 Section 4 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 2. 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 Jeffrey Wilson Ames, Iowa. Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 2 by Arthur L. Hayward. Jonathan Wilde, Part 2. He was no sooner gone than Jonathan told the lady that she would be too late at the merchants unless they took coach, which thereupon they did and stopped over against the countergate by the stock's market. Footnote. This was the poultry counter. End of footnote. She wondered at all this, but by the time they have been in a tavern of very little space, back comes Jonathan's emissary with the green purse and the gold in it. She says, sir, said the fellow to Wilde, she has only broke a guinea of the money for garnish and wine, and here's all the rest of it. Very well, says Jonathan, give it to the lady. Will you please to tell it, madam? The lady accordingly did, and found there were forty-nine. Bless me, says she. I think the woman's bewitched. She has sent me ten guineas more than I should have had. No, madam, replied Wilde. She has sent you back again the ten guineas which she received for the book. I never suffer any such practices in my way. I obliged her, therefore, to give up the money she had taken as well as that she had stole. And therefore I hope, whatever you may think of her, that you will not have a worse opinion of your humble servant for this accident. The lady was so much confounded and confuted at these unaccountable incidents that she scarce knew what she did. At last recollecting herself, Well, Mr. Wilde, says she, I think the least I can do is to oblige you to accept of these ten guineas. No, replied he. Nor of ten farthings. I scorn all actions of such a sort as much as any man of quality in the kingdom. All the reward I desire, madam, is that you will acknowledge I have acted like an honest man and a man of honour. He had scarce pronounced these words before he rose up, made her a bow, and went immediately downstairs. The reader may be assured there is not the least mixture of fiction in this story, and yet perhaps there was not a more remarkable one which happened in the whole course of Jonathan's life. I shall add but one more relation of this sort, and then go on with the series of my history. This which I am now going to relate happened within a few doors of the place where I lived, and was transacted in this manner. There came a little boy with vials in a basket to sell to a surgeon who was my very intimate acquaintance. It was in the winter and the weather cold, when one day after he had sold the bottles that were wanted, the boy complained he was almost chilled to death with cold, and almost starved for what a vitals. The surgeon's maid, in compassion to the child, who was not above nine or ten years old, took him into the kitchen and gave him a pouringer of milk and bread with a lump or two of sugar in it. The boy ate a little of it, then said he had enough, gave her a thousand blessings and thanks, and marched off with a silver spoon and a pair of forceps of the same metal which lay in the shop as he passed through. The instrument was first missed, and the search after it occasioned their missing the spoon, and yet nobody suspected anything of the boy, though they had all seen him in the kitchen. The gentleman of the house, however, having some knowledge of Jonathan Wilde and not living far from the old Bailey, went immediately to him for his advice. Jonathan called for a bottle of white wine and ordered it to be mulled. The gentleman, knowing the custom of his house, laid down the crown and was going on to tell him the manner in which the things were missed, but Mr. Wilde soon cut him short by saying, Sir, step into the next room a moment. Here is a lady coming hither. You may depend upon my doing anything that is in my power and presently we'll talk the thing over at leisure. The gentleman went into the room where he was directed and saw with no little wonder his forceps and silver spoon lying upon the table. He had hardly taken them up to look at them before Jonathan entered. So, Sir, said he, I suppose you have no further occasion for my assistance. Yes indeed I have, said the surgeon. There are a great many servants in our family, and some of them will certainly be blamed for this transaction, so that I am under a necessity of begging another favour, which is that you will let me know how they were stolen. I believe the thief is not far off, quote Jonathan, and if you'll give me your word he shall come to no harm I'll produce him immediately. The gentleman readily condescended to this proposition, and Mr. Wilde stepping out for a minute or two brought in the young vile merchant in his hand. Here, Sir, says Wilde, do you know this hopeful youth? Yes, answered the surgeon, but I could never have dreamt that a creature so little as he could have had so much wickedness in him. However, as I have given you my word, and as I have my things again, I will not only pass by his robbing me, but if he will bring me bottles again shall make use of him as I used to do. I believe you may, added Jonathan, when he ventures into your house again. But it seems he was therein mistaken. For in less than a week afterwards the boy had the impudence to come and offer his viles again, upon which the gentleman not only bought of him as usual, but ordered two quarts of milk to be set on the fire, put into it two ounces of glister sugar, crumbled it with a couple of penny loaves, and obliged this nimble fingered youth to eat it every drop up before he went out of the kitchen door, and then without further correction hurried him about his business. This was the channel in which Jonathan's business usually ran. But to support his credit with the magistrates he was forced to add thief-catching to it, and every sessions or two strung up some of the youths of his own bringing up to the gallows. But this, however, did not serve his turn. An honourable person on the bench took notice of his manner of acting, which being become at last very notorious an act of parliament was passed, leveled directly against such practices, whereby persons who took money for the recovery of stolen goods, and did actually recover such goods without apprehending the felon, should be deemed guilty in the same degree of felony with those who committed the fact in taking such goods as were returned. And after this became law, the same honourable person sent to him to warn him of going on any longer at his old rate, for that it was now become a capital crime, and if he was apprehended for it he could expect no mercy. Jonathan received the reproof with abundance of thankfulness and submission, but what was strange never altered the manner of his behaviour in the least, but on the contrary did it more openly and publicly than ever. Indeed to compensate for this he seemed to double his diligence in apprehending thieves and brought a vast number of the most notorious amongst them to the gallows even though he himself had bred them up in the art of thieving and given them both instructions and encouragement to take that road which was ruinous enough in itself and by him made fatal. Of these none were so open and apparent a case as that of Blake, alias Blueskin. This fellow had from a child been under the tuition of Jonathan, who paid for the curing his wounds whilst he was in the counter, allowed him three and six pence a week for his subsistence and afforded his help to get him out of there at last. Yet as soon after this he abandoned him to his own conduct in such matters and in a short space caused him to be apprehended for breaking open the house of Mr. Kneebone, which brought him to the gallows. When the fellow came to be tried, Jonathan indeed vouchsafed to speak to him and assured him that his body would be handsomely interred in a good coffin at his own expense. This was strange comfort and such as by no means suited Blueskin. He insisted peremptorily upon a transportation pardon which he said he was sure Jonathan had interest enough to procure him. But Wild assured him that he had not and that it was in vain for him to flatter himself with such hopes, but that he had better dispose himself to thinking of another life, in order to which good books and such like-helps should not be wanting. All this put Blueskin at last into such a passion that though this discourse happened upon the leads at the Old Bailey in the presence of the court then sitting, Blake could not forbear taking a revenge for what he took to be an insult on him. And therefore without ado he clapped one hand under Jonathan's chin and with the other, taking a sharp knife out of his pocket, cut him a large gash across the throat, which everybody at the time it was done judged mortal. Jonathan was carried off all covered with blood and though at that time he professed the greatest resentment for such usage, affirming that he had done all that lay in his power for the man who had so cruelly designed against his life, yet when he afterwards came to be under sentence of death he regretted prodigiously the escape he had made then from death, often wishing that the knife of Blake had put an end to his life rather than left him to linger out his days till so ignominious a fate befell him. But it was not only Blake who had entertained notions of putting him to death. He had disobliged almost the whole group of villains with whom he had concern, and there were numbers of them who had taken it into their heads to deprive him of life. His escapes in the apprehending such persons were sometimes very narrow. He received wounds in almost every part of his body, his skull was twice fractured, and his whole constitution so broken by these accidents and the great fatigue he went through, that when he fell under the misfortunes which brought him to his death, he was scarce able to stand upright and was never in a condition to go to chapel. But we have broke a little into the thread of our history, and must therefore go back in order to trace the causes which brought on Jonathan's last adventures, and finally his violent death. This we shall now relate in the clearest and concise manner that the thing will allow, being well furnished for that purpose, having, to personal experience, added the best intelligence that could be procured, and that too from persons the most deserving of credit. The practices of this criminal in the manner we have before mentioned continued long after the act of parliament, and in so notorious a manner at last that the magistrates in London and Middlesex thought themselves obliged by the duty of their office to take notice of him. This occasioned a warrant to be granted against him by a worshipful alderman of the city, upon which Mr. Wilde being apprehended somewhere near Wood Street, he was carried into the rose-spunging house. There I myself saw him sitting in the kitchen at the fire, waiting the leisure of the magistrate who was to examine him. In the meantime the crowd was very great, and with his usual hypocrisy, Jonathan harangued them to this purpose. I wonder, good people, what it is you would see. I am a poor honest man, who have done all I could do to serve people when they have had the misfortune to lose their goods by the villainy of thieves. I have contributed more than any man living to bringing the most daring and notorious malefactors to justice. Yet now by the malice of my enemies you see I am in custody, and I am going before a magistrate who I hope will do me justice. Why should you insult me, therefore? I don't know that I ever injured any of you. Let me entreat you, therefore, as you see me lame in body and afflicted in mind, not to make me more uneasy than I can bear. If I have offended against the law it will punish me, but it gives you no right to use me ill, unheard and unconvicted. By this time the people of the house and the counter-officers had pretty well cleared the place upon which he began to compose himself and desired them to get a coach to the door, for he was unable to walk. About an hour after he was carried before a justice and examined, and I think was there upon immediately committed to Newgate. He lay there a considerable time before he was tried. At last he was convicted capitely upon the following fact, which appeared on the evidence exactly in the same light in which I shall state it. He was indicted on the aforementioned statute for receiving money for the restoring stolen goods without apprehending the persons by whom they were stolen. In order to support this charge the prosecutor's Catherine Stevens, footnote her name was really Statham and a footnote, deposed as follows. On the 22nd of January I had two persons come into my shop under pretense of buying some lace. They were so difficult that I had none below would please them, so leaving my daughter in the shop I stepped upstairs and brought down another box. We could not agree about the price, and so they went away together. In about half an hour I missed a tin box of lace that I valued at fifty pounds. The same night and the next I went to Jonathan Wilde's house, but meeting with him at home I advertised the lace that I had lost with a reward of fifteen guineas and no questions asked. But hearing nothing of it I went to Jonathan's house again and then met with him at home. He desired me to give him a description of the persons that I suspected, which I did as near as I could. And then he told me that he would make inquiry and bid me call again in two or three days. I did so, and then he said that he had heard something of my lace and expected to know more of the matter in a very little time. I came to him again on that day he was apprehended. I think it was the fifteenth of February. I told him that though I had advertised but fifteen guineas reward, yet I would give twenty or twenty-five guineas rather than not have my goods. Don't be in such a hurry, says Jonathan. I don't know, but I may help you to it for less, and if I can I will. The persons that have it are gone out of town. I shall set them to quarrelling about it, and then I shall get it that cheaper. On the tenth of March he sent me word that if I could come to him in Newgate and bring ten guineas in my pocket he would help me to the lace. I went, he desired me to call a porter, but I not knowing where to find one, he sent a person who brought one that appeared to be a ticket porter. The prisoner gave me a letter which he said was sent him as a direction where to go for the lace. But I could not read and so I delivered it to the porter. Then he desired me to give the porter the ten guineas or else he said the persons who had the lace would not deliver it. I gave the porter the money, he returned and brought me a box that was sealed up but not the same that was lost. I opened it and found all my lace but one piece. Now Mr. Wilde says I, what must you have for your trouble? Not a farthing says he, not a farthing for me. I don't do these things for worldly interest, but only for the good of poor people that have met with misfortunes. As for the piece of lace that is missing, I hope to get it for you ear long, and I don't know but that I may help you not only to your money again but to the thief too. And if I can, much good may it do you, and as you are a good woman and a widow and a Christian, I desire nothing of you but your prayers, and for these I shall be thankful. I have a great many enemies and God knows what may be the consequence of this imprisonment. The fact suggested in the indictment was undoubtedly fully proved by this disposition, and though that fact happened in Newgate and after his confinement, yet it still continued as much and as great a crime as if it had been done before. The law therefore condemned him upon it. But even if he had escaped this, there were other facts of a like nature which inevitably would have destroyed him. For the last years of his life, instead of growing more prudent, he undoubtedly became less so, for the blunders committed in this fact were very little like the behavior of Jonathan in the first years in which he carried on this practice, when nobody behaved with greater caution as nobody ever had so much reason to be cautious. And though he had all along great enemies, yet he had conducted his affairs so that the law could not possibly lay hold of him, nor his excuses be easily detected even in respect of honesty. When he was brought up to the bar to receive sentence, he appeared to be very much dejected, and when the usual question was proposed to him, what have you to say why judgment of death should not pass upon you? He spoke with a very feeble voice in the following terms. My Lord, I hope even in the sad condition in which I stand, I may pretend to some little merit in respect to the service I have done my country in delivering it from some of the greatest pests with which it was ever troubled. My Lord, I have brought many bold and daring malefactors to just punishment, even at the hazard of my own life, my body being covered with scars I received in these undertakings. I presume, my Lord, to say I have done merit, because at the time the things were done, they were esteemed meritorious by the government, and therefore I hope, my Lord, some compassion may be shown on the score I submit myself wholly to His Majesty's mercy and humbly beg a favorable report of my case. When Sir William Thompson, footnote, Sir William Thompson, 1678 to 1739, was recorder of London in 1715, solicitor general two years later, and in 1729 became baron of the Exchequer. End of footnote. When Sir William Thompson, now one of the barons of His Majesty's court of Exchequer, as recorder of London pronounced sentence of death, he spoke particularly to wild, put him in mind of those cautions he had had against going on in those practices rendered capital by law, made on purpose for preventing that infamous trade of becoming broker for felony and standing in the middle between the felon and the person injured in order to receive a premium for redress. And when he had properly stated the nature and aggravations of his crime, he exhorted him to make a better use of that small portion of time which the tenderness of the law of England allowed sinners for repentance and desired he would remember this admonition though he had slighted others. As to the report he told him, he might depend on justice and ought not to hope for any more. Under conviction, no man who appeared upon other occasions to have so much courage ever showed so little. He had constantly declined ever coming to chapel under pretence of lameness and indisposition. When clergymen took the pains to visit him and instruct him in those duties which it became a dying man to practice, though he heard them without interruption, yet he heard them coldly. Instead of desiring to be instructed on that head, he was continually suggesting scruples and doubts about a future state, asking impertinent questions as to the state of souls departed and putting frequent cases of the reasonableness and lawfulness of suicide where an ignominious death was inevitable and the thing was perpetrated only to avoid shame. He was more especially swayed to such notions he pretended from the examples of the famous heroes of antiquity who to avoid dishonorable treatment had given themselves a speedy death. As such discourses were what took up most of the time between his sentence and death, so that occasioned some very useful lectures upon this head from the charitable divines who visited him. But though they would have been of great use in all such cases for the future, yet being pronounced by word of mouth only, they are now totally lost. One letter indeed was written to him by a learned person on this head of which a copy has been preserved and it is with great pleasure that I give it to my readers, it runs thus. A letter from the Reverend Dr. So-and-So to Mr. Wilde in Newgate. I am very sorry that after a life so spent as yours is notoriously known to have been, you should yet, instead of repenting of your former offenses, continue to swell their number even with greater. I pray God that it be not the greatest of all sins, affecting doubts as to a future state and whether you shall ever be brought to answer for your actions in this life before a tribunal in that which is to come. The heathens it must be owned could have no certainty as to the immortality of the soul because they had no immediate revelation. For though the reasons which incline us to the belief of those two points of future existence and future tribulation be as strong as any of the motives are to other points in natural religion, yet as none return from that land of darkness or escape from the shadow of death to bring news of what passes in those regions whither all men go, so without a direct revelation from the Almighty no positive knowledge could be had of life in the world to come, which is therefore properly said to be derived to us through Christ Jesus, who in plain terms and with that authority which confounded his enemies, the scribes and Pharisees, taught the doctrine of a final judgment and by affording us the means of grace raised in us at the same time the hopes of glory. The arguments therefore which might appear sufficient unto the heathens to justify killing themselves to avoid what they thought greater evils if they had any force then must have totally lost it now. Indeed the far greater number of instances which history has transmitted us show that self-murder even then proceeded from the same causes as at present, with delicit rage, despair and disappointment. Wise men in all ages despised it as a mean and despicable flight from evils the soul wanted courage and strength to bear. This has not only been said by philosophers but even by poets too which shows that it appeared a notion not only rational but heroic. There are none so timorous, says Marshall, but extremity of want may force upon a voluntary death. Those few alone are to be accounted brave who can support a life of evil and the pressing load of misery without having recourse to a dagger. But if there were no more in it than the dispute of which was the most gallant act of the two to suffer or die it would not deserve so much consideration. The matter with you is of far greater importance. It is not how or in what manner you ought to die in this world but how you are to expect mercy and happiness in that which is to come. This is your last stake and all that now can deserve your regard. Even hope is lost as to present life and if you make use of your reason it must direct you to turn all your wishes and endeavours towards attaining happiness in a future state. What then remains to be examined in respect of this question is whether persons who slay themselves can hope for pardon or happiness in the sentence of that judge from whom there is no appeal and whose sentence, as it surpasses all understanding so is it executed immediately. If we judge only from reason it seems that we have no right over a life which we receive not from ourselves or from our parents but from the immediate gift of him who is the Lord thereof and the fountain of being. To take away our own life then is contradicting as far as we are able the laws of providence and that disposition which his wisdom has been pleased to direct. It is as though we pretended to have more knowledge or more power than he and as to that pretense which is usually made use of that life is meant as a blessing and that therefore when it becomes an evil we may if we think fit resign it it is indeed but a mere sophistry. We acknowledge God to be infinite in all perfections and consequently in wisdom and power. From the latter we receive our existence in this life and as to the measure it depends wholly on the former so that if we from the shallow dictates of our reason contemptuously shorten that term which is appointed us by the Almighty we thereby contradict all his laws throw up all right to his promises and by the very last act we are capable of put ourselves out of his protection. This I say is the prospect of the fruits of suicide looked on with the eye only of natural religion and the opinion of Christians is unanimous in this respect that persons who willfully deprive themselves of life here involves themselves also in death everlasting. As to your particular case in which you say it is only making choice of one death rather than another there are also the strongest reasons against it. The law intends your death not only for the punishment of your crimes but as an example to deter others the law of God which hath commanded that the magistrates should not bear the sword in vain hath given power to denounce this sentence against you but that authority which you would assume defeats both the law of the land in its intention and is opposite also unto the law of God. Add unto all this the example of our blessed Saviour who submitted to be hung upon a tree though he had only need of praying to his father to have sent him thousands of angels yet chose he the death of a thief that the will of God and the sentence even of an unrighteous judge might be satisfied. Let then the testimony of your own reason your reverence towards God and the hopes which you ought to have in Jesus Christ determine you to await with patience the hour of your dissolution. Dispose you to fill up the short interval which yet remains with sincere repentance and enable you to support your sufferings with such a Christian spirit of resignation as may purchase for you an eternal weight of glory. In the which you shall always be assisted with my prayers to God who I am etc. Jonathan at last pretended to be overcome with the reasons which had been offered to him on the subject of self-murder but it plainly appeared that in this he was a hypocrite. For the day before his execution notwithstanding the keepers had the strictest eye on him imaginable somebody conveyed to him a bottle of liquid laudanum of which having taken a very large quantity he hoped it would forestall his dying at the gallows but as he had not been sparing in the dose so the largeness of it made a speedy effect which was perceived by his fellow prisoners seeing he could not open his eyes at the time that prayers were said to them as usual in the condemned hold. Whereupon they walked him about which first made him sweat exceedingly and he was then very sick. At last he vomited and they continuing still to lead him he threw the greatest part of the laudanum off from his stomach. Notwithstanding that he continued very drowsy, stupid and unable to do anything but gasp out his breath until it was stopped by the halter. He went to execution in a cart and instead of expressing any kind of pity or compassion for him the people continued to throw stones and dirt all the way along reviling and cursing him to die last and plainly showed by their behaviour how much the blackness and notoriety of his crimes had made him a board and how little tenderness the enemies of mankind meet with when overtaken by the hand of justice. When he arrived at Tyburn having by that gathered a little strength nature recovering from the convulsions in which the laudanum had thrown him the executioner told him he might take what time he pleased to prepare his death. He therefore sat down in the cart for some small time during which the people were so uneasy that they called out incessantly to the executioner to dispatch him and at last threatened to tear him to pieces if he did not tie him up immediately. Such a furious spirit was hardly ever discovered in the populace upon such an occasion. They generally look on blood with tenderness and behold even the stroke of justice with tears. But so far were they from it in this case that had a reprieve really come to his highly questionable whether the prisoner could ever have been brought back with safety. It being far more likely that as they wounded him dangerously in the head in his passage to Tyburn they would have knocked him on the head outright if any had attempted to have brought him back. Before I part with Mr. Wilde it is requisite that I inform you in regard to his wives or those who were called his wives concerning whom so much noise has been made. His first was a poor honest woman who contended herself to live at Wolverhampton with the son she had by him without ever putting him to any trouble or endeavouring to come up to town to take upon her the style and title of Madam Wilde which the last wife he lived with did with the greatest affection. The next whom he thought fit to dignify with the name of his consort was the aforementioned Mrs. Milliner with whom he continued in very great intimacy after they lived separately and by her means carried on the first of his trade in detecting stolen goods. The third one was Betty Mann a woman of the town in her younger days but so suddenly struck with horror by a Romish priest that she turned papest and as she appeared in her heart exceedingly devout and thoroughly penitent for all her sins it is to be hoped such penitence might merit forgiveness however erroneous the principle might be of that church in the communion of which she died. Wilde ever retained such an impression of the sanctity of this woman after her deceased and so great veneration for her that he ordered his body to be buried next hers in Pancras churchyard which his friends saw accordingly performed about two o'clock in the morning after his execution. Footnote soon after burial his body was disinterred and the head and body separated. Wilde's skull and the skeletons of his trunk were exhibited publicly as late as 1860. End of footnote. The next of Mr. Wilde's sultanas was Sarah Perrin, alias Greystone who survived him. Then there was Judith Nunn by whom he had a daughter who at the time of his decease might be about ten years old both mother and daughter being then living. The sixth and last was no less celebrated as Mrs. or Madam Wilde. Then he was remarkable by the style of Wilde the Thiefcatcher or by way of irony of Benefit Jonathan. Before her first marriage this remarkable damsel was known by the name of Mary Brown afterwards by that of Mrs. Dean being wife to Skoll Dean who was executed about the year 1716 or 1717 for housebreaking. Some malicious people have reported that Jonathan was accessory to hanging him merely for the sake of the reward and the opportunity of taking his relic who whatever regard she might have for her first husband is currently reported to have been so much affected with the misfortunes that happened to the latter that she twice attempted to make away with herself after she had the news of his being under sentence of death. However, by this his last lady he left no children and but two by his three other wives were living at the time of his decease. As to the person of the man it was homely to the greatest degree. There was something remarkably villainous in his face which nature had imprinted in stronger terms than perhaps she ever did upon any other. However, he was strong and active a fellow of prodigious boldness and resolution which made the pusillanimity shown at his death more remarkable. In his lifetime he was not at all shy in owning his profession but on the contrary bragged of it upon all occasions into which perhaps he was led by that ridiculous respect which was paid him and the meanness of spirit some persons of distinction were guilty of in talking to him freely. Common report has swelled the number of malefactors executed through his means to no less than one hundred and twenty. Certain it is that they were very numerous in reality as in his own reckoning. The most remarkable of them were these White, Thirland and Dunn executed for the murder of Mrs. Knapp and robbing Thomas Mikkel Tweet ex-quire. James Lincoln and Robert Wilkinson for robbing and murdering Peter Martin the Chelsea pensioner but it must be noted that they denied the murder even with their last breath. James Shaw convicted by Jonathan for the murder of Mr. Potts though he had been apprehended by others. Humphrey Angier who died for robbing Mr. Lewin the City Marshal. John Levy and Matthew Flood for robbing the honourable Mr. Young and Colonel Cope of a watch and other things of value. Richard Oakey for robbing of Mr. Betts in Fig Lane John Shepard and Joseph Blake for breaking the house of Mr. Kneebone with many others some of which such as John Maloney and Val Carrick were of an older date. It has been said that there was a considerable sum of money due to him for his share in the apprehension of several felonies at the very time of his death which happened as I have told you at Tibern on Monday the 24th day of May 1725 he being then about 42 years of age. End of Section 4 Recording by Jeffrey Wilson Ames, Iowa Chapter 5 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 2 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 2 by Arthur L. Hayward Chapter 5 The Life of John Little A Housebreaker and Thief The papers which I have in relation to this malifactor speak nothing with regard to his parents and education. The first thing that I have concerning him is his being at sea where he was at the time my Lord Tarrington then Sir George Bing went up the Mediterranean as also in my Lord Cobham's expedition to Vigo and in these expeditions he got such a knack of plundering that he could never bring himself afterwards to thinking it was a sin to plunder anybody. This wicked principle he did not fail to put in practice by stealing everything he could lay his hands on when he afterwards went into Sweden in a merchant ship. Indeed there is too common a case for men who have been enured to robbing and maltreating an enemy now and then to receive the same talents at home and make free with the subjects of their own sovereign as they did with those of the enemy. Weak minds sometimes do not really so well apprehend the difference but thieve under little apprehension of sin provided they can escape the gallows. Others of better understanding acquire such an appetite to repine that they are not afterwards able to lay it aside so that I cannot help observing that it would be more prudent for officers to encourage their men to do their duty against the enemy from generous motives of serving their country and vindicating its rights rather than proposing the hopes of gain and the reward arising from destroying those unhappy wretches who fall under their power. But enough of this and perhaps too much here. Let us return again to him of whom we are now speaking. When he came home into England he fell into bad company particularly of John Bewell, alias Hanley, and one Belcher who it is supposed inclined him by idle discourse first to look upon robbing as a very entertaining employment in which they met with abundance of pleasure and might with a little care avoid all the danger. This was language very likely to work upon little's disposition who had a great inclination to all sorts of debauchery and no sort of religious principles to check him. Over above all this he was unhappily married to a woman of the same ways of living one who got her bread by walking the streets picking of pockets. Therefore instead of persuading her husband to quit such company as she saw him inclined to follow, on the contrary she encouraged, prompted and offered her assistance in the expedition she knew they were going about. Thus little's road to destruction lay open for him to rush into without any let or the least check upon his vicious inclinations. He and his wicked companions became very busy in the practice of their employment. They disturbed most of the roads near London and were particularly good customers to Sadler's Wells, Belsize and the rest of the little places of junketing and entertainment which are most frequented in the neighbourhood of this metropolis. Their method upon such occasions was to observe who was drunkest and to watch such persons when they came out suffering them to walk a little before them till they came to a proper place. Then jostling them and picking a quarrel with them they fell to fighting and in conclusion picked their pockets, snatched their hats and wigs or took any other methods that were the most likely to obtain something wherewith to support their riots in which they spent every night. At last finding their incomings not so large as they expected they took next to housebreaking in which they had found somewhat better luck. But their expenses continuing still too large for even their numerous booties to supply them they were continually pushed upon hazarding their lives and hardly had any respite from the crimes they committed which as they grew numerous made them the more known and consequently increased their danger. Those who make it their business to apprehend such people having had intelligence of most of them which is generally the first step in the road to Hyde Park corner. Footnote that is Tyburn Tree End Footnote It is remarkable that the observation which most of all shocks thieves and convinces them at once both of the certainty and justice of a providence is this that the money which they amass by such unrighteous dealings never thrives with them that though they thieve continually they are notwithstanding that always in want pressed on every side with fears and dangers and never at liberty from the uneasy apprehensions of having incurred the displeasure of God as well as run themselves into the punishments inflicted by the law. To these general terrors there was added, too little the distracting fears of a discovery from the rash and impetuous tempers of his associates who were continually defrauding one another in their shares of the booty and then quarreling fighting, threatening and what not till little sometimes at the expense of his own allotment reconciled and put them in humor. Nor were his fatal conjectures on this head without cause for Bewell, though as little always declared he had drawn him into such practices put him into an information he made for the sake of procuring a pardon. A few days after little was taken into custody and at the next sessions indicted for breaking open the house of one Mr. Deere and taking from thence several parcels of goods expressed in the indictment. Upon this trial the prosecutor swore to the loss of his goods and Bewell, who had been a confederate in the robbery gave testimony as to the manner in which they were taken. As he was conscious of his guilt little made a very poor defence pretending that he was utterly unacquainted with this Bewell hoping that if he could persuade the jury to that the prosecutor's evidence as it did not affect him personally might not convict him. But his hope was vain for Bewell confirmed what he said by so many circumstances that the jury gave credit to his testimony and thereupon found the prisoners guilty. Little, though he entertained scarce any hopes of success moved the court earnestly to grant transportation but as they gave him no encouragement upon the motion so it must be acknowledged that he did not amuse himself with any vain expectations. During the time he remained under conviction he behaved with great marks of penitence, assisted constantly at the public devotions in the chapel and often prayed fervently in the place where he was confined. He made no scruple of owning the falsehood of what he had asserted upon his trial acknowledging the justice of that sentence which doomed him to death. He seemed to be under a very great concern lest his wife, who was addicted to such practices should follow him to the same place. In order to prevent which, as far as it lay in his power, he wrote to her in the most pressing terms he was able in treating her to take notice of that melancholy condition in which he then lay miserable through the wants under which he suffered and still more miserable from the apprehensions of a shameful death and the fear of being plunged also into everlasting torment. Having finished this letter he began to withdraw his thoughts as much as possible from this world and to fix them wholly where they ought to have been placed throughout his life not for his assistance and endeavouring to render himself worthy of it by a sincere repentance. Infine as he had been enormously wicked through the course of his life so he was extraordinarily penitent throughout the course of his misfortunes deeply affected from the apprehensions of temporal punishment but apparently more afflicted with the sense of his sins and the fear of that punishment which the justice of Almighty God might inflict upon him. Therefore to the day of his execution he employed every moment in crying for mercy and with wonderful piety and resignation submitted to that death which the law had appointed for his offenses on the 13th of September 1725 at Tyburn. As to his own age that I am not able to say anything of it not being mentioned in the papers before me. End of chapter 5 Recording by Linda Johnson Chapter 6 Of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 2 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 Jeffrey Wilson Ames, Iowa Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 2 by Arthur L. Hayward The Life of John Price A House Breaker and Thief Amongst the ordinary kind of people in England debauchery is so common and the true principles of honesty and a just life so little understood that we need not be surprised at the numerous sessions we see so often held in a year at the Old Bailey and the multitudes which in consequence of them are yearly executed at Tyburn. Fraud which is only robbery within the limits of the law is at this time of day especially among the common people thought a sign of wit and esteemed as fair a branch of their calling as their labours. Mechanics of all sorts practice it without showing any great concern to hide it especially from their own family in which on the contrary they encourage and admire it. Instead of being reproved for their first essays in dishonesty their children are called smart boys and their tricks related to neighbours and visitors as proofs of their genius and spirit yet when the lads proceed in the same way after being grown up a little nothing too harsh or too severe can be inflicted upon them in the opinion of these parents as if cheating at Chuck and filtering of marbles were not as real crimes in children of eight years old as stealing of handkerchiefs and picking of pockets in boys of thirteen or fourteen but with the vulgar tis the punishment annexed to it and not the crime that is dreaded and the commandments against stealing and murder would be as readily broke as those against swearing and Sabbath breaking if the civil power had not set up a gallows at the end of them John Price of whom we are now to speak has very little preserved concerning him in the memoirs that lie before me all that I am able to say of him is that by employment he was a sailor in the course of his voyages he had addicted himself to gratifying such inclinations as he had towards drink and women without the least concern as to the consequences here or hereafter he said indeed that falling sick at a porto in Portugal and becoming very weak and almost incapable of moving himself the fear of death gave him apprehensions of what the justice of God might inflict on him through the number and hainessness of his sins this at last made so great an impression on his mind that he put up a solemn vow to God of thorough repentance and amendment if it should please him to raise him once more from the bed of sickness and restore him again to his former health but when he had recovered his late good intentions were forgotten and the evil examples he had before his eyes of his companions who according to the custom of Portugal addicted themselves to all sorts of lewdness and debauchery prevailed he returned like the dog to the vomit and his last state was worse than his first on his return into England he had still a desire towards the same sensual enjoyments was ever coveting debauches of drink accompanied with the conversation of lewd women but carrying little for labour and finding no honest employment to support these expenses into which his lusts obliged him to run he therefore abandoned all thoughts of honesty and took to thieving as the proper method of supporting him in his pleasures when this resolution was once taken it was no difficult thing to find companions to engage with him houses to receive him and women to caress him on the contrary it seemed difficult for him to choose out of the number offered and as soon as he had made the choice he and his associates fell immediately into the practice of that miserable trade they had chosen how long they continued to practice it before they fell into the hands of justice I am not able to say but from several circumstances it seems probable that there was no long time intervening for price in company with Sparks and James Cliff attempted the house of the Duke of Leeds and thrusting up the sash window James Cliff was put into the parlor and handed out some things to Price and Sparks but it seems they were seen by Mr Best and upon their being apprehended Cliff confessed the whole affair owned that it was concerted between them and that himself handed out the things to his companions Price and Sparks at the ensuing sessions Price was tried for that offence and upon the evidence of Mr Best the confession of James Cliff and Benjamin Bieland supposing that he himself at the time of his being apprehended acknowledged that he had been in company with Cliff and Sparks the jury found him guilty as they did Cliff also upon his own confession under sentence he seemed to have a just sense of his proceeding wicked life and was under no small apprehensions concerning his repentance as it was forced and not voluntary however the ordinary having satisfied his scruples of the sort as far as he was able recommended it to him without oppressing his conscience with curious fears and unnecessary scruples to apply himself to prayer and other duties of a dying man to this he seemed inclinable enough but complained that James Cliff who was in the condemned hold prevented both him and the rest of the criminals from their duty by extravagant speeches wild and profane expressions raving about the woman he had conversed with and abusing everybody who came near him which partly arose from the temper of that unhappy person and was also owing to indisposition of body as all the while he lay in the hole he was laboring under a high fever another great misfortune to price in the condition in which he was consisted in his incapacity to supply the want of ministers through his incapacity of reading however he endeavored to make up for it as well as he could by attending constantly at chapel and not only behaving gravely at prayers but listening attentively at sermon by which means he constantly brought away a great part and sometimes lost very little out of his memory of what he heard there in a word all the criminals who were at this time under sentence accepting Cliff seemed perfectly disposed to make a just use of that time which the peculiar clemency of the English law affords to malefactors that they may make their peace with God and by their sufferings under the hands of men prevent eternal condemnation they expressed also a great satisfaction that their crimes were of an ordinary kind and occasioned no staring and whispering when they came to chapel a thing they were very much afraid of in as much as it would have hindered their devotions and discomposed the frame of their minds at the same time with price there lay under condemnation Coleridge who was convicted for entering the house of Elizabeth fell in the night time with a felonious intent to take away the goods of Daniel Brooks but it seems he was apprehended before he could so much as open the chest he had designed to rob the thieves in Newgate usually take upon them to be very learned in the law especially in respect to what relates to evidence and they had persuaded this unhappy man that no evidence which could be produced against him would affect his life there is no doubt but his conviction came therefore upon him with greater surprise and certain it is that such practices are of the utmost ill consequence to those unhappy malefactors however when he found that death was inevitable by degrees he began to reconcile himself there too and as he happened to be the only one amongst the criminals who could read so with great diligence he applied himself to supply that deficiency in his fellow prisoners even after he was seized with sickness which brought him exceedingly low he ceased not to strive against the weakness of the body that he might do good to his fellow convicts footnote the jailers and others in prisons had an interest in furnishing prisoners with liquor and not only looked as scants at those who refused but made it highly uncomfortable for all who avoided debauchery end of footnote in a word no temptation to drink nor the desire of pleasing those who vend it circumstances which too often induce others in that condition to be guilty of strange enormities ever had force enough to obtrude on them more than was necessary to support life and to keep up such a supply of spirits as enabled them to perform their duties from whence it happened that the approach of death did not affect them with any extraordinary fear but both suffered with resignation on the same day with the former criminals at the end of Chapter 6 Recording by Jeffrey Wilson Ames, Iowa Chapter 7 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, Volume 2 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 2 by Arthur L. Hayward Chapter 7 The Life of Foster Snow A Murderer There cannot be anything more dangerous in our conduct through human life than a too ready compliance with any inclination of the mind, whether it be lustful or of an irascible nature Either transports us on the least check into wicked extravagancies which are fatal in their consequences and suddenly overwhelm us with both shame and ruin. There is hardly a page in any of these volumes but carries in it examples which are so many strong proofs of the veracity of this observation but with respect to the criminal we are now speaking of he is a yet more extraordinary case than any of the rest and therefore I shall in the course of my relation make such remarks to me seem more likely to render his misfortunes and my account of them useful to my readers. Foster Snow was the son of very honest and reputable parents who gave him an education suitable to their station in life and which was also the same they intended to breed him up to, that is that of a gardener in which capacity or as a butler he served the abundance of persons of quality with an untainted reputation about 14 years before the time of his death he married and set up an ale house wherein his conduct was such that he gained the esteem and respect of his neighbors being a man who was without any great vices except only passions in which he too much indulged himself whenever he was in drink he would launch out into unaccountable extravagancies both in words and actions however it is likely that this proceeded in a great measure from family uneasiness which undoubtedly had for a long time discomposed him before committing that murder for which he died though when sober he might have wisdom enough to conceal his resentment yet when the fumes of wine clouded his reason he as it is no uncommon case gave vent to his passion and treated with undistinguished surliness all who came in his way now as to the source of these domestic discontents it is apparent from the papers I have that they were partly occasioned by family mismanagement and partly from the haughty and impudent carriage of the who fell by his hands for it seems the woman who Snow married had a daughter by a former husband this daughter she brought home to live with the deceased Mr. Snow who was so far from being angry therewith or treating her with the coldness which is usual to fathers-in-law that on the contrary he gave her the sole direction of his house and that she was so fond of the young daughter that greater tenderness could not have been shown to the child if she had been his own it seems the deceased Mr. Rawlins had found a way to ingratiate himself with both the mother and the daughter but especially the latter so that although his circumstances were not extraordinary they gave him very extensive credit and as he had a family of children they sometimes suffered them to get little matters about their house and thereby so effectually entailed them upon them that at last they were never out of it Mr. Snow it seems took umbrage at this and spared not to tell Mr. Rawlins flatly that he did not desire he should come wither which was frequently answered by the other in undervaluing terms which gave Mr. Snow uneasiness enough considering that the man at the same time owed him money and this carriage on both sides having continued for a pretty while and broken out in several instances it at last made Mr. Snow so uneasy that he could not forbear expressing his resentment to his wife and family but it had little effect still at the same rate Mr. Rawlins was frequently at the house his children received no less assistance there than before and in short everything went on in such a manner that poor Mr. Snow had enough to aggravate the suspicions which he entertained at last it unfortunately happened that he having got a little more liquor in his head than ordinary when he came into the house he asked him for money and up braided him with his treatment in very harsh terms to which the other making no less gross replies it kindled such a resentment in this unfortunate man that after several threats which sufficiently expressed the rancor of his disposition he snatched up a case knife and pursuing the unfortunate Mr. Rawlins gave him therewith a mortal of which he instantly died for this fact he was apprehended and committed to Newgate at the next sessions he was indicted first for the murder of Thomas Rawlins by giving him with a knife a mortal wound of the breadth of an inch and of the depth of seven inches whereby he immediately expired he was a second time indicted on the statute of stabbing and a third time also on the coroner's inquest for the same offence upon each of the which indictments the evidence was so dear that the jury notwithstanding some witnesses which he called to his reputation and which indeed deposed that he was a very civil and honest and peaceable neighbor found him guilty on them all and he thereupon received sentence of death in passing this sentence the then deputy recorder Mr. Fabie took particular notice of the heinousness of the crime of murder and expatiated on the equity of the divine law whereby it was required that he who had shed man's blood by man should his blood be shed and from thence took occasion to warn the prisoner from being misled into any delusive hopes of pardon since the nature of his offence was such as he could not reasonably expect it from the royal breast which had ever been cautious of extending mercy to those who had denied it unto their fellow subjects under sentence of death this unhappy man behaved himself very devoutly and with many signs of true penitence he was from the first very desirous to acquaint himself with the true nature of that crime which he had committed and finding it at once repugnant to religion and contrary to even the dictates of human nature he began to loathe himself and his own cruelty crying out frequently when alone oh murder murder it is the guilt of that great sin which distracts my soul when at chapel he attended with great devotion to the duties of prayer and service there but whenever the commandments came to be repeated at the words thou shalt do no murder he would tremble, turn pale shed tears and with a violent agitation of spirit pray to God to pardon him that great offence to say truth the never any man seemed to have a truer sense or a more quick feeling of his crimes the unhappy man testified during his confinement his heart was so far from being hardened as is too commonly the case with those wretches who fall into the same condition that he on the contrary afflicted himself continually and without ceasing as fearing that all his penitence would be but too little in the sight of God for destroying his creature and taking away a life which he could not restore amidst these apprehensions covered with terrors and sinking under the weight of his afflictions he received spiritual assistance of the ordinary and other ministers with much meekness and it is to be hoped with great benefit since they encouraged him to rely on the mercy of God and not by an unseasonable diffidence to add the throwing away his own soul by despair taking away the life of another in his wrath what added to the heavy load of his sorrows was the unkindness of his wife who neither visited him in his misfortunes and administered but indifferently to his wants it seems the quarrels they had had so embittered them towards one another that very little of that friendship was to be seen in either the marriage bond easy and the yoke of matrimony light his complaints with respect to her occasioned some inquiries as to whether he were not jealous of her person such suspicions being generally the cause of married people's greatest dislikes what he spoke on this head was exceedingly modest far from that rancor which might have been expected from a man whom the world insinuated had brought himself to death by a too violent resentment of what related to her conduit though no such thing appeared from what he declared to those who attended him he said he was indeed uneasy at the too large credit she gave to the deceased but that it was her purse only that he entertained suspicions of and that as he was a dying man he had no ill thought of her in any other way but with regard to his daughter he expressed a very great dislike to her behaviour and said her conduct had been such as forced her husband to leave her and that though he had treated her with the greatest kindness and affection yet such was the untoldness of her disposition that he had received but very sorry returns however to the last he expressed great uneasiness just after his decease his little grand daughter-in-law might suffer in her education of which he had intended to take the greatest care his dislike to the mother being far enough from giving him any aversion to the child it seems from the time he had taken it home he had placed his affections strongly upon it and did not withdraw them even to the hour of his departure he was afflicted with a violent disease which reduced him so low that he was incapable of coming to the chapel and when it abated a little it yet left his head so weak that he seemed to be somewhat distracted crying out in chapel the Sunday before he died like one grievously disturbed in mind and expressing the greatest agonies under the apprehension of his own guilt and the strict justice of him to whom he was shortly to answer however he forgave with all outward appearance of sincerity all who had been in any degree accessory to his death being carried in a morning coach to the place of execution he appeared somewhat more composed than he had been for some time before he told the people that except the crime for which he died he was not guilty of anything which might bring him within the fear of meeting with such a death and in this disposition of mind he suffered at Tyburn on the third day of November 1725 being about 55 years of age immediately after his death a paper was published under the title of his case full of circumstances tending to extenuate his guilt but such as in no way appeared upon his trial the court of old Bailey at the next sessions taking this paper into their consideration were of opinion that it reflected highly on the justice of those who tried him and therefore ordered the printer to attend them to answer for this offense accordingly he attended the next day and being told that the court was highly displeased with his publishing a thing of that nature in order to misrepresent the justice of their proceedings and that they were ready to punish him for his contempt in the aforesaid publication of such a libel Mr. Leage thought fit to prevent it by making his most humble submission and asking pardon of the court for his offense assuring them that it proceeded only from inadvertency and promising never to print anything of the like sort again whereupon the court were graciously pleased to dismiss him only with a reprimand and to admonish others of the same profession that they should be cautious for the future of doing anything which might reflect in any degree upon the proceedings had before them End of Chapter 7 Recording by Linda Johnson All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jeffrey Wilson Ames, Iowa Lives of the most remarkable criminals, Volume 2 by Arthur L. Hayward The Life of John Whalebone Alias Wellbone A Thief, etc. This malefactor was born in the midst of the City of London in the parish of St. Dionys Back Church. His parents were persons in but mean circumstances who, however, strained them to the uttermost to give this their son a tolerable education. They were especially careful to instruct him in the principles of religion and were, therefore, under an excessive concern when they found that neglecting all other business he endeavored only to qualify himself for the sea. However, finding his inclination so strong that way they got him on board a man of war and procured such a recommendation to the captain that he was treated with great civility during the voyage, and if he had had any inclinations to have done well, he might in all probability have been much encouraged. But after several voyages to sea he took it as strongly in his head to go no more as he had before to go whether his parents would or no. He then cried old clothes about in the streets. But not finding any great encouragement in that employment, he was easily drawn in by some wicked people of his acquaintance to take what they called the shortest method of getting money which was in plain English to go a-thieving. He had very ill luck in his new occupation for in six weeks time after his first setting out on the information of one of his companions he was apprehended tried convicted and ordered for transportation. It was his fortune to be delivered to a family in South Carolina who employed him to labor in his plantations and treated him good meat and drink and treated him rather better than our farmers treat their servants here. Which leads me to say something concerning the usage such people met with when carried as the law directs to our plantations in order to rectify certain gross mistakes. As if Englishmen abroad had totally lost all humanity and treated their fellow creatures and fellow countrymen as brutes. The colonies on the continent of America are those which now take off the greatest part of those who are transported for felony from Britain. Most of the island colonies having long ago refused to receive them. The countries into which they now go trading chiefly in such kind of commodities as are produced in England unless it be tobacco, the employment therefore of persons thus sent over is either in attending husbandry or in the culture of the plant which we have before mentioned. They are thereby exposed to no more hardships than they would have been obliged to have undergone at home in order to have got an honest livelihood so that unless they're being obliged to work for their living is to pass for great hardship I do not conceive where else since the law rather than shed the blood of persons for small offenses or where they appear not to have gone on for a length of time in them by its lenity changes the punishment of death into sending them amongst their own countrymen at a distance from their ill-disposed companions who might probably seduce them to commit the same offenses again. It directs also that the punishment shall be for such a length of time as may be suitable to the guilt of the crime and render it impracticable for them on their return to meet with their old gangs and acquaintance making by this means a happy mixture both of justice and clemency dealing mildly with them for the offense already committed and endeavoring to put it ever out of their own power by fresh offenses to draw a heavier punishment upon themselves but to return to this whale bone the kind usage of his master the easiness of the life which he lived and the certainty of death if he attempted to return home could not all of them prevail upon him to lay aside the thoughts of coming back again to London and there giving himself up to those sensual delights which he had formerly enjoyed opportunities are seldom wanting where men inclined to make use of them especially to one who had been bred as he was to the sea so that in a year and a half after his being settled there he took such ways of recommending himself to a certain captain as induced him to bring him home and set him safe on shore near Harwich he traveled on foot up to London and was in town but a very few days before being accidentally taken notice of by a person who knew him he caused him to be apprehended and at the next sessions at the Old Bailey he was convicted of such illegal return and ordered for execution at first he pretended that he thought it no crime for a man to return to his own country and therefore did not think himself bound to repent of that whatever arguments the ordinary made use of to persuade him to sense of his guilt I know not but because this is an error into which such people are very apt to fall and as their want not some of the vulgar who take it for a great hardship also making it one of those topics upon which they take occasion to harangue against the severity of a law that they do not understand I think it will not therefore be improper to explain it transportation is a punishment whereby the British law commutes for offences which would other ways be capital and therefore a contract is plainly presumed between every felon transported and the court by whose authority he is ordered for transportation that the said felon shall remain for such term of years as the law directs without returning into any of the king's European dominions and the court plainly acquaints the felon that if in breach of his agreement he shall so return that in such case the contract shall be deemed void and the capital punishment shall again take place to say then that a person who enters into an agreement like this and is perfectly acquainted with its conditions knowing that no less than life must be forfeited by the breach of them and yet willfully breaks them to say that such a person as this is guilty of no offence must in the opinion of every person of common understanding be the greatest absurdity that can be asserted and to call that severity which only is the laws taking its forfeit is a very great impropriety and proceeds from a foolish and unreasonable compassion this I think so plain that nothing but pre-possession or stupidity can hinder people from comprehending it as to whale bone when death approached he laid aside all these excuses and applied himself to what was much more material the making a proper use of that little time which yet remained for repentance he acknowledged all the crimes which he had committed in the part of his life and the justice of his sentence by which he had been condemned to transportation and having warned the people at his execution to avoid of all things being led into ill company he suffered with much seeming penitence together with the aforementioned malefactors at Tyburn being then about 38 years of age End of Chapter 8 Recording by Jeffrey Wilson Ames, Iowa of James Little a footpad and highwayman James Little was a person descended from parents very honest and industrious though of small fortune they bred him up with all the care they were able and when he came to a fit age put him out to an honest employment but in his youth having taken peculiar fancy to his father's profession of a painter he there to obtained in so great a degree as to be able to earn 12 or 15 shillings in a week when he thought fit to work hard but that was very seldom and he soon contracted such a hatred to working at all that associating with some wild young fellows he kept himself continually drunk and mad not caring what he did for money so long as he supplied himself with enough to procure himself a liquor amongst the rest of those debauched persons with whom he conversed there was especially one Sandford with whom he was peculiarly intimate this fellow was a soldier of a rude loose disposition who took a particular delight in making persons whom he conversed with as bad as himself having one Sunday therefore got little into his company such a pitch that he had scarce any sense he next began to open to him a new method of living as he called it which was neither more than less than going on the highway little was so far gone in his cups that he did not so much as know what he was saying at last Sandford rose up and told him it was a good time now to go out upon their attempts upon this little got up too and went out with him they had not gone far before the soldier drew out a pair of pistols and robbed two or three persons while little stood by so very drunk that he was both unable to have hurt the persons or to have defended himself he said he robbed no more with the soldier who was soon after taken up and hanged at the same time with Jonathan Wilde yet the sad fate of his companion had very little effect upon this unhappy lad he fell afterwards into an acquaintance with some of John Shepherd's mistresses and they continually dinning in his ears what great exploits that famous robber had committed they unfortunately prevailed upon him to go again into the same way but it was just as fatal to him as it had been to his companion for little having robbed one Lionel Mills in the open fields put him in fear and taken from him a handkerchief three keys and sixteen shillings in money not contented with this he pulled the turnover off from his neck hastily and thereby nearly strangled him for this offense the man pursued him with unweary diligence and he being taken up there upon was quickly after charged with another robbery committed on one Mr. Evans in the same month who lost a cane three keys and twenty pounds in money on these two offenses he was severally convicted at the next sessions at the old Bailey and having no friends could therefore entertain little expectation of pardon especially considering how short a time it was since he mercy before being under sentence at the same time with the soldier before mentioned and Jonathan Wilde and discharge to then upon his making certain discoveries he pretended to much penitence and sorrow but it did not appear in his behavior having been guilty of many levities when brought up to chapel to which perhaps the crowds of strangers who from an accountable humor desire to be present on these melancholy occasions did not a little contribute for at other times it must be owned he did not behave himself in any such manner but seemed rather grave and willing to be instructed of which he had indeed sufficient want knowing very little but of debauchery and vice however he reconciled himself by degrees to the thoughts of death and behaved with tranquility enough during that small space that was left him to prepare for it at the place of execution he looked less astonished though he spoke much less to the people than the rest and died seemingly composed at the same time with the other malefactors snow and whale bone being at the time of his execution in his seventeenth year and of Chapter 9 Recording by Linda Johnson Chapter 10 of Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals Volume 2 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 2 by Arthur L. Hayward Chapter 10 The Life of John Hamp Footpad and Highwaymen This unhappy person, John Hamp was born of both honest and reputable parents in the parish of Syngiles Without Cripplegate They took abundance of pains in his education and the lad seemed in his juvenile years to deserve it He was a boy of abundance of spirit and friends at his own request put him out apprentice to a man whose trade it was to lath houses He did not stay out his time with him but being one evening with some drunken companions at an ale house near the iron gate by the tower, three of them sailors on board a man of war there being at that time a great want of men a squadron being fitted out for the Baltic these sailors therefore serving all the company very drunk put into their head to make an agreement for their going all together this voyage to the north drink wrought powerfully in their favor and in less than two hours time Hamp and two other of his companions fell in with the sailors' motion and talked of nothing but braving the czar and seeing the rarities of Copenhagen The fourth man of Hamp's company stood out a little but half an hour's rudimentaid and another bowl of punch brought him to a sailor upon which one of the seamen stepped out and gave notice to his lieutenant who was drinking not far off of the great service he had performed the lieutenant was mightily pleased with Jack Tarr's diligence promised to pay the reckoning and give each of the McGinney besides a quarter of an hour after the lieutenant came in the fellows were all so very drunk that he was forced to send for more hands belonging to the ship who carried them to the longboat and there laying them down and covering them with men's coats carried them on board that night there is no doubt that Hamp was very surprised when he found the situation he was in next morning there was no remedy he acquiesced without making any words and so began the voyage cheerfully everybody knows that there was no fighting in these Baltic expeditions so that all the hardships they had to combat with were those of the sea and the weather which was indeed bad enough to people of an English constitution who were very unfit to bear the extremity of cold while they buy a little Copenhagen an accident happened to one of Hamp's great acquaintance which much affected him at that time and it would have certainly been happy for him if he had retained a just sense of it always there was one scrimgeur a very merry debonair fellow who used to make not only the men but sometimes the officers merry on board the ship he was particularly remarkable he was full of money of which he was no niggered but ready to do anybody a service and consequently was very far from being ill-beloved this man being one day on shore and going to purchase some fresh provisions to make merry with amongst his companions somebody took notice of a dollar that was in his hand and scrimgeur wanting change the man readily offered to give smaller money scrimgeur thereupon gave him the dollar and having afterwards bargained for what he wanted was just going on board when a Danish officer with a file of men came to apprehend him for a coiner the fellow conscious of his guilt and suspicious of their intent seeing the man amongst them who had changed the dollar took to his heels and springing into the boat on board immediately where as soon as he was got scrimgeur fancied himself out of all danger but in this he was terribly mistaken for early the next morning three Danish commissaries came on board the admiral and acquainted him that a seamen on board his fleet had counter-fitted their coin to a very considerable value and was yesterday detected in putting off a dollar that thereupon an officer had been ordered to seize him but that he had made his escape by jumping into the longboat of such a ship on board of which they were informed he was they therefore desired he might be given up in order to be punished the admiral declined that but assured them that upon due proof he would punish him with the greatest severity on board and having in the meanwhile dispatched a lieutenant and twenty men on board scrimgeur's ship with the Dane who detected him in putting off false money he was secured immediately upon searching his trunk they found there near a hundred false dollars so excellently made that none of the ship's crew could have distinguished them from the true he was immediately carried on board the admiral who ordered him to be confined soon after a court-martial condemned him to be whipped from ship to ship which was performed in the view of the Danish commissaries with so much rigor that instead of expressing any notion of the Englishman showing favour to their countrymen upon any such occasion they interposed to mitigate the fellow's sufferings and humbly besought the admiral to omit lashing him on board three of the last ships but in this request they were civilly refused and the sentence which had been pronounced against him was executed upon him with the utmost severity and it happening that Hamp was one of the persons who rode him from ship to ship it filled him with so much terror that he was scarce able to perform his duty the wretch himself being made such a terrible spectacle of misery that not only Hamp but all the rest who saw him after his last lashing were shocked at the sight and though it was truly suspected that some others had been concerned with him yet this example had such an effect that there were no more instances of any false money uttered from that time it was near five years after Hamp went first to see that he began to think of returning home and working at his trade again and after this thought had once got into his head as is usual with such fellows he was never easy until he had accomplished it an opportunity offered soon after the ship he belonged to being recalled and paid off John had however very little to receive the great delight he took in drinking made him so constant a customer to a certain officer that all was near spent by the time he came home that however would have been no great misfortune had he stuck close to his employment and avoided those excesses of which he had been formerly guilty but alas this was by no means in his power he drank rather harder after his return than he had done before and if he might be credited at that time when the law allows what is said to pass for evidence that is in the agony of death it was this love of drink that brought him without any other crime to his shameful end the manner of which I shall next fully relate Hamp passing one night very drunk through the street a woman as is usual enough for common street walkers to do took him by the sleeve and after some immodest discourse asked him if he would not go into her mother's and take a pot with her to this motion Hamp readily agreed and had not been long in the house before he fell fast asleep in the company of James Byrd who was hanged with him the woman who brought him into the house and an old woman whom she called her mother by and by certain persons came and James Byrd for being in a disorderly house and having carried them to the watch house they were there both charged with robbing and beating in a most cruel and barbarous manner a poor old woman near rag fare footnote this was in Rosemary Lane well close square white chapel a place near the tower of London where old clothes are sold according to Pope footnote at the next old Bailey sessions they were both tried for the fact and the woman's evidence being positive against them they were likewise convicted Hamp behaved himself with great serenity while under sentence declaring always that he had not the least knowledge of Byrd until the time they were taken up that in all his lifetime he had never acquired a half penny in dishonest manner and that although he had so much abandoned himself to drinking and other debaucheries yet he constantly worked hard at his employment in order to get money to support them as to the robbery he knew no more of it than the child unborn that he readily believed all that the woman swore to be true except her mistake in the persons and that as to Byrd he could not take upon himself to say that he was concerned in it a divine of eminency in the church being so charitable as to visit him spoke to him very particularly on this head he told him that a jury of his countrymen on their oaths had unanimously found him guilty that the law upon such a conviction had appointed him to death and that there appeared not the least hopes of his being anyways able to prevent it that the denying of his guilt therefore could not possibly be of any use to him here but might probably ruin him forever hereafter that he would act wisely in this unfortunate situation into which his vices had brought him if he would make an ample acknowledgement of the crime he had committed and own the justice of providence in bringing him to condemnation instead of leaving the world in the assertion of a falsehood and rushing into the presence of almighty God with a lie in his mouth this exhortation was made publicly and hamp after having heard it with great attention answered it in the following terms I am very sensible sir of your goodness in affording me this visit and am no less obliged to you for your pressing instances to induce me confession but as I know the matter of fact so I am sure you would not press me to own it if it be not true I avare that the charge against me is utterly false in every particular I freely acknowledge that I have led a most disillute life and abandoned myself in working all kind of wickedness but should I so satisfy some persons importunities as to own also the justice of my present sentence as arising from the truth of the fact I should thereby become guilty of the very crime you warn me of and go out of the world indeed in the very act of telling and untruth besides of what use would it be to me who have not the least hopes of pardon to persist in a lie merely for the sake of deceiving others who may take my miserable death as a piece of news and at the same time cheat myself in what is my last and greatest concern I beg therefore to be troubled no more on this head but to be left to make my peace with God for those sins which I have really committed without being pressed to offend him yet more by taking upon me that which I really know nothing of the ordinary of Newgate hereupon went into the hold to examine Byrd who lay there in a sick and lamentable condition he confirmed all that Hamp had said declared he never saw him in his life before the night in which they were taken up acknowledged himself to be a great sinner and an old offender that he had been often taken up before for thefts in the present case he peremptorily insisted on his innocence and that he knew nothing of it at the place of execution Hamp appeared very composed and with a cheerfulness that is seldom seen in the countenances of persons when they come to the tree and are on the very verge of death he spoke for a few moments to the people saying that he had been a grievous sinner much addicted to women to drinking that for these crimes he thought the justice of God righteous in bringing him to a shameful death but as to assaulting the woman in rag fare he again protested his innocence and declared he never committed any robbery whatsoever desired the prayers of the people in his last moments and then applied himself to some short private devotions he resigned himself much calmness to his fate on Wednesday the 22nd of December 1725 at Tyburn being then in the 25th year of his age Byrd confirmed as well as the craziness of his distempered head would give him leave the truth of what Hamp had said End of Chapter 10 Recording by Linda Johnson