 Chapter 22 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 3. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Millie Glassbury. Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 3 by Arthur L. Hayward. Chapter 22. The Lives of William Rogers, a Thief. William Simpson, a horse dealer. And Robert Oliver, alias William Johnson, a Thief. The first of these persons was descended from very mean parents, who had, however, given him a tolerable education, so far as to qualify him by reading and writing for any ordinary kind of business, to which they intended to breed him on his coming to a fit age. They put him out apprentice to a shoemaker, with whom he lived out his time, with the approbation of his master and all who knew him. Afterwards he married a wife and worked for some time honestly as a journeyman at his trade, being exceedingly fond of his new wife. But she, being a woman who liked living in a better state than he could afford by what he gained at his work, and he being desirous to live more at home and yet maintain her plentifully too, at last came to picking and thieving, and being detected in stealing some shoes out of a shop. He was for that crime transported. In Maryland and Virginia he continued some time working at his trade with masters there, who gave him great encouragement, so that he might have lived very happily there if he had not been desirous of coming to England. His mind ran continually on his wife. It was for her sake that he had first fallen into these practices, and to enjoy her conversation was almost the only thing which tempted him to return home. On his arrival here it was no doubt with the greatest uneasiness that he heard his wife as soon as he ever went abroad, cohabitated with another man and could never afterwards be brought to see him, or give him any assistance, know not when he was under his last and great misfortunes. Her unkindness afflicted the unhappy man so much that he grew careless of his safety and thereby became speedily apprehended, and was tried for his offense in returning before the time was expired, and the fact being clear, he was at once convicted. Under sentence of death he seemed to deplore nothing so much as the unkindness of his wife, who would not so much as afford him one visit when he had hazarded and even sacrificed his life to visit her. He confessed that he had been guilty of that crime for which he had formerly been transported, but denied that he lived in such a course of wickedness and debauchery as most male factors do. On the contrary, he said he was heartily sorry for his sins and hoped that God would accept his imperfect repentance. William Simpson was a young man of very good parents and Glossester Shire, who had taken care to educate him carefully, both in the knowledge of letters and of true religion, and they then put him out apprentice to a tailor, but not liking that employment he did not follow it, but lived with a relation of his who was a great farmer in the country. There it seems he stole a black gelding to the value of ten pounds for which he was quickly apprehended and committed to prison and upon very full evidence convicted. The unhappy youth said that nothing but idleness and an aversion to any employment were the causes of his committing an act of such a nature, so contrary to the principles in which he had been instructed and to which he was not tempted by ill company or driven to by any straits. Under sentence of death he behaved with great modesty, penitence, and civility, was desirous of being instructed and did everything that could be expected from a man in his miserable condition. Robert Oliver, alias William Johnson, was born of parents of tolerable circumstances in Yorkshire. They bred him at school and afterwards bound him apprentice to a tallow chandler. After he was out of his time, he got somehow or other into the service of Mrs. North, where he robbed one Joseph Hepworth of seven and forty guineas. As soon as he had done it, he went to Moorgate and gave two and twenty of them for a horse, upon which he rode down into his own country where he exchanged it for another horse, getting four guineas to boot. But the person who had lost the money being indefatigable and imagining that he might have gone down into his own country followed him thither and after some time seized him and got him confined in Beverly jail. But it seems he found a way to make his escape from vents and so getting to London sculpt up and down here for some time until at last he was discovered and committed to Newgate and at the ensuing sessions of the old Bailey was tried and convicted for the aforesaid offence. Under sentence he behaved himself stupidly, not seeming to have a just concern for the offence which he had committed. He was sullen, would say very little, did not deny the crime for which he died, but yet did not seem to have that compunction which might have been expected from a man in his sad condition. At the place of execution, Roger said little, Simpson acknowledged lewd women had been his ruin, Robert Oliver acknowledged that he had been a vicious, unruly young man who had hearkened to no advice and to nothing but the accomplishment of his vices. They were all desirous of prayers and after they were celebrated they submitted to their deaths very patiently and with pious ejaculations they were executed on the 21st of November 1739, Rogers being 40 years of age, Simpson 19 and Oliver 22. Chapter 23 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Larry Wilson. Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 3 by Arthur L. Hayward. The Life of James Drummond. Folly and wickedness as it were naturally lead men to poverty, shame and misfortunes. But when such miseries overtake persons who lived soberly and in all outward appearance, honestly, it is apt to create wonder at first and afterwards to excite compassion. The unhappy man of whom we are now speaking was the son of a sailor who brought him when but a boy of three years of age up to London and then dying left him to the care of his mother who was too poor to give him any education. However, he went to sea and being a young man ingenious enough in himself and very tractable in his temper he soon became a tolerable proficient in the practical parts of navigation. This recommended him to pretty constant business whereby he got enough to maintain himself and his family handsomely enough if he had thought fit to have employed it that way, which for considerable space of time he did, keeping up a very good reputation in the neighborhood where he lived and serving with a fair character on board several men of war going up the Baltic with squadrons sent thither to preserve the Swedish coast from being insulted by the Muscovites. After his return he served on board the fleet which destroyed that of the Spaniards in Sicily. He was afterwards coxswain in the Admiral when they served in the Mediterranean and on the coast of Spain but coming home at last and being wary of going to sea he took up the trade of selling China and some small goods about the country in which he got so established a character that the gentleman with whom he chiefly dealt would have trusted him a hundred pounds on his word and never anything gave a greater shock to his neighbors and acquaintances than the news of his being apprehended for high women. However it seems he had been engaged to that course by his brother notwithstanding that till then he had lived not only honestly but with tolerable sentiments of religion the method in which he was drawn to turn robber on a sudden was thus on the 19th of October 1729 his brother came to him as he was working on the outside of the ship on the other side of the water and invited him to go out with him to a public house to which at first he was very unwilling but at last suffering himself to be prevailed upon he and his brother went together to a house not far distant where they drank to a higher pitch than James Drummond had ever done before his brother all along insinuated how advantageous a trade the highway was owning that he had followed nothing else for some years past and saying there was not the least hazard run in it at the same time advising his brother to quit laboring hard and to take to it too James was now grown so drunk that he hardly knew what he did so that after much persuasion he got up behind his brother upon the same horse but was afterwards sat down it being judged by both of them to be better to rob on foot while he who was well armed and well mounted might be able to defend them both having come to this facial agreement they immediately set about those enterprises which they had consulted together the first robbery they committed was upon Mr. William Iskrig from whom they took sixteen guineas, seven half guineas three broad pieces, one Moidor, twenty shillings in silver and a watch value two pounds not satisfied with this the same night they attacked one Mr. Wakeling on the same road and took from him a silver watch and three or four shillings in money though not without much resistance Mr. Wakeling having drawn his sword and defended himself for considerable time but perceiving one of the robes to be a foot pad he followed him so closely and made such an outcry to the watch that after a long pursuit and a sharp struggle with him they took James Drummond prisoner his brother after firing a pistol or two wrote off as fast as he could at the ensuing sessions at the Old Bailey he was indicted for both offenses and upon very full and dear evidence convicted it was impossible to describe the agonies which this unhappy man suffered while under sentence of death the sense of his own condition the reflection on his former character unsoldied and unstained amongst the whole neighborhood the consideration of leaving a wife and five small children behind him with small provision for their support and what was worse exposed to the reflection of the world on score of an unhappy father scandalous in the last actions of his life and ignominious in his death however returning to his former principles and piety in religion he comforted himself under the weight of all his misfortunes by leaning on the mercy of God praying fervently to him to grant him patience and protection under those dreadful evils which he suffered he acknowledged all to be exactly true which was deposed against him at his trial confessed the justice of his sentence and prepared to undergo it with as much submission and resignation as was possible and indeed perhaps no criminal ever behaved with more penitence than he did he died on Monday the 22nd of December 1729 being then 40 years of age Please visit LibriVox.org Lives of the most remarkable criminals Volume 3 by Arthur L. Highward Chapter 24 The Lives of William Causton and Joffrey Younger Footpads The first of these unhappy men, William Causton, was born somewhere in the country but the particular place is not mentioned in any papers I have before me Neither am I able to say of what condition his parents were yet whether poor or rich they afforded him a very tolerable education and when he was grown big enough to be put out apprentice bound him to a barber to whom he served out his time with remarkable fidelity when out of his time he married a wife and set up for himself yet whether through inevitable misfortunes or for want of good management I cannot say but he failed in a very short time after and so was reduced to be a journeyman again however his character remained so unblemished that he was never out of business nor ill treated by any masters where he worked on the contrary he was caressed wherever he came and treated with as much civility as if he had been a relation to those whom he had served his wife unfortunately falling sick upon his hand he became thereby thrown out of business and in that time falling into ill company there repeated solicitations prevailed with him to go for once upon the highway which accordingly he did and committed in company with Geoffrey Younger under evidence a robbery on William Bowman taking from him a guinea and certain shillings for which he was very quickly after apprehended and the fact being plainly and fully proved he was convicted it being the only fact he ever committed Geoffrey Younger, his companion was descendant of very honest creditable parents in Northampton Chire there he was put apprentice to a baker to whom he served his time out very honestly and faithfully afterwards he came up to London and lived here for seven years as a journeyman in as good a reputation as it was possible for a young man to have but having by that time got a good quantity of clothes and about ten pounds in his pockets he began to think himself too good to work and unfortunately falling into the company of some idle debauched persons of both sexes they soon led him into a road of ruin amongst these was one Bradley a fellow his own business whose company of all others he most affected this fellow having addicted himself to the pursuit of the most scandalous vices easily drew in Younger to go with him to a house where Gamesters resorted and advising him to venture his money Younger was good enough to take his advice and so was bubbled out of every farthing of his money surprised and confounded at this extraordinary turn which had reduced him to indigents in a moment he did nothing but lament his own hard fortune and curse his indiscretion for coming to such a place Bradley endeavored to cheer him telling him he would yet put him in a way to get money and thereupon proposed going with him upon the highway in order to encourage him to which he told him that at such a place they should meet with a man who had four score pounds about him so after abundance of arguments Younger yielded and out they went from that time forwards he gave a loose to all his brutal interclinations associated himself with nobody but common horse and thieves spent his time in gaming when not engaged in a worse employment and never after his acquaintance with Bradley thought of doing anything either just or honest but his course was of no very long continuance for having committed four or five robberies the last of which was in the company of William Costin they were both apprehended and as has been said upon very full evidence convicted under sentence of death they both of them blamed Bradley the evidence as the person who had drawn them first to the commission of those crimes for which they were now to answer with their lives Costin's wife died while he was under sentence and he thereby lost what little comfort he had under his afflictions however he endeavored to compose himself the best he could to suffer that judgment which the law had pronounced upon him and which he himself acknowledged to be just younger on the other hand was exceedingly timorous and so terribly affrighted at the approach of death that his scarce retained his senses he confessed very freely the enormities of his former life said that the more dissolute person than himself never lived cried out against the evidence Bradley as the author of his misfortunes charged him with having painfully endeavored to seduce him but in the midst of this he wept bitterly and showed a great terror at the approach of his execution than was seen amongst any of the rest who suffered with him his continents being so much altered that it was hardly possible for anybody to know him who had been acquainted with him before in so much that he looked for many weeks before his execution like a person who had been already dead and buried as the day of dissolution approached it was hoped that he would recover more courage but instead of that he became so terribly affrighted that he could scarce speak or show any signs of life when he was brought to Tiberhorn however there he did gather spirits a little and spoke to the crowd to take warning by him and avoid coming to that fatal place he said that he had been guilty of but five robberies in all his life said he forgave his prosecutors and the evidence who swore against him and in this disposition they both died at the same time with the malefactors before mentioned costing being 36 years of age and younger about 34 End of Chapter 24 Chapter 25 of Lives for the most remarkable criminals This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Lives of the most remarkable criminals Volume 3 by Arthur L. Hayward Chapter 25 The Lives of Henrik Noland and Thomas Westwood Footpads Henrik Noland was the son of a father of the same name who was a butcher He received tolerably good education at school and was brought up by his father to his own business but he was of a lewd disposition continually running after wars keeping lewd company, gaming and drinking until he was able neither to stand nor go He married his first cousin who had formerly been the wife of Knives the Evidence It seems this very Noland had been put into white chapel gull upon her swearing a robbery against him for taking a gold chain off her neck but that affair being accommodated he a little after married her which was perhaps no small cause of his future ruin He was always dishonest in his principles and ready to lay hold of any money without ever thinking of paying it again At Smithfield he used to be very dexterous in cheating country graziers of their cattle The method by which he did it was generally sus Taking advantage of a country man whom he saw looked unacquainted with things He struck a bargain as soon as possible and for any price he pleased for his goods then stepping in to drink a mug and receive the money Noland had an accomplice already planted who coming hastily into the room told him with a submissive air that a gentleman at such a place desired to speak with him Upon this he, arising in a hurry tells the country man he would return immediately and pay him his money while the attendant in the meanwhile drove off with the beast and so the poor man was left without hopes of seeing either the money or bullock and perhaps ruined into the bargain for being obliged to pay his master for the beast that was lost Thomas Westwood, the second of these offenders was a man descended of very mean parents who either had it not in their power or were so careless as to afford him little or no education He himself also was a stupid obstinate fellow who never took any pains to attain the least degree of knowledge but contended himself with living like a beast in a continual round of eating and drinking and sleeping By trade he was a soyer and when he wanted business in his trade which as the ordinary tells us he often did bring a poor, poor blind creature He either sold a sawdust about town or else practiced as a bailiff's follower a profession which led him into yet greater debaucheries and extravagancies that otherwise possible he might have ever fallen into Nolan and he were apprehended on suspicion of being robbers and were tried at the Old Bailey on four indictments all said to have been committed on the same day with on the 23rd of November 1729 The first was for assaulting John Malton in an open field putting him in fear and taking from him four shillings The second was for assaulting Mary Butler and taking from her six pence in money The third was for assaulting Nicholas Butler and taking from him half a guinea and one shilling The fourth was for assaulting Anna Naylor and taking from her three and six pence in money The prosecutors on all these indictments swore positively to the prisoner's faces Mr Butler was desperately wounded the ordinary says he was mortally wounded but through God's grace recovered In their defense they called a great number of people to prove them in other places at the time those robberies were committed which they positively swore but the jury giving credit to the prosecutor's evidence they were both found guilty however they absolutely denied the crimes to the loss suffering at Tibern with great marks of sorrow and loud exclamations to God to have mercy on their souls The 28th of February 1730 Noland being 24 years of age and Westwood 27 at the time of their death End of Chapter 25 Chapter 26 of Lives of the most remarkable criminals Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Lives of the most remarkable criminals Volume 3 by Arthur L. Hayward Chapter 26 The life of John Everett a highwayman This unfortunate man who in the course of his life made some noise in the world was the son of honest and reputable parents at Hetchum in Hertfordshire They gave their son all the education necessary to qualify him for such business as he sought proper to put him to which was that of a salesman But before his time was expired he went over to Flanders and served in the late war there in several sieges and battles where he behaved so well as to be preferred to the post of a surgeon in the Honourable General Ho's Regiment of Food But returning to England upon the peace and being quartered at Worchester his ear purchased his discharge Coming up to London he betook himself for bread to the office of a bailiff in Whitechapel Court in which station he continued for about seven years until he fell into misfortunes chiefly through the means of one seath To shelter himself from a gull which threatened him at that time he was forced to go into the food guards where he served in the company demanded by the right Honourable the Earl of Albemarle But unluckily for him having commenced an acquaintance with Richard Byrd at the aforesaid Mr. Seas Byrd told him he perceived they were much in a case that is they both wanted money and that therefore looking upon him ever to be a man who could be trusted he would propose to him an easy method for supply This method was neither better nor worse than robbing on the highway To this proposition ever readily agreeing they immediately joined provided proper utensils for their co-partnership and soon after practised their trade with great success in the countries of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey and Kent particularly robbing the Dartford coach from the passengers of which they took a portmanteau wherein was contained jewels, money and valuable goods to a very great amount But spending as fast as they got it they were never the better for the multitude of facts they committed but were in a continual necessity of hazarding body and soul for a very precarious subsistence A short time after they robbed the Woodford stagecoach and found in it only one passenger worth plundering From him they took a gold watch and some silver The gentlemen expressing great concern at the loss of his watch they told him if he would promise faithfully to send such a sum of money to such a place they would let him have it again On Hounslow Heath they attacked two officers of the army who were well mounted and guarded with servants armed with blunderbuses They took their gold watches and money from them though the officers endeavored to resist but they forced them to submit to the well-known doctrine of passive obedience before they acquitted them The watches pursuant to a treaty they made with them on the spot were afterwards left at Youngman's Coffee House Charing Cross where the owners had them again on payment of 20 guineas as stipulated in the said treaty between the parties Another robberies they committed was on Squire Amlaw of Brims building's Chantry Lane turning up to Epsom When he was attacked he drew a sword and made several passes at them as he sat in an open chase but not withstanding his resolution in opposing them they by force took two guineas a silver watch and his silver-hilted sword and some parchment writings of a considerable value On his submission and request for his writings they accordingly delivered them up let him pass and helped him to his watch again being in the hands of Mr. Corkat a pawn-broker in Hoadstich They also took opportunities to rob all the butchers and highlers from Epping Forest to Woodford particularly one old woman who wore a high-ground hat of her mother's as she said which hat they took and searched and out of the lining of it found three pounds and delivered her the hat again On Acton Common they also met two chariots with gentlemen and ladies in them and robbed them in money watches and other things to the value of 40 pounds My readers from these instances must have a tolerable notion of Everett's humor it may prove entertaining therefore to give them a specimen of his own manner of relating his adventures and therefore I insert the following ones in his own words Soon after our last achievement my old comrade Dick Bird and I stopped a coach in the evening on Honeslow Heath in which, amongst other passengers were two precise but courageous Quakers who had the assurance to call us sons of violence and refusing to comply with our reasonable demands jumped out of the coach to give us battle where upon we began a sharp engagement and showed them the arm of flesh was too strong for the spirit which seemed to move very powerfully with them After a short contest though we never offered to fire for ever abhorred barbarity or the more heinous sin of murder through the cowardly persuasions of their fellow travelers they submitted though sore against their inclinations As they were stout fellows and men every inch of them scorned to abuse them and contended ourselves with rifling them of the little mammon of unrighteousness which they had about them which amounted to about 30 or 40 shillings and their watches the rest in the coach whose hearts were sunk into their breeches Dick fleeced without the least resistance There was one circumstance of this affair which created a little diversion and therefore was my reader's leave I will relate it The precision for the most part though they are plain in their dress we are the best of the commodities and though a smart to pee footnote this was a small wig covering only the top of the head a bob wig was short and tight at the back with a large bow a natural was a large full wig in which the hair was made to look like natural locks and a footnote is an abomination yet a bob wig or a natural of 6 or 7 guineas price is a modest covering allowed by the saints One of the prigs was well furnished in this particular and flattering myself it would become me I resolved to make it lawful plunder without any further ceremony therefore then a leaching exchange was no robbery I napped his pole and dressed him immediately in masquerade with an old tie wig which I had the day before purchased of an antiquated chelsea pensioner for half a crown the other company though in doleful dumps for the loss of the coriander seed could not for bear grinning at the merry metamorphosis for our quaker now looked more like a devil than saint as companions in distress ever alleviate its weight they invited him with a general laugh into their leather and convenience again wished us good night and hope they should have no further molestation on the road we gave them the watchword and assured them they should not then tipped the honest coachman a shilling to drink our health and brushed off the ground about a week or 10 days later my brother Dick and I projected a new scheme more nimble than the former to take a purse without the charge of horse hire millington common was determined to be the scene of action we sauntered for some time upon the green and suffered several to pass by without the least molestation but at last we aspired two gentlemen well mounted coming towards us who we imagined might be able to replenish our empty purses so we prepared for an attack after the usual salutation I stopped the foremost and demanded his cash watch and other appartenances there unto belonging and assured him I was a brother of an honorable but numerous family that to work I had no inclination and to beg I was ashamed and that I had at present no other way for a livelihood if such a demand at first view ought appear a little immodest or unreasonable I hoped he would excuse it as necessity and not choice was the fatal inducement my brother Dick was as rhetorical in his apologies with the hindermost whom he dismounted we used them with more good manners and humanities than the common paths who act for the most part rather like Turks and Jews and Christians in such enterprises to the eternal scandal of the profession we contended ourselves with what silver and little gold they had about them which to about three or four pounds and their gold watches one of which as well I remember was a Stompian's make and which way afterwards pawn for five guineas to a fellow that the week after broke and run away with it so that I had not the opportunity of restoring it again to the proper owner for which I heartily beg his pardon as we must own the gentleman behaved well and came unto our measures without the least resistance so they must do us the justice to acknowledge that we treated them as such and neither disrobed nor abused them we sought it have our common prudence to cut the girth of their horses saddles and secure their bridles for fear of pursuit thus flushed again with success we made the best of our way to Brentford and there took the ferry but fortune though she is fair yet she is a fickle mistress her smiles are often false and very precarious before we had got a shore we heard the persons had got scent of us and our triumph had like to have ended in captivity when we were three parts over and out of danger of drowning we told the ferrymen our distress gave them ten shillings and obliged them to throw their oars into the thames the agreeable reward and the fears of being thrown in themselves in case of denial made them readily consent in we plunged after them and soon made the shore though we looked like cob just drawn out of the well those that saw us only imagined it was a drunken frolic our expeditious flight soon dried our closes and without catching released cold we both arrived safe that night at London we congratulated each other you may imagine on our happy and narrow escrape and soulless ourselves after the fatigue of the day with a mistress and a bottle I have copied these pages from Mr Everett's book that my readers might have a clear and just idea of those notions which these unhappy men entertain of the life they lead and hope they may be of some use in giving such youth as hard to apt to be taken with their low kind of chests a just abhorrence of committing villainy merely to divert the mob and makes themselves the sole topic of discourse in ale houses and cellars but to return to Everett he was taken up on suspicion and committed to new prison where he continued three years behaving himself so well in the prison that the justices ordered him his liberty and he was there upon made turnkey of that place in this post he continued to act so honestly that he got a tolerable reputation taking the red lion ale house in turn mill street co-cross in order to live the better resigning his place as turnkey as soon as he was settled in it he who succeeded him was a footman to the duchess of new castles and not being very well acquainted with the nature of his new office he was very industrious to prevail with Everett to return to his former condition and accept the key from him promises and entreaties were not long made in vain Everett was sensible there was money to be got the scandalous system of bleeding prisoners for every little necessity and comfort made galluring very profitable trade and therefore upon the fair promises of the new keeper became turnkey again but when he had shown his master the art of governing such a territory as his was when he had instructed him in the secrets of raising money and shown him the methods of managing the several sorts of prisoners that were committed to it's care his superior quickly gave him to understand that he had now done all he wanted and the next kind of office to quit this place for it is with those sort of people as with some in a higher station though they at first caress men who are better acquainted with affairs than themselves in order to improve their own knowledge yet no sooner do they think themselves qualified to go on without their assistance but they grow uneasy at such services and are never quiet until they are rid of men whose abilities are their greatest faults a little after Everett was turned out to make room for the keeper's brother he had the additional misfortune to keep an account with a person who too hastily demanded his money and John not being able to pay it therefore upon arrested him and threw him into a gull he quickly turned himself over to the fleet where he first took the rules and then got into the sizzle of Old Bailey there he lived for a while and afterwards took the cock in the same place where he lived for three years with an indifferent reputation and he was prevailed on to take the fleet cellar footnote that is managed the sale of liquor in the fleet and the footnote and became very busy in the execution of the then warden's project until the committee of the House of Commons was not fit to commit both of them to Newgate this effectually undid him for while he was a prisoner there the brewer made a seizure of his whole stock of beer to the value of 300 pounds and this it was as he himself said which posted him out upon the highway again whether we may depend upon those protestations he had made that he should never otherwise have gone upon the road again but have lived and died free at least from that sort of wickedness which indeed he had reason to dislike since he had saved his life by impeaching Bert his companion who was hanged at Chumsford at the ass sizes held there for the county of Essex when he had once taken this resolution in his head it was not long before he equipped himself with necessaries for his employment the first robbery he committed was upon a lady in a chariot and the lady desiring that he would put up his pistol for fear of frightening a child of 6 years old in the coach with her he did so and took from her a guinea on some silver without touching her gold watch or any other valuable things that she had about her he had scarce committed the robbery before the lady's husband and other gentlemen and his company came up and the accident being related to them they immediately pursued him as hard as their horses could gallop and came so close up with him that he was hardly got into the globe tavern in Hutton Garden and sent away his horse before they passed by at the door as soon as he saw they were out of the sight he slipped away with all the precaution he was able and got into a little blind alehouse in Hoborn where he had scarce lit a pipe and called for a ride before he perceived both the gentlemen looking very earnestly about though he now looked upon himself as out of all danger it was a very short time after that he committed the last fact which was the robbing of Mrs. Manley and the lady who was in a chariot with her a black boy being behind in the coach he got safe enough off and into town after this robbery but how it was I cannot tell his neighbors suspected him and talked of him as a highwayman and reported very confidently that he was taken up as it seems he was but was discharged again for want of evidence he was speedily seized again and being committed to Newgate was brought to his trial at the Old Bailey for the said fact Mrs. Ellies deposed that the prisoner was the person who robbed the coach and that she observed him to follow it when they came out of town Mrs. Manley deposed also to his being the person who robbed them and William Coffey, a negro boy who was behind the coach swore positively to his face several men who were present at his being apprehended swore that he had a pistol dagger, six bullets, a flint and powder horn about him under a red rug coat his defense was very trivial and the jury upon a short consultation found him guilty under sentence of death he behaved very indifferently sometimes appearing tolerably cool at others in a grievous passion especially at the keepers if they refused him such liberties as he thought fit to ask when he was first condemned he flattered himself with hopes of life if it were possible for him to prevail the ladies whom he had robbed to petition in his favor in order to induce them to which he wrote the following letter though to no purpose for the death warrant came down suddenly and he was included with the aforementioned prisoners the letter Madam I crave leave with all humility and respect to address you and Madam Ellis and with the utmost submission and concern do humbly beg your pardon for the fears and surprise my misfortunes reduced me to put you and the children into whose cries moved so much compassion in me that I had not power to pursue with any rigor my desperate designs which your ladyship must have perceived by the consternation I was struck into on a sudden my sole intention was if I could have got 50 pounds to settle myself in a public house and to take up an honest course of life and do own at best it is a very heinous crime yet Madam you will recollect after what manner I treated you and at the same time consider the methods taken by others on the like occasion this necessity I was drove to by adhering to a certain master I lately served and to obey his victim pernicious commands in following his victim pernicious counsels brought me to poverty and consequently to this unhappy state I now labor under and was become almost as much as himself the scorn and hatred of mankind I say madam if you will be so good as to consider all these unhappy circumstances and that necessity admits of no contradiction they will I am persuaded inspire compassion in generous souls a character you both deserve and as a fellow creature I beg mercy at your ladyship's hands by signing a petition to the recorder for me to the end he may be induced to make a favorable report and thereby mull his most sacred majesty to clemency by the sentence to some other corporal punishment or shall dedicate the rest of my days in praying for both your happiness and prosperity in this world and eternal felicity and bliss in that to come and crave leave with due difference madam to subscribe myself your ladyship's most devoted afflicted humble servant John Everett the ordinary new gate in the account he was given of this prisoner has drawn as bad a character as he is able and in order to it has gathered together all the ill terms he could think of even though some of them are contrary to one another the truth is that the fellow in himself had abundance of ill qualities with some good ones and especially good nature of which he had a very large share lewd women were that brought him to his ruin for to their company he continually addicted himself and with his low intrigues amongst them yet the book I have mentioned stuffed from one end to other as to religion it is certain he had very little of it before he was confined so it is not very likely that he should make any great proficiency while he remained there he was careless indeed under his misfortunes but did not give himself up to any loose or profane expressions but on the contrary attended a chapel with decency at least if not with devotion some attempts were made to save his life by engaging him to make discoveries in an affair of high concern but all was ineffectual and he suffered on the 20th of February 1729 or 30 with less apprehension than might have been expected from a man under his unhappy circumstances the executioner to put the prisoner sooner out of his pain jumped upon his shoulders and thereby broke the rope but he was soon tied up again and there remained until the rest were cut down at the time of his execution he was 44 years of age or thereabouts End of chapter 26 Chapter 27 Robert Drummond was the brother of James Drummond whom we have before mentioned he had formally dealt in hardwares and thereby lived with some reputation in the town of Sunderland nobody ever dreaming that he went upon the highway for money but it was not long that he continued even to put this mask upon his villainy but on the contrary gave way to his wild and debauched temper and committed a thousand extravagancies which soon created suspicions and occasioned his being apprehended on suspicion of a robbery this clearly being made out at the ensuing assizes he was there upon convicted and transported but he soon found a way to return into England and grew one of the most daring and mischievous robbers that ever infested the road the multitude of his robberies made his person so well known that it is wonderful he should so long escape especially considering the roughness and cruelty of his temper he never using anybody well firing upon any attempted to ride away from him and beating and abusing those who submitted to him he drew in as has been said before his brother James and deserting him when pursued and in danger he was the occasion of his death it was also suspected that Shrempton and he were the persons who committed those robberies for which Nolan and Westwood were executed however it were he continued for a considerable space after the two Shremptons and he robbed together committing sometimes nine or ten robberies in one night until they were all three apprehended and William Shrempton became an evidence against them Ferdinando Shrempton the other malefactor was a person well educated though his father was one of the greatest highwaymen in England he, the father lived at Bristol and behaved an outward appearance so well that he was never suspected but unluckily one evening some constables coming into an inn hastily to apprehend another person his guilty heart making him afraid that they were come in search of nobody but himself he there upon immediately drew a pistol and shot one of them dead for which murder being convicted he readily confessed his former offenses after his execution for the aforesaid crime was hung in chains as for this unhappy man his son he had been bred to no trade but after his father's death served as a foot soldier in the guards and eeked out his pay by taking the same steps which his father had done before him never any fellow was of a bolder and of a more audacious spirit than he and after he had once associated himself with Drummond they quickly forced William Shrimpton who was Ferdinando's cousin to commit one or two facts with him and afterwards he would never suffer him to be quiet on Hounsloe Heath it seems Shrimpton robbed a man of a horse a silver watch and some money the man applied himself to Shrimpton when he was apprehended begging that he would find a way to help him to his horse again Shrimpton promised he would and for a guinea was as good as his word though the gilding was worth 15 pounds but for his watch nothing either was or as they pretended could be told about it but that was only for fear of disobliging the pawnbroker where they had sent it for Shrimpton afterwards upon the owners sending 34 shillings by his wife had it again though Ferdinando was very much disobliged that he received but half a crown for his trouble Drummond, he and his cousin being seized, William turned evidence against them and at the ensuing sessions at the Old Bailey Shrimpton being indicted for the murder of Simon Prebent Mr. Tyson's coachman and Robert Drummond for aiding and abetting and assisting him they were both upon full evidence convicted as they were also convicted for a robbery on the highway on Mr. Tyson after the death of the coachman they were a third time indicted together for assaulting Robert Furnal on the highway taking from him a watch of great value a guinea and a half some silver and a whip together with some other things of value they were also indicted afresh for assaulting Jonathan Cockhoof's on the highway taking from him a baked elding valued 9 pounds several roasting pigs and pieces of pork etc of all which they were found guilty the fact being as clear and as strong against them as possible under sentence of death they behaved themselves with great obstinacy and resolution refused to give any account of their crimes but in general would say that they were great and notorious offenders as to the fact committed by Nolan and Westwood they would not positively say it was done by them though they could not deny it only when pressed upon it Drummond would say in a passion what would you have us take upon us all the robberies that were committed in the country this was all that could be got from him even when he was at the point to die and the wife of Nolan earnestly beg that he would tell the truth as he was now entering into another world and the owning or not the owning of those facts could no ways prejudice them as to the barbarous murder committed upon Mr. Tyson's coachmen it did not seem to make the least impression upon their spirits Shrimpton by whose hands the man was killed never appeared one whit more uneasy when the sermon on murder was peculiarly preached on his account but on the contrary talked ingested with his companions as he was want to do in a word more hardened, obstinate and impenitent wretches were never seen for as they were wanting in all principles of religion so they were void even of humanity and good nature they valued blood no more than they did water but were ready to shed the first with as little concern as they spilt the latter in eard and wickedness and apine olden years and covered in offenses they yielded their last breaths at Tyburn with very little sign of contrition or repentance on the 17th of February 1730 drum and being about 50 and Shrimpton about 30 years of age End of Chapter 27 Recording by Andrea Kay Chapter 28 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Andrea Kay Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 3 by Arthur L. Hayward Chapter 28 The Life of William Newcomb A Housebreaker Though the many instances we have of late years had of amazing wickednesses committed by lads one would scarce believe were capable of executing much less of contriving schemes so full of cunning and of guilt ought to a great measure to prevent our being surprised at anything of the same kind let it be committed by ever such a stripling Yet I confess it was not without wonder that I perused the papers relating to this unfortunate young man so strong an instance of a great capacity for mischief at the same time that he never once evidenced either care or ability in succeeding in an honest way On the contrary he was assiduous only to attain as much money as might put him on the road of debauchery and then stupidly gave himself up to squandering it in the gratification of his lusts until indigence brought to rack his inventions again and his second attempt proving abortive brought him to the gallows he was born of honest parents who took care enough in his education to qualify him for the business of a shoemaker for which they designed him and to which they put him apprentice he had not served above three years of his time before he robbed his master of a very considerable sum of money the man having a respect for his family put him away without prosecuting him his father took him home but however reproaching him very often for the villainous facts he had committed he went away from him and lay about the town intending to take the first opportunity that offered of stealing a good booty and march off into the country at last after consulting with himself for some time he fixed upon a bankers shop in Lombard Street within two doors of the church of St. Edmund the King thinking with himself that if once he could get into that shop he should make himself out of blow in order to he got into the church overnight and stayed there until morning when, just as it began to grow light he steered downstairs into the shop having got over the top of Mr. Jinkens house and watching his opportunity laid hold of a single bag and slipped out of doors with it the booty was indeed a large one for it happened that what he took was all gold which was upwards of 800 guineas this put it in his power to show himself in that state of life which he most admired for sending for a tailor he had two or three suits of fine clothes made bought a couple of geldings hired a footman in livery to attend him and thus he quipped set out for the horse races at Newmarket women and gaming very soon reduced the bulk of his gold and in six or seven months finding his pockets very low he returned to London to replenish himself the good success he before had in robbing a banker and his knowing nobody was so likely to furnish him with ready money put him upon making the like attempt at Mr. Horrors to find a whose house he got and endeavored to conceal himself as conveniently as he could for that purpose but being detected and apprehended on the roof of the house wither he had fled to avoid pursuit he was committed to Newgate and at the next sessions at the Old Bailey was tried for burglary and convicted under sentence of death he behaved with great mildness and civility and his having been as great a sinner as his years would give him leave addicted to whoring drunkenness, gaming and having quite obliterated all the religious principles which his former education had instilled into him however he endeavored to retrieve as much as possible the knowledge of his duty and to fulfill it by praying to Almighty God for the forgiveness of his many offenses and in this disposition of mind he departed this life on the 17th of February 1730 being about 19 years of age End of Chapter 28 Recording by Andrea Kay Chapter 29 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Christina Buie Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 3 by Arthur L. Hayward The Life of Stephen Dowdale A Thief This unfortunate man was the son of parents in good circumstances in the Kingdom of Ireland who were very careful of giving him the best education they were capable of both as to letters and as to the principles of the Christian religion yet from some hope they had of his succeeding in a military way they chose rather to let him serve in the army than breed him to any particular trade it seems he behaved so well in the regiment of Dragoons in which he served that his officers advanced him to the post of sergeant and just as the peace was concluded he had hopes of being made a quarter master but the regiment then being broke his hopes were all dissipated and he thrown into the world to shift for himself as well as he could in Ireland he remained with his friends some years but finding by degrees that their kindness cooled and that it would be impossible for him to subsist much longer upon the bounty of his relations he there upon resolved to come over at once to England and endeavour to live here by his wits the gaming tables were the places where he chiefly resorted but finding that fortune was a mistress not to be depended upon he resolved to take some more certain method of living and for that purpose associated himself with ten or a dozen nights of the road he continued his practices without the least suspicion for a very considerable time all which he appeared one of the greatest bow at the other end of the town but growing uneasy in the midst of that seeming gaiety in which he lived and being under some apprehensions that one or more of his companions was meditating means of making peace with the government at the expense of his life he resolved to prevent them and there upon surrendered himself of his own accord into the hands of a constable and gave the best information he was able all his confederates but however it was most of them had previous knowledge of the warrants issued against them and thereby made their escapes others who were apprehended were acquitted by the jury not withstanding this evidence against them so that the public not being likely to reap any benefit by his discovery some people thought proper to turn his own confession upon himself accordingly at the next sessions at the old Bailey he was indicted for feloniously stealing a gold watch value 20 pounds out of the house of Thomas Martin on the 30th of August preceding the indictment he was also indicted a second time for feloniously stealing a diamond ring out of the shop of John Tribal on the 25th of August both these acts were in the information he had made and therefore the proof was dear and direct against him and beyond to avoid by any defense under sentence of death B behaved himself with great resignation seemed to be very pent in it for those numerous offenses he had committed though now and then he let fel expressions which showed that he thought himself hardly dealt with by those who had received his confession however what with fear and concern and what with the moistness of what the place wherein he was confined gave us distemper which quickly increased into a high fever which affected his senses and shortly after took away his life just as a very worthy gentleman in the commission for the peace for middle sex have procured his life which was thus ended by the course of nature through in the cells of Newgate he being then in the 44th year of his age he died on the 5th of April 1730 End of Chapter 29 Recording by Christina Bowie Chapter 30 Of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jennifer Painter Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 3 By Arthur L. Hayward Chapter 30 The Life of Abraham Israel A Jew As it is a very ordinary case for fiction to be imposed on the world for truth so it sometimes happens that truth has such extraordinary circumstances attending it as well now bring it to pass for fiction the adventures of this unhappy man who was a Hebrew by nation have something in them strange and which excite pity for a man must be wanting in humanity who can look upon a young person endowed with a natural advantage of a good genius lightened by the acquired accomplishments of learning fall of a sudden from an honest and reputable behavior into debauchery, wickedness and rapine methods that lead to certain destruction and as it were to drag men to violent and shameful deaths this unfortunate person Abraham Israel was born of parents of the Hebrew nation of good character and in good circumstances at Presburg in the Kingdom of Hungary they were exceedingly desirous of giving their son a good education and therefore sent him to study in the Jewish college at Prague in Bohemia where they allowed him about 200 pounds sterling a year he improved under the tuition of the rabbis there to a great degree in so much that he was admired by them as a prodigy of learning his behavior in every other way being unblameable and therefore not spending above half what his father sent him he distributed the rest among the scholars there of all nations and religions as a mark of his early and polite genius we have thought proper to entertain our readers with a short description of the city of Prague which he wrote in the German tongue and which on this occasion we have ventured to translate into English Prague is the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia which as if protected by nature encompassed round with high mountains throughout all Europe there is no soil in general more fertile or better adapted to the plough the fruits there are excellent and great quantities of fowl are plentiful almost to excess the cattle are large and excellent in fine nothing is poor wretched or miserable there except the people who are slaves to their lords who never enjoy even the fruits of their own hard labour but to return to Prague it is a city situated on a hill part of it stretching down the plain having the river Moldau running through it the buildings are of so large extent that this city is divided into three and by some into four cities the old city lies on the east of the river is exceedingly populace and houses in that quarter fair but old fashioned here is the quarter assigned unto our nation i.e. the Jews where we enjoy greater privileges and are treated with more lenity than in any other part of Germany the heads of our people deal to very great advantage in jewels and precious stones dug out of the Bohemian mines the lesser town on the other side of the river is more beautiful in its building than the old town has fine gardens and stately palaces among which there is the famous one of Count Wolenstein the magnificence of which may be the better guest from our knowing that a hundred houses were pulled down to make room for it its hall is sought one of the finest in all Europe its gardens are wonderfully stately and the stables which he built here for his horses are almost beyond description marble pillars parted the standing of each horse from another the racks were of polished steel and their mangers of the finest marble and over the head of each stand was placed the figure of each horse as large as the life this famous man who was the greatest captain of his time after having built this sumptuous palace reestablished the emperor's power almost utterly broken by the Swedes growing at last too powerful for a subject or as the Germans say endeavouring to make himself master of the king of Bohemia he was, if not by the command at least by the connivance of the emperor Ferdinand privately assassinated in the city of Egra in the year 1634 by certain Irish officers in whom he reposed the greatest confidence since his time Prague has seen no greater powerful persons among her countrymen on the contrary the inhabitants now in general are poor their habits mean the Hebrew nation being obliged both men and women to wear a particular garb its streets are dirty and nothing but the imperial palace preserves anything of its ancient grandeur the same fate hath befallen the other Bohemian cities and thus in a land of paradise the people live like slaves when at the age of 13 the unfortunate Abraham was recalled by his father from college at his return home everyone was surprised at that prodigious knowledge which he had acquired while at Prague those of their nation who resided at Kresberg desired Abraham's father that his son might according to the custom of the Hebrews read in the synagogue which accordingly he did with great and deserved applause his relations and the rich Jews of the town loaded him the next day with valuable presence in order to show their veneration for the religion and learning of their ancestors but these encouragements being heaped on a vein an ambitious temper with a ruin of a youth hitherto virtuous in his conduct and passionately fond of learning for growing on a sudden conceited with his own abilities puffed up with the vanity of having excelled his equals he began to addict himself to acquire higher accomplishments grew fond of music delighted in dancing schools would needs be taught fencing and riding and from the studies preparative to making a grave rabbi jumped all of a sudden to the qualities necessary to finish a Jewish folk his relations soon showed by the alteration of their conduct how little they approved of his new state of life but that signified nothing to him he still went on at his old rate until at last perceiving his parents would do nothing for him he went with an idle woman to Amsterdam there he was uneasy not knowing what course of life to take but at last submitted to wearing a livery and got into service he behaved himself amongst the Spanish Jews so well that they gave him a recommendation to Baron Swapho in England upon which he came over hither and entered into his service he recommended him to Mr Jacob Mendes Dacosta where he stayed for some time with a good character as a diligent servant from him he went to Mr Villarreal on College Hill it seems that while he continued at the hay he fell in love with a young woman there who continually ran in his head after his coming over hither as soon therefore as he got money enough he went over to the Hague on purpose to make her a visit when he came there he found she was gone which made him very uneasy yet he resolved not to go to Amsterdam with her he heard she went from the hay however it was not long before she was thrown in his way for upon his coming over again to London he was brought into the service of Mr Jacob Mendes Dacosta he heard at a barber shop of a young maid just brought over from Holland who was then at her uncle's in St Mary Acts not knowing where to get a place upon inquiring her name he found it to be his old acquaintance and mistress at the Hague it was not long before he turned out the cook at the place where he lived for a while she behaved like an honest and industrious servant but one night as Abraham went to bed he saw her opening an Esquitard with a knife which she said she could at any time do Abraham had first forbid her but she by her endearments quickly brought him over to her party in so much that after having lain with her he consented to rummage the Esquitard in it they found diamond rings and other jewels to a very great value the wench said to him holding up a fine diamond ring Abraham you might take this and it would prove the making of us both but the fellow would not listen to her however they agreed to take five guineas which when they had done they went to bed together according to custom some time after they begged a holiday and going out borrowed some more money from the same bank but staying out all night she lost her place where upon she went back to her uncles and afterwards got a place in Winchester street there Abraham visited her and suspecting that she was with child asked her very gravely and kindly whether it was so or not she said no she tended to want money upon which he turned back and gave her a guinea some time after he came to see her again asked her the same question and had the same answer yet in a few hours after she caused him to be apprehended by the parish officers the expenses whereof cost him five guineas immediately and he was obliged to deposit fourteen guineas more as a security to indemnify the parish this threw him out of his place and though he got into another and behaved well in it yet going into the service of Mr John Mendes de Costa he became there so uneasy on account of his child and some other troublesome affairs that he ventured on stealing eight silver spoons five silver forks two pair of silver canisters a diamond ring value two hundred and fifty pounds a pair of diamond earrings worth ninety pounds three diamond buckles and other goods of a great value for this fact he was prosecuted and on very full evidence convicted under sentence of death the ordinary informs us that he appeared to be better acquainted with Hebrew than his common amongst Jews he came up to the chapel rather for the air than for devotion however he one day sung part of a psalm his hatred against his prosecutor was strong and unconquerable for when the minister told him it was his duty to forgive him he said he did not know whether it was or no according to their law and sometimes said that heaven might deal with the same justice by him hereafter as he had been dealt with here as the time of his death approached he grew graver and read more constantly in those books he had in Hebrew characters of his own religion however he wrote a letter to the gentleman he robbed in very harsh terms and applied to him some of the implications of the hundred and ninth psalm at the place of execution he had two men with him who were muttering something or other in his ear he had a little Hebrew prayer book in his hand and read in it when being again persuaded to forgive his prosecutor he at last in a faint voice answered that he did and then submitted to his fate at Tyburn on the 12th of May 1730 being then about 22 years of age he had several relations who had a great deal of money in England and they took care of his body end of chapter 30 chapter 31 of lives of the most remarkable criminals volume 3 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Gren lives of the most remarkable criminals volume 3 by Arthur L. Hayward chapter 31 the life of Ebenezo Ellison a notorious Irish thief with respect to this malefactor I have nothing to acquaint the world with but what is taken from his own speech which was printed at Dublin and said to be published there by his own desire for the common good it made a great noise there then and may perhaps serve to entertain you now wherefore I proceed to give it to you in his own words I am now going to suffer the just punishment of my crimes prescribed by the laws of God in my country I know it is the constant custom that those who come to this place should have speeches made for them and cried about in their own hearing as they are carried to execution and truly they are such speeches that although our fraternity be an ignorant illiterate people they would make a man ashamed of such nonsense and false English charged upon him even when he is going to the gallows they contain a pretended account of our birth and family of the facts for which we are to die of our sincere repentance and a declaration of our religion I cannot expect to avoid the same treatment with my predecessors however having an education one or two degrees better than those of my rank and profession ever since my commitment I have been considering what might be proper for me to deliver upon this occasion and first I cannot say from the bottom of my heart that I am truly sorry for the offence I have given to God and the world but I am very much so for the bad success of my villainies in bringing me to this untimely end for it is plainly evident that after having some time ago obtained a pardon from the crown I again took up my old trade my evil habits were so rooted in me and I was grown unfit for any other kind of appointment and therefore although in compliance with my friends I resolved to go to the gallows after the usual manner kneeling with a book in my hand and my eyes lift up yet I shall feel no more devotion in my heart than I observed in some of my comrades who have been drunk among common horse the very night before their execution I can say further from my own knowledge that two of my own fraternity after they had been hanged and wonderfully came to life and made their escapes as it sometimes happens proved afterwards the wickedest rogues I ever knew and so continued until they were hanged again for good and all and yet they had the impudence at both times they went up to the gallows to smite their breasts and lift up their eyes to heaven all the way secondly from the knowledge I have of my own wicked disposition and that of my comrades I give it as my opinion that nothing can be more unfortunate to the public than the mercy of government in even pardoning and transporting us unless we betray one another as we never fail to do if we are sure to be well paid and then a pardon may do good by the same rule it is better to have but one fox in the farm than three or four but we generally make a shift to return after being transported by rogues then before and much more cunning besides I know it by experience that some hopes we have of finding mercy when we are tried and after we are condemned is always a great encouragement to us thirdly nothing is more dangerous to elderly young fellows than the company of those odious common horrors we frequent and of which this town is full these wretches put us upon all mischief to feed their lust and extravagance they are ten times more bloody and cruel than men their advice is always not to spare us if we are pursued they get drunk with us and are common to us all and yet if they can get anything by it are so to be our betrayers now as I am a dying man something I have done which may be of good use to the public I have left with an honest man and indeed the only honed man I ever was acquainted with the names of all my wicked brethren the present places of a boat with a short account of the chief crimes they have committed in many of which I have been there accomplice and heard the rest from their own mouths I have likewise said down the names of those we call our setters of the wicked houses we frequent and of those who receive and buy our stolen goods I have solemnly charged this honest man and have received his promise upon oath that whenever he hears of any to be tried for robbing or house breaking he will look into his list if he finds the name there of the thief concerned to send the whole paper to the government of this I here give my companions fair and public warning and I hope they will take it in the paper above mentioned which I left with my friend I have also set down the names of the several gentlemen whom we have robbed in Dublin streets for three years past I have told the circumstances of those robberies and shown plainly that nothing but the want of common courage was the cause of their misfortunes I have therefore desired my friends that whenever any gentleman happens to be robbed in the streets he will get the relation printed and published with the first letters of those gentleman's names who by their want of bravery are likely to be the cause of all the mischief of their kind which may happen for the future I cannot leave the world without a such description of that kind of life which I have led for some years past and is it exactly the same with the rest of our wicked brethren although we are generally so corrupted from our childhood as to have no sense of goodness yet something heavy always hangs about us I know not what it is that we are never easy until we are half drunk among our whores and companions no sleep sound unless we drink longer than we can stand if we go abroad in the day a wise men would easily find us by our faces we have such suspicious fearful constrained countenances often turning back and sneaking through narrow lanes and alleys I have never failed of knowing a brother thief by his looks though I never saw him before every man amongst us keeps his particular whore who is however coming to us all when we have a mind to change when we have got a booty if it be money we divide it equally among our companions and soon we quander it on our vices in those houses which receive us for the master and mysteries and very teps-to-go snacks and besides make us pay treble reckonings if our plunder be played watches, rings, snuff boxes and the like we have customers in all quarters of the town to take them off I have seen a tanker sold worth 15 pounds to a fellow in Blank Street for 20 shellings and a gold watch for 30 I have set down his name and several others in the paper already mentioned I have setters watching in corners and by dead walls to give us notice when a gentleman goes by especially if he be anything in drink I believe in my conscience that if an account were made of a thousand pounds in stolen goods considering the low rates we sell them at the bribes we must give for concealment and the extortions of alehouse reckonings and other necessary charges there would not remain 50 pounds clear to be divided among the robbers and out of this we must find clothes for whores besides treating them from morning until night who in requital award us with nothing but treachery and the box for when our money is gone they are every moment threatening to inform against us if we will not get out to look for more if anything in this world be like hell as I have heard it described by our clergy the truest picture of it must be the back room of one of those houses at midnight where a crew of robbers and their whores are met together after a booty and are beginning to grow drunk from that time until they are past their senses in such a continued horrible noise of cursing, blasphemy, lewdness scurrility and brutish behaviour such roaring and confusion such a clutter of mugs and pots on each other's heads that bedlam in comparison is a sober and orderly place at last they all tumble from their stools and benches and sleep away the rest of the night and generally the landlord or his wife or some other whore who has a stronger head than the rest picks their pockets before they awake the misfortune is that we can never be easy until we are drunk and our drunkenness constantly exposes us to be more easily betrayed and taken this is a short picture of the life I have led which is more miserable than that of the poorest labourer who works for four pence a day and yet custom is so strong that I am confident if I could make escape at the foot of the gallows I should be following the same course this very evening upon the whole we ought to be looked upon as the common enemies of mankind whose interest is to root us out like worms and other mischievous vermin against which no fair play is required if I have done service to men I said I shall hope to have done service to God and that will be better than a silly speech made by me full of whining and canting which I utterly despise and have never been used to yet such a one I expect to have my ears tormented with as I am passing along the streets good people fare you well bad as I am I leave many words behind me and I hope you shall see me die like a man though a death contrary is a lesson End of Chapter 31 Chapter 32 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 3 by Arthur L. Hayward Chapter 32 The Life of James Dalton Life The character of this criminal is already so infamous and his crime so notorious that I may spare myself any introductory observation which I have made use of as to most of the rest with respect to his birth He was so unfortunate as to have the gallows hereditary to his family His father who was by birth an Irishman and in the late wars in Flanders a sergeant coming over here was indicted and hanged for a street robbery After his death Dalton's mother married a butcher who not long before Dalton's death was transported and she herself for a like crime shared in the same punishment This unhappy young man himself went between his father's legs in the cart when he made his fatal exit at Tyburn It has indeed remained a doubt whether Dalton the father were a downright thief or not His friends say that he was only a cheat and one of the most dexterous sharpers at cards in England It seems he fell in with some people of his own profession who thought he got their money too much easily and therefore made bold to fix him with a downright robbery As for James Dalton the younger from his infancy he was a thief and deserved the gallows almost as soon as he wore britches He began his pranks with robbing the maid where he went to school By eleven years old he got himself into the company of Fulsom and Field who were evidences against Jonathan Wilde and Blueskin and in their company committed villainies of every denomination such as picking pockets snatching hats and wigs breaking open shops filtering bundles at dusk of the evening All the money they got by these practices was spent among the common women of the town whose company they frequented Then the old Bailey and Smithfield cloisters became the place of their resort From whence they carried away goods to a considerable quantity sold them at under-rates and squandered away the money upon strumpets Towards Smithfield and the narrow lanes and alleys about it are the chief houses of entertainment for such people where they are promiscuously admitted men or women and have places every way fitted for both concealing and entertainment The man and woman of the house frequently take their commodities off their hand at low prices and the women who frequent these sort of places help them off with what trifling sums of money they receive for though they are utterly devoid of education yet dinning and flattery are so perfectly practiced by them that these bewitched young robbers make no scruple of venturing soul and body to acquire wherewith to purchase their favors which are frequently attended with circumstances that would send them rotten to their graves if the gallows did not intercept and take them before they are got halfway But it happened that Field was apprehended and to save himself immediately made an information against his companions named Dalton and Folsom whereupon they were obliged to be very cautious and durst venture out only in the night It happened that in Broad Street St. Giles they met about twelve o'clock at night a captain in the foot-guards Dalton commanded the gentleman to surrender but persons of his cloth seldom parting with their money so peaceably there happened a skirmish in which Folsom knocked him down and afterwards they rifled him taking some silver and a leaden shilling out of his pocket together with a pocket-book which had some bank-notes in it and therefore was burnt by them But in this fact, Dalton who had not even honesty enough for a thief cheated his companion of seven guineas and a watch The woman to whom they sold their stolen goods was one Hannah Britton who, upon Lamberts being committed to new prison, was named in his information taken up and committed to Newgate At the sessions after she was convicted for that offence and thereupon whipped from Halburn Bars to St. Giles Pound who was proceeding so affrighted Dalton that he resolved for a time to retire out of London Thereupon he and one of his companions went down to Bristol to see what they could make at the fair But they were not over-lucky in their country expedition for they were apprehended for breaking a shop open and tried at the assizes But the witness not being able to swear directly to their persons they were acquitted through the defect of evidence As soon as they were out of prison Dalton returned to London as speedily as he was able where joining himself with the remainder of the old gang shortly after his arrival they broke open a toy shop near Halburn Bars and carried off eight hundred pounds worth of goods with a pretty large sum in ready money Of the goods they did not make above two hundred and fifty pounds and for the ready money which was about twenty pounds they shared it amongst them Dalton about that time frequenting a house near Golden Lane found doxies there to help him off with it and reduced him to the necessity of making other large stride in the way to Tyburn Not long after therefore he committed a robbery in the road to Eilinton for which being taken up he brought three who personated a doctor, apothecary and surgeon at his trial who swore that the time the robbery was said to have been committed and even at the point of death upon which he was acquitted but this was a narrow escape so his liberty was of no long continuance for his companion Folsom being apprehended for a felony to save himself made an information against his comrades and amongst the rest named Dalton and gave so exact an account of his haunts that he was quickly after apprehended and at the ensuing sessions convicted and ordered for transportation at sea a great storm arising they were glad to call up such of the criminals as they thought might be of use towards managing the ship amongst whom was James Dalton who no sooner was upon deck but he was contriving to make the crew mutiny and seize the ship in a very little time he brought enough of them to be of his mind in order to execute their intent and accordingly got the firearms and made themselves masters of the ship and obliged the men to navigate her to a little port near Cape Finistere in Spain where they robbed the ship of about a hundred pounds and then went on shore and travelled by land to Vigo they were scarce got thither before the ship arrived and the captain charged them with the piracy they had committed but from the lenity of the Spanish government they quickly got released without giving the captain any satisfaction the governor, when they were discharged from their confinement gave them a pass in which after reciting their names he styled them all English thieves which putting them in no small fright they resolved to prevent it's doing them a mischief committed it to the flames and then ran the hazard of travelling the country without one this accordingly they did until they met with a Dutch ship the master of which readily gave them a passage to Amsterdam and two or three more found means to get over again to England and came up to London on their arrival here they fell to robbing with such fury that the streets were hardly safe when the sun was set but Dalton, apprehending that this trade would not last long resolved to make a country expedition in order to get out of the way thereupon down he went again to his old city of refuge, Bristol there he did not continue long before he was apprehended for breaking open a linen draper's shop but the burglary not being clearly proved the jury found him guilty of the felony only whereupon he was once more transported to Virginia he did not continue long in that plantation before growing weary of labour he thought fit to threaten his master so that the man was glad to discharge him and thought himself happy of getting rid of such a servant upon which Dalton soon found out one whale bone a fellow of like disposition with himself and they went about stealing boats and negroes running away with them and selling them in other colonies at last Dalton met with a ship which carried him for England by the way he was pressed on board the Hampshire man of war in which he was a spectator of the last siege of Gibraltar on his return he received his wages and lived on it for a little time then he with Benjamin Branch and William Field took to snatching of pockets at last they took Christopher Rawlins into their society and in a few months time they snatched five hundred pockets amongst the rest Dalton cut off one from a woman's side at St. Andrews Halburn for which Branch being in company was taken and executed although Dalton and Rawlins did all they could to have made up the affair with the prosecutor but in vain this trade therefore being in an end he and his companion Rawlins fell next to robbing coaches in the streets and being once more apprehended he found himself under a necessity of making an information against his companions six or seven of whom were executed upon his evidence he also received ten guineas to swear against Nichols the perookmaker but after he received the money his conscience checked him and though he did not return it yet he absolutely refused to give any evidence against him but Nieves who had been taken into the same plot went through with it and as has been said before hanged him for a fact which he never committed a multitude of wives Dalton married during his life and many of them were alive at the time of his decease four of them coming at once to see him in Newgate when under his last misfortune and appearing at that time to be very friendly together he had not been long out of Newgate before he fell to his old practices and a few sessions after was apprehended and tried for stopping the coach of an eminent physician with an intent to rob it for this he was sentenced to a fine in imprisonment which upon insulting the court was ordered to be in one of the condemned cells in Newgate but he did not remain long there being the very next sessions brought to his trial on an indictment for robbing John Waller in a certain field or open place near the highway putting him in fear of his life and taking from him twenty-five handkerchiefs, value four pounds five duckets, value forty-eight shillings, two guineas a three-guilder piece a French pistol and five shillings in silver on the twenty-second of November 1729 the prosecutor deposed that being a Holland trader the prisoner met with him as he was drinking at the Adam and Eve at Pancras in his return from Hampstead where he had sold some goods and received a little money that Dalton, perceiving it grow dark desired to walk to town with him and that they had a link with them which Dalton put out in the fields and then knocked him down, beat him and abused him knocked him of the things mentioned in the indictment and that he threatened to blow his brains out if he made any noise or called for help he swore also to a pistol which had been produced against Dalton on a former trial in his defense the prisoner insisted preemptorily upon his innocence charged the prosecutor with being a common affidavit man and a fellow of as bad if not worse character than himself however in order to falsify some circumstances which he had deposed against him Dalton called three witnesses Charles North, Edward Brumfield and John Mitchell who were all prisoners in Newgate but were permitted by the court to come down some of them contradicted the prosecutor as to a gingham waistcoat which he had swore Dalton wore in Newgate they swore also to the prosecutor's visiting Dalton there and owing that he never damaged his life but the jury on the whole found him guilty and he received sentence of death as he had little reason to hope for pardon so he never deluded himself with false expectations about it but applied himself as diligently as he was able to repent of those manifold sins and offenses which he had committed he confessed very frankly the manifold crimes and horrible enormities in which he had involved himself he seemed to be very sensible of that dreadful state into which his own wickedness had plunged him he behaved himself gravely when at public prayers at the chapel and applied himself with great diligence to praying and singing of psalms when in his cell but as to the particular crime of which he was convicted that he absolutely denied from first to last with the strongest decevorations that not one word of all the prosecutor's evidence was true and indeed there has since appeared great likelihood that he spoke nothing but the truth for this waller going on in the same fact after the death of Dalton became an evidence against many others sometimes in one country by one name by and by in another country by another name in Cambridgeshire particularly he convicted two men for a robbery whose lives were saved by means of the clerk of the peace entertaining some suspicion of this Mr. Waller's veracity but as practices of this sort though they may continue undiscovered for some time, rarely escape for good and all so Waller's fate came home to him at last for a worthy magistrate suspecting the truth of an information which he gave before him by another name and he coming afterwards annoying his true name to be Waller he was apprehended for the perjury contained in the said examination and committed to Newgate and at the next sessions at the old Bailey received sentence for this offense to stand in the pillory near the Seven Dials he had scarce been exalted above five minutes before the mob knocked him on the head for which fact Andrew Dalton who did it to revenge the death of his brother the criminal of whom we are now speaking together with one Richard Griffith at the time I am now writing or under sentence of death but to return to James Dalton he continued to behave uniformly and penitently all the time he lay under conviction and as the friends and relations of Nichols applied themselves to him about clearing the innocence of their deceased friend he said that Nieves himself actually committed the fact which he swore upon the person they mentioned and that he was entirely innocent of whatever was laid to his charge when the Bellman came to repeat the verses which he always does the night before the malefactors are to die Dalton illuminated his cell with six candles in his passage to the place of execution he appeared very cheerful when he arrived there having once more denied in the most solemn manner the fact for which he was to suffer he yielded up his breath at Tyburn the thirteenth of May seventeen thirty being then somewhat above thirty years of age end of chapter thirty two chapter thirty three of lives of the most remarkable criminals volume three this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Greg Giardano lives of the most remarkable criminals volume three by Arthur L. Hayward the life of Hugh Houghton alias Aughton alias Norton who robbed the Bristol male this unfortunate person was the son of honest and reputable people of Lancaster who took care to give him a very good education sufficient to have fitted him for any trade whatever afterwards they bound him out apprentice to a wine-cooper to whom he served out his time very carefully and honestly and appeared in his temper and disposition to be a civil good-natured young man for some time after his coming out of his time he followed his trade of a wine-cooper by being pressed on board a man of war during the French war in the late Queen's time he behaved himself so well on board that he acquired the goodwill of all his officers attained to the degree of a midshipman and was afterwards gunner's mate receiving also a title to five pounds per annum out of the pension chests at Chatham after this he came to London married a wife and was a housekeeper in town and for his better support got himself into the horse guards where he served with reputation until some small time before his death and some clothes of value being taken away and he being strongly suspected on that score was dismissed the service whereby he fell into great difficulties for want of money it seems that for many months before his death he had frequented the house of one Mr. Marlowe and was indebted to him for a considerable sum of money but one day he came having for that purpose changed a twenty pound bank note at a brewer's not far distant but the Bristol Mail happening about this time to be robbed in the bank note after various circulations being discovered to be one of those taken out of it Houghton was thereby seized and committed being at the next sessions brought to his trial at the Old Bailey for the fact when the course of the evidence appeared against him as follows he was arraigned on an indictment for dealing from Stephen Crouch's on the King's highway after putting him in fear a sorrel-gelding value five pounds the property of Thomas Astwich a male value four pounds and fifty leather bags value five pounds the property of our sovereign Lord the King on the first of March 1730 Stephen Crouch's deposed that on the day he laid in the indictment he was going with the Bristol and Gloucester Mail being near Knightsbridge a man of the prisoner's size who spoke like him came out of the gateway and bit him stand that he laid the horse to the farthest side of the field commanded him to show him the Bristol bag which he took and went off with the horse leaving this evidence bound with his hands behind him threatening to murder him in case he made the least noise Daniel Burton deposed that the prisoner Houghton had more than once proposed to him the robbing of the Bristol Mail and upon his refusing to be concerned in it we then have had him rob their landlady Mrs. Marlowe which when her husband came to know he turned him out of doors the next witness that was called was Mr. Marlowe who deposed that on the second of March the prisoner Houghton paid him five pounds which was owing to him he changed for that purpose a bank note of twenty pounds at Mr. Broadhead's the brewer then the note itself was produced which had been paid by Mr. Broadhead to Mr. King a factor and by him to Mr. Dick Doreen's man in Thames Street and by him again to the servant of Messers Knight and Jackson by whom it was brought into court an endorsement being upon it not to be paid till the fifth of May as to his being acquainted by Burton with the prisoner's attempts to persuade him to robbing the Bristol Mail and afterwards robbing his house Mr. Marlowe answered that he did not remember he had ever been told such a thing but that he did indeed know the prisoner together with one massa was for scandalous practices turned out of the guards William Burley deposed that he took out of the prisoner's pocket a pocket book in which was several notes which pocket book the prisoner said he took up in Covent Garden Mr. Langley the term key of Newgate deposed that after he was committed to his custody he searched his pocket and found therein three bank notes of Mr. Whore which he gave to Mr. Archer Mr. Archer deposed that he did receive such notes which were so taken as had been before sworn by Mr. Langley there were some other persons produced who swore to some slips of leather in Houghton's lodgings in which were believed to be cut out of the bag which were taken from the Bristol Mail the prisoner in his defense said he believed there was a trap laid for him and exclaimed against Burton two women positively deposed that Houghton all that night was not out of his lodgings but the jury notwithstanding that gave so much credit to the evidence offered for the king that they found him guilty under the sentence of death and had hitherto lived free for most of those enormous vices into which criminals are usually plunged who came to his unhappy fate he said that through the course of his life he had always been a good husband a loving parent and had provided carefully for his family that he had served the government 12 years by land and 12 years by sea and in all that time never had any reflection upon him until the unhappy accident in the guards which he said he was not guilty of and had been since confessed by another man as to the fact for which he was to die he said that the same day the mail was robbed which was on a Sunday morning at six or seven o'clock he found a bundle of papers which he took up and perceived them to be a parcel taken out of the Bristol Mail and therefore having perused them carefully and taken out of them such as he judged proper he being at that time out of business and in great want put up the rest of them in a sheet of paper directed to the postmaster general and laid them down in the box house at Lincoln's Inn Fields being afraid to go with them to the office because a great reward was offered for the robber and that he, having changed a twenty pound banknote paid five pounds of it away to his landlord, Mr. Marlow he reflected also very severely on the evidence given against him by Mr. Burton which he said was the very reverse of the truth Burton having often solicited him to go upon the highway as the shortest method of easing his misfortunes and bringing them both money as he persisted in avering the confession he made to the truth it was objected to him that it was a story most improbable in the world that when a man had hazarded his life to rob the Bristol Mail he should then throw away all the booty and leave it in such a place as common garden for any stranger to take up as he came by he had neither this nor anything else that could be said to him had so much weight as to move him to a free confession of his guilt but on the contrary he gave greater and more evident signs of a sullen, morose and reserved disposition spoke little desired not to be interrupted by general confessions of his sins pleased himself with high conceits of the divine mercy and endeavored as much as possible differences with anybody and especially declined speaking of that offense of which he was to die when he first came to Newgate the keepers had, it seems, a strong apprehension that he would attempt something against his own life and upon this suspicion they were very careful of him and enjoyed no barber who shaved him in prison to be so lest he should take that occasion to cut his throat he had nothing of this happen until the day of his execution when the keepers coming to him in the morning found him praying very devoutly in his cell but about twenty minutes after going thither again they perceived he had fastened his sword-belt which he wore always about him to the grate of the window which looked out of his cell to the end of which he tied his handkerchief and having then adjusted that about his neck he strangled himself with it and was dead when the keepers opened the doors to look in the ordinary makes this remark upon his exit that is to be feared he was a hypocrite and that little of what he said can be believed from my part I am far from taking upon me either to enter into the breasts of men or pretend to set bounds to the mercy of God and therefore without any further remarks shall conclude his life with informing my readers that at the time he put an end to his own being he was about forty-eight years of age and a man in his person and behavior very unlikely to have been such a one as it is to be feared notwithstanding all his denials he really was