 Section 8 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 or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. And by Steve Miller, Charlotte, North Carolina. Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Who Have Been Condemned and Executed. Volume 1. Edited by Arthur L. Hayward. Section 8. Walter Kennedy, a Pirate. Piracy was anciently in this kingdom considered as a petty treason at common law. But the multitude of treasons, or to speak more properly of offences, construed into treason, become a very great grievance to the subject. This with many others was left out in the famous statute of the 25th Edward III for limiting what thenceforth should be deemed treason. From that time piracy was regarded in England only as a crime against the civil law, by which it was always capital. But there being some circumstances very troublesome as to proofs therein required for conviction, by a statute in the later end of the reign of Henry VIII, it was provided that this offence should be tried by commissioners appointed by the king, consisting of the admiral and certain of his officers with such other persons as the reigning prince should think fit. After the common course of laws of this realm for felonies and robberies committed on land, in which state it hath continued with very small alterations to this day. Offenders of this kind are now tried at the sessions house in the Old Bailey, before the judge of the court of admiralty, assisted by certain other judges of the common law, by virtue of such a commission as its before mentioned. The silver oar, a peculiar ensign of authority belonging to the court of admiralty lying on the table. As pirates are not very often apprehended in Britain, so particular notice is always given when a court like this, called in admiralty sessions, is to be held. The prisoners until that time remaining in the Marshall Sea the proper prison of this court. On the 26th of July 1721, at such a sessions, Walter Kennedy and John Bradshaw were tried for piracies committed on the High Seas, and both of them convicted. This Walter Kennedy was born at a place called Pelican Stairs in Wapping. His father was an anchor-smith, a man of good reputation, who gave his son Walter the best education he was able, and while a lad he was very tractable and had no other apparent ill quality than that of a too-aspiring temper. When he was grown up big enough to have gone out to a trade, his father bound him apprentice to himself, but died before his son was out of his time, leaving his father's effects in the possession of his mother and brothers. Walter then followed his own roving inclinations and went to sea. He served for a considerable time on board a man of war in the reign of her late Majesty Queen Anne, in the war then carried on against France, during which time he often had occasion to hear of the exploits of the pirates both in the East and West Indies, and there having got several islands into their possession, wherein they were settled, and in which they exercised a sovereign power. These tales had a wonderful effect on Walter's disposition, and created in him a secret ambition of making a figure in the same way. He became more than ordinarily attentive when stories of that sort were told, and sought every opportunity of putting his fellow sailors upon such relations. Men of that profession have usually good memories with respect at least to such matters, and Kennedy, therefore, without much difficulty, became acquainted with the principal expeditions of these maritime desperados. From the time of Sir Henry Morgan's commanding the buccaneers in America to Captain Avery's more modern exploits in Madagascar, his fancy insinuating to him continually that he might be able to make as great a figure as any of these steve-ish heroes whenever a proper opportunity offered. It happened that he was sent with Captain Woods Rogers, Governor of Providence, Bahama Islands, when that gentleman first sent to recover that island by reducing the pirates who then had it in possession. Footnote Woods Rogers, date 1732, sailed on Dampier's voyages and made a large sum of money which he devoted to buying the Bahama Islands from the proprietors on a twenty-one years lease. He was made governor, but found himself unable to cope with the pirates and the Spaniards who infested the islands and went back to England in 1721. He returned as governor in 1728 and remained there until his death. End of Footnote At the time of the captain's arrival these people had fortified themselves in several places and with all the care that they were able had provided both for their safety and substance. It happened that some time before they had taken a ship on board of which they found a considerable quantity of the richest brocades for which having no other occasion they tore them up and tying them between the horns of their goats made use of them to distinguish herds that belonged to one settlement and those that belonged to another. In sight of this notwithstanding the miserable condition which in other respects these wretches were in, mightily excited the inclination Kennedy had to following their occupation. Captain Rogers, having signified to the chiefs of them the offers he had to make of free grace and pardon, the greater number of them came in and submitted very readily. Those who were determined to continue the same dissolute kind of life, provided with all of the secrecy imaginable for their safety and when practicable, took their flight out of the island. The captain being made governor fitted out two sloops for trade and having given proper directions to their commanders manned them out of his own sailors which some of these reformed pirates intermixed. Kennedy went out on one of these vessels in which he had not long been at sea before he joined in a conspiracy some of the rest had formed of seizing the vessel, putting those to death who refused to come into their measures, and then to go as the sailors phrase it upon the account. That is, in plain English, commence pirates. This villainous design succeeded according to their wish. They emptied the other vessel of whatever they thought might be of use, then turned her adrift as being a heavy sailor and consequently unfit for their purpose. A few days after their entering on this new course of life they made themselves masters of two pretty large ships, having fitted which for their purpose. They now grew strong enough to execute any project that in their present circumstances they were capable of forming. Thus Kennedy was now got into that unhappy state of living which from a false notion of things he had framed so fair an idea of and was so desirous to engage in. Kennedy took a particular delight in relating what happened to him in these expeditions even after they had brought him to misery and confinement. The account he gave of that form of rule which these wretches set up. An imitation of the legal government and of those regulations they are made to supply the place of moral honesty was in substance this. They chose a captain from amongst themselves who in effect held little more than that title accepting in an engagement when he commanded absolutely and without control. Most of them having suffered formally from the ill treatment of their officers provided carefully against any such evil. Now they had the choice in themselves. By their orders they provided especially against any quarrels which might happen amongst themselves. It appointed certain punishments for anything that tended that way. For the due execution thereof they constituted other officers beside the captain so very industrious were they to avoid putting too much power into the hands of one man. The rest of their agreement consisted chiefly in relation to the manner of dividing the cargo of such prizes as they should happen to take and though they had broken through all laws divine and human yet they imposed an oath to be taken for the due observance of these. So inconsistent a thing is vice and so strong the principles imbibed from education. The life they lived at sea was rendered equally unhappy from fear and hardship. They never seeing any vessel which reduced them not to the necessity of fighting and often filled them with apprehensions of being overcome. Whenever they took in their several prizes could afford them no other pleasure but downright drunkenness on board and except for two or three islands there were no other places where they were permitted to come on shore. For nowadays it was become exceedingly dangerous to land either at Jamaica, Barbados or on the islands of the Bermudas. In this condition they were when they came to a resolution of choosing one Davis as captain and going under his command to the coast of Brazil. This design they put into execution being chiefly tempted with the hopes of surprising some vessel of the homeward bound Portuguese fleet by which they hoped to be made rich at once and no longer be obliged to lead a life so full of danger. Interestingly they fell in with twenty sail of those ships and were in the utmost danger of being taken and treated as they deserved. However on this occasion their captain behaved very prudently and taking the advantage of one of those vessels being separated from the rest they boarded her in the night without firing a gun. They forced the captain when they had him in one of their own ships to discover which of the fleet was the most richly laden which he having done through fear they imprudently attacked her and were very near becoming masters of her though they were surrounded by the Portuguese ships from whence they had last escaped not so much by the swiftness of their own sailing as by the cowardice of the enemy. In this attempt though they miscarried as to the prize they had proposed yet they encountered themselves very fortunate in having thus escaped from so dangerous an adventure. Being some time after this in great want of water Davis at the head of about fifty of his men very well armed made a descent in order to fill their casks. Though the Portuguese governor of the port near which they landed easily discovered them to be pirates but not thinking himself in a condition strong enough to attack them he thought fit to disemble that knowledge. Davis and his men were no sooner returned on board than they received a message by a boat from shore that the governor would think himself highly honored if the captain and as many as he pleased of his ship's company would accept of an entertainment the next day at the castle where he resided. Their commander who had hitherto behaved himself like a man of conduct suffered his vanity to overcome him so far as to accept of the proposal. In the next morning with ten of his sailors all dressed in their best clothes went on shore to this coalition but before they had reached half way they were set upon by a party of Indians who lay in ambush god and with one flight of their poisoned arrows laid them all upon the ground except Kennedy and another who escaped to the top of a mountain from whence they leapt into the sea and were with much difficulty taking up by a boat which their companions sent to relieve them. After this they grew tired of the coast of Brazil however in their return to the West Indies they took some very considerable prizes upon which they resolved unanimously to return home in order as they flattered themselves to enjoy their riches. The captain who then commanded them was an Irishman who endeavored to bring the ship into Ireland on the North Coast of which a storm arising the vessel was carried into Scotland and there wrecked. At that time Kennedy had a considerable quantity of gold which he either squandered away or had stolen from him in the Highlands. He afterwards went over into Ireland where being in a low and poor condition he shipped himself at length for England and came up to London. He had not been long in town before he was observed by some whose vessel had been taken by the crew with whom he sailed. They caused him to be apprehended and after lying a considerable time in prison he was, as I have said before, tried and convicted. After sentence he showed much less concern for life than is usual for persons in that condition. He was so much tired with the miseries and misfortune which for some years before he had endured that death appeared to him a thing rather desirable than frightful. When the reprieve came for Bradshaw, who was condemned with him, he expressed great satisfaction at the same time saying that he was better pleased than if he himself had received mercy. Four continued he, should I be banished into America as he is, to his highly probable I might be tempted to my old way of life and so instead of reforming add to the number of my sins. He continued in these sentiments till the time of his death, when as he went through cheapside to his execution, the silver ore being carried before him as usual, he turned about to a person who sat by him in the cart and said, Though it is a common thing for us when at sea to acquire vast quantities of both that metal which goes before me and of gold, yet such is the justice of Providence that few or none of us preserve enough to maintain us. But as you see in me, when we go to death, we have not wherewith to purchase a coffin to barious. He died at Execution Dock, the 21st of July, 1721, being then about 26 years of age. Footnote the history of the pirates gives the date as 19th of July. This book gives an interesting account of Kennedy, pages 178 through 81. End of Footnote. End of Section 8. Recorded by Steve Miller, Charlotte, North Carolina. Section 9 of Lives for 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 9. The Life of Matthew Clark, a Footpad and Murderer. Perhaps there is nothing to which we may more justly attribute those numerous executions which so disgrace our country than the false notions which the meaner sort, especially, in vibe in their youth as to love and women. This unhappy person, Matthew Clark, of whom we are now to speak, is the most remarkable instance of the truth of this observation. He was born at St. Albans, of parents in but mean circumstances, who thought they had provided very well for their son when they had procured his admission into the family of a neighboring gentleman, equally distinguished by the greatness of his merit and fortune. In this place certainly, had Matthew been inclined, in any degree, to good he might have acquired, from the favor of his master, all the advantages, even of a liberal education. But proving an incorrigible, lazy, and undutiful servant, the gentleman in whose service he was, after bearing with him a long time, turned him out of his family. He then went to plow and cart, and such other country work. But though he had been bred to this and was never in any state from which he could reasonably hope better, yet he was so restless and uneasy at those hardships which he fancied were put upon him, that he chose rather to rob than to labor, and leaving the farmer in whose service he was, used to skulk about bushy heath, and watch all opportunities to rob passengers. Matthew is a perfect composition of all the vices that enter into low life. He was idle, inclined to drunkenness, cruel, and a-coward. Nor would he have had spirit enough to attack anybody on the road, had it not been to supply him with money for merry meetings and dancing bouts, to which he was carried by his prevailing passion for loose women, and these expeditions keeping him continually bare, robbing and junketing, desire of pleasure and fear of the gallows were the whole round of both his actions and his thoughts. At last the matrimonial maggot bit his brain, and after a short courtship he prevailed on a young girl in the neighborhood to go up with him to London in order to their marriage, when they were there, finding his stock reduced solo, that he had not even money to purchase the wedding-ring, he pretended that a legacy of fifteen pounds was just left him in the country, and with a thousand promises of a quick return, set out from London to fetch it. When he left the town full of uneasy thoughts, he travelled towards Neesden and Willsden Green, where formerly he had lived. He intended to have lurked there till he had an opportunity of robbing as many persons as to make up fifteen pounds from their effects. In pursuance of this resolution he designed in himself to attack every passenger he saw, but whenever it came to the push the natural cowardice of his temper prevailed, and his heart failed him. While he loitered about there the master of an ale-house, hard by took notice of him, and asked him how he came to idle about in hay-time, when there was so much work, offering at the same time to hire him for a servant. Upon this discourse Clark immediately recollected that all the persons belonging to this man's house must be out hay-making except the maid, who served his liquors and waited upon guests. As soon, therefore, as he had parted from the master, and saw he was gone into the fields, he turned back and went into his house, where renewing his former acquaintance with the maid, who, as he had guessed, was there alone, and to whom he formerly had been a sweetheart, he sat near an hour drinking and talking, and that jocos matter which is usually between people of their condition in the country. But in the midst of all his expressions of affection he mediated how to rob the house, his timorous disposition supposing a thousand dangers from the knowledge the maid had of him. He resolved in order absolutely to secure himself to murder her out of the way, upon which, having secretly drawn his knife out of his sheath, and hiding it under his coat, he kissed her, designing at the same time to dispatch her, but his heart failed him the first time. However, getting up and kissing her a second time, he darted it into her windpipe, but its edge being very dull, the poor creature made a shift to mutter his name, and endeavored to scramble after him. Upon which he returned, and with the utmost inhumanity, cut her neck to the bone quite round, after which he robbed the house of some silver, but being confounded and astonished did not carry off much. He went directly into the London road, and came as far as Tyburn, the sight of which filled him with so much terror that he was not able to pick up courage enough to go by it. Returning back into the road again, he met a wagon, which in hopes of preventing all suspicion he undertook to drive up to town, the man who drove it having hurt his leg. But he had not gone far before the persons who were in pursuit of the murderer of Sarah Goldington, the maid before mentioned, came up with him and inquired whether he had seen anybody pass by his wagon who looked suspicious or was likely to have committed the fact. This inquiry put him into so much confusion that he was scarce able to make an answer, which occasioned their looking at him more narrowly, and thereby discovering the sleeve of his shirt to be all bloody. At first he affirmed with great confidence that a soldier meeting him upon the road had insulted him, and that in fighting with him he had made the soldier's mouth bleed, which had so stained his shirt. But in a little time perceiving this excuse would not prevail, but that they were resolved to carry him back, he fell into a violent agony and confessed the fact. At the next sessions at the old Bailey he was convicted, and after receiving sentence of death, endeavored all he could to comfort and compose himself during the time he lay under condemnation. His father, who was a very honest, industrious man, came to see him, and after he was gone Matthew spoke with great concern of an expression which his father had made use of, that if he had been to die for any other offence he would have made all the interest and friends he could to have served for his life, but that the murder he had committed was so cruel that he thought that nothing could atone for it but his blood. The inhumanity and cruel circumstances of it did indeed in some degree affect this malefactor himself. But he seemed much more disturbed with the apprehension of being hanged in chains, a thing which from the weakness of vulgar minds terrifies more than death itself, and the use of which I confess I do not see, since it serves only to render the poor wretches uneasy in their last moments, and instead of making suitable impressions on the minds of the spectators affords a pretense for servants and other young persons to idle away their time in going to see the body so exposed on a gibbet. At the place of execution Clark was extremely careful to inform the people that he was so far from having any malice against the woman whom he murdered that he really had a love for her. A report, too, of his having designed to sell the young girl he had brought out of the country into Virginia, had weighed enough with him to occasion his solemn denying of it at the tree, though he acknowledged at the same time that he had resolved to leave her. He declared also to prevent any aspersions on some young men who had been his companions that no person was ever present with or privy to any of the robberies he had committed, and having thus far discharged his conscience he suffered on the 28th of July 1721 in the twenty-fourth year of his age. End of Section 9. Section 10 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 10. The Life of John Winship, Highwayman, and Footpad. That idleness in which youths are suffered to live in this kingdom till they are grown to that size at which they are usually put apprentice, a space of time in which they are much better employed in many other countries of Europe, too often creates an inaptitude to work, and allows them opportunity of entering into paths which have a fatal termination. John Winship, of whom we are now to treat, was born of parents intolerable circumstances in the parish of St. Paul's Covent Garden. They gave him an education rather superior to his condition, and treated him with an indulgence by which his future life became unhappy. At about fourteen they placed him as an apprentice with a carpenter, to which trade he himself had a liking. His master used him as well as he could have expected or wished, yet that inclination to idleness and loitering, which he had contracted while a boy, made him incapable of pursuing his business with tolerable application. The particular accident by which he was determined to leave it shall be the next point in our relation. It happened that returning one day from work, he took notice of a young woman standing at a door in a street not far distant from that in which his master lived. He was then about seventeen, and imagining love to be a very fine thing, thought fit without further inquiry, to make this young woman the object of his affection. The next evening he took occasion to speak to her, and this acquaintance soon improving into frequent appointments naturally led wind-chip into much greater expenses than he was able to support. This had two consequences equally fatal to this unhappy young man, for in the first place he left his master and his trade, and took to driving of coaches and like methods to get his bread. But all the ways he could think of, proving unable to supply his expenses, he went next upon the road and raised daily contributions in as illegal a manner as they were spent at night in all the excesses of vice. It is impossible to give either a particular or exact account of the robberies he committed, because he was always very reserved, even after conviction in speaking as to these points. However, he is said to have been concerned in robbing a Frenchman of quality in the road to Hampstead, who, in a two-horst chaise, with the coachman on his box, was attacked in the dusk of the evening by three highwaymen. They exchanged several pistols and continued the fight till the ammunition on both sides being exhausted, the foreigner prepared to defend himself with his sword. The rogues were almost out of all hopes, of obtaining their booty when one of them, getting behind the chaise, secretly cut a square hole in its back, and putting in both his arms, seized the gentleman so strongly about the shoulders that his companions had an opportunity of closing in with him, disarming him of his sword, rifling and taking a hundred and twenty pistoles. Not content with this, they ripped the lace off his clothes, and took from the coachman all the money he had about him. Winship had been concerned in diverse gangs, and being a fellow of uncommon agility of body, was mighty well received and much caressed by them, as was also another companion of his, whom they called clean-limbed Tom, whose true name was never known, being killed in a duel at Kilkenny in Ireland. This last-mentioned person had been bred with an apothecary, and sometimes traveled the country in the high capacity of a quack doctor, and others in the more humble station of a Mary Andrew. Traveling once down into the West, with a little chest of medicines which he intended to dispose of in this matter at Westchester, at an inn about twenty miles short of that city, he overtook a London wholesale dealer, who had been that way collecting debts. Tom made a shift to get into his company overnight, and diverted him so much with his facetious conversation that he invited him to breakfast with him the next morning. Tom took occasion to put a strong purge into the ale and toast which the Londoner was drinking, he himself pretending never to take anything in the morning but a glass of wine and bitters. When the stranger got on horseback, Tom offered to accompany him, for, says he, I can easily walk as fast as your horse will trot. They had not got above two miles before at the entrance of a common the physic began to work. The tradesmen alighting to untrust the point, Tom leaped at once into his saddle, and galloped off both with his horse and portmanteau. He baited an hour at a small village three miles beyond Chester, having avoided passing through that city, then continued his journey to Port Patrick, from whence he crossed to Dublin with about four score pounds in ready money, a gold watch which was put up in a corner of a cloak-bag, linen, and other things to a considerable value besides. But to return to Winship, his robberies were so numerous that he began to be very well known and much sought after by those who make it their business to bring men to justice for rewards. There is some reason to believe that he had once been condemned and received mercy. However on the 25th of May, 1721, he stopped one Mr. Louther in his chariot, between Pancras Church and the Halfway House, and robbed him of his silver watch and a purse of ten guineas, for which robbery being quickly after apprehended he was convicted at the Old Bailey on the evidence of the prosecutor and the voluntary information of one of his companions. While he lay under sentence he could not help expressing a great impatience at the miserable condition to which his follies had reduced him, and at the same time to show the most earnest desire of life, though it were upon the terms of transportation for the whole continuance of it. Though he frequently declared it did not arise so much from a willingness in himself to continue in this world, as at the grief he felt for the misfortunes of his aged mother who was ready to run distracted at her son's unhappy fate. As he was a very personable young man, strangers, especially at Chapel, took particular notice of him and were continually inquiring of his adventures. But Winship not only constantly refused to give them any satisfaction, but declared also to the ordinary that he did not think himself obliged to make any discoveries which might affect the lives of others, showing also an extraordinary uneasiness whenever such questions were put to him. When he was asked by the direction of a person of some rank, whether he did not rob a person dressed in such a manner in a chase as he was watering his horse before the church door, during the time of divine service, Winship replied, he supposed the crime did not consist in the time or place, and as to whether he was guilty of it or no, he would tell nothing. In other respects he appeared penitent and devout, suffering at Tyburn at the same time with the aforementioned Matthew Clark in the twenty-second year of his age leaving behind him a wife who died afterwards with grief for his execution. End of Section 10. Section 11 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 11. The Life of John Meff, Alias Murth, a Housebreaker and a Highwayman The rigid execution of felons who returned from transportation has been found so necessary that few or none who have been tried for such illegal returning have escaped, though it is very hard to convince those who suffer for that offense that there is any real crime in there evading the sentence. It was this which brought John Meff, Alias Murth, of whom we are now to speak, to an ignominious death, after he had once before escaped it in a very extraordinary manner, as in the process of his story shall be related. This unhappy man was born in London of French parents, who retired into England for the sake of their religion, when Louis XIV began his furious persecution against the Protestants in his dominions. This John Meff was educated with great care, especially as to the principles of religion, by a father who had very just notions of that faith for which in banishment he suffered. When his son John grew up he put him out apprentice to a weaver, whom he served with great fidelity, and after he came out of his time married. But finding himself incapable to maintain his family by his labour, he unfortunately addicted himself to ill courses. In this he was yet more unlucky for having almost at his first setting out, broke open a house he was discovered, apprehended, tried, convicted, and put in the cart, in order to go to execution within the fortnight. But the hangman being arrested as he was going to Tyburn, he and the rest who were to have suffered with him were transported through the clemency of the government. On this narrow escape from death Meff was full of many penitent and determined with himself to follow for the future an honest course of life, however hard and laborious, as persons are generally inclined to believe all works and the plantations are. Yet no sooner was he at liberty, that is on board the transport vessel where he found means to make the master his friend, than much of these honest intentions were dissolved and laid aside, to which perhaps the behaviour of his companions and of the seamen on board the ship did not a little contribute. At first their passage was easy, the wind fair and prosperous. They began to comfort one another with the hopes of living easily in the plantations, greedily inquiring of the seamen how persons in their unhappy condition were treated by their masters, and whether all the terrible relations they had had in England were really facts, or invented only to terrify those who were to undergo that punishment. But while these unhappy persons were thus amusing themselves anew and unlooked for misfortune fell upon them, for in the height of Bermuda they were surprised by two pirate sloops, who though they found no considerable booty on board, were very well satisfied by the great addition they made to their force, from most of these fellows joining with them in their piratical undertakings. Mef, however, and eight others, absolutely refused to sign the paper which contained the pirate s engagement and articles for better pursuing their designs. These nine were, according to the barbarous practice of those kind of people, marooned, that is, set on shore on an uninhabited island. According to the custom of the people in such distress they were obliged to rub two dry sticks together till they took fire, and with great difficulty gathered as many other sticks as made a fire large enough to yield them some relief from the inclemancy of the weather. They caught some fowls with springes made of an old horse-hair wig, which were very tough and of fishy taste, but after three or four days they became acquainted with the springes and were never afterwards to be taken by that means. Their next resource for food was an animal which burrowed in the ground like our rabbits, but the flesh of these proving unwholesome threw them into such dangerous fluxes that five out of the nine were scarce able to go. They were then forced to take up with such fish as they were able to catch, and even these were not only very rank and unpleasant, but very small also, and no great plenty of them either. At last, when they almost despaired of ever getting off that inhospitable island, they aspired early one morning an Indian canoe come on shore with seven persons. They hid themselves behind the rocks as carefully as they could, and the Indians being gone up into the heart of the island, they went down and finding much salt provisions in the boat, they trusted themselves to the mercy of the waves. By the providence of God they were driven in two days into an English settlement, where Mef, instead of be taking himself to any settled course, resolved to turn sailor, and in that capacity made several voyages, not only to Barbados, Jamaica, and the rest of the British islands, but also to New England, Virginia, South Carolina, and other plantations. On the main there is no doubt but he led a life of no great satisfaction in this occupation, which probably was the reason he resolved to return home to England at all hazards. He did so, and had hardly been a month in this kingdom before he fell to his old practices, in which he was attended with the same ill fortune as formerly, that is to say, he was apprehended for one of his first acts, and committed to Newgate. Out of this prison he escaped by the assistance of a certain bricklayer, and went down to Hatfield in Hertfordshire to remain in hiding, but as he affirmed and was generally believed, being betrayed by the same bricklayer, he was retaken, conveyed again to Newgate, and confined the utmost severity. At his trial there arose a doubt whether the fact he had committed was not pardoned by the act of indemnity then lately granted. However the record of his former conviction being produced, the court ordered he should be indicted for returning without lawful cause, on which indictment he was convicted upon full proof, condemned, and shortly after ordered for execution. During the space he lay under sentence he expressed much penitence for his former ill-spent life, and together with James Redding, who was in the same unhappy state with himself, read and prayed with the rest of the prisoners. This Redding had been concerned in abundance of robberies, and as he himself owned, in some of which were attended with murder, he acknowledged he knew of the killing of Mr. Philpot, the surveyor of the window-lights, at the perpetration of which fact Redding said there were three persons present, two of which he knew, but as to the third he could say nothing. This malifactor, though but thirty-five years of age, was a very old offender, and had in his lifetime been concerned with most of the notorious gangs that at the time were in England, some of whom he had impeached and hanged for his own preservation. But he was at last convicted for robbing, in company with two others, George Brownsworth of a watch and other things of a considerable value, between Islington and the Turnpike, and for it was executed at Tyburn, the eleventh of September, 1721, together with John Meff aforesaid, then in the fortieth year of his age. Section 12 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 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 Elizabeth Miles. Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, who have been condemned and executed, volume one, edited by Arthur L. Hayward, Section 12, The Life of John Wigley, A Highway Man. The Life of John Wigley, A Highway Man. It is an observation which must be obvious to all my readers, that few who addict themselves to robbing and stealing ever continue long in the practice of those crimes, before they are overtaken by justice, not seldom as soon as they set out. This man had been bred a plasterer, but seems to have fallen, very early, into ill courses and felonious methods of getting money, in which hard practice he spent his years, till taking up with an old woman who sold brandy upon Finchley Common, she sometimes persuaded him of late years to work at his trade. There has been great suspicions that he murdered the old husband to this woman, who was found dead in a barn or outhouse not far from Hornsey. But Wigley, though he confessed an unlawful correspondence with the woman, yet constantly averred his innocence of that fact and always asserted that though the old man's death was sudden, yet it was natural. He used to account for it by saying that the deceased was a great brandy drinker by which he had worn out his constitution, and that, being one evening benighted in his return home from London, he crawled into that barn where he was found dead the next morning, and was currently reported to have been murdered. Though this malefactor had committed a multitude of robberies, yet he generally chose to go on such expeditions alone, having always great aversion for those confederacies and villainy which we call gangs, in which he always affirmed there was little safety, notwithstanding any oaths, by which they might bind themselves to secrecy. For notwithstanding some instances of their neglecting rewards when there were to be obtained by betraying their companions, yet when life came to be touched they hardly ever failed of betraying all they knew. Yet he once receded from the resolution he had made of never robbing in company and went out one night with two others of the same occupation toward Islington. There they met with one symbol conures, whom they robbed of a watch, a pair of silver spurs, and four shillings in money, at the same time treating him very ill, and terrifying him with their pistols. For this fact, soon after it was done, weekly was apprehended and convicted at the ensuing sessions. When all hopes of life were lost, he seemed disposed to suffer with cheerfulness and resignation, that death to which the law had doomed him. He said, in the midst of his afflictions, it was some comfort to him that he had no children, who might be exposed by his death to the wide world, not only in a helpless and desolate condition, but also liable to the reflection's incident from his crimes. He also observed that the immediate hand of providence seemed to dissipate whatever wicked persons got by rapine and plunder, so as not only to prevent their acquiring of subsistence, which might set them above the necessity of continuing in such courses, by that they even wanted bread to support them when overtaken by justice. He was near forty years of age at the time of his death, which happened on the same day as the malifactors last mentioned. End of Section 12. Section 13 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 13. The Life of William Casey, a robber. William Casey, whose life is the subject of our present discourse, was a son of one of the same name, a soldier who has served his majesty long and with good reputation. As is usual amongst that sort of people, the education he gave his son was such as might fit him for the same course of life, though at the same time he took care to provide him with the tolerable competency of learning. That is, as to writing and reading English. When he was about 15 years of age, his father caused him to be enlisted in the same company in which he served for some small time before my Lord Cobham's expedition into Spain in which he accompanied him. That expedition being over, Casey returned into England and did duty as usual in the guards. One night he, with some others, crossing the park a fray happened between them and one John Stone, which as Casey affirmed at his death, was occasioned by the prosecutor's stone, offering very great decencies to him, upon which they in a fury beat and abused him from the abhorrence they pretended to have for that beastly and unnatural sin of sodomy. Whether this was really the case or no is hard to determine. All who were concerned in it with Casey being indicted, though not apprehended, with him and their evidence consequently taken. However that matter was, Stone the prosecutor told a dreadful story on Casey's trial. He said the four men attacked him crossing the park, who attacked, beat and cruelly trod upon him and wounded him, taking from him at the same time his hat, wig, neckcloth and five shillings and money, and that upon his arising and endeavouring to follow them they turned back, stamped upon him, broke one of his ribs and told him that if he attempted to stir they would seize him and swear sodomy upon him. On this indictment Casey was convicted and ordered for execution, notwithstanding all the intercession his friends could make. While under sentence he complained heavily of the pains a certain corporal had taken in preparing and pressing the evidence against him, he said his diligence proceeded not from the desire of doing justice or for his guilt, but from an old grudge he owed their family from Casey's father threatening to prosecute him for a rape committed on his daughter, then very young and attended with very cruel circumstances, and which even the corporal himself had in part owned in a letter which he had written to the said Casey's father. However, while he lay in Newgate he seemed heartily affected with sorrow for his misspent life which he has said was a consumed as is too frequent among soldiers either in idleness or vice. He added that in Spain he had made serious resolutions of amendment with himself but was hindered from performing them by his companions who were continually seducing him into old courses. When he found that all hopes of life were lost he disposed himself to submit with decency to his fate, which disposition he preserved to the last. At the place of execution he behaved with great composure and said that as he had heard he was accused in the world of having robbed and murdered a woman in Hyde Park. He judged it proper to discharge his conscience by declaring that he knew nothing of the murder but said nothing as to the robbery. At the time of his death which was on the 11th of September 1721 he was about twenty years of age and according to the character his officers gave him a very quiet and orderly young man. He left behind him a paper to be published to the world which as he was a dying man he averred to be the truth. A copy of a paper left by William Casey. Good people I am now brought to this place to suffer a shameful and ignominious death and of all such unhappy persons dis-expected by the world that they should either say something at their death or leave some account behind them. And having that which more nearly concerns me, viz, the care of my immortal soul I choose rather to leave these lines behind me than to waste my few precious moments in talking to the multitude. First I declare I'd die like a member though a very unworthy one of the Church of England as by law established the principles of which my now unhappy father took an early care to instruct me in. And next for the robbery of Mr. Stone for which I am now brought to this fatal place I solemnly do declare to God and the world that I never had the value of one half-penny from him and that the occasion of his being so ill-used was that he offered to me that the testable and crying sin of sodomy. I take this opportunity with almost my last breath to give my hearty thanks to the honorable Colonel Pitts and Colonel Paget for their endeavors to save my life and indeed I had some small hopes that his majesty in consideration of the services of my whole family having all been faithful soldiers and servants to the Crown of England would have extended one branch of his mercy to me and have sent me to have served him in another country. But welcome by the grace of God I am resigned to his will and die in charity with all men forgiving hoping to be forgiven myself through the merits of my blessed Savior Jesus Christ. I hope and make it my earnest request that nobody will be so little Christian as to reflect on my aged parents, wife, brother or sisters for my untimely end. And I pray God into whose hands I commend my spirit that the great number of sodomites in and about this city and suburbs may not bring down the same judgment from heaven as fell on Sodom and Gomorrah. William Casey Sorer Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, was a distinguished general who had served under Marlboro. In 1719 he led an expedition to the north coast of Spain and seized Vigil in the neighboring towns and harbors. End of section 13. Section 14 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 Blake Butler Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals who have been condemned and executed. Volume 1. Edited by Arthur L. Hayward The Life of John Dykes. A Thief and Highwayman It is a reflection almost too common to be repeated that of all the vices to which young people are addicted nothing is so dangerous as a habit and inclination to gaming. To explain this would be to swell a volume. Instances which are so numerous do it much better. Perhaps this unhappy person John Dykes is as strong a one as is anywhere to be met with. His parents were persons in middling circumstances but he being their eldest child they treated him with great indulgence and to the detriment of their own fortune afforded him a necessary education. When he grew up and his friends thought of placing him out apprentice he always found some excuse or other to avoid it which arose only from his great indolence of temper and his continual itching after gaming. When he had money he went to the gaming tables about town and when reduced by losses sustained there would put on an old ragged coat and get out to play at chuck and span farthing amongst the boys in the street by which sometimes he got enough money to go to his old companions again. But this being a very uncertain recourse he made use more frequently of picking pockets for which being several times apprehended and committed to bridewell his friends especially his poor father would often demonstrate to him the ignominious end which such practices would necessarily bring on in treating him while there was yet time to reflect and leave them off promising to do their utmost for him notwithstanding all that was passed. In the course of this unhappy life the youth had acquired an extraordinary share of cunning and an unusual capacity of dissembling. He employed it more than once to deceive his family into a belief of his having made a thorough resolution of amendment. Once after having suffered the usual discipline of the horse pond Dykes was carried before a justice of peace and committed to Toadhill Fields Bridewell. Here he had become acquainted with one Jedediah West a Quaker's son who had fallen into the like practices and for them shared the same punishment with himself. They were pretty much of a temper but Jedediah was the elder and much more subtle of the two and in this unhappy place they contracted a strict and intimate friendship out of shame Jedediah for bore for two or three days to acquaint his relations and during that time for the most part subsisted out of what Dykes got from home. But at last West picked up courage enough to send his brother a very eminent man in business and by telling him a plausible story procured not only pity and relief but even prevailed on him to believe that he was innocent of the fact for which he was committed. He so well tutored his friend Dykes that though he could not persuade his parents into the same degree of credulity yet his outward appearance of penitence induced them not only to pardon him but to take him home give him a new suit of clothes and to promise him if he continued to do well whatever was in their power to do for him. Dykes and his companion being in favor with their friends and having money in their pockets continued their correspondence and went often to the gaming tables together. At first they had a considerable run of luck for about three weeks but fortune then forsaking them they were reduced to be downright penniless without any hopes of relief or assistance from their friends sufficient to carry on their expenses. West at last proposed an expedient for raising money which lay altogether upon himself in which he the next day executed in the following manner. About the time that he knew his brother was to come home from the exchange to dinner he went to his house equipped in a sailor's p-jacket his hair cropped short to his ears his eyebrows colored black and a handkerchief about his neck as soon as he saw him in the counting house his brother started back and cried bless me Jedediah how came you in this pickle with all signs of grief and confusion he threw himself at his brother's feet and told him with a flood of tears that two coiners who had accidentally seen him in Bridewell had sworn against him and three others on their apprehension in order on the merit thereof to be admitted evidences to get off themselves so that dear brother he continued I have been obliged to take passage in a vessel that does down next tide to gravesend for I have ran the hazard of my life to come and beg your charitable assistance the poor honest man was so much amazed and concerned at this melancholy tale that bursting out into tears and hanging about his brother's neck he begged him to take a coach and be gone to billingsgate giving him ten guineas in hand and telling him that his bills should not be protested if he drew within the compass of a hundred pounds from D.F. wither he said the ship was bound west was no sooner out of the street where his brother lived but he ordered the coach to drive to a certain place where he had appointed dykes to meet him and there they expressed a great deal of mutual satisfaction at the trick west had played on his brother however the latter was no great gainer in the end for mr west's senior soon finding out the contrivance forever renounced him and Jedidiah being soon after arrested for 12 pounds due to his tailor was carried to prison and remain there without the least assistance from his brother till after his friend dykes was hanged the last mentioned malifactor unmoved by all the tender entreaties of his friends and the glaring prospect before him of his own ruin went still on at the old rate and whenever gaming had brought him low in cash took up with the road or some such like dishonest method to recruit it at last he had the ill luck to commit a robbery in stepney parish in the road between my land and bow upon one charles right to whose bosom clapping a pistol he commanded him to deliver peacefully or he would shoot him through the body the booty he took was very inconsiderable being only a pen knife an ordinary seal and five shillings and eight pence and money a poor price for life since two days after he was apprehended for this robbery committed to newgate and condemn the next sessions his behavior under these unhappy circumstances was very mean and such as fully showed what difference there is between courage and that resolution which is necessary to support the spirits and calm our apprehensions at the certain approach of a violent death i forbear attempting any description of those unutterable torments which the exterior marks of a distracted behavior fully showed that this poor wretch endured and as i have nothing more to add of him but that he confessed his having been guilty of a multitude of ill acts he submitted at last with greater cheerfulness than he had ever shown during his confinement to that shameful death which the law had ordained for his crimes on the 23rd of october 1721 when he was about 23 years of age end of section 14 section 15 of lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed for murder the highway house breaking street robberies corning or other offenses volume one this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox dot org recording by tracy duckett lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed volume one edited by arthur l hayward the life of richard james a highwayman the misfortune of not having early a virtuous education is often so great a one is never to be retrieved and it happens frequently as far as human capacity will give us leave to judge that those prove remarkably wicked and profligate for want of it who if they had been so happy as to have received it would probably have led an honest and industrious life i am led to this observation at present by the materials which lay before me for the composition of this life richard james was a son of a nobleman's cook but he knew little more of his father than that he left him to the wide world while very young and so at about twelve years of age he was sent to see there he had the misfortune to be taken prisoner by the spaniards who he acknowledged treated him with great humanity and a house painter taken a great liking to him received him into his house taught him his profession and used him with the same tenderness as if he had been his nearest relation but fondness for his country exciting in him a continual desire of seeing england again at last he found a means to return before he was seventeen and after this being in england but a very small time he totally disabliged what few friends he had left by his silly marriage to a poor girl younger than himself as is common enough in such mad adventures the woman's friends were as much disabliged as his and so not knowing how to subsist together richard was obliged to be taken to his old profession of the sea the first voyage he made was to the west indies where he had the misfortune to be taken by pirates and by them being said on shore he was reduced almost to downright starving however baking his way to boston in new england he from thence found a method of returning home once again the first thing he did was to inquire for his wife but she under a pretense of having received advice of his death from america had gotten another husband and though poor james was willing to pass that by yet the woman it seems knew better when she was well and under pretense of affection for two children which she had by this last husband absolutely refused to leave him and return back to dick her first spouse however he did not seem to have taken this much to heart for in a short time he followed her example and married another wife but finding no method of procuring an honest livelihood he took a short method of living this to thieving after every manner that came in his way he committed a vast number of robberies in a very short space chiefly upon the wagoners in the oxford road and sometimes as if there were not crime enough in barely robbing them he added to it by the cruel manner in which he treated them at this rate he went on for a considerable space till being apprehended for a robbery of a man on handball green from whom he took but ten shillings he was shortly after convicted and having no friends from that time he laid aside all hope of his life during the space he had to prepare himself for death he appeared so far from being either terrified or even unwilling to die that he looked upon it as a very happy relief from a very troublesome and uneasy life and declared with all outward appearance of sincerity that he would not even if it were in his power procure a reprieve or avoid that death which could along prove a remedy for those evils which had so long rendered life a burden he was very earnest to be instructed in the duties of religion and seemed to desire nothing else than to prepare himself as well as time and his melancholy circumstances would allow him and never from the time of his conviction showed any change in his disposition but continued still rather to wish for his death than to fear it he made a very ample confession of all the robberies he had ever done and seems sorrowful enough above all for the inhumanity and incivility with which he had sometimes treated people amongst other particulars he said that once with his companions having robbed a lady in some other company of a whip and a tortoise shell snuff box with a silver rim she earnestly desired to have them returned saying that as to the money they had taken they were heartily welcome the other thieves seemed inclinable to grant her request but james absolutely declared that she should not have them however as a very extraordinary mark of his generosity he took the snuff out of the box and putting it into a paper gave it her back again at the place of execution he repeated what he had formally said as to his readiness of dying adding that if the people pitied the misfortune he fell under of dying so ignominious a death he no less pitied them in the dangers and misfortunes they were sure to run through in this miserable world at this time of his death he was about 30 years of age and suffered on the same day with a criminal last mentioned and of section 15 recording by Tracy Duckett section 16 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 Tracy Duckett lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed volume one edited by Arthur L. Hayward section 16 the life of James Wright a highwayman James Wright the malefactor whose life we are going to relate at present was born at Enfield a very honest and industrious parents who that he might get a living honestly put him apprentice to a parook maker at this trade after having served his time he set up in the old Bailey and lived there for some time in very good credit but being much given up to women and an idle habit of life his expenses quickly out went his profits and thus in the space of some months reduce him to downright want this put him upon the illegal ways he afterwards took to support himself in the enjoyment of those pleasures which even the evils he had already felt could not make him wise enough to shun he was very far from being a hardened criminal hardly ever robbing a passenger without tears in his eyes and always framing resolutions to himself of quitting that infamous manner of life as soon as ever it should be in his power he fancied that as the rich could better spare it than the poor there was less crime in taking it from them and valued himself not a little that he had never injured any poor men but always singled out those who from their equipage were likely as to yield him a good booty and at the same time not be much the worse for it themselves he had gone on for a considerable space in the commission of villainies with impunity but at last being apprehended for a robbery committed by him in the county of Surrey he was there upon indicted and tried at the ensuing ass sizes at Kingston and by some means or other was so lucky as to be acquitted no doubt to his very great joy and on this deliverance he again renewed his vows of amendment after this acquittal a friend of his was so kind as to take him down to his house in the country in hopes of keeping him out of harm's way and indeed is highly probable that he had totally given over evil intention of that sort when he was unfortunately impeached by Hawkins one of his old companions and on his evidence and that of the prosecutor whom he found out right was taken up tried and convicted at the old Bailey when he perceived there was no hope of life he applied himself to the great business of his soul and behaved with the greatest composure imaginable he declared himself a Roman Catholic yet frequented the chapel all the time he was in Newgate and seemed only studious how to make peace with God when the fatal day of execution approached he was far from seeming amazed not withstanding that after mature deliberation he refused to declare his associates or how they might be found saying that perhaps they might repent and he hoped some of them had done so and he would not bring them to the same ignominious death with himself the fact he died for is robbing Mr. Towers with some ladies in a coach in Marlboro street he confessed also that his companion called out to him what do they resist shoot him he suffered with all the outward signs of penitence on the 22nd of December 1721 being about 34 years of age end of section 16 recording by Tracy Duckett section 17 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 Phyllis Vinceli lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed volume one edited by Arthur L. Hayward section 17 the life of Nathaniel Hawes a thief and a robber amongst many odd notions which are picked up by the common people there is none more dangerous both to themselves and unto others than the idea they get of courage which with them consists either in a furious madness or in an obstinate perseverance even in the worst cause Nathaniel Hawes was a very extraordinary instance of this as the following part of his life will show he was as he said himself the son of a very rich Grazier in Norfolk who dying when he was but a year old he afterwards pretended that he was defrauded of a greater part of his father's effects which should have belonged to him however those who took care of his education put him out apprentice to an upholsterer with whom having served about four years he then fell into very expensive company which reduced him to such traits as obliged him to make bold with his master's cash by which he injured him for some time with impunity but proceeding at last to the commission of a downright robbery he was there and detected tried and convicted but being then a very young man the court had pity on him and he had the good luck to procure a pardon Nat made the old use of mercy when extended to such sort of people that is when he returned to liberty he returned to his old practices his companions were several young men of the same stamp with himself who placed all their delight in the sensual and brutal pleasures of drinking gaming whoring and idling about without be taking themselves to any business Nat who was a young fellow naturally sprightly and of good parts from thence became very acceptable to these sorts of people and committed abundance of robberies in a very small space of time the natural fire of his temper made him behave with great boldness on such occasions and gave him no small reputation amongst the gang seeing himself extravagantly commended on such occasions haws began to form to himself high notions of heroism in that way and from the warmth of a lively imagination became a downright Don Quixote and all their adventures he particularly affected the company of Richard James and with him robbed very much on the Oxford Road whereon it was common for both these persons not only to take away the money from passengers but also to treat them with great inhumanity which for all I might know might arise in a great measure from haws whimsical notions this fellow was so puffed up with the reputation he had got amongst his companions in the same miserable occupation that he fancied no expedition impracticable which he thought fit to engage and indeed the boldness of his attempts had so often given him success that there is no wonder a fellow of his small parts and education should conceive so highly of himself it was nothing for haws singly to rob a coach full of gentlemen to stop two or three persons on the highway at a time or to rob the wagons in a line as they came on the Oxford Road to London nor was there any of the little prisons or bridewells that could hold him there was however an adventure of gnats of this kind that deserves a particular relation he had it seems been so unlucky as to be taken and committed to new prison on suspicion of robbing two gentlemen in a chase coming from Hempstead footnote this was the clerkenwell house of detention where prisoners were sent after being sentenced pending their disposal at a house of correction it was originally intended for the overflow from Newgate the prison stood in clerkenwell clothes and footnote haws viewed well the place of his confinement but found it much too strong for any attempts like those he was want to make in the same place with himself and another man mere was a woman very gentially dressed who had been committed for shoplifting this woman seemed even more ready to attempt something which might get her out of that confinement then either haws or her other companion the latter said it was impracticable and that that though he had broken open many a prison yet he saw no probability of putting this in the number well said the woman have you courage enough to try if i put you in the way yes quote haws there's nothing i won't undertake for liberty and said the other fellow if i once saw a likelihood of performing it there's nobody has better hands at such work than myself in the first place said this politician in petticoats we must raise as much money amongst us as will keep a very good fire why truly replied haws a fire would be convenient in this cold weather but i can't for my heart see how we should be nearer our liberty for it unless you intend to set the jail in flames tush tush answered the woman follow but my directions and let's have some faggots and coals and i warrant you by tomorrow morning we shall be safe out of these regions the woman spoke this with so much assurance that haws and the other man complied and reserving but one shilling laid out all their money in combustibles and liquor while the runners of the prison were going to and fro upon this occasion the woman seemed so dejected that she could scarce speak and the two men by her directions sat with the same air as if the rope already had been about them at tyburn at last as they were going to be locked up pray says the woman with a faint voice can't you give me something like a poker ys says one of the fellows belonging to the jail if you'll give me two pence i'll bring you one of the old bars that was taken out of the window when these new ones were put in the woman gave him the half pence he delivered the bar and the keepers having locked them up barred and bolted the doors and left them until next morning as soon as ever the people of the jail were gone up starts madam now my lads says she to work and putting her hands into her pockets and shaking her petticoats down drops two little bags of tools she pointed out to them a large stone at the corner of the roof which was mortised into two others one above and the other below after they had picked all the mortar from between them she heated the bar red hot in the fire and putting it to the sockets and to which the irons that held the stones were fastened with lead it quickly loosened them and then making use of the bars as of a crow by two o'clock in the morning they had got them all three out and opened a fair passage into the streets only that it was a little too high upon this the woman made them fasten the iron bar strongly at the angle where the three stones met and then pulling off her stays she unrolled from the top of her petticoats four yards of strong cord the noose of which being fastened on the iron the other end was thrown out over the wall and so the descent was rendered easy the men were equally pleased and surprised at their good fortune and in gratitude to the female author of it helped her to the top of the wall and let her get safe over before they attempted to go out themselves it was not long after this that Hawes committed a robbery unfinchly common upon one Richard Hall from whom he took about four shillings in money and to make up the badness of the booty he took from him his horse in order to be the better equipped to go in quest of another which he might make up the deficiency for this robbery being shortly after detected and apprehended he was convicted and received sentence of death when first confined he behaved himself with very great levity and declared he would merit a greater reputation by the boldness of his behavior than any highwayman that had died these seven years indeed this was the style he always made use of and the great affectation of intrepidity and resolution which he always put on would have moved anybody had it not been for his melancholy condition to smile at the vanity of the man at the time he was taken up he had it seems a good suit of clothes taken from him which put him so much out of humor because he could not appear as he said like a gentleman at the sessions house that when he was arraigned and should have put himself upon his trial he refused to plead unless they were delivered to him again but to this the court answered that it was not in their power and on his persisting to remain mute after all the exhortations which were made to him the court at last ordered that the sentence of the press should be read to him as is customary on such occasions after which the judge from the bench spoke to him to this effect Nathaniel Hawes the equity of the law of England more tender of the lives of its subjects than any other in the world allows no person to be put to death either unheard or without the positive proof against him of the fact where on he stands charged and that proof too must be such as shall satisfy twelve men who are his equals and by whose verdict he is to be tried and surely no method can be devised fuller than this is as well of compassion as of justice but then it is required that the person to be tried shall avare his innocence by pleading not guilty to his indictment which contains the charge you have heard that which the grand jury have found against you you see here twelve honest men ready to inquire and partially into the evidence that shall be given against you the court such as the humanity of our constitution is counsel for you as you are a prisoner what hinders then that you should submit to so fair so equal a trial and wherefore will you by a brutish obstinacy draw upon you that heavy judgment which the law has appointed for those who seem to have lost the rational faculties of men to this haws impudently made answer that the court was formally a place of justice but now it was become a place of injustice that he doubted not but that they would receive a severeer sentence than that which they had pronounced upon him and that for his part he made no question of dying with the same resolution with which he had often beheld death and would leave the world with the same courage with which he had lived in it nap thought this the most glorious instance of his courage and when some of his companions said justingly that he chose pressing because the court would not let him have a good suit of clothes to be hanged in he replied with a great deal of warmth that it was no such thing but that as he had lived with the character of the boldest fellow of his profession he was resolved to die with it and leave his memory to be admired by all the gentlemen of the road in succeeding ages this was the rant which took up the poor fellow's head and induced him to bear two hundred and fifty pound weight upon his breast for upwards of seven minutes and was much the same kind of bravery as that which induced the French lackey to dance a minuet immediately before he danced his last upon the wheel an action which made so much noise in France as engaged the duke day wrote focou to compare it with the death of Cato Hawes indeed did not persist quite so long but submitted to that justice which he saw was unavoidable after he had endured as I have said before so great a weight in the press the bruises he received on the chest pained him so exceedingly during the short remainder of his life that he was hardly able to perform those devotions which the near approach of death made him desirous to offer up for so profligate a life he laid aside then those wild notions which had been so fatal to him through the whole course of his days and so remarkably unfortunate to him in this last age of life he confessed frankly what crimes he could remember and seemed very desirous of acquitting some innocent persons who were at that time imprisoned or suspected for certain villainies which were committed by Hawes and his gang particularly a footman then in the poultry compter and a man's son at an alehouse who though Hawes declared he knew no harm of him yet at the place of execution he said that as he desired his death might be a warning to all in general so he wished it might be particularly considered by him though as I have said he was fully convinced of the folly of those notions which he had formerly entertained yet he did not as most of those braves do go from one degree of extravagance to the other that is from daring everything to sinking into the meanest cowardice for Hawes went to his death very composedly as he had received the sacrament the day before with all the outward marks of devotion he suffered on the 22nd day of September 1721 at which time he was scarce 20 years of age end of section 17 section 18 of the 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 Peter Musgrove lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed volume one edited by Arthur L. Hayward section 18 the life of John Jones a pickpocket there is not perhaps a greater misfortune to young people than that too great tenderness and compassion with which they are treated in their youth and those hopes of amendment which their relations flatter themselves with as they grow up if they could suffer themselves to be guided by experience they would quickly find that sagacious minds do but increase in wickedness as they increase in years timely services therefore and proper restraints are the only methods with which such persons that are be treated for minds disposed to such gross impurities as those which lead to such wickedness or are rendered capital by law are seldom to be prevailed on by gentleness or admonitions unsecured by harsher means i am very far from being an advocate for great severities towards young people but i confess in cases like these i think they are as necessary as amputations where the distemper has spread so far that no cure is to be hoped for by any other means if the relations of john jones had known and practiced these methods it is highly probable he had escaped the suffering and the shame of that ignominious death to which after a long persisting in his crimes he at last came this malefactor was born in the parish of st andrew's wholeborn of parents intolerable circumstances who while a boy indulge him in all his little humours from a wise expectation of their dropping from him all at once when he grew up but this expectation not succeeding as it must be owned there was no great probability it should they were then for persuading him to settle in business that he might do this with less reluctancy they were so kind as to put him out upon liking to three or four trades but it happened unluckily that there was work to be done in all of them jones could not be brought to go apprentice to any but idled on amongst his companions without ever thinking of applying himself to any business whatever his relations sent in to see another odd academy to learn honesty at and on return from dense and refusing to go any more his relations refused to support him any longer jack was very melancholy on this score and having but 18 pence in the world when he received the comfortable message of his never being to expect a father more from his friends he went out to take a walk in Hyde Park to divert his melancholy when he ruminated on what he was to do next for a livelihood in the midst of these reflections he aspired an old school follower was his who used to have the same inclinations with himself there had been a great intimacy between them it was quickly renewed and jack jones unburdened to him the whole budget of his sorrows and is this all says the young fellow why i will put you in a way to ease this in a minute if you will step along with me to a house hard by where i'm to meet with some of my acquaintance jones readily consented and to a little blind ale house in a dark lane they went the woman of the house received them very kindly and as soon as jack's companion had informed her that he was a newcomer she conducted him into a little room where she entertained him with a good dinner and a bowl of punch after it jack was mightily taken with the courtesy of his landlady who promised him he should never want such usage and his friend would teach him in the evening how to earn it evening came and out walked the two young men jack was put upon nothing at that time but to observe how his companion managed he was a very dexterous youth and at seven o'clock prayers picked up in half an hour's time three good handkerchiefs and a silver snuff box having this readily shown him the practice he was no less courteous in equating jones with the theory of his profession and in two or three nights work made jones a very complete workman in their way he lived at this rate for some months until going with his instructor through king street west minster and passing by a woman pretty well dressed says the other fellow to jones now mind jack and while jostle her against the wall do you whip off her pocket jones performed tolerably well though the woman screamed out and people were thick in the street he gave the pocket as soon as he had plucked it off to his comrade but having felt it rather weighty would trust him no farther than the first by alley before they stopped to examine its contents they had scarce found their prize consisted of no more than a small prayer book a needle case and a silver thimble when the woman with a mob at her heels bolted upon them and seized them jones had the pocket in his hand when they laid hold of him and his associate no sooner perceived the danger but he clapped hold of him by the collar and cried out as loud as any in the mob aye aye this is he good woman is not this your pocket by this stratagem he escaped and jones was left to feel the whole weight of the punishment which was ready to fall upon them he was immediately committed to prison and the offense being capital in its nature he was condemned at the next session and though he always buoyed himself up with hopes to the contrary was ordered for execution he was dreadfully amazed at death as being indeed very unfit to die however when he found it was inevitable he began to prepare for it as well as he was able his relations now afforded him some little relief and after having made as ample a confession as he was able he suffered a tie burn with the two above mentioned malefactors whores and right being then but a little above 19 years of age end of section 18 recording by Peter Musgrove section 19 of the 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 Peter Musgrove section 19 the life of John Smith a murderer as idleness is fatal to youth so it and ill company become not seldom so even to persons in years John Smith of whose extraction we can say nothing had served with a very good character in a regiment of foot during Queen Anne's wars in Flanders his captain took a particular liking to him and from his boldness and fierce courage to which he himself was also greatly inclined they did abundance of odd actions during the war some of which may not be unentertaining to the reader if I mention the army lying in camp almost over against that of the French king foraging was become very dangerous and hardly a party went out without a skirmish John's master the captain having been out with the party and being overpowered by the French were obliged to leave their trusses behind them when they returned to the camp Smith was ordered to lead his master's horse out into the field that the poor creature might be able to pick up a little pasture John had not attended his horse long before at a distance of about half a mile he saw a boy leading two others at the foot of the hill which joined to the French fortification as John's livery was yellow and he spoke balloon bad enough to be taken for a Frenchman he ventured to stake the captain's horse down where it was feeding and without the least apprehension of the risk he ran went across to the fellow who was feeding his horses under the French lines he proceeded with so much caution that he was within a stone's throw of the boy before he perceived him from the color of his clothes and the place where they were immediately under the French camp the lad took him for one of their own people and therefore answered him very civilly when he asked what o'clock it was and whom he belonged to but John no sooner observed from the boys turning his horses that the hill lay again between them and the French soldiers then clubbing his hands suddenly upon the boy's throat and tripping up his heels he clapped a gag in his mouth which he had cut for that purpose and leaving him with his hands tied behind him on the ground he rode clear off with the best of the horses notwithstanding that the boy had alarmed the French camp and he had some hundred shots sent after him the captain and Smith were out one day of foraging and one of the officers of the party who was known to have a hundred pistols about him was killed in a skirmish and neither party dared to bring off the body for the other it just being dark each expected a reinforcement from the camp Smith told his captain that if he'd give him one half of the gold for fetching he would venture and his offer being gladly accepted he accordingly crept 200 yards upon his belly and after he had picked the purse out of the dead man's pockets returned without either being seen or suspected when the army disbanded Smith bit took himself to sea and served under Admiral Bing in the fight at Messina but on the return of that fleet from the Mediterranean being discharged he came up to London where having squandered his money he did some petty thefts to get more to this he was induced chiefly by the company of one bullford who was executed and at whose execution Smith was present and soon after cohabitated with his wife but not long after this Smith meeting one Sarah Thompson an old acquaintance of his who had it seems left him to live with another fellow he took it into his head there upon to use her very roughly and clapping a pistol to her breast threatened with the abundance of ill language to shoot her this occasion the great fray in the place where it happened which was near the hermitage towards whopping and several persons running to take the woman away and to seize him in order to prevent murder Smith fired his pistol and unhappily killed one Matthew Walden who was amongst the number the mob immediately crowd upon him and seized him and the fact appearing very clear on his trial he was convicted at the next sessions of the old bailing he behaved himself with great resolution professed himself extremely sorry as well for the many vices he had been guilty of as for that last bloody act which brought him to his shameful end he especially recommended to all who spoke to him to avoid the snares and delusions of lewd women and at the place of execution delivered the following paper he was about 40 years of age when he died being the eighth day of February 1772 at Tyburn the paper delivered by John Smith at the place of execution I was born of honest parents bred to the sea and lived honest till I was led aside by lewd women I then robbed on ships and never robbed on shore I had no desire to kill the woman who jilted me and left me for another man but only to terrify her for I could have shot her when the loaded pistol was at her breast but I curd my passion and only threw candles to get her I confessed my cruelty towards my wife who was a woman too good for me but I was at first forced to forsake her for debt and go to sea I hope in God none will reflect on her or my poor innocent children who could not help my sad passion and more sad death written by me John Smith end of section 19 this recording by Peter Musgrove section 20 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 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 Blake Butler lives of the most remarkable criminals who have been condemned and executed volume one edited by Arthur L. Hayward the life of James Shaw Elias Smith a highwayman and murderer James Shaw otherwise Smith for by both these names he went nor am I able to say which was his true one was the son of parents both of circumstances and inclination to have given him a very good education if he would have received it the unsettledness of his temper was heightened by that indulgence with which he was treated by his relations who permitted him to make trial of several trades though he could not be brought to like any indeed he stayed so long with the forger of gunlocks as to learn something of his art which sometimes he practiced and thereby got money but generally speaking he chose rather to acquire it by easier means I cannot take it upon me to say at what time he began to rob upon the road or to take any other villainy of that sort but his certain that if he himself were to be believed it was in a great measure owing to a bad wife for when he by his labor got nine shillings a week and used to return home very weary in the evening he generally found nobody there to receive him or to get ready his supper but everything in the greatest confusion without any person to take care of what little he had this as he would have had it believed was the source of his misfortunes and necessities as it was also the occasion of his taking such fatal methods to relieve them the hamstead road was that in which he chiefly robbed and he could not be persuaded that there was any great crime in taking away the superfluous cash of those who lavish it in vanity and luxury or from those who procure it by cheating and gaming and under these two classes Shaw pretended to rank all who frequented the wells or bell size and it is to be much feared that in this respect he was not very far out amongst the many adventures which befell him in his expeditions on the road there are one or two which it may not be improper to take notice of one evening as he was patrolling thereabouts he came up to a chariot in which there was a certain famous justice who happened to have won about four hundred pounds at play and count union a famous foreign gangster that has made many different figures about this town no sooner was the coach stopped by Shaw and another person on horseback but the squire slipped the money he had won behind the seat of the coach and the count having little to lose seemed not very uneasy at the accident the highwayman no sooner had demanded their money but the count gave two or three pieces of foreign gold and the gentleman in hopes by this means of getting rid of them presented them with twenty guineas why really sir said Shaw on the receipt of the gold this where I had some compliment from another person but me thinks you might have spared a little more out of the long bag you brought from the gaming table come gentlemen get out get out we must examine the nest a little I fancy the gold pitches are not yet flown upon this they both got out of the chariot and Shaw shaking the cushion that covered the seat hastily the long bag fell out with its mouth open and all its bright contents were scattered on the ground the two nights of the road began to pick them up as fast as they could and why all the justice cursed this unlucky accident which had nicked him after he had nicked all the game stars at the wells the count who thought swearing an unprofitable exercise began to gather as fast as they a good deal of company coming in sight just as they had finished and while they were calling upon the count to refund they were glad to gallop away but returning to London they were taken and about three hours after committing the fact they together with the witnesses against them were brought before a middle sex magistrate who committed them but pray sir said Shaw before he was taken out of the room why should not that French fellow suffer as well as we he shared the booty and pleased your worship to his but reasonable he should share the punishment well what say you sir quote the justice to his brother magistrate what is this outlandish man they talk of he has a count sir replied he returned from Naples whether he went on some affairs of importance he makes a very good figure here sometimes though I do not know what his income is I do not apprehend your worship has anything to do with that since I do not complain however replied the dispenser of justice I have had but a very sorry account of you yet as your in company with my brother here I shall take no further notice of what these men say Shaw being after this got out of prison and having no money to purchase a horse he endeavored to carry on his old profession of a foot pad in this shape he robbed also several coaches and single passengers and that with very great inhumanity which was natural he said from that method of attacking for it was impossible for a foot pad to get off unless he either maimed the man or wounded his horse meeting by chance as he was walking across the hemstead road an old grave looking man he thought there was no danger in making up to him and seizing him since he himself was well armed the old gentleman immediately begged that he would be civil and told him that if he would be so he would give him an old pair of breaches which were filled with money and effects worth money and as he said lay buried by such a tree pointing at the same time to it with his hand Shaw went thither directly in hopes of gaining the miser's great prize for the old fellow made him believe he had buried it out of covetousness and came there to brood over it but no sooner were they come to the place and Shaw looping down began to look for three pieces of tobacco pipe which the old man pretended to have stack where they were buried but the gentleman whipped out his sword and made two or three passes at Shaw wounding him in the neck side and breast as the number of his robberies were very great so it is not to be expected that we should have a very exact account of them yet as Shaw was not shy in revealing any circumstance that related to them we may not perhaps have been as particular in the relation of his crimes as our readers would desire and therefore it will be necessary to mention some other of his expeditions at his usual time and place vis hamstead road in the evening he overtook a dapper fellow who was formerly a perook maker but now a game stir this man taking Shaw for a bubble began to talk of play and mentioned all fours and cribbage and asked him whether he would play a game for a bottle or so at the flask Shaw pretended to be very willing but said he had made a terrible oath against playing for anything in any house but if to avoid it the gentleman would tie his horse to a tree and had any cards in his pocket he'd sit down on the green bank in yonder clothes and hazard a shilling or two the game stir who always carried his implements in his pocket readily accepted of the offer and tying their horses to a post of a little alehouse on the road over they whipped into the fields but no sooner were they set down and the sharper began to shuffle the cards but Shaw starting up caught him by the throat and after shaking out three guineas and a half from his breeches pocket broke to pieces two peep boxes split as many pair of false dice and kicked the cards all about the ground he left him tied hand and foot to consider ways and means to recruit his stock by methods just as honest as those by which he lost it the soldiers that at that time were placed on the road passed for a great security amongst people in town but those who had occasion to pass that way found no great benefit from their protection for robberies were as frequent as ever and the ill usage of persons when robbed more so because the rogues thought themselves in greater danger of being taken and therefore bound or disabled those they plundered for fear of their pursuing them for a fact of this kind it was that Shaw came to his death for one fill up pots being robbed on horseback by several foot pads and knocked off his horse near the tile kilns by pancreas and wounded in several places of his body with his own sword which one of the villains had taken from him some persons who passed by soon after took him up and carried him to the pinder of wakefield there on the monday following this accident happening on saturday night he and great agonies expired for this murder and another robbery between high gate and kentish town shaw was taken up and soon after convicted at first he denied all knowledge of the murder but when his death grew near he did acknowledge being privy to it though he persisted in saying he had no hand in its commission at the time he was under condemnation the aforementioned john smith william colt house and jonah burges were in the same condition they formed a conspiracy for breaking out of the place where they were confined and to force an escape against all those who should oppose them for this purpose they had procured pistols but their plot being discovered burges in great rage cut his own throat and pretended that shaw designed to have dispatched himself with one of the pistols but shaw himself absolutely denied this and affirmed on the contrary that when burges said his enemies should never have the satisfaction as they had bragged they would have of placing themselves upon whole born bridge to see him go by tyburn he shaw exhorted him never to think of self-murder and by that means gave his enemies a double revenge in destroying both body and soul as shaw had formally declared his wife's ill conduct had been the first occasion of his falling into those courses which had proved so fatal to him he still retained so great an antipathy to her on that account as not to be able to pardon her even in the last moments of his life in which he would neither confess nor positively deny the murder for which he died he was then about 28 years of age and died the same day with the last mentioned malefactor smith end of 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