 Chapter 11 of the Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 3. The Life of Thomas Neves, Street Robber and Thief There are some persons so amazingly destitute of reason, so exceedingly stupid, and of so sleepy a disposition of mind that neither advice nor danger nor punishment are capable of awakening them. They pass through life in a continual lethargy of wickedness, nor can they be obliged to open their eyes, even when at the point of death. How shocking, how horrid, so ever such a character may be, certain it is that the criminal-neves of whom we are now speaking deserves no better. His parents, though mean, had not omitted the care of his education so far but that he had learned to read and write, which they thought qualification sufficient for the business in which they intended to breed him, this a cane chair-maker, to which employment they put him apprentice. He did not serve out his time with his master, for having gotten to an acquaintance with some lewd, debauched persons, he, whose inclination from his youth turned that way, went totally into all their measures, and quitting all thoughts of an honest livelihood, thought of nothing but picking and stealing. He associated himself with a woman of the same calling, who probably furthered him in all his attempts, in consideration of which he married her, and they were both together in Newgate for their several offenses. In the former part of this volume, we have mentioned his becoming a witness against several street robbers, who were executed upon his evidence, of whom George Gale, alias Kitty George, Thomas Crowder, James Toon, and John Hornby, denied the commission of those particular facts which he swore upon them. And Richard Nichols, who was a grave sober man, went to death and took it upon his salvation that he was never concerned either in the act for which he died, or in any other of the same kind during the course of his life. As the town naturally abhors perjuries which affect men's lives, and are not very well affected towards evidences, even when they do not exceed the truth, so the misfortune of knieves being a second time apprehended instead of creating pity gave the public a general satisfaction. At the sessions following his confinement, he was indicted for privately stealing out of the shop of Charles Lawrence, a corduroy coat value thirteen shillings. In respect of this robbery, the prosecutor deposed that Thomas Knieves, about seven in the evening, came into his shop, he being a salesman and inquired for a demedy waistcoat. One accordingly was shown him, but they not at all agreed in the price. Knieves, on a sudden turn towards the door and having with some earnestness cursed the prosecutor, snatched up a coat and ran away, upon which Mr. Lawrence followed him crying out, Stop! Thief! Which Knieves himself also bawled out as loud as he could until he was taken. Upon this evidence the jury found him guilty. Under sentence of death his behavior was much of a piece with what it was before. As to his confession he would make none, saying he would give no occasion for books or ballads to be made about him. Even in chapel he behaved himself so rudely that he occasioned great disturbance and put the keepers under a necessity of treating him with more severity than was usual to persons under his miserable condition. When alone in his cell he expressed great defedence of the mercy of God seemed to be in a slate of despair, and though he was often pressed to declare whether depositions he had given against the aforementioned street robbers were true or not, he either waved making an answer or used so much evasion or equivocation that it still remained doubtful whether he swore truth or no. As his end drew yet nearer he appeared more and more confused and uneasy, but not a bit more penitent or ready to confess, notwithstanding that several persons and some of them of distinction had applied to him in the cell and earnestly exhorted him to that purpose. He also drank excessively though so near his end and his conscience so loaded with such a weight of horrible offenses. Yet it is very probable that he would have been much more tractable in his temper and ingenuous in his confessions if he had not been continually visited and kept warm by a certain bad woman he at the time owned for his wife. This wretched creature was employed by some persons who thought themselves in danger if knaves should once become truly penitent. To keep him full of idle thoughts and elusive promises to the very hour of his death in which, from the temper of the fellow, they flattered themselves his cowardice would make them safe, in which wicked design both they and she succeeded but too well. For he continued careless, obstinate, and impenitent to the last moment of his life, and at the place of execution staggered and was scarce able to stand, bawling out to a man and a coach who was to carry away his body until the ordinary reprimanded him and told him he believed he had drunk too much that morning, to which knaves answered, No indeed, sir, I only took a dram. He then besought him that a psalm might be sung, which request of his being complied with, he yet could not forbear smiling while they were singing. The father and wife of Mr. Nichols, the barber so often mentioned, got into the cart and earnestly inquired whether the deposition he had given against him was the truth or not. Knives thereupon with tears in his eyes, owned that it was not, and thence fell into a greater agony than he had ever been perceived in before, beseeching God to have mercy on him for shedding innocent blood, into which he had been induced by the persuasions of others who represented it to him as a means for getting money both for them and him, owning that he never saw Nichols in his life before they were at the justice together. After this he cried two or three times unto God to forgive him, and so was turned off with the rest on the 27th of February, 1729, being then about twenty-eight years of age. End of Chapter 3 Chapter 12 Notwithstanding the number of those who have been executed for this offense, yet of late years we have had frequent instances of persons who rather than grown unto the burden of poverty or labor-hard to get an honest livelihood, have chosen this method of supplying their extravagances and consequently have run their heads into a halter. Henry Gahogan, an Irishman of mean parents, who had however bestowed so much education upon him that he attained writing a very fair hand, in order to get his bread set up the business of a writing master for that part of Ireland, where there were few masters to strive against him. Here he behaved for some time so well that he got the reputation of being an honest, industrious young man. But whether business fell off or that his roving temper could no longer be kept within bounds, the papers I have do not authorize me to determine. He went upon his travels and passed through a great part of Europe in the quality as may be conjectured of a gentleman's servant until two or three years before his death, about which time he brought over the art of coining into England, which he had been taught by a countryman of his. As an easy and certain resource whenever his difficulties should straighten him so far as to make its assistance necessary. This happened no very long time after his coming over events. For any short time his extravagances reduced him so much that one of his countrymen thought he did him a great service in recommending him to one Blake for an usher, which Blake at that time set up to teach young gentlemen to fence, having a school for that purpose near the temple. Thither Gahogan came accordingly and after staying for two days successively and finding no scholars came. He opened the case to his master that was to have been and told him how easy it was to get money and live well, provided they had but utensils for coining. And soon after he showed him a specimen of his art, which he performed so dexterously that at first sight they promised themselves prodigious matters therefrom. They engaged one ferris, who formerly had wrote as a clerk to a gentleman of Lincoln's inn and the temple. But adventuring to trust another person with that secret, he soon after made a confession and impeached them all. Upon which this Gahogan, Blake, and the before mentioned ferris, together with two women came to be tried for this offense on an indictment of high treason. The evidence was very clear, and notwithstanding the assurance with which Blake and Gahogan behaved at the bar, and the perplexed defense which was made by ferris, who fancied himself so sure of being acquitted that he directed horses to be hired in order to his going down to a country of sizes, there to assist as solicitor for a notorious offender. The jury after a short stay brought them in guilty. But acquitted the women, of whom the one was the mother of this Gahogan, and the other the mistress or wife of the said Robert Blake, of whom we are next to speak. He was by birth also of the kingdom of Ireland. His parents being people of some condition, who gave him a very good education and afterwards put him out apprentice to a linen draper. After he was out of his time, he married a woman with some little fortune, by whom he had three children, and after misusing her greatly, went away from her into England. Here he led a loose, debauched life and subsisted himself, to give it the best phrase, rather upon the ingenuity of his head than the industry of his hands. Here he found means to draw aside a farmer's daughter, to whom he was married, and whom he involved so far in his misfortunes, as to bring her to the bar with himself for high treason. Where her marriage was so far of service to her, that it excused her from bearing a share in his conviction. After they were found guilty, Gahogan expressed much penitence and sorrow, acknowledged the heinous offenses of which he had been guilty, and expressed particular concern for the ill usage he had given his poor mother, whom he had often beaten and abused, or whom he was once committed to bride well on that score, which effectually ruined what little reputation he had left. Before the day of execution came, he was exceedingly poor and destitute, so that he had scarce clothes wherewith to cover him, or food sufficient to preserve that life, which was so suddenly to be finished at the gallows. As far as we are able to judge from the man's outward behavior, he was a sincere and hearty penitent. Only it was with great difficulty, he forgave the persons concerned in his prosecution, which however at last he declared he did, and passed with great resignation and piety, though by a violent death from this world to another, and we may charitably hope a better. As to Blake, his behavior was not so much of a piece at first, but when he perceived death inevitable, notwithstanding his having procured a reprieve for a week, and thereby escaped dying with his companion, Cahogan, the prospect of his approaching dissolution wrought so far upon him that with much seeming penitence he made a frank confession of all his offenses, reflecting chiefly on himself for having deserted his wife and living for so many years with other women, when the week for which he had procured a reprieve was expired. He was carried alone on a hurdle, which is usual in cases of high treason, and being come to the place of execution, he stood up and spoke to those who were present in the following terms. Good people, I am brought here justly to suffer death for an offense the nature of which I did not so well comprehend at the time I committed it. I have been the greatest of all sinners, addicted to every kind of lust, and guilty of every manner of crime, accepting that of murder only. You that are assembled here, to see the unfortunate exit of an unhappy man, take warning from my fate and avoid falling into those extravagances which necessarily bring persons to those straits which have forced me upon taking undue courses for a supply. This is the end proposed by the law for making me a spectacle, and I pray God with my last breath that you may make that use of it. After this he betook himself to some private devotions and then suffered with great constancy and resignation of mind. He was executed on the 31st of March, 1729. Being then about thirty-eight years of age. Gahogan died on the twenty-fourth of the same month, being then thirty years of age. End of Chapter 12, Recording by John Brandon Chapter 13 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Larry Wilson Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 3 by Arthur L. Hayward The life of Peter Kelly, Alias Owen, Alias Nisbet, a murderer. Whether there be really any gradation in crimes, or whether we do not mistake in supposing the transgression of one law of God more heinous than that of another, would be a point too difficult and too abstract for us to enter into. But as human nature is more shocked at the shedding of blood than at any other offense, we may be allowed to treat those who are guilty of it as bloody and unnatural men, who besides their losing all respect towards the laws of God, show also a want of that compassion and tenderness which seems incident to the human species. The unhappy person of whom we are now to speak, was by Berthan Irishman, and his true name, McClellan. But upon his coming over into England, he thought it fit to change it for Owen, thereby inclining to avoid being taken for any other person than an Englishman. His parents were, it seems, persons so low in the world that they could not afford him any education, so that he was unable either to write or read at the time of his death. However, they put him out to a princess to a weaver, with whom having served his time, he came over to England and worked for a little time at his trade. It seemed he played with great dexterity upon two Jewish harps at a time, and this serving to entertain people of as loose an idle disposition as himself. He thereby got a good deal of money, or least drink, which was to him all one, for without it he could not live. And his delight in an alehouse was so great that he seldom cared to be out of it. People in such houses finding they got money by his playing upon the Jews harp, and thereby keeping people longer at the spot than otherwise they were inclined to stay, used to encourage Peter by helping him to errands. But amongst all the persons who were so kind as to supply his necessities, there was one Nisbet, an old joiner in the neighborhood who was never wary of doing him kindnesses. Having repeated these often and for a long time together, Kelly at last began to call the old man father, and there seemed to be an inviolable friendship between them. Peter always preserving some respect towards him, though he seemed to have lost it towards everybody else. One night, however, or rather morning, for it was near two o'clock, Kelly came with many signs of terror and confusion to the watch-house, and there told the constable in attendance that old Nisbet was murdered and laid weltering in his bed and a razor by him. The watch, knowing Peter to be a wild half-witted drunken fellow, gave little heed to his discourse, and so far they were from crediting it that they turned him out of the watch-house and bid him get about his business. In the morning old Nisbet's knowledgers, not hearing him stir at his usual hour, went to the door, and there made a noise in order to awaken him. Having no answer upon that, they sent four proper officers and broke open the door, where they found the old man with his throat cut in a most barbarous fashion, overflowed with a torrent of his own blood, which was yet warm. No sooner did the particulars of this horrid murder begin to make a noise, but the watch calling to mind what Kelly had told him immediately suspected him for the murder and caused him quickly to be apprehended and committed to Newgate. On the trial the strongest circumstances imaginable appeared against him, so much that the jury without much hesitation found him guilty, and he, after a pathetic speech from the bench of the nature and circumstances of his bloody crime, received sentence of death with the rest. Under conviction he appeared a very stupid creature, though as far as his capacity would give him leave, he showed all imaginable signs of penitence and sorrow, and attended with great gravity and devotion at the public service in the chapel, notwithstanding he professed himself to be a communion of the Church of Rome. He acknowledged the decease Mr. Nisbet to have been extraordinarily kind and charitable to him, even to as great a degree as he had been his own child. But as to the murder he flatly denied his committing it, or his having any knowledge of it being committed, and though he was strongly pressed as to the nature of those circumstances on which the jury had found him guilty, and which were so strong as to persuade all mankind that their verdict was just, yet he continued still in the same mind, protesting his own clearness from that bloody and detestable crime. In his disposition of mind he suffered a tyburn being at that time about forty years of age or somewhat under. End of Chapter 13 Chapter 14 of The Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org The Lives of William Marple and Timothy Cotton Highwaymen That violence, with which in this age, young people pursue the gratification of their passions without considering how far they therein violate the laws of God and their country, is the common and natural source of those many and great afflictions which fall upon them. And though they do now always bring them to such exemplary punishment as befell the criminal whose memoirs we have undertaken to transmit to posterity, yet they fail not of making them exceedingly uneasy and grievously unhappy, consequences unavoidably entailed on these destructive pleasures, so contrary to the nature of man's soul and so derogatory from that excellence to the attainment of which he was created. Although one would imagine these observations must naturally occur at some time or other to the minds of persons who ever think at all concerning the design of their own being, yet experience convinces us that they very seldom do, and if they do, they make but very little impression. William Marple, the first of these criminals, was descended from parents of very tolerable fortune as well as unblemished reputation. Their care had not only gone so far in providing him with useful and common learning, but had also been careful in bestowing upon him an excellent education in schools both in town and country. The use he made of them you will quickly hear, which cannot however be mentioned as a reflection on his unhappy parents, who were as industrious to have taught him good as he was in pursuing evil. When he grew to years capable of being put out to business, the unsettled giddiness of his temper sufficiently appeared. For being put out to three several trades at his own request, he could not bring himself to any of them, but went at last to a fourth, which was that of a joiner, with whom he stayed a considerable space. But before the expiration of his time, he fell in love with a young woman and married her, which, coming with other stories to his master's ears, occasioned such a difference that they parted. Marple was prodigiously fond of his new married wife, and what is pretty rare circumstance in this age, his fondness, proved the greatest advantage possible to him. For the young woman being in herself both virtuous and industrious, her temper, as it is natural for us to imitate that which we love, made so great an impression upon Marple that from a wild, loose and extravagant young man, he became a sober, diligent and honest workman, laboring hard to get his bread, and living at home with his wife in the greatest tranquillity and with the utmost satisfaction. But the agreeable beauty of this scene was soon darkened, or rather totally destroyed, by the death of his wife. For no sooner were the transports of his melancholy over than he returned to his old course of life. And in order to efface effectually that grief which still hung over him, he removed out of town to an adjacent village, where he quickly contracted an intimate acquaintance with a young woman, and thereby almost at once put all thoughts of sorrow and honesty quite out of his head. This creature was of a very different disposition from Marple's late wife. She had no regard for the man, further than she was able to get money out of him, and provided she had the wear with to buy her fine clothes and keep her handsome lodging, she gave herself no trouble how he came by it, and this carriage of hers in a short time put him upon illegal methods of obtaining money. Who were his first companions in his robberies is not in my power to say. It was generally looked upon that one rodent seduced him, but Marple declared this to be false, and perhaps the best account that can be given is that he was led to it by his own evil inclinations, and his necessities in which they had brought him. However it were, during the time he practiced going upon the road, nobody committed more robberies than he himself did, praying alike on all sorts of people, and taking from the poor what little they had, as well as plundering the rich of what they could much better spare. In Marlebone Fields he and his companion Cotton met with a poor woman with a basket on her head, who gained her livelihood by selling joints of meat to gentlemen's families. The first thing they did was to search her basket, in which there was a fine leg of mutton, which these gentlemen thought fit to dress and eat next day for dinner. They then commanded her to deliver her money, which she declared was a thing out of her power, because she had none about her, upon which they took her pocket and turned it out, where, finding seven shillings, Marple struck and abused the woman for daring to tell him a lie. Amongst the rest of the acquaintance that Marple picked up was a young man who had a very rich uncle, who, though he was very willing to do anything which might be for the real good of his nephew, did not think it at all reasonable to waste his fortune on the supply of the young man's extravagances. This spark, with another, acquainted Marple how easy a thing it would be to rob the man of a considerable sum of money. They readily came into the project, and accordingly it was put into execution. Marple and the nephew actually committing the robbery, and the other man standing at the door till they came out. The booty they got was about thirty-six guineas, which they divided into three parts. In a very short time, Marple was apprehended and committed to Newgate for this very fact. However, the old man would not prosecute him, because he would not expose his relation. Yet this was no warning to Marple, who continued his old trade, and committed thirty or forty robberies in a very short space. Drinking was a vice he abhorred, and the chief cause for which he addicted himself to this life of rapine was his associating himself with all sorts of lewd women. Amongst whom, he became acquainted with the infamous Elizabeth Lyon, mistress to Jack Shepard, who grew quickly too impudent and abusive for Marple's conversation. For when he fell under his misfortunes, he declared that she was the vilest and most abdumbable wretch that ever lived. However, to the immodest, lascivious carriage of this woman, he owed the sudden dislike he took for that sort of cattle, which became so strong that he no longer frequented their company, but married his second wife, a young woman of handsome person, of a good character and who, as he said, was totally ignorant of the measures he took for getting money. Timothy Cotton, the second of these malefactors, was descendant of mean yet honest parents, who in his infancy had not spared to give him a very good education, and bred him to get an honest livelihood to the trade of a polterer. In this, when he grew up, he was for a time very industrious, and got thereby sufficient to have maintained himself and his family, as well as he could reasonably expect. But happening unluckily to call into the acquaintance and conversation of lewd women, they soon took up so much of his thoughts, his time, and his money, that he was obliged to think of easier methods of getting it than those to which he hitherto had applied himself. For it is a truth deducible from uninterrupted experience, that a whore is not to be maintained at the same easy expense with a wife. Cotton found this to his cost, for he had not committed above five robberies, of which three were with his companion Marple, who had been his school fellow, before he was apprehended. The first of their exploits, I've already told you, was plundering the poor woman's basket. The second was upon Hamstead Road, where they stopped the coach and robbed the passengers. Three gentlemen coming by on horseback, Marple, presented his pistol, and commanded them right off as hard as they could. But the fear with which they were seized made them so far mistake his words as to apprehend he bid them deliver, and so they went very readily to work, putting their hands in their pockets to satisfy his demands. But Marple, having no guess of their intention, repeated his order to them to ride off with greater vehemence than before, which as soon as they apprehended they very readily complied with, and rode off as hard as their horses would carry them. A little while after this, they robbed one stout, who was servant to Captain Trevor, of his hat, two pounds of butter, his buckles, five and six pence in money, and some other trivial things. For this fact they were both apprehended, and at the next sessions at the Old Bailey, tried and convicted upon very full evidence. Under sentence of death, Marple appeared with less concern that is usually seen in persons under such unfortunate circumstances. He however confessed a multitude of offenses with which he was not charged, as well as that particular crime for which he was convicted. He said he had never any strong inclination to drunkenness or gaming, but that addicting himself to the company and conversation of bad women had been the sole occasion of all his misfortunes. He particularly regretted his want of respect towards his parents, and especially towards his mother, who had given him the best of advice, although he had trifled with and abused it. He said that he often struck and abused those whom he robbed, but not so as to endanger their lives, and therefore he hoped that they would forgive him, and join their prayers with his, for his forgiveness at the hand of God. Cotton was more tender and more penitent, expressed great sorrow for his numerous offenses, and besought Almighty God to accept of a sincere, though late, repentance. They both of them protested that their wives had not anything to do with their affairs, that they had never advised them, nor were so much privy as to the offenses they had committed. Then both of them suffered with much penitence and resignation, on the 24th of March, 1729, Marple being about thirty, and Cotton near twenty-five years of age. End of Chapter 14 Chapter 15 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Larry Wilson. Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 3 by Arthur L. Hayward. The life of John Upton, a pirate, including also the history of that sort of people, particularly the crew under Captain Cooper, in the Night Rambler. No laws in any civilized nations are more severe than those against piracy, nor are they less severely executed, and the criminals who suffer by them are usually the least pitied, or rather the most detested of all who come to die in ignominious death by the sentence of the law. Of old they were styled postes humani generis, and the oldest systems we have of particular institutions have treated them with a rigor suitable to their offense. With respect to those who fall into the hands of British justice, it must be remarked that they usually plead as an excuse for what they have done, they're being forced into pirate service, and as it is well known that numbers are really forced into crimes they detest, so the lenience of our adjudicators generally admit whatever proofs are probable in such a case. But where the contrary appears, the acts of piracy plainly arise from the wicked dispositions of the offenders. The royal mercy is less frequently extended to them than to any other sort of criminal whatever. As to the prisoner of whom we are to speak, John Upton was born at Depthard, a very honest parents who gave him such an education as fitted their station, and that in which they intended to breed him. When going up to be a sturdy youth, they put him out apprentice to a waterman with whom he served out his time faithfully and with a good character. Afterwards he went to sea and served for twenty-eight years together on board a man of war in the post of either Bolson or quartermaster. Near the place of his birth he married a woman, took a house and lived very respectably with her during the whole course of her life. But she died while he was at sea and finding at his return that his deceased wife had run him greatly in debt, clambers coming from every quarter and several writs being issued out against him, he quitted the service in the man of war and went immediately in a merchantman to Newfoundland. There by agreement he was discharged from the ship and entered himself for eighteen pounds per annum into the service of a planter in that country in order to serve him in fishing and furring, the chief trade of that place. For Newfoundland, abounding with excellent harbors, there is no country in the world which affords so large and so plentiful of fishery as this does. However, its climate renders it less desirable, it being extremely hot in the summer and as intensely cold in the winter, when the wild beasts roam about in great numbers and furnish thereby an opportunity to the inhabitants of gaming considerably by following them and selling their furs. Upon having served his year out, was discharged from his master and going to New England, he there in the month of July 1725 shipped himself on board the Perry merchantman bound for Barbados. The ship was delivered and loaded again, the captain designing them to sell for England, whereupon Upton desired, leave to go on board his majesty's ship Linn, Captain Cooper. But Captain King absolutely refusing to discharge him in order there to, on the 9th of November 1725, he sailed in the aforesaid vessel for England. On the 12th of the same month off Dominica, they were attacked by a pirate sloop called the Knight Rambler under the command of one Cooper. The pirate immediately ordered the captain of the Perry galley to come on board his ship, which he and four of his men did. The pirate immediately sent some of his crew on board the Perry galley who effectually made themselves masters thereof. And as Upton said, used him and the rest of the persons they found on board with great inhumanity and baseness, a thing very common amongst those wretches. Upton also insisted that as to himself, one of the pirate's crew ran up to him as soon as they came on board with a cutlass in his hand, said with an oath, Oh, son of a bitch, I know you and you shall go along with us or I'll cut out your liver. Thereupon fell to beating him for and aft the deck with his cutlass. The same evening he was carried on board the pirate sloop, where according to his journal three of the pirates attacked him, one with a pistol leveled at his forehead, demanded whether he would sign their articles. Another with a pistol at his right ear swore that if he did not they would blow out his brains, while a third held a couple of forks at his breast and terrified him with the continual apprehensions of having them stabbed into him. Whereupon he told them that he had four young infants in England to whom he thought it his duty to return and therefore begged to be excused as having reason to decline their service as well as a natural dislike to their proceedings. Upon which he said, his captain to take notice that he did not intervoluntarily amongst them. Upon this the pirate said they found out a way to satisfy themselves by signing for him, and this he constantly averred, was the method of his being taken into the crew of the night rambler, where he insisted he did nothing but as he was commanded, received no share in the plunder, but lived wholly in the ship's allowance being treated in all respect and that choice had brought amongst them. But to return to the Paragalli, which the pirates carried to the island of Aruba, a maroon of uninhabited islands, or rather a sandbank, where they set the crew ashore and left them for 17 days without any provision, except that the surgeon of the pirate now and then brought them something in his pocket by stealth. On the 10th of December the pirate saw a sail which proved to be a Dutch sloop which they took and on board this Upton and two others who had been forced as well as himself were put. From whence as he said, they made their escape. After abundance of misfortunes and many extraordinary adventures he got on board his majesty's ship, Nottingham, commanded by Captain Charles Cotterl, where he served for two years in the quality of Quartermaster. He was then taken up and charged with piracy but she was indicted at an admiralty sessions held in the month of May 1729, when the evidence at his trial appeared so strong that after a short stay the jury found him guilty. But his case, having been very differently represented, I fancy my readers will not be displeased if I give them an exact account of the proofs produced against him. The first witness who was called on the part of the crown was Mr. Dimick, who had been chief mate on board the Parry Galley and he deposed in the following terms. On the 12th of November, 1725, we sailed from Barbados on the Parry Galley bound for England. On the 14th, about noon, we were taken by the night rambler, Pirates Loop, one Cooper commander. Our captain and four men were ordered on board the Pirates Loop, part of the Pirates crew coming also on board the Parry. Then they no sooner entered, but the prisoner at the bar said, lads, are ye come? I'm glad to see ye. I have been looking out for ye for a great while, whereupon the pirate saluted him very particularly, calling him by his name, and the prisoner was as busy as any of the rest in plundering and stripping the ship on board which he had served, and the rest who belonged to it, the very next day after being made bosan of the pirate. I was carried on board the Pirates Loop, tied to the gears and received 200 lashes with a cat and nine tails, which the prisoner Upton had made for that purpose. After which they pickled me, and the prisoner Upton stabbed me in the head near my ear with a knife in so much that I could not lay in my head upon a pill for fourteen days, but was forced to support it upon my hand against the table, and when some of the Pirates crew upon my answering that I was as bad as a man could be and live, the prisoner Upton said, damn him, give him a second reward. It was also further deposed by the same gentlemen that at the island of Aruba the prisoner was very busy in stripping the perigalli of the most useful and valuable parts of her rigging, carrying them on board the pirate, and making use of them there. He had also in his custody several things of value, and particularly, wearing apparel, belonging to one Mr. Fernell, a passenger belonging to the said perigalli, and when it was debated amongst the pirates, and afterwards put to the vote whether the crew of the said galley should have their vessel again or no, John Upton was not only against them, but also proposed burning the said vessel, and tying the captain and mate to one of the masts in order to their being burnt too. The captain, the second mate to the ship, was the next witness called. He confirmed all that had been sworn by Mr. Dimick, adding that the day they were taken, the pirates asked if he would consent to sign their articles, which he refused. Whereupon they put a rope about his neck and hoisted him up to the yard's arm, so that he totally lost his senses. He recovered them by some of the pirate's crew pricking him in the fleshly parts of his body, while others beat him with the flat of their swords. As soon as they perceived he was a little come to himself, they put the former question to him whether he would sign the articles. He answered no a second time. One of the crew thereupon snatched up a pistol and swore he would shoot him through the head, but another of them said no, damn him, that's too honourable a depth. He shall be hanged. Upon this they pulled him up by the rope and treated him with many other indignities, and at last in the captain's cabin pulled the cap over his eyes and clapped a pistol to his head. Then he expected nothing but immediate death, a person having almost jabbed his eye out with the muzzle of the pistol. But at last they did let him go. He swore also that when the pirate's articles were presented to him again, he saw there was the name of John Upton, he being well acquainted with his hand. Mr. Fernell, a passenger in the ship, was the third evidence against the prisoner. He deposed to the same effect with the other two, adding that John Upton was more cruel and barbarous to them than any of the other pirates. Is so much that when they were marooned and watered and under the greatest necessities for food, Upton said damn them, let them be starved, and was the most active of all the rest in taking their goods and whatever he could lay his hands on out of the Parigalli. In his defense the prisoner would fain have suggested that what the witnesses had sworn against him was chiefly occasioned by a malicious spleen they had against him. He asserted that he was forced by the pirates to become one of their number and was so far from concerned with them, voluntarily, that he proposed to the mate after they were taken to regain the ship, urging that there were but 13 of the pirates born, and they all drunk, and no less than nine of their own men left there who were all sober, that the mate's heart failed him, and instead of complying with his notion, said, this is a dangerous thing to speak of, if it should come to the pirate's ears we shall all be murdered. And therefore entreated the prisoner not to speak of it any more. The mate denied every syllable of this, and so the prisoner's assertions did not weigh at all with the jury. After they had brought in their verdict, Mr. Upton said to those who swore against him, Lord, what have you three done? Under sentence of death he behaved himself with much courage, and yet with great penitence. He denied part of the charge, to wit that he was willingly one of the pirates, but as to the other facts he confessed them with very little alteration. He averred that the course of his life had been very wicked and debauched, for which he expressed much sorrow, and to the day of his death behaved himself with all outward mark of true repentance. At the place of execution he was asked whether he had not advised the burning of the perigalli with Captain King and the chief mate on board. He averred that he did not in any shape whatsoever either propose or agree to an act of such a sort. Then after some private devotions he submitted to his sentence and was turned off the 16th day of May 1729, being then about fifty years of age. End of Chapter 15 Chapter 16 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Jonathan Holdsworth. Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 3 by Arthur L. Hayward. The Life of Jeptha Big, an incendiary and writer of threatening letters. I have already taken notice in the life of Brian Smith, of the act of parliament on which the proceedings against these letter writers are grounded. One would be surprised that after more examples than one of that kind, people should yet be found so foolish, as well as wicked as to carry on so desperate an enterprise, in which there is scarce any probability of meeting with success. Yet, this unfortunate person of whom we are now to speak, who was descended of mean parents, careful however of giving him a very good education, fell upon this project put into his head by being a little out of business, and so in one moment cancelled all his former honesty and industry, and hazarded a life which soon after became forfeited. His friends had put him out apprentice to a gun stock maker, to which he served out his time honestly and with a good character. Afterwards, he continued to work at his business with several masters and tolerable reputation, until about a year before the time of his death, when he was out of work, by reason he had disablised two or three persons for whom he had wrought, and had also been guilty of some extravagancies which had brought him into narrow circumstances. These straits, it is to be supposed, put him upon the fatal project of writing a letter to Mr. Nathaniel Newman, Sr., a man of very good fortune, threatening him that unless he sent the sum of 85 guineas to such a place, he would murder him and his wife with other bloody and barbarous expressions. This not having its effect, wrote him a second letter by the penny post, demanding 100 guineas with grievous threatenings in case they were not sent. This soon made a very great noise about town and put Mr. Newman upon all methods possible for detecting the author of these villainous epistles. And as everybody almost looked upon it as a common case, to which any gentleman who is supposed to be rich might be liable, such indefatigable pains were taken that in a short time the whole mystery of iniquity was discovered and big apprehended. At the next sessions at the Old Bailey, he was indicted capital for this offense, and after the council for the prosecutor had fully opened the heinous nature of the crime, Peter Salter was the first witness called to prove it upon the prisoner. He deposed that Jephthah Big came to him where he was at work in the minorities and desired him to go with him, having something to say to him of consequence, whereupon the witness would have gone to the sign of the ship where he used, but the prisoner would needs go to the sieve in the little minorities. There he communicated to him his design and then prevailed on Salter to go to the shoulder of Mutton Alehouse at Billingsgate, where Big directed him to call for a drink and to wait until a porter came to him with a parcel directed to John Harrison. When, if he suspected anything, he should come to the prisoner at the King's Head Alehouse on Fish Street Hill. This the evidence performed punctually, whereupon Big sent him a second time to the black boy in Goodman's Fields, where a second parcel was left, though of no value. Whereupon Big would have had the evidence Salter concerned in a third letter to the same purpose, but Salter declined it and dissuaded him as much lay in his power from continuing to venture on such hazardous things. Upon which the prisoner replied, You need not fear, nothing can hurt you, my life is in your hands, but if you ever reveal the matter you shall share the same fate. John Long, servant to Mr. Newman, deposed that he delivered two penny post-letters to his master on the 20th and 27th of March. Other witnesses swore as to the sending of the parcels and the jury on the whole, seeing the fact to be well proved against the prisoner, found him guilty. Under sentence of death, at first the poor man behaved himself like one stupid. He pretended that he did not know that he had committed was capital and afterwards exclaimed against the hardness of the law which made it so. But some little pains being taken with him in those points, he was soon brought over to acknowledge the justice of his sentence and the reasonableness of that statute which enacted it into a capital offence. As the day of his death drew nigh, he was still more and more drowned in stupidity and lost to all thought or concern for this world or that to come, at least as to outward appearance. Some said he was a Roman Catholic but while the poor wretch retained his senses he said nothing that could give any ground for a suspicion of that sort. He heard the discourses which the ordinary made to him with as much patience as the rest did and when he visited him in the cell did not express any uneasiness there at. Indeed, in the passage to execution there were two fellows in the cart who would feign have had the minister desist from his duty urging the same reason that the criminal was in communion with another church. The man himself seemed stupid and speechless all the way yet when he was turned off the reverend ordinary tells us he went off the stage crying out aloud oh lord etc. This seems to me a very indecent way of concluding a dying speech but as it is that which is generally used I shall not stay to bestow any further reflections upon it. He died on the 19th of May 1729 being about 25 years of age. End of Chapter 16 Chapter 17 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jonathan Holdsworth Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 3 by Arthur L. Hayward The Life of Thomas James Grundy A Housebreaker When we meet with accounts of persons doubly remarkable for the multitude of their offenses and the tenderness of their age it is almost impossible for us to determine whether we should most pity or detest a mind so pre-turn naturally abandoned to wickedness as to transcend its usual course and make itself remarkable as a sinner before taken notice of as a man. This was exactly the case with the unfortunate criminal whom we are now to mention. He was the son of parents in the lowest circumstances who had yet strained those circumstances to give him a tolerable education which he, instead of improving, forgot as fast as it was possible and seemed solicitous about nothing but outdoing in villainy all his contemporaries of the same unhappy cast. During his junior years he addicted himself continually to picking and stealing whatever he could lay his hands on and although his father had been exceedingly careful causing him to be taught his own trade of a weaver yet he seldom or never worked at it but went on at this rate from one crime to another until he had last arrived at those which brought him to the ignominious end and thereby rendered him a subject of our memoirs. At twelve years old he took up the trade of housebreaking to which he applied himself very closely for the last six years of his life. Hampstead, Highgate, Hackney and other villages around the town were the places which he generally made choice of to play his tricks in and as people are much more ingenious in wickedness than ever they are in the pursuit of honest employments so by degrees he became, even while a boy the most dexterous housebreaker of his time in so much that as is usual amongst those unhappy people the gang commended him so much that believing himself some great person he went on with an air of confidence in the commission of a multitude of burglaries in and about the streets of this metropolis. Young as he was at that time he plunged himself, as it were with industry into all manner of lusts, wickedness and illegal pleasures which as it wasted all he acquired by the thefts he committed so it injured his health and damaged his understanding to such a degree that when he came to die he could scarce be looked on as a rational creature. The offense which proved fatal to him was the breaking into the house of Mr. Samuel Smith in the night time on the 31st of May 1729 with an intent to steal. At his trial the prosecutors swore that between the hours of 11 and one of the dock of the night laid in the indictment he was called up by his neighbors and found that his window was broken open where upon searching about very narrowly he at last found the prisoner got up the chimney and landing on the pole where on the pot hooks hung. In his defense the prisoner told the court that meeting with the person who said he lodged the prosecutor's house and it being late he accepted the man's proposition to lie with him there upon his new acquaintance carried him to Mr. Smith's let him in and then ran away so that he had never seen or heard of him since. This relation being every way improbable and ridiculous the jury very readily found him guilty of the fact and he with the rest on the last day of the sessions received sentence of death accordingly. While he lay in the cells his behavior was as stupid in all outward appearance as had ever appeared in any who came to that miserable place. However he persuaded his companions of whom we shall speak hereafter to attempt breaking out and to encourage them told them that there was no brick or free stone wall in the world could keep him in if he had but a few tools proper for loosening the stones. These were quickly procured and Grundy put his companions into so proper a method of working that if a discovery had not been made on the Sunday morning in a very few hours space they would have broken their way into Phoenix Court and so have undoubtedly got off but as soon as the keepers came to the knowledge of their design they removed the three persons concerned in it into the old condemned hold and there stapled them to the ground. Then this lad began to repent he wept bitterly but said it was not so much for the fear of death as the apprehension of his soul being thrown into the pit of destruction and eternal misery. However by degrees he recovered a little spirit confessed all the enormities of his past life and begged pardon of God and of the persons whom he had injured. If we were to attempt an account of them it would not only seem improbable but incredible and therefore as there was nothing in them otherwise extraordinary than as they were committed by a lad of his age we shall not dwell any longer upon them than to inform our readers that with much sorrow and grievous agonies he expired at Tibern on the 22nd of August 1729 being about 18 years old. End of Chapter 17 Chapter 18 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 3 by Arthur L. Hayward Chapter 18 The Life of Joseph Kemp, a housebreaker We have often, in the course of these lives observed to our readers that loose women are generally the causes of those misfortunes which first bring men to the commission of felonious crimes and as a just consequence thereof to an ignomonious death. It may yet seem strange how after so many instances there are still to be found people so weak as for the sake of the caresses of these strumpets to lavish away their lives at the same time that they are putting their souls into the greatest hazard. If I may be allowed to offer my conjecture in this case, I should be apt to account for it thus that in the present age, the depravity of men's morals being greater than ever they addict themselves so entirely to their lusts and sensual pleasures that they have no relish left for more innocent entertainments. They think no price too great to purchase these lewd enjoyments to which, by a continued series of such actions they have habituated themselves beyond their own power to retire. This unfortunate person, Joseph Kemp was son to people in very mean circumstances in Holborn, who yet procured for him a very good education in a public charity school. When of age to be put out to employment his friends made him apply himself to the heads of the parish who put him out to a glazer with whom he served his time with the character of a very honest young man. By that time his parents had thriving pretty well in the world through their own industry and so, on his setting up a shop they gave him 60 pounds to begin with. But unfortunately for him he had ere now seen a woman of the town on whom he had irretrievably fixed his affections and was absolutely resolved on living with her though ever so great ruin should prove the consequence of the purchase. In pursuance with this unfortunate resolution he had no sooner received the aforesaid sum but proposals of marriage were immediately offered to this object of his affections notwithstanding that he knew well she at the time conversed with two men styling each of them her husband. However, as Kemp was the most likely to maintain her in idleness and plenty she, without much trouble suffered herself to be prevailed on to let him, by illegal matrimony increase the number of her husbands. This, as it was but probable was speedily followed by his breaking in his business and being totally undone which, though it was a great misfortune and an evil new to poor Kemp only reduced the lady to her former manner of living which was by thieving whatever she could come at. A little while after she was ruined even in this business for being detected she was committed to Newgate and was in great danger of laying there for life. Poor Kemp was still as fond of her as ever he carried her all the money he could get and lamenting to her that it was not in his power to raise more she immediately flew into a passion stormed and swore at him bid him go and break houses rob people in the streets or do anything which would get money for money she wanted and money she would have. He foolishly complied with her request and having provided himself with the necessary implements for house breaking he soon put in her possession for a large quantity of plate which being converted into money easily procured her liberty the consequence of which was that she lavished whatever he brought her upon other men. Yet even her perfidy could not cure him he was still as much her slave as ever and failed not venturing body and soul to procure whatever might give her pleasure. In this unhappy state a considerable space of time was spent until, for some other thievish exploits of her own Kemp's wife was apprehended convicted and transported one would have thought this might have put an end to his crimes of the same sort but it seems he was too far plunged into the mire of rapine and debauchery ever to struggle out so that no sooner was she safely on board the transport vessel but he found out a new mistress to supply her place as if he had been industrious in destroying his fortune and careful about nothing but arriving as soon as possible to the gallows by the time he made his second marriage which in itself was illegal while the first wife was living his credit was totally exhausted his character totally ruined and no manner of subsistence left but what was purchased at the hazard of his soul was the sacrifice of his life and as house breaking was now become his soul business so he pursued it with great eagerness and for a while with his great success but it was not long before he was apprehended and committed close to Newgate for a multitude of charges of this kind against him at the following sessions at the Old Bailey he was indicted for burglaryously breaking into the house of Sarah Pickard and feloniously taking thence gold rings and stone rings three silver watches several pieces of silver plate and divers other goods of considerable value the prosecutors Mrs. Pickard deposed that her house was fast shut between then and 11 o'clock at night and broken open at 5 o'clock the next morning and that one camp a person related to the prisoner found a short strong knife left in the yard together with an auger which he knew to belong to the prisoner in confirmation of this Mr. Kemp deposed that the prisoner had shown him the knife Joanna Kemp and Jonathan Oskins deposed likewise to the same thing and Samuel Gerard the constable swore that when with the two proceeding witnesses he went to search the house of the aforesaid prisoner and found there in several things belonging to Mrs. Pickard the prisoner then confessed that he committed burglary alone and not by the persuasion or with the assistance of any other person whatsoever the prisoner said very little in his own defense and the jury thereupon, without hesitation found him guilty as they did also upon two other indictments the one for breaking the house of James Wood and the other for breaking the house of Mrs. Mary Padgett and stealing thence plate to a considerable value the facts being dearly proved by John Knapp who had been an accomplice and turned evidence to save himself his last wife was indicted and tried with him but acquitted under sentence of death he was seized with the disease which held him for the greater part of the time permitted by law for him to repent and by reason of that distemper he was so deaf that he was scarce capable of instruction however he appeared to be fully sensible of the great danger he was in of suffering much more from the just anger of God than that sentence of the law which his crimes had drawn upon him he bewailed with much passion and concern that wicked course of life which for many years past he had led seemed exceedingly grieved at the great horror of these reflections and to mourn with unfaigned penitence his forgetfulness of the duties he owed towards God and to his neighbors as the hour of death approached he resumed somewhat of courage and at the place of execution died with all outward marks of a repenting sinner his wife came up into the cart and took her last adieu of him in the most tender manner that can be imagined he died on the 24th of August 1729 being then in the 24th year of his age and left behind him the following paper which seems to have been what he intended to have said to the people at the time of his death and therefore we, according to custom thought it not proper to be omitted in this account the paper good people my father and mother brought me up tenderly and honestly and always gave me good advice whilst I was under their care they put me apprenticed to a glazer my master not being so careful of me as he ought to have been I took to ill courses and before my time was expired married a woman that brought me to this untimely end for she could not live upon what I got at my trade and out of my over fondness for her I did whatever she required or requested of me at length she was taken up for some fact and transported then I married a second wife and she was as good as the other was bad she would do anything to help to support me that I might not commit any wickedness but I could not take her advice but still ran on in my wicked course of life till I was overtaken by my folly for if we think ourselves safe in committing sin God will certainly find such out because he is just and will punish accordingly this is my miserable end I would have all take warning by and that they not follow the devices of the world the snares whereof are apt to lead men into evil courses unless they endeavor to shun them and seek the grace of God to assist and enable them for the good of all men and ask pardon of God for my evil doings and forgiveness for all whom I have wronged and particularly the forgiveness of God to those who have sworn away my life I beg reflections past not upon my wife for declare whatever wrong she may have committed was through my persuasion of herself being inclinable to good I would lastly request that the follies and vices which have brought me to this untimely end may not by any means be a cause to afflict my grievous parents both father and mother but would have all to consider when they are persuaded to any manner of ways tending to their ruin they would likewise remember to call upon God to help and assist them in shunning such and all other wicked courses good people pray for me that God may receive me through his mercies which I trust he will Newgate, August 22nd, 1729 Joseph Kemp End of Chapter 19 Recording by Luke Johnson Chapter 19 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 3 by Arthur L. Hayward Chapter 19 The Life of Benjamin Wildman Amongst the many other ill consequences of a debauched life and wicked conversation it may be reckoned, perhaps, no small one that they render men liable to suspicions, imprisonments, and even capital punishment when at the same time they may be innocent of the particular fact with which they are charged Nor in such a case is the conviction of an innocent person so great a reflection on any as on themselves having rendered such an accusation probable Benjamin Wildman of whom we are now to speak was the son of honest parents in the city of Dublin they gave him a very good education at school and when he was fit to go out apprentice his father bred him to his own trade which was that of a tailor when he grew weary of that business he listed himself as a soldier and in that state of life past twelve years a sufficient space of time to acquire those numerous vices which are so ordinary amongst the common sort of men who betake themselves to a military employment then he came over into England and lived here as he himself said by working at his own trade though certain it is that he led a most debauched and disillute life associating himself with those of his countrymen who of all others were the most abandoned in their character in fine in all the associations of his life he seemed to proceed without any other design than that of gratifying his vicious inclinations in the midst of this terrible chorus of folly and wickedness he was apprehended for a highwayman committed to Newgate and at the ensuing sessions capitalally indicted for two robberies the one committed on William Huck's Esquire and the other on William Bridge's Esquire on the first indictment it was deposed by the prosecutor that he believed Wildman to be the person who attacked him John Doyle who owned himself to have been an accomplice to the robbery swore that Wildman and he committed it together and that he paid Wildman five guineas and a half for his share of the gold watch and other things that were taken from the gentleman as to the second fact Mr. Bridges gave evidence that he was robbed on the highway and lost a sword, a hat, a pocketbook and a bank note for 20 pounds Doyle gave evidence in this as in the former case declaring that Wildman and he committed the fact together then Elizabeth Jones being produced swore that the same day she met Doyle and Wildman booted and spurred and very dirty in Bedford Row and that they showed her the bank note which when shown to her she deposed to be the same arable manning deposed that on the night of the day of the robbery was committed the prisoner Wildman and Doyle gave her a dram at a gin shop in Drury Lane that one of them let fall a paper and taking it up again he said that the loss of it would have been the loss of 20 pounds the prisoner objected to the character of Doyle, Jones and Manning and called some persons as to his own but the jury thinking the fact sufficiently proved found him guilty on both indictments under sentence of death his behavior was very regular professing a deep sorrow and repentance for a very loose life which he had led and at the same time preemptorily denying that he had any hand in anything of either of those facts which had been sworn against him and for which he was to die not withstanding that the most earnest entreaties were made use of to induce him to a plain and sincere confession yet he continued always to assert his innocence as to the thieving letting fall sharp and invidious expressions against the evidence of Doyle whom he charged with swearing against him only to preserve another guilty person from punishment whom Wildman intended to prosecute and had it is his power to convict the effects of his former good education were very serviceable to him in this his great and last misfortune for he seemed to have very just notions of those duties which were incumbent upon him in his miserable state therefore especially towards the latter part of his time he appeared gravely at chapel and prayed fervently in his cell until the boy James Grundy whom we have mentioned before put it in his head to make his escape for the attempting which they were all carried as we have said before into the old condemned hold and there stapled down to the ground as there is no courage so reasonable as that which is founded on Christian principles so neither constitutional bravery nor that resolution which arises either from custom from vanity or from other false maxims preserves that steady firmness at the approach of death which gives true quiet and peace of mind in the last moments of life taking away through the certainty of belief those tears which are otherwise too strong for the mind and which human nature is unable to resist while men's conduct under his misfortunes fully verified this observation in the strongest sense he only retained just notions of religion and this enabled him to support his affliction after a very different manner from that in which it affected his two companions or as it had done himself before from a just contemplation of mercy of God and the merits of his savior he had brought himself to a right idea of the importance of his soul and thereby took himself off from the superfluous considerations of this world and stifled those uneasy sensations with which men are naturally startled at the approach of death yet he did not in all this time alter a jot in his confession but asserted calmly that he was innocent and that Doyle had perjured himself in order to take away his life at the place of execution his wife came to him embraced him with great tenderness and all he said there in relation to the world was that he hoped nobody would reflect upon her for the misfortune which had befallen him and then with great piety and resignation in the midst of fervent ejagulations yielded up his last breath at Tyburn at the same time with the malefactor before mentioned being at the time of his decease about forty-three years of age End of Chapter 19 Recording by Luke Johnson Chapter 20 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 3 by Arthur L. Hayward Chapter 20 The Life of James Clough, a murderer in which is contained a concise account of the nature of appeals To curb our vicious inclinations and to restrain those passions from the sudden transports of which cruel and irreparable mischiefs are done is without doubt the best end of all instructions and for my own part I cannot help thinking that this very book may contribute as much to this purpose as any other that has been published for a long time that vices are foul in their nature is certainly true and that they are fatal in their consequences those who without consideration pursue them feel there are few who will take time to convince themselves of the first but no man can be so blind as to mistake the latter after the perusal of these memoirs in which I have been particularly careful to describe the several roads by which our lusts lead us to destruction and have fixed up Tyburn as a beacon to warn several men from indulging themselves in sensual pleasures this unfortunate person we are now going to give the public an account of was the son of very honest people who kept a public house in Clare Market they were careful in sending him to school and having taught him there to read and write, etc. sufficiently to qualify him for business and then put him apprentice to the swan tavern near the tower there he served his time carefully and with a good character nor did his parents omitted instructing him in the grounds of the Christian religion of which having a tolerable understanding he attained a just knowledge and preserved a tolerable remembrance unto the time of his unhappy death after he was out of his time he served as a drawer at several public houses and behaved himself civilly and honestly without any reflections either on his temper or his honesty until he came to Mr. Paines who kept the green lettuce a public house in High Holburn where the accident fell out which cost him his life it seems there lived with him as a fellow servant one Mary Green whom some suggested he had an affection for but whether that were so or not did not very clearly appear but on the contrary it was proved that they had many janglings and quarrels together in which Cluff had sometimes struck her however it was on the 11th of April 1729 Mary Green being at dinner in a box by herself Cluff came in and went into the box to her where he had not continued above four or five minutes before he called to his mistress who was walking up and down Madam, pray come here by this time the maid was dead of a wound in her thigh which pierced the femoral artery there was a noise heard before the man himself came out and the wench was dead before her mistress came in however Cluff was immediately apprehended and at the ensuing sessions at the Old Bailey he was indicted for the murder of Mary Green by giving her a mortal wound in the right thigh of the breadth of one inch and of the depth of five inches of which she instantly died he was a second time indicted upon the coroner's inquest for the set offence and also a third time upon the statute of stabbing however the evidence not being clear enough to satisfy the jury on his trial he was acquitted by them all but this not at all satisfying the relations of the deceased Mary Green her brother William Green brought an appeal against him which is a kind of proceeding which has occasioned several popular errors to take rise therefore it may not be improper to say something concerning it for the better information of our readers appeals are of two sorts viz. such as are brought by an innocent person and such as are brought by an offender confessing himself guilty who is commonly called an approver an innocent person's appeal is the party's private action prosecuting also for the crown in respect of the offence against the public and such a prosecution may be either by writ or by bill as to the writ of appeal it is an original issuing out of chancery and remarkable in the court of king's bench only bills of appeal are more common and contain in them the nature of both a writ and a declaration and they may be received by commissioners of jail delivery or justices of a size those which are in use at present in capital cases are four viz. appeals of death of larceny of rape and of arson the first is both the most common and that of which we are particularly to speak it is to be brought by the wife or heir of the person deceased unless they be guilty of the murder and then the heir may have an appeal against the wife or if he be accused the next heir may have it against him the appellant must be heir general to the deceased and his heir male for by Magna Carta a woman cannot have an appeal of death for any but her husband and in the appeal also it must be set forth how the appellant is heir unto the deceased as to the time in which an appeal may be brought it is by the statute of Gloucester restrained within a year and a day from the time of the deed done there is great nicety in all the proceedings on appeals of death and everything must be set forth with the greatest exactness imaginable the appellant hath also the liberty of pleading as many pleas or to speak more properly to take issue on as many points as he thinks fit he is tried by a jury and on his being found guilty the appellant hath an order for his execution settled by the court but when the appellant is acquitted the appellant is chargeable with damages on such a prosecution providing there appear to have been no just cause for the commencement thereof but to return to the case of Clough which led us into this discourse the evidence at his trial upon the appeal was as to its substance thus Mrs. Diana Payne at the Green Lettuce in Holburn disposed that the prisoner James Clough and the deceased Mary Green were both of them her servants that about a quarter of an hour before Mary Green died she saw the prisoner carry out a pot of drink that while she was walking in the tap-house with her child in her arms she saw Mary Green go down into the cellar and bring up two pints of drink one for a customer and another for herself which she carried into a box where she was at dinner that about four or five minutes before the accident happened Clough came in and went to the box to the deceased and in about four minutes cried out Madam, pray come hither that the witness thereupon went to the door of the box and saw the deceased on her backside on the floor and the prisoner held her up by the shoulders while the blood ran from her in a stream that on seeing this she said to the prisoner James, what have you done? to which he answered, nothing, madam whereupon this evidence inquired whether he had seen her do anything to herself he replied, no the deceased at that time neither speaking nor stirring but looking as if she were dead however the prisoner at that time said he saw her have a knife in her hand in the cellar and the witness being prodigiously affrighted called her husband and ran for an apothecary Mr. John Payne, husband of the first witness deposed to the same purpose as his wife adding that no struggling was heard when the blows were given and that she had no knife in her hand when she came out of the cellar that in the morning between nine and ten o'clock a young man came in who as he was informed had been formerly a sweetheart of the deceased that this person drank a pint of drink and smoked a pipe the deceased sitting by him some little time during which as he believed the stranger kissed her at which as they stood before the bar he observed the prisoner's countenance altar as if he were out of humor at somewhat although he could not say that he had ever heard of courtship between them adding that when the prisoner went into the box where the deceased was at dinner he did take notice of his throwing the door after him with an unusual violence Mr. Saunders, who happened that day to dine at Mr. Payne's house confirmed all the former evidence deposing moreover that when Mr. Payne gave the prisoner some harsh language the prisoner replied, Sir, I am as innocent as the child is at my mistress's breast that the prisoner also pretended the deceased took a knife in her hand when she went into the cellar upon which this evidence in Mr. Payne went down and found not a drop of blood all the way Mr. Saunders also deposed that the prisoner was out of the way when the deceased went to draw a drink and that they saw no knife in her hand Mr. Cox, the surgeon, deposed that he saw the deceased lying upon her back amidst a vast stream of blood which it issued from her that upon the table among other knives he had found one amongst them which was a little bloody and answered exactly to the cut it going through her apron, a stiff petticoat, and a strong coarse shift the wound was in her thigh going obliquely upwards and therefore as he thought could not have been given by the deceased herself the knife too was as he said laid farther than the deceased could have carried it after the receipt of the wound which being in the femoral artery must be mortal in a minute or a minute and a half at most he observed also that under her chin and about her left ear there seemed to have been some violence used so as to have caused a stagnation of the blood this deposition was confirmed by another surgeon and the apothecary and also in most of its material circumstances by a surgeon who looked on her on behalf of the prisoner Clough asked very few questions and Mr. Daldwin being called for the appellant swore that at nine o'clock in the morning he was at Mr. Paynes and saw the prisoner and the deceased quarreling that he looked maliciously and was an ill-natured fellow here the council of the appeal rested their proof and the prisoner made no other defence than absolutely denying the fact after his council had said what they thought proper on the nature and circumstances that had been sworn against him the jury withdrew and after a short stay brought in the prisoner guilty during the space he was confined between their verdict and his death he behaved with a calmness very rare to meet with he attended the public devotion of the chapel very gravely and devoutly behaved quietly and patiently in his cell never expressed either fear or uneasiness at his approaching death nor even let fall a warm expression against his prosecutors but on the contrary always spoke well of them and prayed heartily for them when pressed by the ministers who attended him not to pass into the other world with a lie in his mouth but to declare sincerely and candidly how Mary Green came by her death he at first looked a little confused but at last seeming to recollect himself he said gentlemen I know it is my duty to give glory unto God and to take shame unto myself for those sins I have committed in my passage through this life I therefore readily acknowledge that my offenses have been black in their nature and many in number but for the particular crime I am to suffer death is the punishment of it I know no more of it than the child that is unborn nor am I able to say in what manner she came by her death and in this he continued to persist unto the time of his death appearing to be very easy under his sufferings and did not change countenance when he was told the day was fixed for his execution as is ordinarily observed the other malefactors do as he passed through Holburn to the place of execution he desired the cart might stop at his master's house which it accordingly did Clough thereupon called for a pint of wine and desired to speak with Mr. Payne accordingly he came out and then he addressed himself to him in these words Sir you are not insensible that I am going to suffer an ignominious death for what I declare I am not guilty of as I am to appear before my great judge in a few moments to answer for all my past sins I hope you and my good mistress will pray for my poor soul I pray God bless you and all your family then he spoke to somebody to bid the Carmen go on it was remarkable that he spoke this with great compositeness and seeming cheerfulness at the place of execution he did not lose anything of that cheerful sedateness which he had preserved under the course of his misfortunes but made the responses regular to the prayers in the cart and standing up addressed himself in these words to the multitude good people I die for a fact I did not commit I have never ceased to pray for my prosecutors most heartily ever since I have been under sentence I wish all men well my sins have been great but I hope for God's mercy through the merits of Jesus Christ then a psalm was sung at his own request afterwards overhearing somebody say that his mistress was in a coach hard by his execution he could not be satisfied until somebody went to search and coming back assured him she was not there as the cart was going away he spoke again to the people saying I beg of you to pray for my departing soul I wish I was as free from all other sins as I am of this for which I am now going to suffer he desired of his friends that his body might be carried to hand alley in Holburn and from thence to St. Andrew's Church to lie in the grave with his brother he suffered on the 25th of July 1719 being then about 32 years of age End of Chapter 20 Chapter 21 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Vol. 3 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Millie Glassbury Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Vol. 3 by Arthur L. Hayward Chapter 21 The Life of John Dyer A Most Notorious Thief, Highwayman and Housebreaker My readers cannot but remember the mention often made of this criminal in the former volumes He was, at the time of his death, one of the oldest offenders in England and as he was at some pains to digest his own story, that is, the series of his villainies into writing So what we take from thence will at once be authentic and entertaining to our readers He was born of honest and mean parents at Salisbury who took care, however, to bestow on him a very tolerable education and when he grew up put him out apprentice to a shoemaker where he soon made a beginning in those pernicious practices to which he so assiduously afterwards addicted himself The first thing he did was robbing a Chandler shop in Cullenburn in the county of Wilts of the money box in which was 30 shillings and got clear off some time after his master sending him on a Sunday to a village just by to get 12 penny worth of halfpence at a Chandler shop Dyer finding nobody at home, cut the bar off the window, got in there at and rifled the house The booty he found did not amount to above three half crowns but he added to that the taking away what currents and raisins there were in the shop which piece of covetousness had well nigh cost him his life for being suspected and charged with the fact he had only time to hide the money Having searched him in vain, they turned some of the plums out of his coat pocket but he readily aberring that he bought them at Andover market there being nobody who could falsify it he escaped for that time his master shortly after sending him with five pounds to buy leather Dyer picking up a companion as wicked as himself he persuaded him to join in a story of his being robbed of the aforesaid sum of money which upon his return he told his master and the boy vouching it firmly they were believed some small space from this being sent among his master's customers to receive some money he picked up about three pounds and then went off immediately for Salisbury where he became acquainted with an idle young woman which bringing him once more into necessity he went one day into the market to see what he might be able to lay his hands on there he observed a young woman to receive money and watching her out of town he took an opportunity to knock her down robbing her and dragging her into a wood where he lay with her and then bound her fast to a tree from thence he went to a village in Hampshire where he wrought journey work at his trade and getting acquainted with a young woman he lodged at her mother's house where he soon got the daughter with child and persuaded her to rob the old woman and go with him to Bristol there they lived together profusely until all the money was spent and then she and her child went back to her mother who received them very gladly Dyer did not think fit to return but went to make his mother a visit at Salisbury where he continued not long before he took an opportunity of robbing her of fifty pounds and thence marched off to Bristol where he gained most of the money away then he retired to a town in Wiltshire where cohabitating with a widow woman they found means to get so good credit as to take the town in as Mr. Dyer expressed it for thirty pounds then packing up they marched off to a place at a considerable distance where Dyer entered into partnership with a Collier being to advance fifty pounds thirty of which he paid down and the rest was the paying monthly but before the first payment became due the Collier broke and his partner Dyer there upon thought it convenient to remove to some other place he pitched therefore upon the city of Hareford where he worked honestly for a space until being in company one night with a Higgler he heard the man say he should go to a place called Ross to buy fowls Dyer answered that he did not care if he went with him and in their journey taking the advantage of a proper place he stopped his companion and robbed him the man gave him two shillings out of his pocket but Dyer suspecting he must have some more money to buy fowls with searched the hampers and took out twelve pounds taking the man's horse also he rode it forty miles outright after which he went to Malboro in Wiltshire and stayed there a fortnight but venturing to steal a silver mug he was for that fact apprehended and committed close prisoner there in order to be tried for it next sizes but before that time he found a weak place in the prison and breaking it made his escape from thence he went to an aunt's house about seven or eight miles from Salisbury where he stayed until her husband grew so uneasy that he was obliged to take his leave he traveled then to a sister of his and meeting there with an old school fellow in relation he quickly persuaded the lad to become as bad as himself drawing him in to rob his mother of fifty shillings with which small stock they too were set up for their old trade of gaming but the robbery they committed was quickly detected however Dyer so well tutored his associate that the boy could neither by threats nor promises be brought to own it yet their denials had not the least weight with their relations they were thoroughly convinced of their being guilty and therefore were determined that they should be punished for which purpose they carried them before a neighboring justice of peace who committed them to Bridewell to hard labor as Dyer could not endure imprisonment especially when hard labor was added to it so he very speedily contrived a method to free himself and his companion from their fetters which was by leaping down the house of office which a few days afterwards they did and got clear off footnote this may mean that they dropped themselves into the cesspit and made their way out through another opening and footnote these various difficulties and narrow escapes seem to make no other impression upon Dyer than to give him a greater liking than ever to such sort of villainous enterprises he stole as many horses out of New Forest as came to three score pounds and afterwards setting up for a highwayman committed a multitude of facts in that neighborhood which he has with great care related in the account he published of his life amongst the rest he stripped a poor maid servant who was just come out of a place of all the money she had vis a gold ring and a box of clothes and so left her without either necessaries or money at Winchester he disposed of the clothes and linen which he took from the poor woman at an alehouse in High Street he fell into company with a lace man from whom he learned by some little conversation that he was going to Ames Ferry Fair in Wiltshire Dyer told him he was going there too and so along they journeyed together when they arrived there they put up their horses at the sign of the chopping knife and while the lace man went out to take a stand to sell his goods in Dyer demanded the box of lace of the landlord as if he had been the man's partner then calling for his horse while the landlord's back was turned he rode clear off from them all on the plane going toward Devises he overtook a scotch peddler Dyer it seems knew him and called him by his name asking him if he had any good handkerchiefs upon which the poor man let down the pack off his back and showed him several Dyer told him after looking over the goods that he did not want to buy anything but must have what he pleased for nothing the scotch man upon that put himself in a posture of defense but Dyer drawing his pistols upon him soon obliged him to yield and tied him with some of his own cloth fast to the post of a wall he then went and rifled the pack taking thence nine pounds odd in money a great parcel of hair which he sold afterwards for eight pounds six dozen handkerchiefs and a quantity of muslin then he released the peddler again and bid him go and take care of the rest of his pack Mr. Dyer being then in some hurry to look out for another booty a very small time after our plunder met with an old shepherd who had sold a good parcel of sheep Dyer attacked him with his hanger and the old man though he had nothing but a stick made a very good defense however at last he was overcome and lost seventy two pounds which he had taken at the market Dyer being by this time full of money he thought fit to go to Dorchester in Wilts whereby the usual course of his extravagances he lessened it in a very short time and then persuading a poor butcher of the town who had broke to become his companion he soon taught him from being unfortunate to become wicked they agreed very well together as Mr. Dyer says until he caught his new partner endeavoring to cheat him as well as he had taught him to rob other people but after some hard words the butcher confessed the fact and promised to be honest to him for the future which being all that Dyer wanted a new agreement was made and they went to work again in their old occupation the first exploit they went upon afterwards was at Woodbury Hill Fair in Dorchester where as soon as the fair was over Mr. Dyer in his merry style their fair began for observing a cheese man who received about four score pounds they watched him so narrowly that about a mile from the fair they attacked him and bid him deliver with a heavy heart the old man suffered himself to be rifled though he had paid away a far greater part of the money and had not above 12 pounds about him yet he sighed as if he would have broken his heart at the loss while Dyer and his companion were as much out of humor at the disappointment and gave him several smart lashes with their whips telling him that he should never pay money when gentlemen waited to receive it a small time after this robbery they committed another upon a hop merchant who was riding with his wife they searched him very carefully for money but could find none until Dyer beginning to curse and swear and threatening to kill him his wife cried out for heaven's sake do not murder my husband and I'll tell you where his money is accordingly she declared it was in his boots upon which Dyer cut them off his legs and found 50 guineas therein then taking their leave of the merchant and his wife Dyer very gratefully thanked her for her good office from thence they went down to Sherburn in each of them having got a mistress they lived there very merrily for a considerable space living in full enjoyment of those gross sensualities in which they alone reaped satisfaction at the expense of such honest people as they had before plundered here they had intelligence of a certain grazier who was going down into the country to buy lean beasts upon which they followed him and robbed him of all the money he had which was about four score and ten pounds so large a sum proved only a fund for extravagance a use to which these men put all the money they laid their hands on ham-sharving so lucky a place Dyer and his comrade went next to Ringwood where the butcher fell sick and lay for some time until their money was almost consumed but then growing well again Dyer took him down to Bath where they robbed the stagecoaches from Bath to London and as they returned from London to Bath again until the road became so dangerous that they hired persons to guard them for the future and notwithstanding they so often practiced this villainy they never were in danger but once the gentlemen fired a blunder bus at them but missed them both whereupon they robbed the coach and afterwards whipped him severely with their horse whips their next expedition was to Hungerford where they stayed about two months in which time Dyer made a match for the butcher with a widow woman of his own trade but just as they were going to be married somebody discovered both his and the butcher's occupation and thereupon obliged them to quit Hungerford with more precipitation than they were want to do in the road to Redding they robbed a tallow chandler and then galloped to Redding where they had liked to have been taken by the information of the Bath coachmen but they being pretty well mounted in riding hard night and day got safe down to Exeter in Devonshire whereas the secure method they agreed to part by consent the butcher went back to Devonshire again and then after a short stay with them set out for London the fear he was under of being discovered if he came into the direct road made him take a roundabout way in his journey and thereby put it in his power to rob four Oxford scholars from two of them he took their watches and their money but though he searched the other two very diligently he could find nothing upon which he rode away with the booty he had taken but the two whom he had robbed quickly called him back again and told him their companions had money if he had but wit enough to find it whereupon Dyer began to examine the first very strictly and found his money put under his buttons and his watch thrust into his britches on search of the second he discovered his money put up in the cave of his coat but his watch he had hustled to one of his companions who held it out which as soon as Dyer saw it he took it away it is surprising that men should be possessed with so odd a spirit that because they have lost all themselves they must needs have others plundered into the bargain however Dyer thought it a good job and with the help of this money he came up to London when he arrived here he worked honestly for some time at his trade with a very noted shoemaker upon Ludgate Hill soon after he removed to a lodging in Leather Lane and worked there for twelve months at last he got into the company of a common woman of the town and she very quickly brought him into his old condition for being much in debt and often arrested Dyer who at present was very fond of her was obliged to bail her or get her bailed hearing that he had a legacy of ten pounds a year in an exchequer annuity she would never let him alone until he had disposed of it which at last he did for about four score pounds the first thing that was done after the receipt of the sum of money was to clothe Madame in Monmouth Street with her flowered satin with everything agreeable there too on their return home the man of the house where they lodged flew into a great passion said he'd never suffer her to wear such fine clothes unless he was paid what was due to him Mr. Dyer in his memoirs gives us this story dressed out with abundance of oaths and such like decoration which we will venture to leave out and relate the adventure as it gives a very good idea of such sort of houses and such like furniture the bod while her husband was swearing took Mr. Dyer upstairs and there with a weedling tone asked him if Maul should not bring them a quarter in a brandy to drink his and his spouse's health but before Dyer could give her an answer she issued a positive command herself whereupon up comes Maul in the quarter the mistress poured out half of it into one glass which she drank off to the health of Mr. and Mrs. Dyer adding with great complacence Maul indeed your Alice is a fine woman when she's dressed I love to see a handsome woman with all my heart come Maul fill the other quarter and bid Mrs. Dyer come to her spouse and you hear tell my husband that Mrs. Dyer desires to drink a glass of brandy with him on this message up comes the husband and clapping down by him took him by the hand with an abundance of seeming courtesy said pray Mr. Dyer I may and my passion have let fall some provoking words to your wife but I can't help it it is my way and I really want money so that it almost makes me mad I'll tell you what your spouse Mr. Dyer owes me almost nine pounds now if you'll give me five guineas I'll give you a receipt in full upon which our colleague of a robber thinking to save so much money paid it him down and Madame seemed to be highly pleased as soon as this was over and the receipt given his lady said to Dyer come my dear we'll go and take a walk and see Mrs. Sheldon thither they went no sooner were they in the house but after the first compliments were passed Mrs. Sheldon said we were just talking of you when you came in Mr. Dyer and of that small matter your spouse owes us says Dyer how much is it but two and forty shillings says Mrs. Sheldon upon which the fool took the money and paid it a little while after this Dyer's mistress thought fit to quarrel with one of her female acquaintances whom she had made her confidant by which means the story came out that she was not a penny in debt either to her landlord or Mrs. Sheldon but that she wanted money and was resolved to make hay while the sun shone one would have thought that a fellow so versed in villainy and so given up to all sorts of debauchery he wanted a woman who showed him such tricks but on the contrary he grew fonder of her removed her to another lodging and lavished all he had on her but as a new misfortune one morning early a man knocked at the door which he taking to be one of her gallants went in his shirt to the window the man acquired whether one Mrs. Davis was there upon which Dyer's mistress in a great agony said oh la John it's my husband come from sea I do upon this Dyer hustled on his clothes and went downstairs to another harlot and lay there until his first lady and her husband came downstairs however it was not long before the sea man had an account of Dyer's familiarity with his wife and there upon thinking to get money out of him brought his action against him but Dyer got himself bailed and soon after arrested him for meat drink and lodging for his wife for several months he was in compter for a considerable time and at last was obliged to give Dyer ten pounds to make it up at last when money ran low Dyer's love on a sudden went all out he dismissed his mistress and not finding another quickly to his mind took up a sudden resolution to marry and live honest it was not long before he prevailed on an honest woman and accordingly they were joined together in wedlock Dyer there upon provided himself with a cobbler's stall in Leather Lane worked hard and lived well but as his inclinations were always dishonest he could not long confine himself to honesty and labor but in a short space meeting with a young man who was very uneasy in his circumstances and on ill terms with his friends and very much disordered in his mind an account of the misfortunes under which he labored Dyer began immediately to cast eyes upon him as one who would make him a fit companion it seems the other had exactly the same thoughts and one day as they were walking together in the fields says the stranger to him I'll tell you what if you knew how a fair stand with me you would advise me I must either go upon the highway or into jail that's a hard choice replied Dyer but did you ever do anything of that kind no said the other indeed not hitherto well then says his tutor again have you any pistols I'd he but I intend to pawn my watch and buy some the bargain was soon made between them one night they robbed a man by the old spa the same night they robbed another by Sadler's Wells footnote spa wells clerkinwell was a notorious spot for footpaths and footnote two or three days after they robbed a chariot and took from persons in it 30 pounds the young practitioner and thieving thought this a rare quick way of getting money and therefore followed it very industriously in the company of his assistant and Lincoln's in fields they were hard put to it for after they had committed a robbery abundance of watchmen gathered about them whom they suffered to advance very near them but then firing two or three pistols over their heads they all ran and suffered the robbers to go which way they would a multitude of other facts they committed until Dyer got into that gang who robbed on Blackheath of whom we have given some account it is observable that Dyer in his own narrative gives not the least account of his turning evidence and hanging a great number of his associates many of whom has has been said in the former volume charged him with having first drawn them into the commission of crimes and then betrayed them it seems this was among the circumstances of his life which did not afford him any mirth a thing to which throughout the course of his memoirs he is egregiously addicted however it was I must inform my reader that he remained for near seven years a prisoner in Newgate after his being in evidence until at last he found means to get discharged at the same time with one Abraham Dumbleton who was his companion in his future exploits and suffered with him at the same time when they were at the bar in order to their being discharged out of Newgate the recorder with his usual humanity represented to them the danger there was of their coming to a bad end in case they should be set at liberty and get again into the company of their old comrades who might seduce them to their former practices and thereby become the means of their suffering a violent and ignominious death advising them at the same time rather to submit to a voluntary transportation whereby they would gain a passage into a new country inhabited by Englishmen where they might live honestly without dread of those reproaches to which they would be ever liable here but they insisting upon their discharge and promising to live very honestly for the future their request was complied with and they were set at liberty one of the first crimes committed by Dyer afterwards was robbing a vittler coming over Bloomsbury market footnote this was at the southwest corner of Bloomsbury square and footnote between one and two o'clock in the morning and from whom having thrown him down and stopped his mouth they took his silver watch 17 shillings in money two plain rings and the buckles out of his shoes they robbed another man in the Tottenham court road coming to town tied him and then took from him two and forty shillings Dyer also happening to be one day a little cleaner and better dressed than ordinary was taken notice of in Lincoln's in fields by one of those abominable unnatural wretches who addict themselves to sodomy he pretended to know him at first and desired him to step to the tavern with him and drink a glass of wine which the other readily complied with in the tavern Dyer took notice of the gentleman had a good diamond ring on his finger and then suddenly taking notice of a hackney coach which drove by with a single gentleman in it he pretended it was a friend of his must go down and speak a word with him under pretence of doing which he went clear off with the diamond ring two or three days after he met the same person with a man in years and of some consideration upon his asking Dyer how he came to go off in that manner from the tavern he who was accustomed to such salutations gave him a rough answer and the spark fearing a worse accusation might be alleged against himself thought fit to go off without making any more words about it I am not able to say how long after but certainly it could be no very considerable space before he and Dumbledon robbed Mr. Bradley in Kirby Street by Hattengarden of his hat and wig at the same time trampling on him beating him and using him in the most cruel manner imaginable as was sworn by Mr. Bradley upon their trial however by a friding the watch with their pistols they got off safe and a night or two after broke open a linen draper shop and took out a large parcel of linen for these two facts they were shortly after apprehended and on very full evidence convicted of the old Bailey under sentence of death Dyer said he was sorry for his offenses but spoke of them in a manner that showed he had but a slight sense of those heinous crimes in which he continued so long his narrative that he left behind him and which was published the day before his execution is a manifest proof of the ludicrous terms which those unhappy creatures affect in the relation of their own adventures however it becomes us not to judge concerning the sentiments of a person who in his last moments professed himself a penitent instead of doing which we shall produce the speech he made at the place of execution good people I desire all young men to take warning by my ignominious death forsake evil company especially lewd women who have been the chief cause of my unhappy fate I hope and make it my earnest request that nobody will be so ill a Christian as to reflect on my aged parents who took an early care to instruct me and brought me up a member though a very unworthy one of the church of England I hope my misfortunes will be a warning to all youth especially some whom I wish well I blame them but hope if they see this they will take it to themselves I die in charity with all men forgiving and hoping to be forgiven myself through the merits of my blessed savior Jesus Christ he died on the 21st of November 1729 being 31 years of age end of chapter 21