 Section 63 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, who have been condemned and executed for murder, the highway, housebreaking, street robberies, coining, or other offenses. Volume 1. 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 who have been condemned and executed. Volume 1. Edited by Arthur L. Hayward. Section 63. The Life of Thomas Anderson, a Scotch Thief. Amongst a multitude of tragic adventures, it is with some satisfaction that I mention the life of a person who was of the number of those few which take warning in time and having once felt the rod of affliction fear it ever afterwards. Thomas Anderson was the son of reputable parents in the city of Aberdeen in Scotland. His father was of the number of those unhappy people who went over to Darien when the Scots made their settlement there in the reign of the late King William, his son Thomas being left under the care of his mother, then a widow. By this his education suffered, and he was put apprentice to a Glacier, although his father had been a man of some fashion, and the boy always educated with hopes of living gentilly. However, he is not the first that has been so deceived, though he took it so to heart that at first going to his master, his grief was so great as had very nigh killed him. He continued, however, with his master two years, and then making bold with about nine guineas of his and thirteen of his mother's, he procured a horse and made the greatest speed he could to Edinburgh. Tom was sensible enough that he should be pursued, and hearing of a ship ready to sail from life for London, he went on board it, and in five days time, having a fair wind, they arrived in the river of Thames. As soon as he got on shore, Tom had the precaution to take lodging in a little street near Burr Street in Wapping. There he put his things, and his stock now being dwindled to twelve guineas, he put two of them in his fob with his mother's old gold watch, which he had likewise brought along with him, and then went out to see the town. He had not walked far in Fleet Street, whither he had conveyed himself by boat, but he was saluted by a well-dressed woman, in a tone almost as broad as his own. Conscious of what he had committed, he thought it was somebody that knew him and would have taken him up. He turned thereupon pale and started. The woman observing his surprise said, Sir, I beg your pardon, I took you for one Mr. Johnson of Hull, my near relation, but I see you are not the same gentleman, though you are very like him. Anderson, thereupon taking heart, walked a little way with her, and the woman inviting him to drink tea at her lodgings, he accepted it readily, and away they went together to the bottom of Salisbury Court, where the woman lived. After tea was over, so many overtures were made that our new-come spark was easily drawn into an amour, and after a considerable time spent in Parley it was at last agreed that he should pass for her husband newly come from sea, and this being agreed upon, the landlady was called up and the story told in form. The name the woman assumed was that of Johnson, and Tom consequently was obliged to go by the same. So after compliments expressed on all sides for his safe return, a supper was provided, and about ten o'clock they went to bed together. Whether anything had been put in the drink, or whether it was only owing to the quantity he had drunk, he slept very soundly until eleven o'clock in the morning, when he was awakened by a knocking at the door. Upon getting up to open it, he was a little surprised at finding the woman gone, and more so at seeing the key thrown under the door. However, he took it up and opened it. His landlady then delivered him a letter, which as soon as she was gone he opened and found it to run in these terms. DEAR SIR! You must know that for about three years I have been an unfortunate woman, that is, have conversed with many of your sex as I have done with you. I need not tell you that you made me a present of what money you had about you last night, after the reckoning over the way at the George was paid. I told my landlady when I went out this morning that I was going to bring home some linen for shirts. You had best say so too, and so you may go away without noise. For as I owe her above three pound for lodging, tis odds but that as you said last night you were my husband, she will put you in trouble, and that I think would be hard, for to be sure you have paid dear enough for your frolic. I hope you will forgive this presumption, and I am yours next time you meet me. JANE JOHNSON Tom was not a little chagrined at this accident, especially when he found that not only the remainder of the two guineas, but also his mother's gold watch and a gold chain and ring was gone into the bargain. However, he thought it best to take the woman's word, and so coming down and putting on the best air he could, he told his landlady he hoped his wife would bring the linen home time enough to go to breakfast, and that in the meanwhile he would go to the coffee house and read the news. The woman said it was very well, and Tom, getting to the waterside, directed them to row to the stairs nearest to his lodging by Burr Street, ruminating all the way he went on the accident which had befallen him. The rumours of Jonathan Wilde, then in the zenith of his glory, had somehow or other reached the ears of our North Britain. He thereupon mentioned him to the waterman, who, perceiving that he was a stranger and hoping to get a pot of drink for the relation, obliged him with the best account they were able of Mr. Wilde and his proceedings. As soon, therefore, as Anderson came home, he put the other two guineas in his pocket, and over he came in a coach to the old Bailey, where Mr. Wilde had just then set up in his office, Mr. Anderson being introduced in form, acquainted him in good blunt scotch how he had lost his money and his watch. Jonathan used him very civilly, and promised his utmost diligence in recovering it. Tom, being willing to save money, inquired of him his way home by land on foot, and having received instructions, he set out accordingly. About the middle of Cheapside, a well-dressed gentleman came up to him. Friend, says he, I have heard you ask five or six people, as I followed you, your way to Burr Street. I am going thither, and so, if you'll walk along with me, to save you the labour of asking further questions. Tom readily accepted the gentleman's civility, and so on they trudged, until they came within twenty yards of the place, and into Tom's knowledge. Young man, then says the stranger, since I have shown you the way home, you must not refuse drinking a pint with me at a tavern hard by of my acquaintance. No sooner were they entered and sat down, but a third person was introduced into their company as an acquaintance of the former. A good supper was provided, and when they had drunk about a pint of wine apiece, says the gentleman who brought him thither to Anderson, you seem an understanding young fellow. I fancy your circumstances are not of the best. Come, if you have a tolerable head and any courage, I'll put you in a way to live as easy as you can wish. Tom pricked up his ears upon this motion and told him that truly, as to his circumstances, he had guessed very right, but that he wished he would be so good as to put him into any road of living like a gentleman, for, to say the truth, sir, says he, it was with that view I left my own country to come up to London. Well spoken, my lad, says the other, and like a gentleman, thou shalt live, but hark ye, are you well acquainted with the men of quality's families about Aberdeen? Yes, sir, says he. Well, then, replied the stranger, do you know none of them who has a son about your age? Yes, yes, replied Tom. My Lord Jay sent his eldest son to our college at Aberdeen to be bred, and he and I are much alike, and not above ten days difference in our ages. Why, then, replied the spark, it will do, and here is to your honour's health. Come, from this time forward, you are the honourable Mr. Jay, son and heir apparent to the right honourable the Lord Jay. To make the story short, these sharpers equipped him like the person they put him upon the town to be, and lodging him at the house of a Scotch merchant who was in the secret with no less than three footmen all in proper livery to attend him. In the space of ten days' time they took up effect upon his credit to the amount of a thousand pounds. Tom was cunning enough to lay his hands on a good diamond ring, two suits of clothes, and a handsome watch, and improved mightily from a fortnight's conversation with these gentlemen. He foresaw the storm would quickly begin. The news of his arrival under the name he had assumed, having been in the papers a week. So to prevent what might happen to himself, he sends his three footmen on different errands, and making up his clothes and some Holland shirts into a bundle, called a coach and drove off to Burr Street, where, having taken the remainder of his things that had been there ever since his coming to town, he bid the fellow drive him to the house of a person near St. Catherine's, to whom he had known his mother direct letters when in Scotland. Yet, recollecting in the coach that by this means he might be discovered by his relations, he called to the coachman before he reached there, and, remembering an inn in Holborn, which he had heard spoken of by the Scotch merchant, where he had lodged in his last adventure, bid the fellow drive thither, saying he was afraid to be out late, and if he made haste he would give him a shilling. When he came thither, and had had his two portmanteaus carried into the inn, pretending to be very sick, he went immediately upstairs to bed, having first ordered a pint of wine to be burnt and brought upstairs. Having in the night on the condition he was in, and the consequence of the measures he was taking, he resolved with himself to abandon his ill courses at once, and try to live honestly in some plantation of the West Indies. These meditations kept him pretty much awake, so that it was late in the morning before he arose. Having ordered coffee for his breakfast, he gave the chamberlain a shilling to go and fetch the newspapers, where the first thing he saw was an account of his own cheat in the body of the paper, and at the end of it an advertisement with a reward for apprehending him. This made him very uneasy, and the rather because he had no clothes but those which he had taken up as aforesaid, so he ordered the chamberlain to send for a tailor, and pretended to be so much indisposed that he could not get out. When the tailor came, he directed him to make him a riding suit, with all the expedition he could. The tailor promised it in two days' time. The next day, pretending to be still worse, he sent the chamberlain to take a place for him in the Bristol coach, which, being done, he removed himself and his things early in the morning to the inn where it lay, and set out the next day undiscovered for Bristol. Three days after his arrival, he met with a captain bound for the West Indies, with whom, having agreed for a passage, he set sail for Jamaica. But a fresh gale at sea, accidentally damaging their rudder, they were obliged to come to an anchor in Cork, where the captain himself and several other passengers went on shore. Anderson accompanied him to the coffee-house, where, calling for the papers that last came in, he had liked to have swung at the table on finding himself to have been discovered at Bristol, and to have sailed in such a ship the day before the persons came down to apprehend him in order to his being carried back to London. As soon as he came a little to himself, he stepped up to the man of the house and asked him for the vault, privy, which, being shown him, he immediately threw the paper down, and as soon as he came out, finding the captain ready to go, he accompanied him with great satisfaction on board again, where, things being set to rights, by the next day at ten o'clock, they sailed with a fair wind and without any further cross-accident arrived safe at Jamaica. There Tom had the good luck to pick up a woman with a tolerable fortune, and about three years later remitted three hundred pounds home to the jeweler who had been defrauded of the watch and the ring, and directed him to pay what was over after deducting his own debt to the people who had trusted him with other things and who, upon his going off, had recovered most of them and were by this means made a tolerable satisfaction. He resided in the West Indies for about five years in all, and in that time, by his own industry, acquired a very handsome fortune of his own, and therewith returned to Scotland. I should be very glad if this story would incline some people who have got money in not such honest ways, though perhaps less dangerous, to endeavour at extenuating the crimes they have been guilty of by making such reparation as in their power, by which at once they atone for their fault and regain their lost reputation. But I am afraid this advice may prove both unsuccessful and unseasonable, and therefore shall proceed in my narrations as the course of these memoirs directs me. Please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Andrea Kaye. Lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed, volume one, edited by Arthur L. Hayward. Section 64, The Life of Joseph Pickin, A Highwayman. There cannot, perhaps, be a greater misfortune to a man than is having a woman of ill principles about him, whether as a wife or otherwise. When they once lay aside principles either of modesty or honesty, women become commonly the most abandoned, and as their sex renders them capable of seducing, so their vices tempt them not often to persuade men to such crimes as otherwise, perhaps, they would never have thought of. This was the case of the malefactor, the story of whose misfortunes we are now to relate. Joseph Pickin was the son of a tailor in Clarkinwell who worked hard at his employment and took pleasure in nothing but providing for and bringing up his family. This unhappy son, Joseph, was his darling, and nothing grieved him so much upon his deathbed as the fears of what might befall the boy, being then an infant of five years old. However, his mother, though a widow, took so much care of his education that he was well enough instructed for the business she designed him, viz that of a vintner, to which profession he was bound at a noted tavern near Billingsgate. He served his time very faithfully and with great approbation, but falling in love, or to speak more properly, taking a whim of marriage in his head, he accepted of a young woman in the neighborhood as his partner for life. Soon after this he removed to Windsor, where he took the tap at a well accustomed in, and began the world in a very probable way of doing well. However, partly through his own misfortunes, and partly through the extravagance of his wife, in a little more than a twelve months time he found himself thirty pound in debt, and in no likelihood from his trade of getting money to pay it. This made him very melancholy, and nothing added so great a weight to his load of affliction as the uneasiness he was under at the misfortunes which might befall his wife, to whom as yet this fall in his circumstances was not known. However, fearing it would be soon discovered in another way, at last he mentioned it to her, at the same time telling her that she must retrench her expenses, for he was now so far from being able to support them that he could hardly get him family bread. Her mother and she thereupon removed to a lodging, where by the side of the bed poor picken used to slumber upon the boards, heavily disconsolate with the weight of his misfortunes. One day after talking of them to his wife, he said, I am now quite at my wit's end, I have no way left to get money to support us, what shall I do? Do, answered she, why, what should a man do that wants money and has any courage but go upon the highway? The poor man, not knowing how else to gain anything, even took her advice, and recollecting a certain companion of his who had once upon a time offered the same expedient for relieving their joint misfortunes, picken thereupon found him out, and without saying it was his wife's proposal, pretended that his sorrows had at last so prevailed upon him, that he was resolved to repair the injuries of fortune by taking away something from those she had used better than him. His comrade unhappily addicted himself still to his old thinking, and instead of dissuading him from his purpose, seemed pleased that he had taken such a resolution. He told him that for his part he always thought danger rather to be chosen than want, and that while soldiers hazarded their lives in war for six pence a day, he thought it was cowardice to make a man starve, where he had a chance of getting so much more than those who hazarded as much as they did. Accordingly, Picken and his companion provided themselves that week with all necessaries for their expedition, and going upon it in the beginning of the next set out and had success, as they called it, in two or three enterprises. But returning to London in the end of the week, they were apprehended for a robbery committed on one Charles Cooper on Finchley Common, for which they retried the next sessions and both capitalally convicted. Through fear of death and want of necessaries, Joseph Picken fell into a low and languishing state of health, under which, however, he gave all the signs of penitence and sorrow that could be expected for the crimes he had committed. Yet though he loaded his wife with the weight of all his crimes, he forbore any harsh or shocking reproaches against her, saying only that as she had brought him into all the miseries he now felt, so she had left him to bear the weight of them alone without either ever coming near him or affording him any assistance. However, he said he was so well satisfied of the multitude of his own sins and the need he had of forgiveness from God that he thought it a small condition to forgive her, which he did freely from his heart. In these sentiments he took the holy sacrament and continued with great calmness to wait the execution of his sentence. In the passage to execution and even at the fatal tree, he behaved himself with amazing circumstances of quietness and resignation, and though he appeared much less fearful than any of those who died with him, yet he parted with life almost as soon as the cart was drawn away. He was about 22 years of age or somewhat more at the time he suffered, which was on the 24th of February, 1724-5, much pitied by the spectators and much lamented by those that knew him. End of Section 64, Recording by Andrea Kay. Section 65 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, who have been condemned and executed for murder, the highway, housebreaking, street robberies, coining, or other offenses, Volume 1. 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, who have been condemned and executed, Volume 1, edited by Arthur L. Hayward. Section 65, The Life of Thomas Packer, a Highwayman. Thomas Packer, the companion of the last name criminal, both in his crimes and in his punishment, was the son of very honest and reputable parents not far from Newgate Street. His father gave him a competent education, designing always to put him in a trade, and as soon as he was fit for it, placed him accordingly with a vintner at Greenwich. There he served for some years, but growing out of humor with the place, he made continual instances to his friends to be removed. They, willing and desirous to comply with the young man's honors, at length after repeated solicitation prevailed with his master to consent, and then he was removed to another tavern in town. There he completed his time, but ever after being of a rambling disposition was continually changing places and never settled. Amongst those in which he had lived, there was a tavern where he resided as a drawer for about six weeks. Here he got into acquaintance of a woman, handsome indeed, but of no fortune and little reputation. His affection for this woman and the money he spent on her was the chief occasion of those wants which prevailed upon him to join with Picken in those attempts which were fatal to them both. It cannot indeed be said that the woman in any degree excited him to such practices. On the contrary, the poor creature really endeavored by every method she could to procure money for their support, and did all that in her lay while Packer was under his misfortunes to prevent the necessities of life from hindering him in that just care which was necessary to secure his interest in that which was to come. Packer was in himself a lad of very great good nature, and not without just principles if he had been well improved, but the rambling life he had led, and his too tender affection for the before-mentioned woman, led him into great crimes rather than he would see her sustain great wants. The reflection which he conceived his death would bring upon his parents, and the miseries which he dreaded it would draw upon his wife and child, seemed to press him heavier than any apprehension for himself to his own sufferings, which from the time of his commitment he bore with the greatest patience and improved to the utmost of his power. As he was sensible there was no hopes of remaining in this world, so he immediately removed his thought, his wishes, and his hopes from thence, applied himself seriously to his devotions, and never suffered even the woman whom he so much loved to interfere or hinder them in any degree. As it had been his first week of robbing, and his last too, he had little confession to make in that respect. He acknowledged, however, the fact which they had done in that space, and seemed to be heartily penitent, ashamed, and sorry for his offenses. At the place of execution he behaved with the same decency which accompanied him through all the sorrowful stations of his sad condition. He was asked whether he would say anything to the people, but he declined it, though he had a paper in his hand which he had designed to read, which for the satisfaction of the public I have that fit to annex. The paper left by Thomas Packer. Good people, I see a large number of you assembled here to behold a miserable end of us whom the law condemns to death for our offense, and for the sake of giving you warning makes us in our last moments public spectacles. I submit with the utmost resignation to the stroke of the law, and I heartily pray, Almighty God, that the sight of my shameful death may inspire every one of you with lasting resolutions of leading an honest life. The facts for which both Picken and I die were really committed by us, and consequently the sentence under which we suffer is very just. Let me then press ye again that the warnings of our deaths may not be in vain, but that you will remember our fate, and by urging that against your depraved wishes prevent following our steps, which is all I have to say, Thomas Packer. He was about twenty years of age at the time he suffered, which was with the aforementioned malefactor at Tyburn, much pitied by all the spectators. End of Section 65, recording by Andrea Kay. Section 66 of the lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed for murder, the highway, housebreaking, street robberies, coining, or other offenses. Volume 1. 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 Dale Grofman. The lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed, Volume 1. Edited by Arthur L. Hayward. Section 66, the life of Thomas Bradley, a street robber. One must want humanity and be totally void of that tenderness which dominates both a man and a Christian. If we feel not some pity for those who are brought to a violent and shameful death from a sudden and rash act, excited either by necessity or through the frailty of human nature, sinking under misfortune, or hurried into mischief by some sudden transport of passion, I am persuaded, therefore, that the greater part, if not all, of my readers will feel the same emotions of tenderness and compassion for the miserable youth of whom I am now going to speak. Thomas Bradley was the son of an officer in the customs house at Liverpool. The father took care of his education and, having qualified him for a seafaring business in reading and writing, placed him therein. He came up accordingly with the master of a vessel to London, where some misfortunes befalling the said master, Thomas was turned out of his employment and left to shift for himself, want pinched him. He had no friends nor anybody to whom he might apply for relief. And in the anguish with which his suffering oppressed him, he unfortunately resolved to steal, rather than submit to starving or to begging. One fact he committed, but could never be prevailed on to mention the time, the person or the place. The robbery for which he was condemned was upon a woman carrying home another woman's writing-hood, which she had borrowed, and he assaulting her on the highway took it from her, which was valued at twenty-five shillings. Upon this he was capitally convicted at the next sessions of the Old Bailey, nor could never be prevailed on by a person to apply for a pardon. On the contrary, he said it was his greatest grief that notwithstanding all he could do to stifle it, the news would reach his father and break his heart. He was told that such thoughts were better omitted than suffering to disturb him when he was on the point of going to another and, if he repented thoroughly, to a better life, at which he sighed and said their reasoning was very right and he would comply with it From that time he appeared more composed and cheerful and resigned to his fate. This temper he persevered to the time of his execution and died with as much courage and penitence as is ever seen on any of those unhappy persons who suffer at the same place. At the time of his death he was not quite nineteen years of age. He died between the last mentioned malefactor and he whose life we are next to relate. And of section sixty-six section sixty-seven of the lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed for murder, the highway, housebreaking, street robberies, coining, or other offenses, volume one. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information here please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Dale Grossman Lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed, volume one. Edited by Arthur L. Hayward Section sixty-seven The Life of William Lipsat A Thief William Lipsat was the son of a person at Dublin in very tolerable circumstances which he strained to the utmost to give this lad a tolerable education. When he had acquired this he sent him over to an uncle of his in Stockton in Worcestershire where he lived with more indulgence than ever when at home, his uncle having no children and behaving to him with all the tenderness of a parent. However on some little difference the boy having long had an inclination to see this great city of London he took that occasion to go away from his uncle and accordingly came down to town and was employed in the service of one Mr. Kelway. He had not been long there before he received a letter from his father in treating him to return to Dublin with all the speed he was able. The letter was soon followed by another which not only desired but commanded him to come back to Ireland. He was not troubled at thinking of the voyage and going home to his friends but he was very desirous of carrying money over with him to make a figure amongst his relations which, not knowing how to get he at last be thought himself of stealing it from a place where he knew it lay. After several struggles with himself vanity prevailed and he accordingly went and took away the things of his fifty-seven guineas and a half twenty-five carolises five Jacobuses three Moidoras six pieces of silver two purses valued at twelve pence. These, as he said, would make his journey pleasant and his reception welcome which was the reason he took them. The evidence was very dear and direct against him so that the jury found him guilty without hesitation. From the day of his condemnation to the day he died he neither affected to extenuate his crime nor reflect, as some are apt to do on the cruelty of the prosecutors, witnesses or the court that condemned him so far from it that he always acknowledged the justice of his sentence seemed grieved only for the greatness of his sin and the affliction of the punishment of it would bring upon his relations who had hitherto always borne the best of characters though by his failing they were now like to be stigmatized with the most infamous crimes. However, since his grief came now too late he resolved as much as he was able to keep such thoughts out of his head and apply himself to what more nearly concerned him and for which all the little time he had was rather too short in a word, in his condition none behaved with more gravity or to the outward appearance with more penitence than this criminal did. He suffered with the same resignation which had appeared in everything he did from the time of his condemnation on the 1st of February 1724-5 with the before mentioned malefactors being then scarce 18 years of age Carolus was a gold coin of Charles I worth 20-23 shillings a Jacobus coin by James I was of the same value the Moidor was worth about 27 shillings and of Section 67 Section 68 of lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed for murder, the highway house breaking, street robberies coining, or other offenses Volume 1 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 who have been condemned and executed Volume 1 Edited by Arthur L. Hayward Section 68 The Life of John Hewlett A Murderer There are several facts which have happened in the world the circumstances attending which if we compare them as they are related by one or other we can hardly fix in our own mind any certainty of belief concerning them such an equality is there in the weight of evidence of one side and of the other such at the time it happened was the case of the Alifactor before us John Hewlett was born in Warwickshire the son of Richard Hewlett, a butcher and though not bred up with his father he was yet bred to the same employment at Leicester from which malicious people said he acquired a bloody and barbarous disposition However, he did not serve his time out with his master but being a strong, sturdy young fellow and hoping some extraordinary preferment in the army with that view he engaged himself in the regiment of the guards during the reign of the late King William in the war he gained the reputation of a very brave but a very cruel and very rough fellow and therefore was relied on by his officers yet never liked by them persons of a similar disposition generally live on good terms with one another Hewlett found out a corporal one blunt much of the same humor with himself never pleased when in safety nor afraid though in the midst of danger at the siege of Namour in Flanders these fellows happened to be both in the trenches when the French made a desperate sally and were beaten off at last with much loss and in such confusion that their pursuers lodged themselves in one of the outworks and had liked to have gained another in the attack on which a young cadet of the regiment in which Blunt served was killed Blunt observing it went to the commanding officer and told him that the cadet had 19 pistoles in his pocket and it was a shame the French should have them why that's true corporal said the colonel but I don't see at present how we can help it no replied Blunt give me but leave to go and search his pockets and I'll answer for bringing the money back why fool said the colonel does thou not see the place covered with French should a man stir from hence they would pour a whole shower of small shot upon him I'll venture that says Blunt but how will you know the body added the colonel I am afraid we have left a score besides him behind us why look ye sir said the corporal let me have no more objections and I'll answer that he was clapped good colonel do you see and that to some purpose so that if I can't know him by his face I may know him by somewhat else well said the colonel if you have a mind to be knocked on the head and take it ill to be denied you must go I think on which Blunt waiting for no further orders marched directly in the midst of the enemy's fire to the dead bodies which lay within ten yards of the muzzle of their pieces and turning over several of the dead bodies he distinguished that of the cadet and brought away the prize for which he had so fairly ventured this action put Hewlett on his metal he resolved to do something that might equal it and an opportunity offered some time after of performing such a service as no man in the army would have undertaken it happened thus the engineer who was to set fire to the train of a mine which had been made under a bastion of the enemies happened to have drank very hard overnight and mistaking the hour laid the match an hour sooner than he ought a sentinel immediately came out allowed what have you clapped fire to the train there's twenty people in the mine who will be all blown up it should not have been fired till twelve o'clock on hearing this Hewlett ran in with his sword drawn and therewith cut off the train the moment before it would have given fire to all the barrels of powder that were within by which he saved the lives of all the pioneers who were carrying the mines still forward at the time the wildfire was unseasonably lighted by the engineer at the battle of landow he had his skull broken open by a blow from the butt end of a musket this occasioned his going through the operation called trapanning which is performed by an engine like a coffee mill which being fixed on the bruised part of the bone is turned round and cuts out all the black till the edges appear white and sound after this cure had been performed upon him he never had his senses in the same manner as he had before but upon the least drinking fell into a passion which was but very little removed from madness he returned into England after the peace of Rizwick and being taken into a gentleman's service he there married a wife by whom he had nine children happy was it for them that they were all dead before his disastrous end after he came to be employed as a watchman a little before his death the papers I have give me no account of only that he was in that station at the time of the death of Joseph Candy for whose murder he was indicted for giving him a mortal bruise on the head with his staff on the 26th of December 1724 upon full evidences of eyewitnesses the jury found him guilty he making no other defense than great asservations of his innocence and an obstinate denial of the fact after his conviction being visited in the condemned hold instead of showing any marks of penitence or contrition he raved against the witnesses who had been produced to destroy him called them all perjured and prayed God to inflict some dreadful judgment on them nay he went so far as to desire that he ought himself have the executing thereof wishing that after his death his apparition might come and terrify them to their graves when it was represented to him how odd this behavior was and how far distant from that calmness and tranquility of mind with which it became him to clothe himself before he went into the presence of his maker these representations had no effect he still continued to rave against his accusers and against the witnesses who had sworn at his trial as death grew near he appeared not a bit terrified nor seemed uneasy at all at leaving this life only at leaving his wife and as he phrased it some old acquaintance in Warwickshire however he desired to receive the sacrament and said he would prepare himself for it as well as he could he went to the place of execution in the same manner in which he had passed the days of his confinement till that time at Tyburn he was not satisfied with protesting his innocence to the people but designing to have one of the prayer books which was made use of in the cart he kissed it as people do when they take oath and then again turning to the mob declared as he was a dying man he never gave candy a blow in his life thus with many ejaculations he gave way to fate in an advanced age at Tyburn at the same time with the malefactors last mentioned end of section 68 section 69 of lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed for murder the highway, house breaking street robberies, coining or other offenses, volume 1 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 Elizabeth Miles lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed, volume 1 edited by Arthur L. Hayward section 69 the lives of James Camel and William Marshall Thieves and Footpads the lives of James Camel and William Marshall Thieves and Footpads James Camel was born of parents in very low circumstances and the misfortunes arising therefrom were much increased by his father dying while he was an infant and leaving him to the care of a widow in the lowest circumstances of life the consequence was what might be easily foreseen for he forgot what little he had learned in his youngest days, loitering away his time about Islington, Hoxton, Moorfield and such places being continually drinking there and playing at cudgels, skittles and such like. He never applied himself to labor or honest working for his bread but either got it from his mother or a few other friends or by methods of a more scandalous nature, I mean pilfering and stealing from others for which after he had long witnessed it he came at last to an untimely death. He was a fellow of a frower disposition hasty and yet revengeful and made up of almost all the vices that go to forming a debauchee in low life he had had a long acquaintance with the person that suffered with him for their offenses but what made him appear in the worst light was that he had endeavored to commit acts of cruelty at the time he did the robbery demanding he insisted not only that he was innocent of the latter part of the offense but that he never committed the robbery at all though Marshall, his associate did not deny it. They had been together in these exploits for some time and once particularly coming from Sadler's Wells they took from a gentle woman a basket full of bed childlin into a very great value which offering to sell to a woman in Monmouth Street she privately sent for a constable to apprehend them one of their companions who went with them observing this he tipped them the wink to be gone which the old woman of the house perceiving caught hold of Marshall by the coat and while they struggled the thurned man whipped off a gold watch a silver collar and bells and a silver plate for holding snuffers and pretending to interpose in the coral slipped through them and out at the door as Camel and Marshall did immediately after him. Once upon a time it happened that Marshall had no money and his credit being at a par and a warrant out to take him for a great debt and another to take him for a picking of pockets he was in a great quandary how to escape both he strolled into St. James's Park and walking there pretty late behind the trees a woman came up to the seat directly before him when she fell to roaring and crying. Marshall being unseen clapped himself down behind the seat and listened with great attention he perceived the woman had her pocket in her hand and heard her distinctly say that a rogue not to be contented with cutting one pocket and taking it away but he must cut the other and let it drop at her foot then she wiped her eyes and laying down her pocket by her began to shake her petticoats to see if the other pocket had not lodged between them so Marshall took the opportunity and secretly conveyed that away thinking one lamentation might serve for both upon turning the pocket out he found only a thread paper a housewife and a crown piece upon this crown piece he lived a fortnight at a milk house coming twice a day for milk and hiding himself at nights in some of the grass plots it's being summer but his creditor dying to Denmark he came abroad again and soon after engaged with Camel in the fact for which they were both hanged it was committed upon a man and a woman coming through the fields from Islington and the things they took did not amount to above 30 shillings after they were convicted and had received sentence of death Camel sent for the practice of piety the whole duty of man and such other good books as he thought might assist him in the performance of their duty yet not withstanding all the outward appearance of resignation to the divine will the Sunday before his execution upon the coming into the chapel of a person whom he took to be his prosecutor he flew into a very great passion and expressed his uneasiness that he had no instrument there to murder him with and not withstanding all that could be said to him to abate his passion he continued restless and uneasy the person was obliged to withdraw and then with great attention applied himself to hear the prayers and discourse that was made proper for that occasion Marshall in the meanwhile continued very sick but though he could not attend the chapel did all that could be expected from a true penitent in this condition they both continued until the time of their death when Marshall truly acknowledged the fact but Camel prevaricated about it and at last preemptorily denied it they suffered on the 30th of April 1725 Camel appearing with an extraordinary carelessness and unconcern desired them to put him out of the world quickly and was very angry that they did not do it in less time end of section 69 for other offenses volume 1 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 John Brandon lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed volume 1 edited by Arthur L. Hayward section 70 the life of John Guy a dearest dealer one would have thought that the numerous executions which had happened upon the appearance of those called the Waltham blacks and the severity of that act of parliament which their folly had occasioned would effectually have prevented any outrages for the future upon either the forest belonging to the crown or the parks of private gentlemen but it seems there were still fools capable of undertaking such mad exploits it is said that Guy being at a public house for the young woman whom as the country people phrase it was his sweetheart a discourse arose at supper concerning the expeditions of the dear stealers which Guy's mistress took occasion to express great admiration of and to regard them as so many heroes who had behaved with courage enough to win the most obdurate heart adding that she was very fond of venison and she wished she had known some of them this silly accident proved fatal to the poor fellow who engaging with Juan Bittisford an old deer stealer they broke into such forests and parks and carried off abundance of deer with impunity with the keepers at last getting a number of stout young fellows to their assistance way late them one night when they were informed by the keeper of an alehouse that Guy and Bittisford intended to come for deer I must inform my reader that the method these young men took in deer stealing was this they went into the park on foot sometimes with a crossbow and sometimes with a couple of dogs being armed always however with pistols for their own defense when they had killed a buck they trust him up and put him upon their backs and so walked off neither of them being able to procure horses for such service on the night that the keepers were acquainted with their coming they sent to a neighbouring gentleman for the assistance of two of his grooms the fellows came about eleven o'clock at night and tying their horses in a little place went to the place where the keepers had appointed to keep guard this was on a little rising ground planted with a stargrove through the avenues of which they could see all round them without being discerned themselves no sooner therefore had Guy and his companion passed into the forest but suffering them to pass by one of the entries of the grove where they were they immediately issued out upon them and pursued them so closely that they were within a few yards of them when they entered the coppice where the two grooms had left their horses they did not stay so much as to untie them but cutting the bridles mounted them and rode off as hard as they could turning them loose as soon as they were in safety and got home secure because the keepers could not say that they had done anything but walk across the forest this escape of theirs and some others of the same nature made them so bold that not contented with the deer and chases and such places they broke into the paddock of Anthony Duncombe Esquire and there killed certain fellow deer one Charles George who was the keeper and some of his assistants hearing the noise they made issued out and a sharp fight beginning the deer stealers at last began to fly but a blunderbuss being fired after them two of the balls ripped the belly of Bittisford who died on the spot and soon after the keepers coming up John Guy was taken and being tried for this offense at the ensuing sessions of the old Bailey he was convicted and received sentence of death though it was some days after before he could be persuaded that he should really suffer when he found himself included in the death warrant he applied himself heartily to prayer and other religious duties seeming to be thoroughly penitent for the crimes he had committed and with great earnestness endeavored to make amends for his follies by sending the most tender letters to his companions who had been guilty of the same false to induce them to forsake such undertakings which would surely bring them to the same fate which he suffered or so inconsiderable a thing perhaps as a haunch of venison whether these epistles had the effect for which they were designed I'm not able to say but the papers I have by me inform me that the prisoner Guy died with very cheerful resolution not above 25 years of age the same day with the malefactors before mentioned end of section 70 recording by John Brandon section 71 of lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed for murder, the highway housebreaking, street robberies mourning or other offenses, volume 1 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 John Brandon lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed volume 1 edited by Arthur L. Hayward section 71 the life of Vincent Davis a murderer it is an observation made by some foreigners and I'm sorry to say there's too much truth in it that though the English are perhaps less jealous than any nation under the heavens yet more men murdered their wives amongst us than in any other nation in Europe Vincent Davis was a man of no substance and who for several years together had lived in a very ill correspondence with his wife often beating and abusing her until the neighbors cried out shame but instead of amending he addicted himself still more and more to such villainous acts conversing also with other women and at last buying a knife he had the impudence to say that the knife should enter in which he was as good as his word for on a sudden quarrel he stabbed her to the heart for this murder he was indicted and also on the statute of stabbing when one thrust or stabs another not then having a weapon drawn or who have not then first stricken the party stabbing so that he dies thereof within six months after the offender shall not have the benefit of clergy though he did it not of malice of forethought Blackstone of both of which from the fullest proof he was found guilty when Davis was first committed he thought fit to appear very melancholy and ejected but when he found there was no hopes of life he threw off all decency in his behavior and to pass for a man of courage showed as much vehemence of temper as a madman would have done rattling and raving to everyone saying it was no crime to kill a wife and in all other expressions he made use of behaved himself like a fool or a man who has lost his wits then a man who had lived so long and credibly in a neighborhood as he had done accepting in relation to his wife but he was induced with the hopes of passing for a bold and daring fellow to carry on this scene as long as he could but when the death warrant arrived all his intrepidity left him he trembled and shook and never afterwards recovered his spirits to the time of his death the account he gave of the reason of his killing his wife in so barbarous a manner was this that a tailor servant having kept him out pretty late one night and he coming home elevated with liquor abused her upon which she got a warrant for him and sent him to new prison after this the prisoner said he could never endure her she was poisoned to his sight and the abhorrence he had for her was so great and so strong that he could not treat her with the civility which is due to every indifferent person much less with that regard which Christianity requires of us towards all who are of the same religion so that upon every occasion he was ready to fly out into the greatest passions which he vented by throwing everything at her that came in his way by which means the knife was darted into her bosom with which he was slain not withstanding the barbarity which seemed natural to this unhappy man the cruelty with which he treated his wife in her last moments the spleen and malice with which he always spoke of her and the little regret he showed for having imbued his hands in her blood but yet he had an unaccountable tenderness for his own person and employed the last days of his confinement in writing many letters to his friends and treating them to be present at his execution in order to preserve his body from the hands of the surgeons which of all things he dreaded and in order to avoid being anatomized he affronted the court at the old Bailey at the time he received sentence of death tending as he said to provoke them to hang him in chains by which means he should escape the mangling of the surgeon's knives which to him seemed ten thousand times worse than death itself thus confused he passed the last moments of his life and with much ado recollected himself so as to suffer with some kind of decency which he did on the 30th of April at the same time with the last mentioned malefactor end of section 71 recording by John Brandon section 72 of lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed for murder the highway, house breaking street robberies, coining or other offences, volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings from the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed, volume 1 edited by Arthur L. Hayward section 72 the life of Mary Hansen a murderer amongst the many frailties to which our nature is subject there is not perhaps a more dangerous one than the indulging ourselves in ridiculous and provoking discourses merely to try the tempers of other people I speak not this with regard to the criminal of whom we are next to treat but of the person who in the midst of his sins drew upon himself a sudden and violent death by using such silly kind of speeches towards a woman weak in her nature and deprived of what little reason she had by drink this poor creature flying into an excess of passion with Francis Peters who was some distant relation to her by marriage she wounded him suddenly under the right pap with a knife before she could be prevented by any of the company of which wound he died the warm expression she had been guilty of before the blow prevailed with the jury to think she had a premeditated malice and there upon they found her guilty fear of death want of necessaries and tenderness of body brought on her soon after conviction so great a sickness that she could not attend the duties of public devotion and reduced her to the necessity of catching the little intervals of ease which her distemper allowed her to beg pardon of God for that terrible crime for which she had been guilty there was at the same time one Mary Stevens in the condemned hold though she afterwards received a reprieve who was very instrumental for creature to a true sense of herself and of her sins she then confessed the murder with all its circumstances reproached herself with having been guilty of such a crime as to murder the person who had so carefully took her under his roof allowed her a subsistence and been so peculiarly civil to her for which he expected no return but what was easily in her power to make this Mary Stevens was a weak brain woman full of scruples and difficulties and almost distracted at the thoughts of having committed several robberies after receiving the sacrament she not only persuaded this Mary Hansen to behave herself as became a woman under her unhappy condition but also persuaded two or three other female criminals in that place to make the best use of that mercy which the leniency of the government has extended them there was a man suffered to go twice a day to read to them and probably it was he who drew up the paper for Mary Hansen which she left behind her for though it be very agreeable to the nature of her case yet it is penned in the manner not likely to come from the hands of a poor ignorant woman certain it is however that she behaved herself with great calmness and resolution at the time of her death and did not appear at all disturbed at that hurry which as I shall mention in the next life happened at the place of execution the paper she left ran in these words that is though the poverty of my parents hindered me from having any great education yet I resolved to do as I know others in my unhappy circumstances have done and by informing the world of the causes which led me to that crime for which I so justly suffer that by shunning it they may avoid such a shameful end and I particularly desire all women to take heed how they give way to drunkenness which is a vice but too common in this age it was that disorder in which my spirits were occasioned by the liquor I had drunk which harried me to the committing of a crime at the thoughts of which on any other time my blood would have curdled I hope you will afford me your prayers for my departing soul as I offer up mine to God that none of you may follow me to this fatal place having delivered this paper she suffered at about 30 years old end of section 72 section 73 of lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed for murder, the highway housebreaking, street robberies coining or other offences volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information please visit LibriVox.org recording by Colleen McMahon lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed volume 1 edited by Arthur L. Hayward the life of Brian Smith a threatening letter writer I have already observed how the black act was extended for punishing Charles Towers concerned in setting up the new mint who as he affirmed died only for having his face accidentally dirty at the time he assaulted the bailiff's house I must now put you in mind of another clause in the same act vis that for punishing with death those who sent any threatening letters in order to affright persons into a compliance with their demands for fear of being murdered themselves or having their houses fired about their ears this clause of the act is general and therefore did not extend only to offenses of this kind by the dear stealers and those gangs against whom it was particularly leveled at that time but included also whoever should be guilty of writing such letters to any person or persons whatsoever which was a just and necessary construction of the act and not only made use of in the case of this criminal but of many more sins becoming particularly useful of late years when this practice became frequent Brian Smith who occasions this observation was an Irishman he was perhaps so very mean as perhaps were never met with in one who passed for a rational creature yet this fellow for Soothe took it into his head that he might be able to frighten Baron Swapho a very rich Jew in the city out of a considerable sum of money by terrifying him with a letter for this purpose he wrote one indeed in a style I dare say was never seen before or since its spelling was and the whole substance curses, execrations and threatenings of murder and burning if such a sum was not sent as he in his great wisdom thought it fit to demand the man's management in sending this and directing how he would have an answer was of a piece with his style and altogether made the discovery no difficult matter so that Brian being apprehended was at the next sessions at the Old Bailey tried and convicted on the evidence of some of his countrymen and remained no hopes for him of favour to make up a consistent character he declared himself a papist and as is usual with persons of that profession was forbidden by his priest to go any more to the public chapel however to do him justice as far as outward circumstances will give us leave to judge he appeared very sorry for the crime he had committed and having had the priest with him a considerable time the day before his death he would needs go to the place of execution in a shroud as he went along he repeated the Hail Mary and Patternoster but there being many persons to suffer and the executioner thereby being put into a confusion Smith observing the Harry slipped the rope over his head and jumped it once over the corpses in the cart amongst the mob had he been wise enough to have come in his clothes and not in a shroud it is highly probable he had made his escape but his white dress rendering him conspicuous even at a distance the sheriff's officers were not long before they retook him and placed him in his former situation again hope and fear desire of life and dread of immediate execution had occasioned so great an emotion of his spirits that he appeared in his last moments in a confusion not to be described and departed the world in such an agony that he was a long time before he died which was at the same time with the malefactor before mentioned vis on the 30th of April 1725 end of section 73 recording by Colleen McMahon section 74 of lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed for murder the highway house breaking street robberies coining or other offenses volume 1 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 Colleen McMahon lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed volume 1 edited by Arthur L. Hayward the life of Joseph Ward a foot pad there are some persons who are unhappy even from their cradles and though every man is said to be born to a mixture of good and evil fortune yet these seem to reap nothing from their birth but an entry into woe and a passage to misery this unhappy man we are now speaking of Joseph Ward is a strong instance of this for being the son of traveling people he scarce knew either the persons to whom he owed his birth or the place where he was born however they found a way to instruct him well enough to read and that so well that it was afterwards of great use to him in the most miserable state of his life he rambled about with his father and mother until the age of 14 when they dying he was left to the wide world with nothing to provide for himself but his wits so that he was almost under necessity of going into a gang of gypsies that passed by that part of the country where he was these gypsies taught him all the arts of their living and it happened that the crew he got into were not of the worst sort either for they maintained themselves rather by the crudulity of country folks than by the ordinary practices of those sort of people stealing of poultry and robbing hedges of what linen people are careless enough there I shall have another and more proper occasion to give my readers the history of this sort of people who were anciently formidable enough to deserve in a special act of parliament altered and amended in several reigns for banishing them from the kingdom footnote this was the statute of 1530 22 Henry the 8th C 10 directed against quote outlandish people calling themselves egyptians unquote it was amended one and two Philip and Mary four and five Elizabeth C 10 and sundry other legislation was of a similar tenor and a footnote but to go on with the story of ward disliking this employment he took occasion when they came into bucking him shire to leave them at a common by geroge cross and come up to London when he came up here he was still in the same state not knowing what to do to get bread at last he be thought himself of the sea and prevailed on a captain to take with him a pretty long voyage he behaved himself so well in this passage that his master took him with him again and used him very kindly but he dying word was again put to his shifts though on his arrival in England he brought with him near 30 guineas to London he took up lodgings near the iron gate at st. Catherine's and taking a walk one evening on tower wharf he there met with a young woman who after much shyness suffered him to talk to her they met there a second and a third she said she was nice to a pewterer of considerable circumstances not far from tower hill who had promised and was able to give her 500 pounds but the fear of disobliging him by marriage hindered her from thinking of becoming a wife without his approbation of her spouse these difficulties made poor ward imagine that if he could once persuade the woman to marriage he should soon modify the heart of her relation and so become happy at once the great deal to do madame was prevailed upon to consent and going to the fleet they were married and soon returned to st. Catherine's to new lodgings which ward had taken where he proposed to continue a day or two and then wait upon the uncle never man was in his own opinion more happy than joseph ward in his new wife but alas all human happiness is fleeting and uncertain especially when it depends in any degree upon a woman the very next morning after their wedding madame prevailed on him to slip on an old coat and take a walk by the house which she had shown him for her uncles he was no sooner out of doors but she gave the sign to some of her accomplices who in a quarter of an hour's time helped her to strip the lodgings not only of all which belong to ward but of some things of value that belonged to the people of the house they were scarce out of doors before ward returned who finding his wife gone and the room stripped set up such an outcry as alarmed all the people in the house instead of being concerned at joseph's loss they clamored at their own and told him in so many words that if he did not find the woman or make them reparation for their goods they would send him to newgate but alas it was neither in ward's power to do one nor the other upon which the people were as good as their word for they sent for a constable and had him before a justice there the whole act appearing the judge discharged him and told them they must take up their remedy against him at the common law upon this ward took the advantage and made off but taking to drinking to drive away the sorrows that encompassed him he at last fell into ill company and by them was prevailed on to join in doing evil actions to get money he had been but a short time at this trade before he committed the fact for which he died islington was the road where he generally took a purse and therefore endeavored to make himself perfectly acquainted with the many ways that led to that small town which he affected so well that he escaped several times from the strictest pursuits at last it came into his head that the safest way would be to rob women which accordingly he put into practice and committed abundance of thefts that way for the space of six weeks particularly on one mrs. jane vickery of a gold ring value 20 shillings and soon after of mrs. elizabeth barker of a gold ring set with garnets being apprehended for these two facts he was committed to new prison where either refusing or not being able to make discoveries he remained in custody till the sessions at the old Bailey there the persons swearing positively to his face he was after a trivial defense convicted and received sentence of death accordingly as he had no relations that he knew of nor so much as one friend in the world the thoughts of a pardon never distracted his mind a moment he applied himself from the day of his sentence to a new preparation for death and having in the midst of all his troubles accustomed himself to reading he was of great use to his unhappy companions in reading the scripture and assisting them in their private devotions he made a just use of that space which the mercy of the English law allows to persons who are to suffer death for their crimes to make peace with their creator there was but one person who visited this offender while under the sentence of the law and he thinking that the only method by which he could do him service was to save his life proposed to him a very probable method of escaping which for reasons not hard to be guessed at I shall forbear describing he pressed him so often and made the practicability of the thing so plain that the criminal at last condescended to make the experiment and his friend promised the next day to bring him the materials for his escape that night Ward who began then to be weak in his limbs with the sickness which had laid upon him ever since he had been in the prison fell into a deep sleep a comfort he had not felt since the coming on of his misfortunes in this space he dreamt that he was in a very barren sandy place which was bounded before him by a large deep river which in the middle of the plane parted itself into two streams that after having run a considerable space united again having formed an island within the branches on the other side of the main river there appeared one of the most beautiful countries that could be thought of covered with trees full of ripe fruit and adorned with flowers on the other side in the island which was enclosed having a large arm of water running behind it and another smaller before the soil appeared sandy and barren like that were on he stood while he was musing at this site he beheld a person of grave in garb and appearance like a shepherd who asked him twice or thrice if he knew the meaning of what he there saw to which he answered no well then says the stranger I won't form you this site which you see is just your present case you have nothing to resolve with yourself but whether you will prepare by swimming across this river immediately forever to possess that beautiful country that lies before you or by attempting the passage over the narrow board which crosses the first arm of the river and leads into the island where you will be again amidst briars and thorns and must at last pass that deep water before you can enter the pleasant country you behold on the other side this vision made so strong an impression on the poor man's spirits that when his friend came he refused absolutely to make his escape but suffered with great marks of calmness and true repentance at Tyburn in the 27th year of his age end of section 74 recording by Colleen McMahon section 75 of lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed for murder the highway, house breaking, street robberies coining or other offenses volume one 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 Colleen McMahon lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed volume one edited by Arthur L. Hayward the life of James White a thief stupidity however it may arise whether from a natural imperfection of the rational faculties or from want of education or from drowning it holy in bestial and sensual pleasures is doubtless one of the highest misfortunes which can befall any man whatsoever for it not only leaves him little better than the beast which perish exposed to a thousand inconveniences against which there is no guard but that of a clear and unbiased reason but it renders him also base and abject when under misfortunes the sport and contempt of that wicked and debauched part of the human species who are apt to scoff at despairing misery and to add by their insults to the miseries of those who sink under their load already James White who is to be the subject of the following narration was the son of very honest and reputable parents though their circumstances were so mean as not to afford wherewith to put their son to school and they themselves were so careless as not to procure his admission into the charity school by all which it happened that the poor fellow knew hardly anything better than the beast of the field and addicted himself like them to filling his belly and satisfying his lust for either of those brutish appetites called he never scrupled plundering to obtain what might supply the first or using force that might oblige women to submit against their wills unto the other while he was a mere boy and worked about as he could with anybody who would employ him he found a way to steal and carry off 30 pounds weight of tobacco the property of Mr. Perry an eminent Virginia merchant for which he was at the ensuing assizes at Old Bailey tried and convicted and thereupon ordered for transportation and in pursuance of that sentence sent on board the transport vessel accordingly their allowance there was very poor such as the miserable wretches could hardly subsist on vis a pint and a half of fresh water and a very small piece of salt meat per diem each but that wherein their greatest misery consisted was the hole in which they were locked underneath the deck where they were tied to prevent those dangers which the ships crew often runs by the attempts made by felons to escape in this disconsolate condition he passed his time until the arrival of the ship in America where he met with a piece of good luck if attaining liberty may be called good luck without acquiring at the same time a means to preserve life in any comfort it happened thus the super cargo falling sick under the usual distemper which visits strangers at first coming if they keep not to the exact rules of temperance and forbearance of strong lickers ran quickly so much in debt with his physician that he was obliged immediately to go off by doing which six felons became their own masters of whom James White was one he retired into the woods and lived there in a very wretched manner for some time till he met with some Indian families in that retreat who according to the natural uncultivated humanity of that cherished and relieved him to the utmost of their power soon after this he went to work amongst some English servants in order to ease them telling them how things stood with him this that he had been transported and that for fear of being seized he fled into the woods where he endured the greatest hardships the servants pitting his desperate condition relieved him often without the knowledge of their mistress until they got him into a planters service where though he worked hard he was sure to fare tolerably well but at length being ordered to carry water in large vessels over the rocks to the ship that rode in the bay underneath it his feet were thereby so intolerably cut that he was soon rendered lame and incapable of doing it any longer the family there upon grew weary of keeping him in that decrepit state he was in and so for what servile Skolian-like labor he was able to do a master of a ship took him on board on his return hither he went directly to his friends in Cripplegate Parish and told them what had befallen him and how he was driven home again almost as much by force as he was harried abroad they were too poor to be able to conceal him and he was therefore obliged to go out and cry fruit about the streets publicly that he might not want bread he went on in this mean but honest way without committing any new acts that I am able to learn for the space of some months then seen and known by some who were that employed or at least employed themselves in detecting and taking up all such persons as returned from transportation white amongst the rest was seized and the ensuing sessions at the old Bailey convicted on the statute he pleaded that he was only a very young man and if the court would have so much pity on him as to send him over again he would be satisfied to stay all his lifetime in America but the resolution which had been taken by none who returned back into England because such persons were more bloody and dangerous rogues than any other and when prompted by despair apt to resist the officers of justice took place and he was put into the death warrant both before and after receiving sentence he not only abandoned himself to stupid heedless indolence but behaved in so rude and troublesome a manner as occasioned his being complained of by those miserable wretches who were under the same condemnation as a greater grievance to them than all their other misfortunes put together he would sometimes threaten women who came into the hold to visit modestly tease them with obscene discourse and after his being prisoner there committed acts of lewdness to the amazement and horror of the most wicked and abandoned wretches in that dreadful place being however severely reprimanded for continuing so beastly a course of life when life itself was so near being distinguished he laid the crime to his own ignorance and said that if he were better instructed he would behave better but he could not bear being abused threatened and even maltreated by those who were in the same state with himself from this time he addicted himself to attend more carefully to religious discourses than most of the rest and as far as the amazing dullness of his intellects would give him leave applied to the duties of his sad state before his death he gave many testimonies of a sincere and unaffected sorrow for his crimes but as he had not the least notion of the nature efficacy or preparation necessary for the sacrament it was not given him as is usually done to malifactors the day of their death at the place of execution he seemed surprised and astonished looked wildly round upon the people and then asking the minister who attended him what he must do now the person spoke to instructed him so shutting his hands close he cried out with great vehemence Lord receive my soul his age was about 25 at the time he suffered which was on the sixth day of November 1723 end of section 75 recording by Colleen McMahon section 76 of lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed for murder the highway house breaking street robberies coining or other offenses volume 1 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 who have been condemned and executed volume 1 edited by Arthur L. Hayward the life of Joseph Middleton housebreaker and thief amongst the numbers of unhappy wretches who perish at the gallows most pity seems due to those who, pressed by want and necessity commit in the bitter exigence of starving some illegal act purely to support life but this is a very scarce case and such a one as I cannot in strictness presume to say that I have hitherto met within all the loads of papers I have turned over to this purpose the best motive to excite compassion and consequently to obtain mercy it is made very often a pretense Joseph Middleton was the son of a very poor though honest laboring man in the county of Kent near Deptford who did all that was in his power to bring up his children this unfortunate son was taken off his hand by an uncle a gardener who brought up the boy to his own business and consequently to labor hard enough which would to an understanding person appear no such very great hardship where a man had continually been inured to it even from this cradle and had neither a capacity nor the least probability of attaining anything better yet such an intolerable fame did it seem to Middleton that he resolved at any cost to be rid of it and to purchase an easier way of spending his days in order to do this he wisely chose to go aboard a man of war then bound for the Baltic he was in himself a stupid clumsy fellow and the officers and seamen in the ship treated him so harshly the fatigue he went through was so great and the coldness of the climate so pinching to him that he who was so impatiently waited to be rid of the country work now wished as earnestly to return thereto therefore when on the return of Sir John Norris the ship he was in was paid off he was charged he was in an ecstasy of joy there at and immediately went down again to settle hard to labor as he had done before experience having convinced him that there were many more hardships sustained in one short ramble then in a state though laborous life in order as is the common phrase to settle in the world he married a poor woman by whom he had two children and thereby made her as unhappy as himself what he was able to earn by his hands falling much short of what was necessary to keep house in the way he lived this reduced him to such narrowness of circumstances that he was obliged as he would have it believed to take illegal methods for support his own blockish and dastardy temper as it had prevented his ever doing good in an honest way so it as effectually put it out of his power to acquire anything considerable by the repeat he committed for as he wanted spirit to go into a place where there was immediate danger so his companions who did the act while he scouted about to see if anybody was coming and to give them notice when they divided the booty gave him just what they thought fit and keep the rest of themselves he had gone on in this miserable way for a considerable space and yet was able to acquire very little his wants being very near as great while he robbed every night as they were when he labored every day so that in the exchange he got nothing but danger into the bargain at last he was apprehended for breaking into the house of John DePay and Joseph Gomeroon and taking their jewels and other things to a great value though his innocence in not entering the place would sufficiently excuse him for he pleaded at his trial that he was so far from breaking the house that he was not so much as on the ground of the prosecutor when it was broke but on the contrary as appeared by their own evidence on the other side of the way but it being very fully proved by the evidence that Joseph Middleton belonged to the gang that he waited there only to give them an intelligence and shared in the money they took the jury found him guilty while he lay under conviction he did his utmost to understand what was necessary for him to do in order to salvation he applied himself with the utmost diligence to praying God to instruct him and enlighten his understanding that he might be able to improve by his sufferings and reap a benefit from the chastisements of his maker in this frame of mind he continued with great steadiness and calmness till the time of his execution at which he showed some fear and confusion as the sight of such a death is apt to create even in the stoutest and best prepared breast this Joseph Middleton at the time of his exit was in about the 40th year of his age end of section 76 section 77 of lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed for murder the highway, house breaking street robberies, coining or other offenses, volume 1 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 who have been condemned and executed, volume 1 edited by Arthur L. Hayward the life of John Price a housebreaker a prolificate life naturally terminates in misery and according unto the vices which it has most pursued so are its punishments suited unto it drunkenness besoals the understanding ruins the constitution and leaves those addicted to it in the last stages of life in want and misery equally destitute of all necessaries and incapable to procure them lewdness and lust after loose women invinerate both the vigor of the brain and strength of the body induce weaknesses that anticipate old age and afflict the declining center with so many evils as makes him a burden to himself and a spectacle to others but if for the support of all these men fall into rapacious and wicked courses plundering others who have frugally provided for the supply of life in order to indulge their own wicked inclinations then indeed the law of society interposes generally before the law of nature and cuts off with a sudden and ignominious death those who would otherwise probably have fallen by the fruits of their own sins this malefactor John Price was one of those wretched people who act as if they thought life was given them only to commit wickedness and satiate after several appetites with gross impurities without considering how far they offend either against the institutions of God or the laws of the land it does not appear that this fellow ever followed any employment that looked like honesty except when he was at sea the terrors of a sick bed alarmed even a conscience so hardened as prices and the effects of an ill spent life appeared so plainly in the weak condition he found himself in that he made as he afterwards owned the most solemn vows of amendment if through the favor of providence he recovered his former health to this he was by the goodness of God restored but the resolutions he made on that condition were totally forgotten as soon as he returned home he sought afresh the company of those loose women and those abandoned wretches who by the inconveniences into which they had formally led him had obliged him to seek for shelter by a long voyage at sea what little money he had received when the ship was paid off was quickly lavished away so that on the 11th of August 1725 he with two others named Cliff and Sparks undertook after having well awaited the attempt to close of the Duke of Leeds by moving the sash and so plunder it of what was to be got by their assistance Cliff got in the window and afterwards handed out a cloak hat and other things to his companions Sparks and Price but they were all immediately apprehended Cliff made an information by what he discovered the whole fact and it was fully proved by Mr. Bieland that Price when first apprehended owned that he had been with Cliff and Sparks upon the whole the jury found him guilty upon which he freely acknowledged the justice of their verdict at the bar all the time he lay under conviction he behaved himself as a person convinced of his own unworthiness of life and therefore repined not at the justice of that sentence which condemned him to death though in his behavior before the trial there had appeared much that rough and boisterous disposition usual in fellows of no education who have long practiced such ways of living yet long before his death he laid aside all that ferocity of mind appearing calm and easy under the weight of his sufferings and so much dissatisfied with the trouble he had met with in the world that he appeared scarce desirous of remaining in it he was not able himself to give any account of his age but as far as could be guessed from his looks he might be about thirty when executed which was at the same time with the malefactor last mentioned Cliff, whose information had hanged him, being reprieved a fuller account of this rouge will be found on page 276 end of section 77 end of lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed for murder, the highway, house breaking street robberies, coining or other offenses, volume 1 by Arthur L. Hayward