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

by PHILIP RAWLINGS

  The next Day being upon Business, the Corner of Change-Alley, they got a Pocket- Book, in which was two hundred Pound Bank-Notes, which they sold to their old Friend J – n,14 for 130l. ready Cash.

  Jenny now took genteel Lodgings not far from Covent Garden; and living in a very gay Manner, kept a Servant to wait on her and her supposed Spouse. They lodged in this Place, that they might be the readier to attend the Theatre, and convey their Booties soonest off.

  One Night when his Majesty was at the Play-House, the Gang dressed Jenny up very gay, like a Person of Quality, and going in a Chair with her Footman before her, she got a Place in the Middle of the front Boxes; but having no Opportunity to do any Thing while the Play was performing, she came out before the Entertainment was over, handed by a young Beau, whom she had pick’d up. She sounding him, found him a Country young Gentleman, lately come from York.

  The Spark being very much enamour’d with his new Mistress, desired the Honour of conducting her Home to her Lodgings. Laird, Sir, says she, that’s impossible, for I am married, and if I should let a strange Gentleman wait upon me Home, what do you think my Spouse would say? Then, Madam, quoth the Youngster, permit me the Pleasure of waiting on you to drink a Glass of Wine. Sir, says she, it is what I don’t care to do, but added with a Sigh, if I thought you was a Man of Honour, I durst venture to drink a Glass of Wine, for sure there is no Harm in that, but I am told that there is so few Men of Honour, it is hard trusting. Madam, reply’d the enamoured Spark eagerly, I would sooner kill myself than hurt your Reputation. With this last Expression Jenny seemed to be overcome, and went with the Spark to the Rose, the Corner of the Theatre, and calling for a Room, he said a hundred fine Things to his new Acquaintance. After Jenny had drank a Glass, and sat a Quarter of an Hour, she seemed uneasy, and wanted to be gone; our Spark used many Intreaties for her Stay, but in vain, for she positively insisted upon going (for as yet she had not given the Gang necessary Directions upon this new Affair, so to be sure she could not stay) then the young Spark insisted upon going with her, but she begged he would not trouble himself, yet with much Intreaty on his Side, this last Request was, with some seeming Difficulty, granted.

  Then he called the Drawer, and ordered a Hackney Coach to be got ready, and handed the Lady in with much Complisance. Jenny order’d the Coachman to drive slowly to her Lodgings, naming the Place where she lived, and as they were going Home, he pressed hard for the Pleasure of seeing her again. She told him, she expected her Husband would be out of Town in two or three Days, and in that Time he might call upon her. By this Time the Coach came to the Door, so Jenny requesting the Favour, that the Spark would sit still till she got out, and get himself out at some other Place for fear of her Husband, she would be glad to see him in two or three Days, and in that Time prepare for his Reception.

  The young Gallant, so overjoy’d, took his Leave; so Jenny got out of the Coach, and going up Stairs, found the Gang come there before, for it seems the Signal was for her to stay till the Play was done, and she coming out before, they had missed her. As soon as she entered the Room they began to upbraid her, for being out of the Way, for it seems by wanting her they lost their Right Hand, for they made but one Gold Snuff-Box that Night; but she soon pacified them, by telling them her Adventure, and what she intended to do, the appointed Evening being come, in which Jenny’s Spark was to appear, he came dressed very gay with a gold Watch in his Pocket, a gold hilted Sword by his Side, a Diamond Ring upon his Finger, and a Gold headed Cane dangling in his Hand.

  Jenny being ready to receive him, had dressed up two of the gang in rich Liveries, and M –15 as her waiting Woman very gay, and the Lodgings being genteel, all Things seemed to look very grand.

  [p. 12]The young Spark seeing this Grandeur, seemed quite amazed, and to be sure thought her some Person of Quality, as he afterwards privately told her; by and by up comes a Bottle of Wine, and some rich Sweetmeats, then the Footman was ordered to withdraw. Now Sir, says Jenny, you must think I have a great Respect for you, to be so free with you in this manner, I hope you are a Gentleman of more Honour than to tattle of a Lady’s Favours. The young Gentleman reply’d, he would sooner cut his Tongue out; after some small Discourse, Jenny gave him to understand that she did not expect her Husband till very late that Evening, so the Spark begged hard, that during that Time she would make him happy in her Arms; in short, she so contriv’d Matters that she made him believe none of her Servants knew any Thing of the Affair of his Stay, except her faithful Chambermaid and Confident; so conducting him into her Bedchamber, the young Spark being eager to enjoy his Mistress, soon slipped off his Cloaths and got into Bed, she pulled hers off more slowly, pretending to be very bashful, upon which he jump’d out of Bed in order to assist her, as she was unbuckling her Shoes, she pretending to be modest, catched hold of his Hand, and seeming to admire his Ring, took it off his Finger and put it upon hers; as soon as she had got into Bed, the Signal was given from the supposed Maid, who knock’d at the Door, and told her that her Master was come Home: Jenny immediately jumped out of Bed, Lord! says she, what shall I do, I am inevitably ruin’d! Madam, says her Lover, what shall I do? Oh Sir! says she, I have hit it, get into Bed and cover yourself all over Head and Ears, and I’ll take your Cloaths and hide ’em, least perchance he should take it into his Head to come into this Room, and in the mean Time I’ll go and persuade him that I’m not well, and perhaps I can make him lie by himself to Night, which if I do than I can have the Pleasure of being with you this Evening.

  The Spark immediately did as he was ordered, and Jenny slipp’d on her Night Gown, &c. and went out of the Room, and lock’d the Door after her, when she came into the Place where the rest of the Gang was, they held a Consultation; the result of which was, immediately to quit the Lodgings and leave poor Pill Garlick16 in the Lurch, which was immediately put in Execution, and the poor unfortunate Enamoretta left locked up by himself, who no Doubt cursed his New Acquaintance, which for the future ’tis thought gave him a Caution how he enter’d into Intreagues of this Nature; they examined the Contents of this Booty, which amounted when the Moveables was Fenced to 250l. Now Jenny had the greatest Share of this Booty, because she did the most Execution; her Share coming to upwards of 50l.17

  After this Robbery the Gang retired into the Country, where they carried on their Adventures very successfully for the Space of half a Year, when coming to Town they pursued their old Courses as Occasion offered.

  She lay in Newgate almost 4 Months, and then was Transported; during the Time of her Confinement she turned Fence, and bought such Things as came in her Way, she having a quantity of Money by her, and knowing this Business could no ways affect her, she being Cast already; and when she went away she had as many Goods of one Sort or other, as would almost have loaded a Waggon. When she came on Board she was treated in a quite different Manner from the rest of the Transports, and was put ashore at the first Port they came to in Virginia. Jenny staid no longer there than to see the Country, for Business in her Way could not be transacted there; so after she had diverted herself as long as she thought proper, she agreed with a Gentleman for her Passage who was bound for England, who brought her over. When she came back, she did not chuse immediately to come to Town, but went and took a Progress round the Countries; and after she had sufficiently tired herself, and the Country People with her Exploits, she came to London, where she with some others used to resort about London-Bridge, the Royal Exchange, the Play-Houses, and St. Paul’s.18

  In April 1738, in the Mayorlty of Sir John Barnard, she was try’d by the Name of Jane Web, for picking the Pocket of Mrs. Rowley, who had been at St. Paul’s to hear the Rehearsal; one Mr. Addy who detected her was offered 50l. not to appear against her on her Trial; but he like an honest Man refused it. At the very Time Mr. Addy seized her for picking the Pocket of Mrs. Rowley, she was going to pick the Pocket of Dr. Best’s Lady. Another Person who appeared against her on her Trial, said he saw her pick 20 Pockets that Day, and had known her t
o have been a Pickpocket these five Years; she was found guilty, and was ordered for Transportation, and accordingly was Transported, but returned again, [p. 13] and followed her old Practices, till she was detected for robbing Mrs. Gardener near the Mansion-House, on the 17th of Jan. last, for which Robbery she was capitally convicted, and suffered.

  All the while she was under Sentence of Death, she never omitted coming the Chapel, behaving herself very devout, and seemingly very penitent for her past wicked Life. The Day before she died she sent for the Nurse that nursed her Child, (who lives in Little Britain) which is about three Years of Age, and begged that she would now and then see it, and telling her the Child would be taken Care of; desiring her to give it good Advice, and instill good Notions into it, when she came capable to receive her Admoni-tions; which the Nurse faithfully promised to perform while she lived; on which Jenny reply’d, I don’t doubt of your Love for my poor Child, and so God bless and protect you; Pray for my poor Soul while I am living, for I have greatly offended my good God.

  The Morning she went to Execution she seem’d very composed; but when the Officer came to halter her in the Press Yard, she was very much shocked. She was conveyed to the Place of Execution in a Mourning Coach, attended by the Revd. Mr. Broughton,19 who went and prayed to her in the Cart, after some Time allowed her for her Devotions, she went off the Stage, crying to God to have Mercy on her, Christ have Mercy on me, Lord receive my Spirit, Sweet Jesus receive my Spirit, &c. After she had hung the usual Time, she was cut down, and convey’d to Pancrass, in order to be interr’d in the Churchyard.

  She confessed the Fact for which she died for.20

  NOTES

  1 The hanging took place in 1741.

  2 The slang term ‘diver’ for a pickpocket predated Young by at least 150 years. ‘Jenny Diver’ was a part in John Gay’s hugely popular play, The Beggar’s Opera (1728). Young seems to have been the only person at that time to whom this name was applied; when, as Jane Webb, she was convicted for picking pockets in 1738, one newspaper referred to her as ‘Jane Webb alias Jenny Diver’: London Daily Post, and General Advertiser, 12 April 1738, 19 April 1738.

  3 OBSP, 20 January 1741. According to another account Young and Davis both pleaded at the trial that they were pregnant (‘pleaded their bellies’), which, if successful, would at least put the execution off and, in all probability, would lead to a reduction of the sentence to transportation. But the ‘jury of matrons’—women impanelled to examine those who made such pleas—found them both ‘Not Quick with Child’, and they were condemned: Daily Post, 21 January 1741; London Daily Post, and General Advertiser, 21 January 1740–1. However, Elizabeth Davis, also known as ‘Catherine the Wife of Henry Huggins’, had her sentence reduced to transportation for seven years; she was transported to Virginia in January 1739: London Evening Post, 10–12 March 1741; P.W. Coldham, The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage: 1614–1775, Baltimore, 1988, p. 212; Daily Gazetteer, 21 January 1741.

  4 OBSP, 12–15 April 1738, trial of Jane Webb. The woman robbed was a Mrs Rowley. According to her, she was held by two men while Webb stole from her. Mr Astley, who appears to have been a law officer of some kind, said of Webb, ‘I have known her for a Pickpocket these 5 Years, and saw her pick 20 Pockets that Day. She is so well known, that I could have brought a Dozen People to have prov’d this’. Mr Addy, another prosecution witness, alleged that friends of Webb had tried to bribe him. Six people appeared for the defence to give evidence of Webb’s good character: Mary Cherry, Ann Carter, Francis Fletcher, Mary Robes, John Taylor and Thomas Welch. One newspaper reported that after her arrest and as she was being taken to Newgate ‘she attempted to stab the Person who apprehended her’. The same newspaper commented that ‘This Webb is reckoned one of the Tip-top Hands at Picking of Pockets, and well known at Newgate by the Name of Mrs. Murphy, she belongs to a large Gang of Pickpockets that attend the Play-houses, &c. who declare if it costs Two Hundred Pounds she shan’t go abroad’: London Daily Post, and General Advertiser, 12 April 1738, 19 April 1738; Weekly Miscellany, 21 April 1738; The Country Journal: or, the Craftsman, 22 April 1738; Coldham, The Complete Book of Emigrants, p. 849. There is some confusion here over the person called Murphew or Murphy; Rev. Mr. Gordon, The Life and Circumstantial Account of the Extraordinary and Surprising Exploits, Travels, Robberies and Escapes, of the famous Jenny Diver, The most noted Pickpocket of her Time, Who was executed for a Street robbery, on the 18th of March, 1740. With an Introduction Written by Herself. To which is added A Narrative of the chief Transactions of Harry Cook, And also the Gang to which he belonged. Written by the Rev. Mr. Gordon, Ordinary of Newgate, London, n.d., has Ann Murphew, a common corruption of Murphy, as the person who introduced Young to crime, but according to newspapers (above) and the Gentleman’s Magazine, March 1741, vol. ii, pp. 161–2, Young called herself Murphy. See also note 6 and passim.

  5 That is, about 1714, assuming she died at the age of 36 years.

  6 According to Gordon, The Life and Circumstantial Account of…Jenny Diver, p. 7, this is Ann Murphew. According to Coldham, The Complete Book of Emigrants, an Ann Murphy was sentenced to be transported in April 1746, although there is no record of her being sent abroad.

  7 Gordon, The Life and Circumstantial Account of…Jenny Diver, p. 7, has ‘Murphew’.

  8 Roger Johnson: ibid., p. 10.

  9 Murphew: ibid., p. 12.

  10 Murphew: ibid., p. 12.

  11 Johnson: ibid., p. 15.

  12 Henry Fielding wrote, in 1751, of the existence of a similarly organized gang: H. Fielding, An Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers and Related Writings, ed. An Enquiry into the Causes of the M.R.Zirker, Oxford, 1988, p. 76.

  13 London Bridge: Gordon, The Life and Circumstantial Account of…Jenny Diver, p. 17.

  14 Johnson: ibid., p. 17.

  15 Murphew: ibid., p. 19.

  16 ‘Pill Garlick’ was normally a term of sympathy applied to oneself, along the lines of ‘poor me’; here it is used in the slightly less sympathetic way of ‘poor fool’. It carries the implication of someone who has been left out, as here the ‘Spark’ is unaware what is going on.

  17 ‘70l.’: Gordon, The Life and Circumstantial Account of…Jenny Diver, p. 21.

  18 The Gordon biography breaks here (at p. 21) and continues at p. 39: ibid.

  19 Thomas Broughton (1712–77), a methodist who became, in 1743, secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. He wrote Serious Advice and Warning to Servants. More especially those of the Nobility and Gentry, London, 1746 (6th edn, 1800) about Matthew Henderson, who was hanged for the murder of Lady Dalrymple.

  20 Including Young, twenty people were ordered to be hanged on 18 March, which, even for those bloody times, was a large number. It was announced beforehand that foot and horse soldiers from General Wood’s regiment would guard the procession from Newgate to Tyburn. Such precautions were not usual. There may have been a fear that Young’s gang would rescue her (see Gentleman’s Magazine, in this note), but there was also a rumour circulating about a week before that an armed attempt was to be made to rescue some Irish prisoners. This alleged plot was discovered by another condemned prisoner, Richard Quail, and, according to the Ordinary, both Young and Davis confirmed Quail’s account. The truth of this story is left uncertain by the fact that Quail, who might have expected some sort of reward, was hanged along with the others: Daily Post, 12 March 1741, 14 March 1741, 16 March 1741, 19 March 1741; London Daily Post, and General Advertiser, 19 March 1740– 1; Daily Gazetteer, 18 March 1741, 21 March 1741; London Evening Post, 12–14 March 1741; Ordinary of Newgate’s Account, 18 March 1740–1, Part I, p. 17, Part II, p. 20.

  Although the soldiers were almost certainly there to prevent a rescue, they may have had another, incidental function, to protect the prisoners, or some of them, from the crowd: the Ordinary, having described the escort of soldiers, continued: ‘In this Manner were they convey’d through a vast Multitude of People to Tyburn, so
me of whom, notwithstanding the Guard of Soldiers, were very rude and noisy, hallooing, throwing Brickbats, Mud, &c. at the unhappy Prisoners, as they passed’ (Ordinary of Newgate’s Account, 18 March 1740–1, Part II, p. 17). However, such behaviour may have been directed, not at the prisoners, but at the soldiers, or at the other members of the crowd: B.Mandeville, An Enquiry into the Causes of the Frequent Executions at Tyburn, London, 1725. The Gentleman’s Magazine, March 1741, vol. ii, pp. 161–2, reported the hanging day: ‘Mary Young went to Tyburn in a Mourning Coach, veil’d, and strongly guarded, there being a Design form’d to rescue her…. She appeared gaily dressed even to the last, yet deeply affected with her approaching Fate. Her Concern was so sensibly expressed, when she took Leave of her little Child, a few Days before her Execution, that (a weekly Writer says) it drew Tears into the Eyes of the Turnkey. So far does Affliction with a genteel Behaviour and Dress move Compassion beyond what is shewn to the Generality of Objects seen there; at least it was another sort of Compassion. We are more nearly concerned for Persons under these terrible Circumstances when they are at last sensible of their Crimes and wish they had acted a more rational and honest Part. Whereas there is some Difficulty in pitying those abandoned Wretches, who do not pity themselves; tho’ it might be juster to say, that we cannot sympathize with them—we must pity them.

  IV THE DISCOVERIES OF JOHN POULTER (1753–4)

  7 INTRODUCTION

  A newspaper report of John Poulter’s arrest in 1753 for robbery also noted that he had ‘made a Discovery of a Gang of Rogues to save himself’, and it seems that The Discoveries was, in some form, that confession.1 Although he was not hanged until February 1754, versions of this confession appeared in the Bath Journal over two issues in April 1753 and also in broadsheet form. The much more elaborate pamphlet, The Discoveries of John Poulter, reprinted here, first appeared sometime in 1753.2 The Discoveries represents the most extreme example of that genre of ‘autobiographies’ which resemble, and were, perhaps, derived from, confessions made by offenders in an effort to escape death by becoming a witness for the Crown against their old comrades.3 Doubtless, their function dictated their form; hence the apparent care taken in The Discoveries over dates, places and people. Furthermore, unlike the majority of criminal biographies of this period, Poulter’s early life, that is, before 1749, is summed up in a brief paragraph which is only tacked on as a supplement to the main substance of the work. So, there is no speculation about the reasons behind Poulter’s choice of crime as a career, with the exception of some discussion of his being drawn back into crime after having gone to Ireland.