Drunks, Whores and Idle Apprentices: Criminal Biographies of the Eighteenth Century

by PHILIP RAWLINGS

  In the height of all our Robberies, we frequently used to go the Playhouse, dressed like Gentlemen; and when Play was done we would have Chairs call’d for us, and sometimes three or four Link Boys before us. One Night in particular, I remember that Hulks, Black Isaac, Rawlins and I, were to see the Beggar’s Opera; and Captain Macheath’s Fetters happening to be loose, Rawlins call’d out, Captain, Captain, your Bazzel is undone. The Play being over, we went to a House in a Wood-street that we us’d, in four Chairs, with six Lights before each Chair.51

  I have now given a full Account of my Life, and mentioned every particular Circumstance from my Childhood to this present Time, to the utmost my Memory. I have nothing more to add but this, I hope as I am now to suffer Death for what I declare I did not commit, every good Christian will forgive me whom I have really wrong; and that the Person that accus’d me (whose Character is sufficiently known) may be stopt in his Prosecutions against those Persons whom he has sent to Newgate since my Condemnation.52

  FINIS

  NOTES

  1 Roll.

  2 An escritoire.

  3 ‘On the Sneak’ means to steal through stealth.

  4 Mrs Blauke was probably Mrs Blake, the mother of Joseph Blake, alias Blueskin (see note 5 below and The History…of John Sheppard (1724) in this volume). William Field was described in A Genuine Narrative of all the Street Robberies Committed since October last, by James Dalton, London, 1730, as ‘the most vile Wretch that ever he [Dalton] contracted an Acquaintance with’ (p. 30), presumably because he offered to appear for the prosecution against Dalton and Fulsome. He regularly appeared in the courts, both as defendant and witness for the prosecution, and he was associated with Jonathan Wild and John Sheppard, both of whom he outlived (see G.Howson, The Thief-taker General: The Rise and Fall of Jonathan Wild, London, 1970; The History…of John Sheppard (1724), in this volume). He was eventually transported to Maryland in 1729 for shoplifting: OBSP, 16–24 April 1729; P.W.Coldham, English Convicts in Colonial America, 2 volumes, New Orleans, 1974–6, vol. I, p. 94.

  5 On Jack, or John, Sheppard see The History…of John Sheppard (1724), reprinted in this volume. Blueskin, alias Joseph Blake, was hanged in 1724 for involvement in the theft from Kneebone’s shop for which Sheppard was also hanged. Blake’s main claim to fame was that he stabbed Jonathan Wild in the Old Bailey: Howson, Thief-taker General.

  6 Ann, or Hannah, Britton was transported in 1726 to Virginia for receiving goods. It was said at her trial that she had offered the prosecutor five guineas to drop the case and that she had claimed to be worth £1000: Coldham, English Convicts, vol. I, p. 34; OBSP, 31 August to 3 September 1726.

  7 Lewkener’s Lane was also known as Lutenor’s Lane or Newtoner’s Lane.

  8 Stuff is a woollen fabric.

  9 This was to prevent discovery in the likely event that the numbers of the bank notes had been recorded.

  10 It seems likely that Speedman was also called Benjamin Speed. Speed was described as ‘a Boy’ when sentenced at the Old Bailey to be whipped for a felony in 1716, and for further felonies he was transported to Charleston in America in 1718 and to Maryland in 1720: OBSP, 22–25 February 1716, 23–26 April 1718, 12–14 October 1720; P.W.Coldham, The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage: 1614–1775, Baltimore, 1988, p. 751; Coldham, English Convicts, vol. I, p. 250.

  11 Keg.

  12 A round house was a place for temporarily detaining arrested people.

  13 The criminal justice system at this time was based on private prosecution, generally brought by the victim; as a result prosecutions would often fall because the prosecutor, having brought the complaint, later failed to turn up at the trial, perhaps because the stolen goods had been recovered or because the inconvenience or cost was too great.

  14 John Pendell was probably also known as John Pindar.

  15 A compter was a prison, often used for debtors.

  16 Charles Hinchman was convicted of picking a pocket to the value of 10d., and sentenced to transportation in 1719. Hinchman and Dalton may have first met at this time for both were put on board the Honor destined for America in May 1720 and both were involved in a mutiny and escape during the voyage. In 1721 he, along with Dalton and several others, was apprehended by Jonathan Wild, condemned for returning from transportation and hanged: OBSP, 4–7 October 1719, 1–4 March 1721; Coldham, The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage, p. 391; Howson, Thief-taker General, p. 310.

  17 According to the OBSP report of the trial, Dalton and Pindar were both convicted and sentenced to transportation in March 1720 for stealing clothes to the value of 39/- from Joseph Whitfield and Elizabeth Rigby on 18 January 1720, the goods being found on them. Pindar was transported to the York river on the Honor in May 1720, and, unlike Dalton and Hinchman (see note 16), he does not appear to have escaped on route. Contrary to the version given here, Howson claims that it was Field who impeached Dalton on this occasion. See: OBSP, 2–4 March 1719/20; Howson, Thief-taker General, p. 139; Coldham, English Convicts, vol. I, p. 211.

  18 The Honor, with Richard Langley as captain, sailed for Virginia in May 1720. It seems to have been Langley’s only trip as a transporter of convicts, and, as the text says, it was interrupted by a mutiny at Vigo: Coldham, The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage, pp. 915 and 207. On transportation to North America see A.E.Smith, Colonists in Bondage: White Servitude and Convict Labour in America, 1607–1776, Chapel Hill, 1947; A.R.Ekrich, Bound for America: The Transportation of British Convicts to the Colonies, 1718–75, Oxford, 1987.

  19 Geneva was slang for gin.

  20 Martin Gray was condemned for returning from transportation before his term had expired. He had been with Dalton on the Honor and had also escaped at Vigo: OBSP 1–4 March 1720/1; Coldham, The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage, p. 329.

  21 Dalton presumably returned to England sometime in late 1720 or early 1721, since he was apprehended, by Wild, in 1721 on a charge of returning from transportation, condemned in March, pardoned, and transported again in August 1721: Howson, Thief-taker General, p. 139; OBSP, 1–4 March 1721.

  22 See note 3.

  23 Jonathan Forward, a London merchant, had the government contract for transporting convicts from 1718 to 1739 at the rate of £3 per head: J.M. Beattie, Crime and the Courts in England 1660–1800, Oxford, 1986, p. 504. The Transportation Act of 1718 made returning from transportation before the prescribed term had expired a capital offence.

  24 Dalton went on the Prince Royal under Thomas Boyd in August 1721: Coldham, The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage, p. 207.

  25 Potomac river.

  26 Virginia.

  27 Mobjack Bay, Virginia.

  28 Hampton, Virginia.

  29 The Downs are part of the sea off the east coast of Kent.

  30 Robert MacCarthy, Lord Muskerry (died 1769), was at this time commander of the a fourth-rate ship. MacCarthy left the Navy in 1741 to join the Jacobite cause: Hampshire, a fourth-rate ship. MacCarthy Dictionary of National Biography.

  31 A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton, p. 13, has a similar incident, but says the crime was committed by Dalton and Rawlins after Branch had been arrested.

  32 It was reported that Branch was arrested for this offence on 2 February 1728: The Weekly Journal, or the British Gazeteer, 3 February 1728. The victim was Jane Marshall, and Branch was later condemned. At the trial it was said that he had two others with him who escaped, and that in the incident a Mr Trowell, who apprehended him, was wounded in the head: OBSP, 28 February to 5 March 1728. A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton, pp. 7–8, gives a shorter and rather different version according to which Branch pushed the woman down and Rawlins snatched her pocket; a passer-by then took hold of Branch, so Dalton attacked the man and Branch lunged at him with a knife, cutting both him and Dalton; attacked the man and Branch Branch was then taken.

  33 According to A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton, after Branch’s arrest Dalton and Rawlins ‘very seldom went upon these Exploits, only now an
d then to keep Rawlins’s Hand in’ (p. 12) because it brought insufficient money ‘to maintain them like Gentlemen’, or to support their desire to keep women ‘who run them to greater Extravagancies’. So Dalton and Rawlins turned to coach robberies (pp. 15–16).

  34 Probably the same robbery as one reported in Daily Journal, 9 February 1728, as occurring on 6 February in which a Mr Cane was the victim. According to evidence at the later trial (OBSP, 1–7 May 1728), the robbery of Thomas Cane was committed by Dalton and Rawlins in Castle Yard, Holborn. Dalton was reported to have said at the trial that ‘this was the first Coach they robb’d, for Bellamy being taken from them, they resolved to leave Haul Cly, (snatching of Pockets) and rob Coaches’. See also The Life of Martin Bellamy, London, 1728, p.4.

  35 These two robberies resemble two described in A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton, pp. 17– 18, one committed by Dalton, Rawlins and Hulks (see note 37), and the other by Dalton, Hulks and Black Isaac (possibly with others).

  36 See A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton, pp. 25–7; The Life of Martin Bellamy, p. 4.

  37 Hulks was John Hulks, also known as John Rowden. According to A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton, Rawlins was against Hulks joining Dalton and himself, ‘he being a Black-guard Thief, and having neither Courage nor Conduct, they would fain have dismiss’d him’. Rawlins ‘said he was a Coward, and a good-for-nothing Dog, for he had tried him, and found him not worth hanging’, only ‘after many Intreaties’ did they agree to let Hulks join them (pp. 16–17). According to A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton it was with William Holden that Dalton made his first attempt at street robbery (p. 7), and Dalton, Holden and Branch regularly snatched pockets together, Holden’s role being to run off with the pockets which the other two had taken (p. 8).

  38 For another version of this robbery see A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton, pp. 8–9. Russell, Holden and Crouch were convicted of this robbery on Dalton’s evidence (he admitted his own involvement) in May 1728. The victim was Martha Hyde, and a witness confirmed the alterations to the coat by Crouch noted in the text: OBSP, 1–7 May 1728. On Hawes see A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton, pp. 31–43; see also Mist’s Weekly Journal, 4 May 1728, which says (ironically?) that the ‘strict Search…for Sodomites’ around that time was a result of A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton.

  39 John Featherby was one of four condemned in 1728 at the Old Bailey for robbing John Clark. Featherby was alleged to have tried to shoot Thomas Wood, who went to arrest him. At their trial all four defendants were said to have laughed and to have been ‘careless, negligent and confident’: OBSP, 16–21 October 1728.

  40 Reported by the Daily Journal, 27 February 1728, as having taken place at the end of Watling Street, near St Paul’s on 24 February 1728. See also OBSP, 1–7 May 1728; A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton, p. 19.

  41 This is probably the robbery mentioned in A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton, pp. 19–21.

  42 See, similarly, OBSP, 1–7 May 1728, which says the robbery took place near Snow Hill, and that the robbers dropped the money taken in the river mud. Also A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton, pp. 21–2; The Life of Martin Bellamy, p. 4.

  43 According to the Daily Post, 1 March 1728, the robbery, which took place on 28 February 1728, was committed by three people, while the Daily Journal, 1 March 1728, says there were ‘several Foot Pads’ and it was carried out between St Paul’s School and Cheapside Conduit. See also Mist’s Weekly Journal, 12 March 1728; A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton, p. 22; The Life of Martin Bellamy, p. 5. That Heathcote got his watch back from the pawnbroker is reported in Daily Post, 15 March 1728 and Brice’s Weekly Journal, 22 March 1727–8. At the 1728 trials it emerged that Dalton had helped other victims to recover stolen watches (Williams and Cane): OBSP, 1–7 May 1728. Enabling people to recover their goods might provide prisoners with a source of income, but more important was the consideration that without the support of the prosecutor an application for mercy was less likely to succeed. The ‘Compter’ was Wood Street Compter, a prison.

  44 It is difficult to know what is meant since ‘Cogg Ways’ means cheating ways.

  45 Dalton was reported to have sworn an affidavit for Sir William Billers on 14 March 1728 that the robbery of the Queen had been planned to take place ‘about 16 Days ago’. Billers took it to the Secretary of State, Lord Townshend: Farley’s Exeter Journal, 15 March 1727– 8. See also A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton, pp. 29–30. In this context a ‘George’ may mean a guinea, or, perhaps, refers to part of the insignia of the Garter, either the lesser or the greater George.

  46 The arrests followed the proclamation against street robbers issued on 1 March 1728, which offered, in addition to the statutory reward of £40, £100 for the conviction of those who committed street robberies in London or Westminster. A pardon was also offered to any street robber willing to give evidence against his or her comrades: Daily Journal, 2 March 1728; Daily Post, 2 March 1728. (On the division of rewards see R. Paley, ‘Thief-takers in London in the Age of McDaniel, c. 1745–1754’ in D. Hay and F. Snyder (eds), Policing and Prosecution in Britain 1750–1850, Oxford, 1989, pp. 301–41, at pp. 317–23.) The proclamation was believed to have led to many arrests over the following months (Mist’s Weekly Journal, 16 March 1728) and to an increase in the numbers condemned and hanged, with nineteen being hanged at Tyburn in May 1728: Mist’s Weekly Journal, 11 May 1728; Weekly Journal, or British Gazeteer, 11 May 1728; Daily Post, 20 May 1728, 21 May 1728. Mist’s Weekly Journal, 12 March 1728, claimed that the proclamation was introduced because of the attack on Heathcote, but other newspapers merely regarded it as the consequence of a general outbreak of robberies.

  The actual sequence of events which led to the arrest of the Dalton gang is a little unclear, particularly since OBSP provides a slightly different story from the newspapers. The Daily Post reported that on Saturday 2 March 1728, John Rowden, Christopher Rawlins, Isaac Aslin or Ashby or Asklin, alias Black Isaac, and Thomas Chambers were arrested while drinking at Isaac Wyat’s brandy shop in Chick Lane: Daily Post, 5 March 1728; also 4 March 1728. The Daily Journal, 4 March 1728 (also 5 March 1728), adds to this list Dalton, James Woodward and Isaac Wyat, and reports that, although Dalton, Aslin and Rawlins had been impeached by Martin Bellamy, it was Dalton who was to be admitted as evidence against the gang. This led to adverse comment from Mist’s Weekly Journal, 9 March 1728, which referred to Dalton as ‘an Arch Villain, and, whatever Character he follows, glories in laying the Schemes, and leading the Gang’. It was then reported that on 15 March William Field had been arrested following information given by Dalton (Daily Post, 16 March 1728) and that on 27 March William Russell, alias Finebones, had also been taken, although in his case the link with Dalton was not made: Daily Post, 27 March 1728 (Russell was arrested again in 1730 for picking pockets, Daily Journal, 1 January 1730).

  According to OBSP, 1–7 May 1728, William Russell, William Holden, Robert Crouch, Christopher Rawlins, Isaac Ashley or Ashby and John Rowden were all tried on the evidence of Dalton: the first three for the robbery of Martha Hyde, the others for the robberies of Francis Williams and Downs, with Rawlins also being tried for the robbery of Thomas Cane. During one of these trials it was said by Thomas Willis, who, with his brother Robert, apprehended them, that Dalton had been found during the search of disorderly houses and that he had directed them to Chick Lane.

  The Willis brothers crop up with some frequency in the criminal records of the period. Described as constables, they arrested Wild in 1725 (Howson, Thief taker General, p. 233). It seems quite a coincidence that they should raid the very place in which Dalton was staying, and it is possible that they were following up a lead given to them by Martin Bellamy, who had been arrested in late February and who appears to have worked with the Dalton gang. It may have been that having arrested Dalton, they found him to be a more fruitful source of information on the street robbery gangs than Bellamy, who, from The Life of Martin Bellamy, seems to have been primarily a petty offender. O
n the other hand, in 1730 it was said by three London magistrates that Thomas Willis and a Michael Willis had been Very serviceable in suppressing disorderly Houses’ (OBSP, 28 August 1730, pp. 17–19), so that perhaps their discovery of Dalton was indeed a coincidence. (There seem to have been three men involved in law enforcement called Willis who worked together around this time: Thomas, Michael and Robert; see also OBSP, 10 December 1735, p. 38.)

  In the same sessions as Dalton impeached his comrades, Thomas Neeves appeared for the prosecution against Edward Benson, George Gale, Thomas Crowder and James Toon in two robbery trials, and against Richard Nicholls in a shoplifting case: OBSP, 1–7 May 1728.

  47 This resentment may have been behind the attack by an unidentified woman who threw a bottle at Dalton when he was brought for trial at the Old Bailey in 1730: Daily Journal, 17 January 1730.

  48 The year was, presumably, 1729.

  49 Richard Mead (1673–1754) was one of the foremost physicians of his day; his patients included royalty, Pope, Newton and Robert Walpole, and the income from his practice has been estimated to have reached, at its peak, £5–6,000 per annum: Dictionary of National Biography.

  50 Dalton was tried on 18 January 1730, and sentenced two days later. The attempted robbery took place on 1 December 1729 in the evening in Leather Lane; from the report of the trial it seems that Dalton was alone. The report also says that he was fined 40 marks, not 20 as in the text: OBSP, 16–20 January 1730. While in prison he was reported to have wounded another inmate (Daily Journal, 21 January 1730).

  51 See also A Genuine Narrative…James Dalton, pp. 24–5.

  52 By ‘the Person that accus’d me’ is meant John Waller. While still in Newgate for attempting to rob Mead, Dalton was charged with robbing Waller. He was convicted in April 1730 and hanged the following month. At the trial Waller said he was ‘a Holland’s Trader’ who had met Dalton at the Adam and Eve public house in Pancras. They had left together and Dalton had then robbed him somewhere between Tottenham Court and Bloomsbury. Waller said that when he heard Dalton was in Newgate he went and identified him, and he swore that the pistol Dalton used was the same as had been used against Mead. Dalton denied the allegation, saying that Waller was ‘a man of a vile Character, that he was a common Affidavit Man, and was but lately, before the time charg’d in the Indictment, come out of Newgate himself; that though he himself had done many ill Things, and had deserved Death many times, yet not for this Fact, he being Innocent of it; and said, the Prosecutor was as great a Rogue as himself’. Dalton brought three witnesses from Newgate to testify on his behalf, but none was believed and he was hanged on 12 May: OBSP, 8–10 April 1730; Daily Journal, 12 May 1730.