, 17i*3.
JOSEPH BLAKE, alias BLUESKIN,
EXECUTED FOR HOUSEBREAKING.
At about this time London and its vicinity were infested by a gang of villains of the most desperate character, of whom this criminal was the captain. With his name are associated those of offenders whose exploits, though they may be better known, were not more daring or more vil- lanous. The notorious Jonathan Wild, whose system of atrocity will be found to be exposed in the notice given hereafter of his life and death, and his no less notorious victim and coadjutor. Jack Sheppard, were both inti- mately connected with the proceedings of Blake ; while others of equal cele- brity filled up the number of his followers. The Mint in South wark was, during the early part of the life of these oflenders, a place which, being by a species of charter freed from the intrusion of the bailiffs, formed an admirable hiding-place and retreat for criminals, as well as debtors. A system of watch and ward was maintained among them, and, like the Alsatia of Sir Walter Scott's admirable novel of " The Fortunes of Nigel," which is now known by the name of Whitefriars, its privacy was seldom intruded upon by the
36 THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR.
appearance of the officers of justice. The salutary laws of the commence- ment of the reign of the Hanover family, however, soon caused these dena of infamy to be rooted out ; and the districts referred to are now knowii only by repute, as having been privileged in the manner which has been described.
To return to the subject of our present narrative : he was a native of London, and having been sent to school at the age of six years, he dis- played more intelligence in acquiring a proficiency in the various arts of roguery, than in becoming acquainted with those points of decent instruc- tion, with which his parents desired he should make himself intimate. While at school, he formed an acquaintance with a lad of his own age, named Blewitt, who afterwards, with himself, became a member of Jona- than Wild's gang. No sooner had they left school, than they started in life as pickpockets ; and our hero, before he attained the age of fifteen years, had been in half the prisons in the metropolis. From this they turned street robbers ; and forming connexions with others, their pro- ceedings became notorious, and they were apprehended. Blake, however, was admitted evidence against his companions, Avho were convicted ; and having by that means obtained his own acquittal, he claimed a part of the reward offered by government. He was informed by the Court, that his demand could not be granted, because he was not a voluntary evidence; since, so far from having surrendered, he had made an obstinate resistance, and was much wounded before he was taken ; and instead of rewarding him, they ordered him to find security for his good behaviour, or to be trans- ported. Not being able to give the requisite bail, he was lodged in Wood- street Compter, and there he remained for a considerable period ; during which his patron, Wild, allowed him three and sixpence per week. At length he prevailed upon two gardeners to enter into the necessary sure- ties ; and their recognisance having been taken by Sir John Fryer, for his good behaviour, for seven years, he once more regained his liberty. This object was, however, no sooner attained, than he was concerned in several robberies with Jack Sheppard ; and they at length committed that offence for which Blueskin was executed. We have already said that he had become notorious for the daring which he displayed, and the frequency of his attacks upon the property of others ; and he had become no less cele- brated among his companions, who had favoured him with the appellation of Blueskin, from the darkness of his complexion, and had besides honoured him by dubbing him captain.
At the October sessions of the Old Bailey, 17^3, he was indicted under the name of Joseph Blake, alias Blueskin, for breaking and entering the dwelling-house of William Kneebone, in St. Clement's Church-yard, and stealing one hundred and eight yards of woollen cloth, value thirty-six pounds, and other property. It was sworn by the prosecutor, that the 8iitry was effected by cutting the bars of his cellar-window, and by subseqtiently breaking open the cellar-door, which had been bolted and padlocked ; and that afterwards, on his going to Jonathan Wild, and acquainting him with what had occcured, he was conducted to Blake's lodgings, for the purpose of procuring his apprehension. The prisoner refusing to open the door. Quilt Arnold, one of Wild's men, broke it open. On this Blake drew a penknife, and swore that he would kill the first man that entered ; in answer to which Arnold sa' d, " I'hen I. am the first man.
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and Mr. Wild is not far beliind ; and if you don't deliver your penknife immediately, I will chop your arm off." Hereupon the prisoner dropped tlie knife ; and Wild entering, he was taken into custody.
It further appeared, that as the parties were conveying Blake to New- gate, they came by the house of the prosecutor ; on which Wild said to the prisoner, " There's the ken ;" and the latter replied, " Say no more of that, Mr. Wild, for I know I am a dead man ; but what I fear is, that I shall afterwards be carried to Surgeons' Hall, and anatomised ;" to which Wild replied, "No, I'll take care to prevent that, for I'll give you a coffin." William Field, an accomplice, who was evidence on the trial, swore that the robbery was committed by Blake, Sheppard, and himself; and the jury brought in a verdict of guilty.
As soon as the verdict was given, Blake addressed the Court in the following terms : — " On Wednesday morning last, Jonathan Wild said to Simon Jacobs (then a prisoner), " I believe you will not bring forty pounds this time (alluding to the reward paid by Government) ; I wish Joe (meaning me) was in your case ; but I'll do my endeavour to bring you off as a single felon." And then turning to me, he said, " I believe you must die — I'll send you a good book or two, and provide you a coffin, and you shall not be anatomised."
The prisoner having been convicted, it was impossible that this revela- tion of the circumstances, under which he was impeached could be noticed; l)ut subsequent discoveries distinctly showed that Wild's system was pre- cisely that which was pointed out; namely, to lead on those who chose to submit themselves to his guidance, to the full extent to which they could go, so as to be useful to him ; and then to deliver them over to justice for the offcnce& in which he had been the prime mover, securing to himself the reward payable upon their conviction. His position screened him from punishment, while his power ensured the sacrifice of the victims, who had so long been his slaves. It appears that Wild was near meeting his end in this case. He was to have given evidence against Blake, but going to visit him in the bail-dock, previous to his trial, the latter sud- denly drew a clasped penknife, with which he cut Jonathan's throat. The knife was blunt, and the wound, though dangerous, did not prove mortal ; but the informer was prevented from giving the evidence which had been expected from him. AVhile under sentence of death, Blake did not show a concern proportioned to his calamitous situation. When asked if he was advised to commit the violence on Wild, he said No ; but that a sudden thought entered his mind : had it been premeditated, he would have pro- vided a knife, which would have cut oft' his head at once. On the nearer approach of death he appeared still less concerned ; and it was thought that his mind was chiefly bent on meditating means of escaping : but seeing no prospect of getting away, he took to drinking, which lie conti- nued to the day of his death ; and he was observed to be intoxicated, eyen while he was under the gallows.
He was executed at Tyburn on the 11th of November, 1723.
S8
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JOHN SHEPPARD.
EXECUTED FOE HOUSE-BREAKING.
The prisoner, whose name heads tliis article, war, a companion and fellow in crime to the notorious Blueskin. The name of Jack Sheppard is one ■wliich needs no introduction. His exploits are so notorious, that notliing more is necessary than to recount them. Sheppard was born in Spitalfields, in the year 1702 ; his father was a carpenter and bore the character of an honest man ; but dying when his son was yet young, he, as well as a younger brother, Tom Sheppard, soon became remarkable for their disregard for honesty. Our hero was apprenticed to a carpenter in Wych-street, like his father, and during the first four years of his service he behaved with comparative respectability ; but frequenting a public-house, called the Black Lion, in Drury Lane, he became acquainted with Blueskin, his subsequent companion in wickedness, and Wild, his betrayer, as well as with some women of abandoned character, who afterwards also became his coadjutors. His attentions were more particularly directed to one of them, named Elizabeth Lion, or Edgeworth Bess, as she was familiarly called from the town in which she was born, and while connected with her he frequently committed robberies at the various houses, in which he was employed as a workman. He was, however, also acquainted with a woman named Maggott, who persuaded him to commit his first robbery in the house of Mr. Bains, a piece-broker, in White Horse Yard, Drury Lane. He was at this time still resident at his master's house ; and having stolen a piece of fustian, he took it home to his trunk, and then returning to the house which he was robbing, he took the bars out of the cellar- window, entered, and stole goods and money to the amount of '2'2l. which he carried to Maggott. As Sheppard did not go home that night, nor on the following: day, his master suspected that he had made bad connexions, and searching his trunk found the piece of fustian that had been stolen ; but Sheppard, hearing of this, broke open his master's house in the night, and carried ofi' the fustian, lest it should be brought in evidence against him.
This matter received no further attention ; but Sheppard's master seemed desirous still to favour him, and he remained some time longer in the family ; but after associating himself with the worst of company, and frequently staying out the whole night, his master and he quarrelled, and the headstrong youth totally absconded in the last year of his appren- ticeship.
Jack now worked as a journeyman carpenter, with a view to the easier commission of robbery; and being employed to assist in repairing the house of a gentleman in ]May Fair, he took an opportunity of carrjing oft a sum of money, a quantity of plate, some gold rings, and four suits of clothes. Not long after this Edgeworth Bess was apprehended, and lodged in the round-house of the parisli of St. Giles's, where Sheppa,rd went to visit her; but the beadle refusing to admit him, he knocked hin^ down, broke open the door, and carried her off in triumph ; an exploit which acquired him a high degree of credit among his companions. Tom Sheppard being now as deep in crime as his brother, he prevailed on Jack
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tr» lend him forty shillings, and take him as a partner in his robberies. The tirst act they committed in concert was the robbing of a public-house in Southwark, whence they carried off' some money and wearing apparel ; but Jack ])erinitted his brother to reap the whole advantage of this booty. Not long alter this, in conjunction with Edgeworth Bess, they broke ojien the shop of JNIrs. Cook, a linen-draper in Clare Market, and carried off' goods to the value of 53/.; and in less than a fortnight afterwards, they stole some articles from the house of Mr. Phillips in Drury Lane. Tom Slie])pard going to sell some of the goods stolen at Mrs. Cook's, was apprehended, and committed to Newgate, when, in the hope of being admitted an evidence, he impeached his brother and Bess ; but they were sought for in vain.
At length James Sykes, otherwise called Hell-and-Fury, one of Sheppaid's companions, meeting with him in St. Giles's, enticed him into a public-house, in the hope of receiving a reward for apprehending him ; and while they were drinking Sykes sent for a constable, who took Jack into custody, and carried him before a magistrate. After a short examina- tion, he was sent to St. Giles's round-house ; but he bi'oke through the rouf of that place and made his escape in the night.
Within a short time after this, as Sheppard and an associate, named Benson, were crossing Leicester Fields, the latter endeavoured to pick a gentleman's pocket of his watch ; but failing in the attempt, the gentle- man called out ''• A pickpocket ! " on which Sheppard was taken, and lodged in St. Ann's round-house, where he was visited by Edgeworth Bess, who was detained on suspicion of being one of his accomplices. On the following day they were carried before a magistrate, and some persons appearing who charged them with felonies, they were committed to the New Prison ; but as they passed for husband and wife, they were permitted to lodge together in a room known by the name of the Newgate ward. They were here visited by many of their friends, Blueskin among the number ; and being provided by them with the implements necessary to enable them to escape. Jack proceeded to secure the object which he had in view with that alacrity and energy which always characterised his actions. The removal of his fetters by means of a file was a work which occupied him a very few minutes, and he then, with the assistance of hi* companion, prepared for flight. The first obstacle which presented itself to them was in the shape of the heavy cross-bars which defended the aperture, by which light and air were admitted to their cell ; but the application of their file soon removed the difficulty. There was then another point of a more dangerous character to overcome — the descent to the yard. Their window was twenty-five feet in height, and the only means of reaching the earth was by the employment of their blankets as ropes. Thesi', however, would not enable them to touch the ground; but they found that there was a considerable distance for them to drop, even after they should have arrived at the extreme end of their cord. Gallantry induced our hero to give the first place to Bess, and she, having stripped off" a portion of her clothes, so as to render herself lighter, descended in perfect safety. Jack followed, and they found some consolation in their being at least without the gaol, although there were yet the Avails of the yard to climb. These were topped with a strong chevaux de /rise of iron, and were besides twenty-two feet high ; but passing round them until they came to tlio great gates, the adventurous pair found means by the locks and bolts, by
40 THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR.
which they were held together, to surmount this, apparently the greatest ditficulty of all, and they once again stood on the open ground outside the gaol. Bess having now re-assumed the clothes, of which she had denuded herself, in order that she might be the more agile in her escape, and which she had taken the precaution to throw over the wall before her, she and her paramour, once more enjoying the free air of liberty, marched into town.
It may readily be supposed that our hero's fame was increased by the report of this exploit, and all the thieves of St. Giles's soon became anxious to become his " palls." He did not hesitate to accept the companionship of two of them, named Grace, a cooper, and Lamb, an apprentice t > a mathematical instrument maker ; and at the instigation of the latter they committed a robbery in the house of his master, near St. Clement's church, to a considerable amount. The apprentice, however, was suspected, and secured, and being convicted, received sentence of transportation. Our hero meanwhile escaped, and joining with Blueskin, they did not fail in obtaining consider- able booty. The mode of disposing of the plunder which they adopted was that of employing a fellow named Field to procure them a market ; and having committed the robbery at Kneebone's, already mentioned in Blake's memoir, they lodged its proceeds in a stable, which they had hired, near the Horse Ferry, Westminster. Field was applied to, to find a customer for the property, and he promised to do so, and was as good as his word ; for breaking open the stable, he carried ofip the goods himself, and then conveyed information of the robbery to Wild, alleging that he had been concerned in it. Blueskin, it will have been seen, was tried and convicted for the robbery, and suffered execution ; and Sheppard having also been secured, he too was sentenced to death.
On Monday, 30th August, 1724, a warrant was sent for his execution, together with that of some other convicts, but neither his ingenuity nor his courage forsook him upon this, any more than upon any previous occasion. In the gaol of Newgate there was a hatch within the lodge in which the gaolers sat, which opened into a dark passage, from which there were a few eteps leading to the hold containing the condemned cells. It was customary for the prisoners, on their friends coming to see them, to be conducted to this hatch ; but any very close communication was prevented by the surveil- lance of the gaolers, and by large iron spikes which surmounted the gate The visits of Edgeworth Bess to her paramour were not unattended with advantage to the latter, for while in conversation, she took the oppor- tunity of diverting the attention of the gaoler from her, while she delivered the necessary instruments to Sheppard to assist him in his contemplated escape. Subsequent visits enabled Jack to approach the wicket ; and by constant filing he succeeded in placing one of the spikes in such a position as that it could be easily wTenched off. On the evening on which the warrant for his execution arrived, Mrs. Maggott, who was an immensely powerful woman, and Bess, going to visit him, he broke off the spike while the keepers were employed in drinking in the lodge, and thrusting his head and shoulders through the aperture, the women pulled him down, and smuggled him through the outer room, in which the gaolers were indulging themselves, into the street. This second escape not a little increased his notoriety ; but an instant pursuit being made, he was com- ])clled to lie close. Consulting -with one Page, a butcher, it was deter- mined that they should go to Waruden, in Northamptonshire, together
THE NEW NEWGATE CAt.ENDAU. 4]
wliorc tlii'ivlations of the latter lived ; but on arriving there, being treated with indifference, tliey immediately retraced their steps to London.
On the niglit after tlieir return, they were walking througli Fleet-street, when they saw a watchmaker's shop attended only by a boy, and having ])a5sed it, they turned back, and Sheppard, driving his hand through the window, stole three watches, with which tliey made their escape. They subsequently retired to Finchley for security ; but the gaolers of Newgate gaining information of their retreat, took Siieppard into custody, and once more conveyed him to " The Stone Jug."
Such steps were now taken as it was thought would be effectual to ])revent his future escape. He was put into a strong room, called the Castle, handcuffed, loaded with a heavy pair of irons, and chained to a staple fixed in the floor. The curiosity of the public being greatly excited i)y his former escape, he was visited by great numbers of people of all ranks, and scarce any one left him without making him a present in money. Although he did not disdain these substantial proofs of public generosity, wiiich enabled him to obtain those luxuries, which were not provided bv the city authorities for his prison fare, his thoughts were constantly fixed on the means of again eluding his keepers ; and the opportunity was not long wanting when he might carry his design into execution.
On the fourteenth of October, the sessions began at the Old Bailey, and the keepers being much engaged in attending the Court, he thought rightly, that they would have little time to visit him, and, therefore, that the present juncture would be the most favourable to carry his plan into execution. About two o'clock in the afternoon of the following day, one of the keepers carried him his dinner ; and having carefully examined his irons, and found them fast, he left him. Sheppard now immediately pro- ceeded to the completion of the great work of his life, his second escape from Newgate ; in describing which we shall extract from Mr. Ainsworth's work of " Jack Sheppard," in which that gentleman has given a lasting fame to our hero, and has founded a most interesting romance on the real circumstances of the life of this daring and extraordinary offender. He says, " Jack Sheppard's first object was to free himself from his hand-cuffs. This he accomplished by holding the chain that connected them firmly between his teeth, and, squeezing his fingers as closely together as possible, he succeeded in drawing his wrists through the manacles. He next twisted the heavy gyves round and round, and partly by main strength, partly bv a dexterous and weii-applied jerk, snapped asunder tlie central link, by which they were attached to the padlock. Taking off' his stockings, he then drew up the basils as far as he was able, and tied the fragments of the broken chains to his legs, to prevent them from clanking, aud impeding his future exertions." Upon a former attempt to make his way up the cliimney, he had been impeded by an iron bar which was fixed across it, at a height of a few feet. To remove this obstacle, it was necessary to make an extensive breach in the wall. With the broken links of the chain, which served him in lieu of more efficient implements, he commenced operations just above the chimney-piece, and soon contrived to pick a hole in the plaster. He found the wall, as he suspected, solidly constructed of brick and stone ; and, with the slight and inadequate tools which he possessed, it was a work of infinite skill and labour to get out a single brick. That done, however, he was well aware the rest would be comparatively easy ; and as he threw
VOL. I. O
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the hrick to the ground, he exclaimed triumphantly, " The first step h taken — the main difficulty is overcome."
" Animated by this trifling success, he proceeded with fresh ardour, and the rapidity of his progress was proclaimed by the heap of bricks, stones, and mortar, which before long covered the floor. At the expiration of an hour, by dint of unremitting exertion, he made so large a breach in the chimney that he could stand upright in it. He was now within a foot of the bar, and introducing himself into the hole, he speedily worked his way to it. Regardless of the risk he ran by some heavy stones dropping on his head or feet, — regardless also of the noise made by the falling rubbish, and of the imminent risk to which he was consequently exposed of being interrupted by some of the gaolers, should the sound reach their ears, he continued to pull dowTi large masses of the wall, which he flung upon the floor of the cell. Having worked thus for another quarter of an hour, without being sensible of fatigue, though he was half stifled by the clouds of dust which his exertions raised, he had made a hole about three feet wide and six higli, and uncovered the iron bar. Grasping it firmly with both hands, he quickly wrenched it from the stones in which it was mortised, and leapt to the ground. On examination it proved to be a flat bar of iron, nearly a yard in length, and more than an inch square. ' A capital instrument for my purpose,' thought Jack, shouldering it, ' and worth all the trouble I have had in procuring it.' While he was thus musing, he thought he heard the lock tried. A chill ran through his frame, and grasping the heavy weapon, with which chance had provided him, he prepared to strike down the first person who should enter his cell. After listening attentively for a short time without drawing breath, he became convinced that his apprehensions were groundless, and, greatly relieved, sat down upon the chair to rest himself and prepare for future efibrts.
•' Acquainted with every part of the gaol. Jack well knew that his only chance of eflecting an escape must be by the roof. To reach it would be a most difficult undertaking. Still it was possible, and the difficulty was only a fresh incitement. The mere enumeration of the obstacles which existed would have deterred any spirit less daring than Sheppard's from even hazarding the attempt. Independently of other risks, and the chance of breaking his neck in the descent, he was aware that to reach the leads he should have to break open six of the strongest doors of the prison. Armed, however, with the implement he had so fortunately obtained, he did not despair of success. ' My name will not only be remembered as that of a robber,' he mused, ' but it shall be remembered as that of a bold one; and this night's achievement, if it does nothing else, shall prevent me from being classed with the common herd of depredators.' Roused by this reflection, he grasped the iron bar, which, when he sat down, he had laid upon his knees, and stepped quickly across the room. In doing so, he had to clamber up the immense heap of bricks and rubbish which now littered the floor, amounting almost to a cart-load, and reaching up nearly to the chimney-piece ; and having once more got into the chimney, he climbed to a level with the ward above, and recommenced operations as vigorously as before. He was now aided with a powerful implement, witii which he soon contrived to make a hole in the wall.
" The ward which Jack was endeavouring to break was called tl;e Red- room from the circuniatance of its walls having once been painted in that
THE NEW NEWGATE CAtENHAR. 4S
colour : all traces of which, however, had lont^ since disappeared. Liko tne Castle, Avhich it resembled in all respects, except that it was destitute even of a barrack bedstead, the Red-room was reserved for state ])risoners. and had not been occupied since tlieyear 1716, when the gaol was crowded l»y the Preston rebels. Having made a hole in the wall sufficiently large to pass through, Js.<;k first tossed the bar into the room and then crept after it. As soon as he had gained his feet, he glanced round the bare black walls of the cell, and, oppressed by the misty close atmosphere, exclaimed, ' I will let a little fresh air into this dungeon : they say it has not been opened for eight years, but I won't be eight minutes in getting out.' In stepping across the room, some sharp point in the floor pierced his foot, .and stooping to examine it, he found that the wound had been inflicted by a long rusty nail, which projected from the boards. Totally disregarding the pain, he picked up the nail, and reserved it for future use. Nor was he long in making it available. On examining the door, he found it secured by a large rusty lock, which he endeavoured to pick with the nail he had just acquired : but all his efforts proving ineftectual, he removed the plate that covered it with tlie bar, and with his fingers contrived to draw back the bolt.
" Opening the door, he then stepped into a dark narrow passage, leading, as he was well aware, to the Chapel. On the left there were doors com- municating with the King's Bench Ward, and the Stone Ward, two lar<je holds on the master debtors' side. But Jack was too well versed in the geography of the place to attempt either of them. Indeed, if he had been ignorant of it, the sound of voices, which he could faintly distinguisli, would have served as a caution to him. Hurrying on, his progress was soon checked by a strong door, several inches in thickness and nearly as wide as the passage. Running his hand carefully over it in search of the lock, he perceived, to his dismay, that it was fastened on the other side. After several vain attempts to burst it open, he resolved, as a last alter- native, to break through the wall in the part nearest the lock. This was a much more serious task than he anticipated. The wall was of consi- derable thickness, and built altogether of stone ; and the noise he was compelled to make in using the heavy bar, which brought sparks with every splinter he struck oft", was so great, that he feared it must be heard by the prisoners on the debtors' side. Heedless, however, of the conse- i^uences, he pursued his task. Half an hour's labour, during which he was obliged more than once to pause to regain breath, sufticed to make a hole wide enough to allow a passage for his arm up to the elbow. In this way he was able to force back a ponderous bolt from its socket ; and to his unspeakable delight, found that the door instantly yielded. Once more cheered by daylight, he hastened forward and entered the Chapel.
" Situated at the upper part of the south-east angle of the gaol, tiie Chapel of Old Newgate was divided on the north side into three grated compartments, or pens, as they were termed, allotted to the common debtors and felons. In the north-west angle there was a small pen for female offenders ; and on the south, a more commodious inclosure appro- priated to the master debtors and strangers. Immediately beneath th*? pulpit stood a large circular pen, where malefactors under sentence of death sat to hear the condemned sermon delivered to them, and where tney formed a public spectacle to the crowds which curiosity generally attracieO
44 THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR.
cn those occasions. To return. Jack had got into one of the pens at the north side of the chapel. The inclosure hy wliich it was surrounded was about twelve feet higla ; the under part being composed of oaken planks, the upper part of a strong iron grating, surmounted by sharp iron spikes. In the middle there was a gate : it was locked. But Jack speedily burst it open with the iron bar. Clearing the few impediments in his way. he soon reached the condemned pew, where it had once been his fate to sit ; and extending himself on the seat endeavoured to snatch a moment's repose. It was denied him, for as he closed his eyes — though but for an Instant — the whole scene of his former visit to the place rose before him. There he sat as before, with the heavy fetters on his limbs, and beside him sat his three companions who had since expiated their offences on the gibbet. The chapel was again crowded with visitors, and every eye fixed upon him. So perfect was the illusion, that he could almost fancy he heard the solemn voice of the Ordinary warning him that his race was nearly run, and imploring him to prepare for eternity. From this perturbed state he was roused by the thoughts of his present position, and fancying he heard approaching voices, he started up. On one side of the chapel there was a large grated window, but, as it looked upon the interior of the gaol, Jack preferred following the course he had originally decided upon, to making any attempt in this quarter. Accordingly he proceeded to a gate wliich stood upon the south, and guarded the passage communicating with the leads. It was grated, and crested with spikes, like tliat he had just burst open ; and thinking it a needless w'aste of time to force it, he broke off one of the spikes, which he carried with him for further purposes, and then climbed over it. A short flight of steps brought him to a dark passage, into which he plunged. Here he found another strong door, making the fifth he had encountered. AYell aware that the doors in this passage were much stronger than those in the entry he had just quitted, he was neither surprised nor dismayed to find it fastened by a lock of unusual size. After repeatedly trying to remove the plate, which w-as so firmly screwed down that it resisted all his efforts, and vainly attempting to pick it with his spike and n.iil, he at length, after half an hour's inef- fectual labour, wrenched oft" the box by means of the iron bar, and the door, as he laughingly expressed it, ' was his humble servant.'
" But this difficulty was only overcome to be succeeded by one still greater. Hastening along the passage, he came to the sixth door. For this he was prepared : but he was not prepared for the almost insur- mountable difficulties which it presented. Running his hand hastily over it, he was startled to find it one complicated mass of bolts and bars. It seemed as if all the precautions previously taken were here accumulated. Any one less courageous than himself would have abandoned the attempt from the conviction of its utter hopelessness ; but though it might for a moment damp his ardour, it could not deter him. Once again he passed his hand over the surface, and carefully noted all the obstacles. There was a lock, apparently more than a foot wide, strongly plated, and girded to the door with thick iron hoops. Below it a prodigiously large bolt wa| ^hot into the socket, and, in order to keep it there, was fastened by a hasp, and further protected by an immense padlock. Besides this, the door was crossed and recrossed by iron bars, clenched by broad-headed nails. An iron fillet secured the socket of the bolt and the box of the lock to the
THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAU. 45
main post of the door- way. Nothing disheartened by this survey, Jack
set to work upon the lock, which he attacked with all his implements ; .
now attempting to pick it with the nail ; — now to wrench it oti" with the bar, but all without effect. He not only failed in making any impression but seemed to increase the difficulties, for after an hour's toil he liad broken the nail, and slightly bent the iron bar. Completely overcome by fatio-ue, with strained muscles and bruised hands, streaming with perspiration, an«l with lips so parched that he would gladly have parted with a treasure if he had possessed it for a draught of water, he sunk against the wall, and while in this state was seized with a sudden and strange alarm. He fancied that the turnkeys had discovered his flight, and were in pursuit of him — that they had climbed up the chimney — entered the bed-rooms — tracked him from door to door, and were now only detained by the gate, which he had left unbroken in the chapel. So strongly was he impressed with this idea, that grasping the iron bar with both hands he dashed it furiously against the door, making the passage echo with the blows. By degrees his fears vanished, and, hearing nothing, he grew calmer. His spirits revived, and encouraging himself with the idea that the present impediment, though the greatest, was the last, he set himself seriously to consider how it might best be overcome. On reflection, it occurred to him that he might, perhaps, be able to loosen the iron fillet — a notion no sooner conceived than executed. With incredible labour, and by the aid of both spike and nail, he succeeded in getting the point of the bar beneath the fillet. Exerting all his energies, and using the bar as a lever, he forced off the iron band, which was full seven feet high, seven inches wide, and two inches thick, aud which brought with it, in its fall, the box of the lock, and the socket of the bolt, leaving no further hindrance. Overjoyed beyond measure at having vanquished this apparently insurmountable obstacle. Jack darted through the door.
" Ascending a short flight of steps. Jack found at the summit a door, which, being bolted on the inside^ he speedily opened. The fresh air, which blew in his face, greatly revived him. He had now reached what were called the Lower Leads — a flat, covering a part of the prison conti- guous to the gateway, and surrounded on all sides by walls about fourteen feet high. On the north stood the battlements of one of the towers of the gate. On this side a flight of wooden steps, protected by a hand-rail, led to a door opening upon the summit of the prison. This door was crested with spikes, and guarded on the right by a bristling semi-circle of similar weapons. Hastily ascending the steps, Jack found the door, as he antici- pated, locked. He could have easily forced it, but he preferred a more expeditious mode of reaching the roof which suggested itself to him. Mounting the door he had last opened, he placed his hands on the wall above, and quickly drew himself up. Just as he got on the roof of the prison, St. Sepulchre's clock struck eight. It was instantly answered by the deep note of St. Paul's ; and the concert was prolonged by other neigh- bouring churches. Jack had been thus six hours in accomplishing his arduous task.
" Though nearly dark, there was still light enough left to enable him to liscern surrounding objects. Through the gloom he distinctly perceived the dome of St. Paul's, hanging like a black cloud in the air ; and, nearer to him. he remarked the golden ball on tho summit of the College of
46 THE NEW NEWGATF CALENDAR.
Piiysicians, compared by Garth to a ' gilded pill.' Other towers and spires ; — St. Martin's, on Ludgate-hill, and Christ Church, in Newgate- street, were also distinguishable. As he gazed down into the courts of the prison, he could not help shuddering, lest a false step might precipitate him below. To prevent the recurrence of any such escape as that just described, it was deemed expedient, in more recent times, to keep a watchman at the top of Newgate. Not many years ago, two men employed in this duty quarrelled during the night, and in the morning their bodies were found stretched upon the pavement of the yard below. Proceeding along the wall, Jack reached the southern tower, over the battlements of which he clambered, and crossing it, dropped upon the roof of the gate. lie then scaled the northern tower, and made his way to the summit of that part of the prison which fronted Giltspur-street. Arrived at the extremity of the building, he found that it overlooked the flat roof of a house, which, as far as he could judge in the darkness, lay at a depth of about twenty feet below.
" Not choosing to hazard so great a fall. Jack turned to examine the building, to see whether any more favourable point of descent presented itself, but could discover nothing but steep walls, without a single available projection. Finding it impossible to descend on any side, without incurring serious risk, Jack resolved to return for his blanket, by the help of which he felt certain of accomplishing a safe landing on the roof of the house in Giltspur-street. Accordingly he began to retrace his steps, and pursuing the course he had recently taken, scaling the two towers, and passing along the walls of the prison, he descended by means of the door upon the Lower Leads. Before he re-entered the prison he hesitated, from a doubt whether he was not fearfully increasing his risk of capture ; but, convinced that he had no other alternative, he went on. During all this time he had never quitted the iron bar, and he now grasped it with the firm determination of selling his life dearly if he met with any opposition. A few seconds sufticed to clear the passages through which it had previously cost him more than two hours to force his way. The floor was strewn with screws, nails, fragments of wood and stone, and across the passage lay the heavy iron fillet. He did not disturb any of the litter, but left it as a mark of his prowess. He was now at the entrance of the chapel, and striking the door over which he had previously climbed a violent blow with the bar, i:, flew open. To vault over the pews was the work of a moment ; and having gained the entry leading to the Red Room, he passed through the first door, his progress being only impeded by the pile of broken stones, which he himself had raised. Listening at one of the doors leading to the master-debtors' side, he heard a loud voice chanting a Bacchanalian melody ; and the boisterous laughter that accompanied the song, convinced him that no suspicion was entertained in that quarter. Entering the Red Room, he crept through the hole in the wall, descended the chimney, and arrived once more in his old place of captivity. How difterent were his present feel- ings, compared with those he had experienced on quitting it ! Then, full of confidence, he half doubted his power of accomplishing his designs. Now he had achieved them, and felt assured of success. The vast heap of rubbish on the floor had been so materially increased by the bricks and i/iaster thrown down in his attack upon the wall of the Red Room, that it was with some difiiculty that he could find the blanket, which was almost
I
THE NEW NEWGATE CALEiNDAR. 47
tniried beneath the pile. Ho next searched for his stockings and >ihoes, and when found, put them on. He now prepared to return to the roof, and tlirowing the blanket over his left arm, aiid shouldering the iron bar, he again clambered up the chimney, regained the Red Room, hurried along the first passage, crossed the chapel, threaded the entry to the Lower Leads, and in less than three minutes after quitting the Castle, had reached the northern extremity of the prison. Previously to his descent, he had left the nail and spike on the wall, and with these he fastened the blanket to the coping-stone. This done, he let himself carefully down by it, and having only a few feet to drop, alighted in safety.
" Having now got fairly out of Newgate, for the second time, with a heart throbbing with exultation, he hastened to make good his escape. To his great joy he found a small garret door in the roof of the opposite house open ; he entered it, crossed tlie room, in which there was only a small truckle-bed, over which he stumbled, opened another door and gained the stair-head. As he was about to descend, his chains slightly rattled. ' O lud ! what's that ? ' cried a female voice from an adjoining room * Only the dog,' replied the rough tones of a man, and all was again silent Securing the chain in the best way he could. Jack then hurried down two pair of stairs, and had nearly reached the lobby, when a door suddenly opened, and two persons appeared, one of whom held a light. Retreating as quickly as he could. Jack opened the first door he came to, entered a room, and searching in the dark for some place of concealment, fortunately discovered a screen, behind which he crept."
Having lain down here for about two hours, he once more proceeded down stairs, and saw a gentleman take leave of the family and quit the house, lighted by the servant ; and as soon as the maid returned, he resolved to venture at all hazards. In stealing down the stairs he stum- bled against a chamber door, but instantly recovering himself, he got into the street.
By this time it was after twelve o'clock, and passing by the watch-house of St. Sepulchre, he bid the watchman good night ; and going up Holborn, he turned down Gray's Inn Lane, and at about two in the moi-ning, he got into the fields near Tottenham Court Road, where he took shelter in a cow- house, and slept soundly for about three hours. His fetters were still on his legs, and he dreaded the approach of daylight lest he should be disco- vered. His mind, however, was somewhat relieved for the present, for at sevpii o'clock the rain began to fall in torrents, so that no one ventured near his hiding-place. Night coming on, the calls of hunger drove him to seek some refreshment , and going to Tottenham Court Road, he ventured to purchase some bread and cheese and small-beer at a chandler's shop. He had during the day been planning various means to procure the release of his legs from the bondage of his chains, and now having forty-five shillings in his possession, he attempted to procure a hammer. His efforts, however, proved ineffectual, and he was compelled to return to his shelter for the night. The next day brought him no relief; and having again gone to the chandler's shop, he once more went back to his place of concealment. The next day was Sunday, and he now beat the basils of his irons with a stone, so that he might slip them over his heels, but the master of the cow-house coming, interrupted him, and demanded to know how he came there so confined by irons. Ihe answer given was, that he had escaped
4B THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR.
from Bridewell, where lie had been confined because he was unable to give security for the payment of a sum of money for the maintenance of a child he had had sworn to him, and the master of the house desiring him to be gone, then quitted him. A shoemaker soon after coming near, Jack called him, and telling him the same story, induced him, by a bribe of twenty shil- lings, to procure him a hammer and a punch. They set to work together to remove the irons, and his legs were at length freed from this encumbrance at about five o'clock.
When night came on, our adventurer ti^d a handkerchief about his head, tore his woollen cap in several places, and also his coat and stockings, so as to have the appearance of a beggar; and in this condition he went to a cellar near Charing Cross, whei'e he supped on roast veal, and listened to the conversation of the company, all of whom were talking of the escape of Sheppard. On the Monday he sheltered himself at a public-house of little trade in Rupert-street, and conversing witli the landlady about Shep- pard, he told her it was impossible for him to get out of the kingdom, and the keepers would certainly have him again in a few days ; on which the woman wished that a curse might fall on those who should betray him.
On the next day he hired a garret in Newport Market, and soon after- wards, dressing himself like a porter, he went to Blackfriars, to the house of Mr. Applebee, printer of the dying speeches, and delivered a letter, in which he ridiculed the printer and the Ordinary of Newgate, and inclosed a communication for one of the keepers of the gaol.
Some nights after this he broke open the shop of jMr. Rawlins, a pawn- broker, in Drury Lane, where he stole a sword, a suit of wearing apparel, some snuff-boxes, rings, watches, and other effects to a considerable amount ; and determining to make the appearance of a gentleman among his old acquaintance in Drury Lane and Clare Jlarkct, he dressed himself in a suit of black and a tie-wig, wore a ruffled shirt, a silver-hilted sword, a diamond ring, and a gold watch, and joined them at supper, though he knew that diligent search was making after him at that very time. On the 31st of October he dined with two women at a public-house in New- gate-street, and about four in the afternoon they all passed under Newgate in a hackney-coach, having first drawn up the blinds. Going in the evening to a public-house in IMaypole Alley, Clare Market, Sheppard sent for his mother, and treated her with brandy, when the poor w^oman dropped on her knees, and begged that he would immediately retire from the kingdom. He promised to do so ; but now being grown mad from the effects of the liquor he had drunk, he wandered about from public-house to public-house in the neighbourhood till near twelve o'clock at night, when he was apprehended in consequence of the information of an ale-house boy, who knew him. When taken into custody he was quite senseless, and was conveyed to Newgate in a coach, without beinor capable of making any resistance, although he had two loaded pistols in his possession at the time. He was now lodged securely enough ; and his fame being increased by his recent exploits, he was visited by many persons of distinction, whom he diverted by a recital of the particulars of many robberies in which he had been concerned, but he invariably concluded his narration by expressing a hope that his visitors would endeavour to procure the exer- cise of the royal mercy in his jeiialf, to which he considered tnat hia remarkable dexterity gave him some claim.
TDE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR. 49
Havino- been already convicted, it was unnecessary that the forms ot a trial should be again gone through, and on the 10th of November he was carried to the bar of the Conrt of King's Bench : when a record of his con- viction having been read, and an affidavit made that he was the same per- son alluded to in it, sentence of death was passed upon him by Mr. Justice Powis, and a rule of court was made for his execution on the following Monday. He subsequently regularly attended chapel in the gaol, and behaved there with apparent decency, but on his quitting its walls, he did not hesitate to endeavour to prevent any seriousness among his fellow pri- soners. All his hopes were still fixed upon his being pardoned, and cveji tvhen the day of execution arrived, he did not appear to have given over all expectations of eluding justice ; for having been furnished with a penknife, fie put it in his pocket, with a view, when the melancholy procession came opposite Little Turnstile, to have cut the cord that bound his arms, and, throv/ing himself out of the cart among the crowd, to have run through the narrow passage where the sheriff's officers could not follow on horseback, and he had no doubt but he should make his escape by the assistance of the mob. It was not impossible that this scheme might have succeeded ; but before Sheppard left the press-yard, one Watson, an officer, searching his pockets, found the knife, and was cut with it so as to occasion a great effusion of blood. He, however, had yet a farther view to his pre- servation even after execution ; for he desired his acquaintance to put him into a warm bed as soon as he should be cut down, and to try to open a vein, which he had been told would restore him to life.
He behaved with great decency at the place of execution, and confessed that he had committed two robberies, for which he had been tried, but had been acquitted. His execution took place at Tyburn, on the 16th of November, 1724, in the twenty-third year of his age. He died with difficulty ; and there were not wanting those among the crowd assembled, who pitied him for the fate which befel him at so early a period of his life. When he was cut down, his body was delivered over to his friends, who carried it to a public-house in Long Acre ; from which it was re- moved in the evening, and buried in the church-yard of St. Martin's-in the-Fields.
The adventures of this notorious offender excited more attention than those of niany of our most celebrated warriors. He was, for a consideral)le time, the principal subject of conversation in all ranks of society. Histo- ries of his life issued from the press in a variety of forms. A pantomimic entertainment was brought forward at Drury-lane theatre, called " Har- lequin Sheppard," wherein his adventures, prison-breakings, and other extraordinary escapes, were represented ; and another dramatic work was published, as a farce of three acts, called " The Prison-Breaker ;" or, " The Adventures of John Sheppard ;" and a part of it, with songs, catches, and glees added, was performed at Bartholomew Fair, imder the title of " The Quaker's Opera."
The arts too, were busied in handing to posterity memoranda for us never to f-^llow the example of Jack Sheppard.
Sir James Thornhill *, the first painter of the day, painted his portrait,
* This celebrated painter, -whilst decorating the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, nearly fell a victim to his zeal in that undertaking. One day, when pursuing his task on the scaffold erected round the dome tor Uaat uurpose, he kept walking backwards, surveying the effec-t of his Tori^
VOL. I. .a
OO THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR.
from which engravings in mezzotinto were made ; and the few still in preservation are objects of curiosity. On this subject the following lines were written at the time : —
" Thornhill, 'tis thine to gild with fame The ohscure, and raise the humble name ; To make the form elude the grave, And Sheppard from oblivion save.
Though life in vain the wretch implores. An exile on the farthest shores, Thy pencil brings a kind reprieve. And bids the dying robber live.
This piece to latest time shall stand, And show the wonders of thy hand : Thus former masters graced their name, And gave egregious robbers fame.
Apelles Alexander drew, Caesar is to Aurelius due ; Cromwell in Lily's works doth shine, And Sheppard, Thornhill, lives in thine."
In modern times, the adventures of Sheppard and his contemporaries have become even better known and more remarked, in consequence of the work to which we have already alluded, and from which we have made an extract which details his exploits with great exactness ; but at the same time o-ives to them a degree of romantic interest to which they are hardly entitled. The rage for house-breakers has become immense, and the fortunes of the most notorious and the most successful of thieves have been made the subject of entertainments at no fewer than six of the London theatres.
Blewitt, whose name is mentioned in the foregoing sketch, as one of the earliest companions of Sheppard, was eventually hanged, with others, for the murder of a fellow named Ball, a publican and ex-thief, who lived in the jMint, and who had provoked the anger of his murderers, by threat- enincr to denounce them. Their execution took place on the 12th of April, 1726.
until he had nearly approached the edge, from which another step would have precipitated him. At this instant his servant, who perceived the danger his master was in, wth a wonderful pre- sence of mind seized a pot of colour, and threw it over the painting. This caused Sir James to rush forward for the preservation of his work, and he was thus saved from being dashed to pieces which, but for this timely intervention, must have been his fate. This eminent man painted the whole of the cupola of St. Paul's, and also the halls of Greenwich Hospital and Blenheim. He was born in 1675, and was originally a house-painter, but afterwards applied nimself to historical subjects, and equalled the best painters of his time. In 1719 he was appointed Historical Painter to George I., and shortly afterwards was created a knight. He was employed in several extensive works, for which he was in general very inadequately paid ; and at times even found it difficult to obtain the stipulated price. His demands were contesteil at Greenwich Hospital, although he only received 25a\ a square yard ; about the same time a foreigner, for doing less work at Montague House, received 2000/. for bis work, besides COO/, for his diet. For St. Paul's he received 40«. a square yard. He also decorated More Park, but was obliged to sue Mr. Styles for it ; he, however, not only recovered 3,500/. the sum agreed to >>e paid him, but 500/. more for decorations about the house. Notwithstanding these ditE culties, he acquired a considerable fortune, and was several years in parliament ; lie w.is also a Fellow' of the Roval Society. His genius was equally happy in history, allegory, landscape, and architecture ; he even practised the last science as a man of business, and built several houses. He died in 1734, iu the same place where he was born. He left a son, who follo^^ed his father's profession ; and a daughter, who married the celebrated Hogarth.
TUB NEW NEWOaTE CALENDAR. 5}
JONATHAN AVILD.
EXECUTED FOR FELONIOUSLY CONNIVING WITH THIEVES.
The name of this most notorious offender must be familiar to all ; his arts and practices are scarcely less universally known. The power exer- cised by him over thieves of all classes, and of both sexes, was so great as that he may have been considered their cliief and director, at the same time that he did not disdain to become their coadjutor, or the participator in the proceeds of their villany. The system which he pursued will be sufficiently disclosed in the notices which follow of the various transactions in which he was engaged ; but it appears to have been founded upon the principle of employing a thief so long as his efforts proved profitable, or until their suspension should be attended with advantage, and then of ter- minating his career in the most speedy and efficacious manner, by the gallows.
The subject of this narrative was born at "Wolverhampton in Stafibrd- shire, about the year 1682 ; and his parents being persons of decent character and station, he was put to school, where he gained a competent knowledge of the ordinary minor branches of education. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a buckle-maker, at Birmingham; and at the age of twenty-two, his time having expired, he was united to a young woman of respectability, whom he was well able to support by the exer- cise of his trade. His wife soon afterwards presented him with a son ; but getting tired of a life of quietude, he started for London, leaving his wife and child destitute, and soon gained fresh employment. His disposition, however, led him into extravagances, and having contracted some debts, he was arrested, and thrown into AVood-street Compter, where, according to his own statement, " it was impossible but he must, in some measure, be led into the secrets of the criminals there under confinement, and particularly under Air. Hitchin's management." He remained in prisor upwards of four years, and the opportunity which was aftbrded him, of becoming acquainted with the persons, as well as the practices of thieves was not lost upon him. A woman named Mary Milliner, one of the most abandoned prostitutes and pickpockets on the town, who was also in custody for debt, soon attracted his attention, and an intimacy having commenced in the prison, on their discharge they lived together a*; man and wife. The possession of a small sum of money having been obtained, they opened a public-house in Cock Alley, Cripplegate ; and from the notoriety of Airs. Alilliner, and her intimate acquaintance Avith the thieves of the metropolis, it soon became the resort of the lowest of the class AVhile AV'ild was thus pursuing his course to his pecuniary jwlvantage, however, he lost no time in acquiring a proficiency in all trie arts of knavery ; and having, Avith great assiduity, penetrated into the secrets of bis customers, he started as a " fence," or receiver of stolen goods ; and by this means he obtained that power, which subsequently proved so useful to him, and so dangerous to those who entrusted him with their secrets. He was at first at little trouble to dispose of the articles brought to him by thieves at something less than their real value, no law existing for the punishment of the receivers of stolen goods; but the evil "having increased
52 THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR.
at length to an enormous degree, it was deemed expedient by the legisla- ture to frame a law for its suppression ; and an act was therefore passed, consionin2; such as should be convicted of receivino; Poods, knowing them to have been stolen, to transportation for the space of fourteen years.
This was a check of no very trifling character to his proceedings, but his imagination suggested to him a plan by which he would save himself from all his profits being lost. He therefore called a meeting of thieves, and observed that, if they carried their booties to such of the pawnbrokers as were known to be not much affected by scruples of conscience, they would scarcely receive on the property one-fourth of the real value ; and that if they were oftered to strangers, either for sale or by way of deposit, it was a chance of ten to one but the parties offering were rendered amenable to the laws. The most industrious thieves, he said, were now scarcely able to obtain a livelihood, and must either submit to be half-starved, or live in great and continual danger of Tyburn. He had, however, devised a plan for removing the inconveniences which existed, which he would act upon most honourably, providjd they would follow his advice, and behave towards him with equal honesty. He proposed, therefore, that when they made prize of anything, they should deliver it to him, instead of carrying it to the pawnbroker, saying, that he would restore the goods to the owners, by which means greater sums might be raised, while the thieves would remain perfectly secure from detection. This proposition was one which met with universal approbation, and the plan was immediately carried into effect, convenient places being established as the depositaries of the stolen goods. The plan thus concerted, it became the business of ^Yild to apply to persons who had been robbed, and pretending to be greatly concerned at their misfortunes, to say, that some suspected goods had been stopped by a friend of his, a broker, who would be willing to give them up ; and he failed not then to throw out a hint that the broker merited some reward for his disinterested conduct and for his trouble, and to exact a promise that no disagreeable consequences should follow, becavise the broker had omitted to secure the thieves as well as the property. The person whose goods had been carried off" was not generally unwilling by this means to save himself the trouble and expense of a prosecution, and the money paid was. generally sufficient to remunerate the "broker," as well as his agent. This trade was successfully carried on for several years, and considerable sums of money were amassed ; but at length another and a safer plan was adopted. The name of our hero having become pretty extensively known, instead of applying to the parties who had been plundered, he opened an office, to which great numbers resorted, in the hope of obtaining the resti- tution of their property. In this situation he lost no opportunity of pro- curing for himself the greatest credit, as well as the greatest profit possible. He made a great parade in his business, and assumed a consequence which ■enabled him more effectually to impose upon the public. When persona came to his office, they were informed that they must each pay a crown in consideration of receiving his advice. This ceremony being despatched, he entered into his book the name and address of the applicants, with all the particulars they could communicate respecting the robberies, and the rewards that would be given provided the goods were recovered : they were then required to call again in a few days, when, he said, he hoped he should be able to give them some agreeable intelligence. Upon returning
TllK NEW NKWGATE CALENDAR. 53
to know thtj success of his inquiries, he told them that he had received KMine information concerning their goods, hut that the agent he had em ployed to trace them had apprised him that the rohhcrs pretended they could "raise more money by pawning the property than by restoring it for the ])romised reward ; saying, however, that if he could by any means jirocure an interview' with the villains, he doubted not of being able to settle matters agreeably to the terms already stipulated ; but, at the same time, artfully insinuating that the safest and most expeditious method would be to make some addition to the reward ; and thus having secured tlu? promise of the largest sum that could be obtained, he would direct a tliird call, and then the goods would be ready to be delivered. It will be seen that considerable advantages were derived from examining the person who had been robbed; for by that means he became acquainted with par- ticulars which the thieves might omit to communicate, and was enabled to detect them if they concealed any part of their booties. Being in pos- session of the secrets of every notorious thief, they were imder the necessity of comjdying with whatever terms he thought proper to exact, because they were aware that, by opposing his inclination, they would involve themselves in the most imminent danger of being sacrificed t) the injured laws of their coimtry ; and thus he was enabled to impose both on the robber and the robbed. The accumulation of money by these artifices enabled Wild to maintain the character of a man of consequence ; and to support his imaginary dignity, he dressed in laced clothes and wore a sword, which martial instrument he first exercised on the person of his accom- plice and reputed wife, Mary JMilliner, who having on some occasion pro- voked him, he instantly struck at her with it, and cut off one of her ears- Tliis event was the cause of separation ; but in acknowledgment of the gi'eat services she had rendered him, by introducing him to so advantageous a profession^ he allowed her a weekly stipend till her decease.
In the year 1715 Wild removed from his house in Cock Alley to a Mrs. Seagoe's, in the Old Bailey, where he pursued his business with the usual success ; but while resident there, a controversy of a most singular character arose between him and a fellow named Charles Ilitchin, who had been city marshal, but had been suspended for mal- practices, to whom before his adoption of the lucrative profession which he now carried on, he had acted as assistant. These celebrated copartners in villany, under the pre- text of controlling tlie enormities of the dissolute, paraded the streets from Temple-bar to the Jlinories, searching houses of ill-fame, and apprehending disorderly and suspected persons; but those who complimented the reformers with douceurs, were allowed to practise every species of wicked ness with impunity. Hitchin and Wild, however, grew jealous of each other, and an open rupture taking place, they parted, each pursuing the business of tliief-taking on his own account.
Our readers will doubtless be somewhat surprised to hear that these rivals in AiUany appealed to the public, and attacked each other with all possible scurrility in pamphlets and advertisements. Never was the press so debased as in publishing the productions of their pens. Hitchin pub- lished what he called "The Regulator; or a Discovery of Thieves and 'Thief-takers." It is an ignorant and impudent insult to the reader, and ireplete with abuse of Wild, whom he brands, in his capacity of thiet- ttaker, with being worse than the thief, W ild retorts with great bitterness •
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but Hitchin having gi-eatly debased the respectable post of city raarshal, the lord mayor suspended him from that office. In order to repair hiu loss, he determined, as the most prudent step, to strive to bury his aversion, and confederate witli Wild. To effect this, he wrote as follows :
" I am sensible that you are let into the knowledge of the secrets of the Compter, particularly with relation to the securing of pocket-books; but your experience is inferior to mine : I can put you in a far better method than you are acquainted with, and which may be done with safety ; for though I am suspended, I still retain the power of acting as constable, and notwithstanding- I cannot be heard before my lord mayor as formerly, I have interest among the aldermen upon any complaint.
" But I must first tell you that you sj^oil the trade of thief-taking, in advancing greater rewards than are necessary. I give but half-a-crown a book, and when thieves and pickpockets see you and me confederate, they will submit to our terms, and likewise continue their thefts, for fear of coming to the gallows by our means. You shall take a turn with me, as my servant or assistant, and we'll commence our rambles this night."
Wild it appears readily accepted the ex-marshal's proposals, and they accordingly proceeded to take their walks together, imposing upon the unwary and confederating with thieves, whom at the same time they did not hesitate to make their slaves. One or two instances of their mode of doing business may not be uninteresting. They are taken from a pamphlet written by Wild, and may therefore be supposed to be correct.
" A biscuit-baker near Wapping having lost a pocket-book containing, among other papers, an exchequer bill lor 100/., applied to AVild for its recovery : the latter advised him to advertise it, and stop the payment of the bill, which he did accordingly ; but having no account of his property, he came to Wild several times about it, and at length told him that he had received a visit from a tall man, with a long peruke and sword, calling himself the city-marshal, who asked him if he had lost his pocket-book ? He said that he had, and desired to know the inquii'er's reasons for putting such a question, or whether he could give him any intelligence ; but he replied, No, he could not give him any intelligence of it as yet, and wished to be informed whether he had employed any person to search after it ? He said that he had employed one Wild ; whereupon the marshal told him he was under a mistake ; that he should have applied to him, as he was the only person in England that coxild serve him, being well assured it was entirely out of the power of Wild, or any of those fellows, to know where the pocket-book was (this was very certain, he having it at that time in his custody) ; and begged to know the reward that would be given ? The biscuit-baker replied that he would give ten pounds, but the marshal said that a greater reward should be offered, for that exchequer bills and those things were ready money, and could immediately be sold ; and that if he had employed him in the beginning, and offered forty or fifty pounds, he would have served him. Wild gave it as his opinion, that the pocket- book was in the marshal's possession, and that it would be to no purpose to continue advertising it ; and he advised the owner rather to advance his bidding, considering what hands the note was in, especially as the marshal had often told him how easily he could dispose of bank-notes and cxche- <|uer-notes at gaming-houses, which he very much frequented. Pursuant to this advice, the losing party went to the marshal, and bid forty
THE NEW NEWGATE CALENDAR. 55
pounds for his pocket-book and bill, but ' Zounds, sir,* said the marslial, you are too late ! ' and that was all the satisfaction he gave him. Thus Vi^as the poor biscuit-baker tricked out of his exchequer-bill, which was paid to another person, though it could never be traced back ; but it hap- pened a short time after, that some of the young fry of pickpockets, under the tuition of the marshal, fell out in sharing the money given them for this very pocket-book ; whereupon one of them came to Wild, and disco- vered the whole matter, viz. that he had sold the pocket-book, with the 100/. exchequer-note in it, and other bills, to the city-marshal, at a tavern in Aldersgate-street, for four or five guineas."
" The marshal going one night up Ludgate Hill, observed a well-dressed woman walking before, whom he told Wild was a lewd woman, for that ne saw her talking with a man. This was no sooner spoke but he seized Der, and asked who she was. She made answer that she was a bailiflPa wife. ' You are more likely to be a prostitute,' said the marshal, ' and as such you shall go to the Compter.'
" Taking the woman through St. Paul's churchyard, she desired liberty to send for some friends, but he would not comply with her request. He forced her into the Nag's Head tavern in Cheapside, where he presently ordered a hot supper and plenty of wine to be brought in ; commanding the female to keep at a distance from him, and telling her that he did not permit such vermin to sit in his company, though he intended to make her pay the reckoniug. When the supper was brought to the table, he fell to it lustily, and would not allow the woman to eat any part of it with him, or to come near the fire, though it was extreme cold weather. When he had supped he stared round, and applying himself to her, told her that if he had been an informer, or such a fellow, she would have called for eatables and wine herself, and not have given him the trouble of direction, or else would have slipped a piece into his hand ; adding, ' You may do what you please ; but I can assure you it is in my power, if I see a woman in the hands of informers, to discharge her, and commit them. You are not so ignorant but you must guess my meaning.' She replied, ' that she had money enough to pay for the supper, and about three half-crowns more ;' and this desirable answer being given, he ordered his attendant to with- Iraw, while he compounded the matter with her.
" When Wild returned, the gentlewoman was civilly asked to sit by the fire, and eat the remainder of the supper, and in all respects treated very kindly, only with a pretended reprimand to give him better language when- ever he should speak to her for the future ; and, after another bottle drunk at her expense, she was discharged."
The object of these allegations on the part of Wild may be easily seen, and the effect which he desired was at length produced ; for the marshal, having been suspended, and subsequently fined twenty pounds, and pilloried, for a crime too loathsome to be named, he was at length compelled to retire ; and thus he left Wild alone to execute his plans of depredation upon the public. The latter, not unmindful of the tenure upon which his reputation hung, was too wary to allow discontent to appear among his followers, and therefore he found it to his interest to take care that where he promised them protection, his undertaking should not be neglected or pass unfulfilled. His powers in supportmg his word were greater than can be well imagined, in the present state of things, Avhere so much cor-
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ruption has been got rid of; and where his influence among persons in office faik'd him, his exertions in procuring the testimony of false witnesses to rebut that evidence which was truly detailed, and the nature of which he could always learn beforehand, generally enabled him to secure the object, which he had in view. His threats, however, were not less amply fulfilled than his promises ; and his vengeance once declared was never withdrawn, and seldom failed in being carried out.
By his subjecting such as incurred his displeasure to the punishment of the law, he obtained the rewards offered for pursuing them to conviction ; and gi-eatly extended his ascendancy over the other thieves, who considered him with a kind of awe ; while, at the same time, he established his character as being a man of great public utility.
A few anecdotes of the life and proceedings of this worthy will suffi- ciently exhibit the system which he pursued.
A lady of fortune being on a visit in Piccadilly, her servants, leaving lier sedan at the door, Avent to refresh themselves at a neighbouring public- house. Uj)on their return the vehicle was not to be found ; in consequence of which the men immediately went to AVild, and having informed him of their loss, and complimented him with the usual fee, they were desired to call upon him again in a few days. Upon their second application Wild extorted from them a considerable reward, and then directed them to attend tlie chapel in Lincoln's-inn- Fields on the following morning, during the time of pravers. The men went according to the appointment, and under the piazzas of the chapel perceived the chair, which upon examination they found to contain the velvet seat, curtains, and other furniture, and that it had received no kind of damage.
A thief of most infamous character, named Arnold Powel, being con- fined in Newgate, on a charge of having robbed a house in the neighbour- hood of Golden Square of property to a great amount, was visited by- Jonathan, who informed him that, in consideration of a sum of money, he would save his life ; adding that if the proposal was rejected, he should inevitably die at Tyburn for the oftence on account of which he was then imprisoned. The prisoner, however, not believing that it was in Wild's power to do him any injury, bade him defiance. He was brought to trial; but through a defect of evidence he was acquitted. Having gained intel- ligence that Powel had committed a burglary in the house of Mr. Eastlick, near Fleet Ditch, "Wild caused that gentleman to prosecute the robber. Upon receiving information that a bill w-as found for the burglary, Powel sent for Wild, and a compromise was effected according to the terms which Wild himself had proposed, in consequence of which Powel was assured that his life should be preserved. Upon the approach of the sessions Vx'li.d informed the prosecutor