The Thieves' Opera: The Remarkable Lives and Deaths of Jonathan Wild, Thief-taker and Jack Sheppard, House-breaker

by Lucy Moore

  [81] Misson, Travels over England, p. 39.

  [82] Defoe, Narrative of all the Robberies, reprinted in Bleackley, Jack Sheppard, p. 163.

  [83] Defoe, Jack Sheppard, reprinted in Bleackley, Jack Sheppard, p. 141.

  [84] Ibid., p. 142.

  [85] Select Trials at the Old Bailey, 1734, Vol. 2, p. 130.

  [86] P. Linebaugh, The London Hanged, 1992, p. 27; and L. I. Rudolph, The Mob in Eighteenth Century America and Europe’, American Quarterly XI, 4, 1959.

  [87] D. Defoe, The Life of Jonathan Wild from his Birth to his Death, 1725 (p. xxix in an 1840 edition of Fielding’s Jonathan Wild the Great).

  [88] Anon., The History of the Remarkable Lives and Actions of Jonathan Wild, Thief-Taker, Joseph Blake alias Blueskin, Footpad, and John Sheppard, Housebreaker, 1725, pp. 82-7.

  [89] Johnson, Highwaymen, p. 462.

  [90] G. E., Authentic Memoirs of the Life and Surprising Adventures of John Sheppard by Way of Familiar Letters from a Gentleman in Town, 1724, reprinted in H. Bleackley, Jack Sheppard, 1933, p. 177.

  [91] London Journal, 25 July 1724.

  [92] G. E., Authentic Memoirs, reprinted in Bleackley, Jack Sheppard, p. 178.

  [93] Defoe, Narrative of all the Robberies, reprinted in Bleackley, Jack Sheppard, p. 162.

  [94] D. Defoe, The True and Genuine Account of the Life and Actions of Jonathan Wild, 1725 (reprinted in Penguin Classics, 1986), p. 237.

  [95] B. de Mandeville, An Inquiry into the Causes of the Frequent Executions at Tyburn, 1725, p. 3.

  [96] Anon., The Histoy of the Remarkable Lives and Actions of Jonathan Wild, Thief-Taker, Joseph Blake alias Blueskin, Footpad, and John Sheppard, Housebreaker, 1725, p. 1.

  [97] J. Addison in the Spectator, 1711. From a collected edition of essays from the Spectator, 1712.

  [98] H. Misson, Memoirs and Observations of his Travels over England, 1719, p. 39.

  [99] The Abbé Prevost, quoted in R. Porter, London: A Social History, 1994, p. 17.

  [100] L. Radzinowicz, A History of English Criminal Law and its Administration from 1750, 1948, pp. 299-300.

  [101] F. J. Lyons, Jonathan Wild, Prince of Robbers, 1936, p. 140.

  [102] D. Defoe, The Life of Jonathan Wild from his Birth to his Death, 1725 (p. xlviii in an 1840 edition of Fielding’s Jonathan Wild the Great).

  [103] Anon., Remarkable Lives, p. 58.

  [104] Weekly Journal, August 1723; quoted in J. Lindsay, The Monster City: Defoe’s London 1688-1730, 1978, p. 83.

  [105] Both quotations in Duvall’s mini-biography in Captain C. Johnson, Lives of the Highwaymen, 1734, pp. 91-3.

  [106] ‘The High-Pad’s Boast’, from The New Canting Dictionary (Anon.), 1735.

  [107] P. Linebaugh, The London Hanged, 1992, p. 187.

  [108] Ibid., p. 203.

  [109] ‘H. D.’, The Life of Jonathan Wild, 1725, p. 29.

  [110] Weekly Journal, 20 June 1719.

  [111] F. McLynn, Crime and Punishment in Eighteenth Century England, 1989, p. 61. Also, the anonymous Whole Life and History of Benjamin Child, 1722.

  [112] Defoe, Life of Jonathan Wild (p. xix in an 1840 edition of Fielding’s Jonathan Wild the Great).

  [113] Daily Journal, 19 May 1724.

  [114] P. Rogers, Hacks and Dunces, 1980, p. 185.

  [115] Quoted in L. Stone, An Open Elite?, 1986, p. 409.

  [116] Defoe, Life of Jonathan Wild (p. xlvii in an 1843 edition of Fielding’s Jonathan Wild the Great).

  [117] C. Caraccioli quoted in R. W. Malcolmson, Popular Recreations in English Society, 1973, p. 20.

  [118] C. Hibbert, London: The Biography of a City, 1969, p. 103.

  [119] Warrant of Detainder issued at Wild’s arrest, February 1725; Select Trials at the Old Bailey, 1735, Vol. 2, pp. 204-5.

  [120] M. Ignatieff, A Just Measure of Pain, 1978, p. 172.

  [121] D. Defoe, The Life of Jonathan Wild from his Birth to his Death, 1725 (p. xliv in an 1843 edition of Fielding’s Jonathan Wild the Great).

  [122] E. J. Burford, Wits, Wenchers and Wantons, 1992, p. 82.

  [123] P. Earle, The Making of the English Middle Class, 1989, p. 12.

  [124] J. Osborn, The Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, 1735 (ed. A. L. Hayward), 1927, p. 257.

  [125] London Journal, 2 May 1725.

  [126] Defoe, Life of Jonathan Wild (p. xxxiv in an 1840 edition of Fielding’s Jonathan Wild the Great).

  [127] Ibid. (p. xxxvi in Fielding’s Jonathan Wild the Great).

  [128] D. Defoe, The True and Genuine Account of the Life and Actions of Jonathan Wild, 1725 (reprinted in Penguin Classics, 1986), p. 241.

  [129] Anon., The History of the Remarkable Lives and Actions of Jonathan Wild, Thief-Taker, Joseph Blake alias Blueskin, Footpad, and John Sheppard, Housebreaker, 1725, p. 45.

  [130] Defoe, True and Genuine Account, p. 245.

  [131] J. Villette, The Annals of Newgate, 1776, Vol. 1-2, p. 278.

  [132] Parker’s London News, 16 October 1724.

  [133] G. E., Authentic Memoirs of the Life and Surprising Adventures of John Sheppard by Way of Familiar Letters from a Gentleman in Town, 1724, reprinted in H. Bleackley, Jack Sheppard, 1933, p. 185.

  [134] London Journal, 7 November 1724.

  [135] D. Defoe, A Narrative of all the Robberies etc., of Jack Sheppard, 1724, reprinted in H. Bleackley, Jack Sheppard, 1933, pp. 167-8.

  [136] Parker’s London News, 30 October 1724.

  [137] G. E., Authentic Memoirs, pp. 188-9.

  [138] D. Defoe, The History of the Remarkable Life of Jack Sheppard, 1725, reprinted in H. Bleackley, Jack Sheppard, 1933, p. 149.

  [139] Anon., The History of the Remarkable Lives and Actions of Jonathan Wild, Thief-Taker, Joseph Blake alias Blueskin, Footpad, and John Sheppard, Housebreaker, 1725, p. iii.

  [140] Ibid.

  [141] Defoe, Jack Sheppard, reprinted in Bleackley, Jack Sheppard, p. 149.

  [142] Ibid., p. 150.

  [143] Daily Journal, 12 November 1724.

  [144] C. Hill, Liberty Against the Law, 1995, p. 124.

  [145] Captain C. Johnson, Lives of the Highwaymen, 1734, p. 461.

  [146] Anon., Remarkable Lives, p. iv.

  [147] Lord Cowper quoted in J. M. Beattie, Crime and the Courts in England, 1986, p. 59.

  [148] D. Hay essay in D. Hay, P. Linebaugh and E. P. Thompson (eds.), Albion’s Fatal Tree, 1975, p. 55.

  [149] H. Fielding, Amelia, 1751 (Penguin Classics edition, 1987), pp. 15-16.

  [150] Daily Journal, 2 July 1724.

  [151] E. J. Burford, Wits, Wenchers and Wantons, 1992, p. 137.

  [152] Fog’s Weekly Journal, 18 January 1729.

  [153] C. J. Fox quoted in R. Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century, 1982, p. 22.

  [154] E. P. Thompson, Whigs and Hunters, 1975. A detailed account of the events leading up to the Black Act.

  [155] P. Rogers, Hacks and Dunces, 1975, p. 4.

  [156] D. Jarrett, England in the Age of Hogarth, 1974, p. 19.

  [157] P. Earle, The World of Defoe, 1976, p. 89.

  [158] Ibid., p. 87.

  [159] J. A. Sharpe, Crime and the Law in English Satirical Prints 1600-1832, 1986, p. 16.

  [160] Ibid.

  [161] Ibid., p. 25.

  [162] Anon., The History of the Remarkable Lives and Actions of Jonathan Wild, Thief-Taker, Joseph Blake alias Blueskin, Footpad, and John Sheppard, Housebreaker, 1725, p. ii.

  [163] O. Goldsmith quoted in C. Hill, Reformation to Industrial Revolution, 1969, p. 182.

  [164] Hay, Linebaugh and Thompson, Albion’s Fatal Tree, p. 49.

  [165] J. M. Beattie, Crime and the Courts in England, 1986, p. 451.

  [166] Ibid., p. 465.

  [167] M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish (trans. A. Sheridan, 1977), p. 48.

  [168] Baron Muralt, Letters Describing the Characters and Customs of the English and French Nations, 1726, p. 42.

  [169] C. Hibbert, Highwaymen, 1967, p. 95.

  [170
] P. Linebaugh, The London Hanged, 1992, p. 87.

  [171] Muralt, Characters and Customs, p. 42.

  [172] B. de Mandeville, An Inquiry into the Causes of the Frequent Executions at Tyburn, 1725, p. 34.

  [173] M. Ignatieff, A Just Measure of Pain, 1978, p. 21.

  [174] De Mandeville, Frequent Executions at Tyburn, p. 40.

  [175] B. de Mably quoted in M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish, p. 16.

  [176] Foucault, Discipline and Punish, p. 9.

  [177] S. Emlyn, 1730, quoted in L. Radzinowicz, A History of English Criminal Law and its Administration from 1750, 1948, p. 266.

  [178] D. Rumbelow, The Triple Tree, 1982, p. 82.

  [179] J. Hall quoted by D. Rumbelow, The Triple Tree, p. 82.

  [180] A. Griffiths, Chronicles of Newgate, 1884, Vol. 1, p. 438.

  [181] Rumbelow, Triple Tree, p. 30.

  [182] B. de Mandeville, An Inquiry into the Causes of the Frequent Executions at Tyburn, 1725, p. 19.

  [183] G. E., Authentic Memoirs of the Life and Surprising Adventures of John Sheppard by Way of Familiar Letters from a Gentleman in Town, 1724, reprinted in H. Bleackley, Jack Sheppard, 1933, p. 178.

  [184] Parker’s London News, 4 September 1724.

  [185] G. E., Authentic Memoirs, reprinted in Bleackley, Jack Sheppard, p. 180.

  [186] Parker’s London News, 14 September 1724.

  [187] P. Linebaugh, The London Hanged, 1992, p. 33.

  [188] D. Defoe, A Narrative of all the Robberies etc., of Jack Sheppard, 1724, reprinted in H. Bleackley, Jack Sheppard, 1933, p. 164.

  [189] Ibid., p. 165.

  [190] D. Defoe, The History of the Remarkable Life of Jack Sheppard, 1725, reprinted in H. Bleackley, Jack Sheppard, 1933, p. 148.

  [191] W. J. Sheehan essay in J. S. Cockburn (ed.), Crime in England, 1977, p. 236.

  [192] J. Wesley, The Journal, 8 November 1838, reprinted 1938.

  [193] F. J. Lyons, Jonathan Wild, Prince of Robbers, 1936, p. 185. All subsequent uncredited accounts of Sheppard’s execution come from here too.

  [194] H. Misson, Memoirs and Observations of his Travels over England, 1719, p. 124.

  [195] C. de Saussure, A Foreign View of England, 1725 (translated by Van Muyden, 1902), pp. 124-5.

  [196] Mist’s Weekly Journal, 1 May 1725.

  [197] Misson, Travels over England, p. 123.

  [198] E. P. Thompson, ‘Eighteenth Century English Society: Class Struggle without Class?’, in Social History, III, 2, 1978, p. 157.

  [199] London Journal, 21 November 1724.

  [200] C. Hibbert, Highwaymen, 1967, p. 104.

  [201] P. Linebaugh, The London Hanged, 1992, p. 7.

  [202] P. E. Lewis (ed.), The Beggars’ Opera, 1973, p. 95.

  [203] R. Paulson, Popular and Polite Art in the Age of Hogarth and Fielding, 1979, p. 17.

  [204] R. Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century, 1982, p. 283.

  [205] N. Ward, ‘The Quack’s Club’, 1709.

  [206] Daily Post, 23 October 1725.

  [207] Parker’s London News, 8 March 1725.

  [208] J. Villette, Annals of Newgate, 1776, Vol. 1-2, p. 178.

  [209] Select Trials at the Old Bailey, 1734, Vol. 2, pp. 211-19. Subsequent quotations from the trial also come from here.

  [210] E. P. Thompson, Whigs and Hunters, 1975, p. 216.

  [211] M. Blackett-Ord, Hell-Fire Duke, 1982, p. 98.

  [212] D. Defoe, The True and Genuine Account of the Life and Actions of Jonathan Wild, 1725 (reprinted in Penguin Classics, 1986), p. 206.

  [213] Select Trials at the Old Bailey, 1734, Vol. 2, p. 275.

  [214] J. Villette, Annals of Newgate, 1776, Vol. 1-2, p. 342.

  [215] Parker’s Penny Post, 26 May 1725.

  [216] Weekly Journal, 29 May 1725.

  [217] Select Trials at the Old Bailey, 1734, Vol. 2, p. 275.

  [218] D. Defoe, The True and Genuine Account of the Life and Actions of Jonathan Wild, 1725 (reprinted in Penguin Classics, 1986), p. 257.

  [219] Mist’s Weekly, Journal, 29 May 1725.

  [220] Ibid.

  [221] Captain A. Smith, Memoirs of the Life and Times of Jonathan Wild, 1726, p. 24.

  [222] Weekly Journal, 29 May 1725.

  [223] J. Villette, Annals of Newgate, 1776, Vol. 1-2, p. 276.

  [224] P. Linebaugh essay in D. Hay, P. Linebaugh and E. P. Thompson (eds), Albion’s Fatal Tree, 1975, p. 112.

  [225] H. Misson, Memoirs and Observations of his Travels over England, 1719, p. 124.

  [226] A. Griffiths, Chronicles of Newgate, 1884, Vol. 1, p. 270.

  [227] ‘Jonathan Wild’s Advice to His Successor’, Appendix III, F. J. Lyons, Jonathan Wild, Prince of Robbers, 1936, p. 289.