send for some friends, but he would not comply with her request. He
forced her into the Nag's Head tavern in Cheapside, where he presently
ordered a hot supper and plenty of wine to be brought in; commanding the
female to keep at a distance from him, and telling her that he did not
permit such vermin to sit in his company, though he intended to make her
pay the reckoning. When the supper was brought to the table, he fell to
it lustily, and would not allow the woman to eat any part of it with
him, or to come near the fire, though it was extreme cold weather. When
he had supped he stared round, and applying himself to her, told her
that if he had been an informer, or such a fellow, she would have called
for eatables and wine herself, and not have given him the trouble of
direction, or else would have slipped a piece into his hand; adding,
'You may do what you please; but I can assure you it is in my power, if
I see a woman in the hands of informers, to discharge her, and commit
them. You are not so ignorant but you must guess my meaning.' She
replied, 'that she had money enough to pay for the supper, and about
three half-crowns more;' and this desirable answer being given, he
ordered his attendant to withdraw, while he compounded the matter with
her.
"When Wild returned, the gentlewoman was civilly asked to sit by the
fire, and eat the remainder of the supper, and in all respects treated
very kindly, only with a pretended reprimand to give him better language
whenever he should speak to her for the future; and, after another
bottle drunk at her expense, she was discharged."
The object of these allegations on the part of Wild may be easily seen,
and the effect which he desired was at length produced; for the marshal,
having been suspended, and subsequently fined twenty pounds, and
pilloried, for a crime too loathsome to be named, he was at length
compelled to retire; and thus he left Wild alone to execute his plans of
depredation upon the public. The latter, not unmindful of the tenure
upon which his reputation hung, was too wary to allow discontent to
appear among his followers, and therefore he found it to his interest to
take care that where he promised them protection, his undertaking should
not be neglected or pass unfulfilled. His powers in supporting his word
were greater than can be well imagined, in the present state of things,
where so much corruption has been got rid of; and where his
influence among persons in office failed him, his exertions in procuring
the testimony of false witnesses to rebut that evidence which was truly
detailed, and the nature of which he could always learn beforehand,
generally enabled him to secure the object, which he had in view. His
threats, however, were not less amply fulfilled than his promises; and
his vengeance once declared was never withdrawn, and seldom failed in
being carried out.
By his subjecting such as incurred his displeasure to the punishment of
the law, he obtained the rewards offered for pursuing them to
conviction; and greatly extended his ascendancy over the other thieves,
who considered him with a kind of awe; while, at the same time, he
established his character as being a man of great public utility.
A few anecdotes of the life and proceedings of this worthy will
sufficiently exhibit the system which he pursued.
A lady of fortune being on a visit in Piccadilly, her servants, leaving
her sedan at the door, went to refresh themselves at a neighbouring
public-house. Upon their return the vehicle was not to be found; in
consequence of which the men immediately went to Wild, and having
informed him of their loss, and complimented him with the usual fee,
they were desired to call upon him again in a few days. Upon their
second application Wild extorted from them a considerable reward, and
then directed them to attend the chapel in Lincoln's-inn-Fields on the
following morning, during the time of prayers. The men went according to
the appointment, and under the piazzas of the chapel perceived the
chair, which upon examination they found to contain the velvet seat,
curtains, and other furniture, and that it had received no kind of
damage.
A thief of most infamous character, named Arnold Powel, being confined
in Newgate, on a charge of having robbed a house in the neighbourhood of
Golden Square of property to a great amount, was visited by Jonathan,
who informed him that, in consideration of a sum of money, he would save
his life; adding that if the proposal was rejected, he should inevitably
die at Tyburn for the offence on account of which he was then
imprisoned. The prisoner, however, not believing that it was in Wild's
power to do him any injury, bade him defiance. He was brought to trial;
but through a defect of evidence he was acquitted. Having gained
intelligence that Powel had committed a burglary in the house of Mr.
Eastlick, near Fleet Ditch, Wild caused that gentleman to prosecute the
robber. Upon receiving information that a bill was found for the
burglary, Powel sent for Wild, and a compromise was effected according
to the terms which Wild himself had proposed, in consequence of which
Powel was assured that his life should be preserved. Upon the approach
of the sessions Wild informed the prosecutor that the first and second
days would be employed in other trials; and as he was willing Mr.
Eastlick should avoid attending with his witnesses longer than was
necessary, he would give timely notice when Powel would be arraigned.
But he contrived to have the prisoner put to the bar; and no persons
appearing to prosecute, he was necessarily dismissed; and the court
ordered Mr. Eastlick's recognisances to be estreated. Powel was ordered
to remain in custody till the next sessions, there being another
indictment against him; and Mr. Eastlick represented the behaviour of
Wild to the court, who reprimanded him with great severity. Powel now
put himself into a salivation, in order to avoid being brought to trial
the next sessions; but, notwithstanding this stratagem, he was arraigned
and convicted, and was executed on the 20th of March, 1717.
At this time Wild quitted his apartments at Mrs. Seagoe's, and hired a
house adjoining to the Coopers' Arms, on the opposite side of the Old
Bailey. His unexampled villanies were now become an object of so much
consequence, as to excite the particular attention of the legislature;
and in the year 1718 an act was passed, deeming every person guilty of a
capital offence who should accept a reward in consequence of restoring
stolen effects without prosecuting the thief. It was the general opinion
that this law would effectually suppress the iniquitous practices he had
carried on; but, after some interruption to his proceedings, he devised
means for evading it, which were for several years attended with
success.
He now declined the custom of receiving money from the persons who
applied to him; but, upon the second or third time of calling, informed
them that all he had been able to learn respecting their business was,
that if a sum of money was left at an appointed place, their property
would be restored the same day. Sometimes, as the person robbed was
returning from Wild's house he was accosted in the street by a man who
delivered the stolen effects, at the same time producing a note,
expressing the sum that was to be paid for them; but in cases where he
supposed danger was to be apprehended, he advised people to advertise
that whoever would bring the stolen goods to Jonathan Wild should be
rewarded, and no questions asked.
In the two first instances it could not be proved that he either saw the
thief, received the goods, or accepted of a reward; and in the latter
case he acted agreeably to the directions of the injured party, and
there appeared no reason to criminate him as being in confederacy with
the felons.
Our adventurer's business had by this time so much increased, that he
opened an office in Newtoner's-lane, to the management of which he
appointed his man Abraham Mendez, a Jew. This fellow proved a remarkably
industrious and faithful servant to Jonathan, who entrusted him with
matters of the greatest importance, and derived great advantage from his
labours. The species of despotic government which he exercised may be
well collected from the following case:--He had inserted in his book a
gold watch, a quantity of fine lace, and other property of considerable
value, which one John Butler had stolen from a house at Newington Green;
but Butler, instead of coming to account as usual, gave up his felonious
practices, and lived on the produce of his booty. Wild, highly enraged
at being excluded his share, determined to pursue every possible means
to secure his conviction.
Being informed that he lodged at a public house in Bishopsgate-street,
he went to it early one morning, when Butler, hearing him ascending the
stairs, jumped out of the window of his room, and climbing over the wall
of the yard got into the street. Wild broke open the door of the room,
but was disappointed at finding that the man of whom he was in pursuit
had escaped. In the meantime Butler ran into a house the door of which
stood open, and descending to the kitchen, where some women were
washing, told them he was pursued by a bailiff, and they advised him to
conceal himself in the coal-hole. Jonathan coming out of the ale-house,
and seeing a shop on the opposite side of the way open, inquired of the
master, who was a dyer, whether a man had not taken refuge in his house?
The dyer answered in the negative, saying he had not left his shop more
than a minute since it had been opened. Wild then requested to search
the house, and the dyer having readily complied, he proceeded to the
kitchen, and asked the women if they knew whether a man had taken
shelter in the house. They also denied that they had, but on his
informing them that the man he sought was a thief, they said he would
find him in the coal-hole.
Having procured a candle, Wild and his attendants searched the place
without effect, and they examined every part of the house with no better
success. He observed that the villain must have escaped into the street;
but the dyer saying that he had not quitted the shop, and it was
impossible that a man could pass to the street without his knowledge,
they all again went into the cellar, and, after some time spent in
searching, the dyer turned up a large vessel used in his business, and
Butler appeared.
Butler, however, knowing the means by which an accommodation might be
effected, directed our hero to go to his lodging, and look behind the
head of the bed, where he would find what would recompense him for his
time and trouble. Wild went to the place, and found what perfectly
satisfied him; but as Butler had been apprehended in a public manner,
the other was under the necessity of taking him before a magistrate, who
committed him for trial. He was tried at the ensuing sessions at the Old
Bailey; but, by the artful management of Wild, instead of being
condemned to die, he was only sentenced to transportation.
The increased quantity of unclaimed property now in his hands, compelled
Wild to seek some new mode of disposing of it, in a manner which should
benefit him; and with this view he purchased a sloop, in order to
transport the goods to Holland and Flanders, where he conceived he
should find an easy market for them. The command of his vessel was
entrusted to a fellow named Johnson, a notorious thief; and Ostend was
selected by him as the port to which the vessel should principally
trade. The goods, however, not being all disposed of there, he would
carry them to Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, and other places. In return he
brought home lace, wine, brandy, and the other commodities of the
countries which he visited, which he always contrived to land without
affording any trouble to the officers of his Majesty's customs. When
this traffic had continued for about two years, a circumstance occurred
which entirely and effectually prevented its being any longer carried
on. Five pieces of lace were missing on the arrival of the ship in
England, and Johnson, deeming the mate to be answerable for its
production, deducted their value from the amount due to him for his pay.
The latter was naturally violently irritated at this harsh proceeding,
and he forthwith lodged an information against his captain, for running
goods subject to exciseable duties. The vessel was in consequence
seized, and Johnson was cast into prison for penalties to the amount of
700_l._ This was of course the ruin of the commercial proceedings; and
the only remaining subject to be touched upon in this sketch is that
which proved the ruin, and the termination of the career of Jonathan
Wild.
Johnson having obtained his liberty from the government prosecution,
soon returned to his old practices of robbery; but it was not long
before
[Illustration: _Jonathan Wild unkennelling Butler._]
a disagreement took place between him and Thomas Edwards, the keeper of
a house which was the resort of thieves, in Long-lane, with respect to
the division of some spoil, and meeting one day in the Strand, a scene
of mutual recrimination took place between them, and they were at length
both taken into custody. Johnson was bailed by Wild, and Edwards gained
his liberty by there being no prosecution against him; but his enmity
being now diverted in some degree from Johnson to Wild, he was no sooner
at large than he gave information against him, in consequence of which,
his warehouses being searched, a great quantity of stolen goods was
discovered. It was pretended that the property belonged to Johnson, and
Edwards was arrested at his suit for a supposed debt, and lodged in the
Marshalsea; but he soon procured bail. His anger against Johnson for
this act was much increased, and he determined to have his revenge upon
him; and meeting him in the Whitechapel-road, he gave him into the
custody of an officer, who conveyed him to a neighbouring ale-house.
Wild being sent for, made his appearance, accompanied by Quilt Arnold,
one of his assistants, and they soon raised a riot, in the midst of
which the prisoner ran off. Information was immediately given of the
escape, and of Wild's interference in it; and the attention of the
authorities being now called to this notorious offender, he judged it
prudent to abscond, and he remained concealed for three weeks. He was
unaware of the extent of the danger which threatened him, however, and
at the end of that time he returned to his house. Being apprised of
this, Mr. Jones, high-constable of Holborn division, went to his house
in the Old Bailey; and on the 15th of February, 1725, apprehended him
and Quilt Arnold, and took them before Sir John Fryer, who committed
them to Newgate, on a charge of having assisted in the escape of
Johnson.
On Wednesday, the 24th of the same month, Wild moved to be either
admitted to bail or discharged, or brought to trial that session; and on
the following Friday a warrant of detainer was produced against him in
Court, to which were affixed the following articles of information:--
I. That for many years past he had been a confederate with great numbers
of highwaymen, pick-pockets, housebreakers, shop-lifters, and other
thieves.
II. That he had formed a kind of corporation of thieves, of which he was
the head or director; and that notwithstanding his pretended services in
detecting and prosecuting offenders, he procured such only to be hanged
as concealed their booty, or refused to share it with him.
III. That he had divided the town and country into so many districts,
and appointed distinct gangs for each, who regularly accounted with him
for their robberies. That he had also a particular set to steal at
churches in time of divine service; and likewise other moving
detachments to attend at court on birth-days, balls, &c. and at both
houses of parliament, circuits, and country fairs.
IV. That the persons employed by him were for the most part felon
convicts, who had returned from transportation before the time for which
they were transported was expired; and that he made choice of them to be
his agents, because they could not be legal evidences against him, and
because he had it in his power to take from them what part of the stolen
goods he thought fit, and otherwise use them ill, or hang them, as he
pleased.
V. That he had from time to time supplied such convicted felons with
money and clothes, and lodged them in his own house, the better to
conceal them: particularly some against whom there are now informations
for counterfeiting and diminishing broad-pieces and guineas.
VI. That he had not only been a receiver of stolen goods, as well as of
writings of all kinds, for near fifteen years past, but had frequently
been a confederate, and robbed along with the above-mentioned convicted
felons.
VII. That in order to carry on these vile practices, and to gain some
credit with the ignorant multitude, he usually carried a short silver
staff, as a badge of authority from the government, which he used to
produce when he himself was concerned in robbing.
VIII. That he had, under his care and direction, several warehouses for
receiving and concealing stolen goods; and also a ship for carrying off
jewels, watches, and other valuable goods, to Holland, where he had a
superannuated thief for his factor.
IX. That he kept in pay several artists to make alterations, and
transform watches, seals, snuff-boxes, rings, and other valuable things,
that they might not be known, several of which he used to present to
such persons as he thought might be of service to him.
X. That he seldom or never helped the owners to the notes and papers
they had lost unless he found them able exactly to specify and describe
them, and then often insisted on having more than half their value.
XI. And, lastly, it appeared that he had often sold human blood, by
procuring false evidence to swear persons into facts of which they were
not guilty; sometimes to prevent them from being evidences against
himself, and at other times for the sake of the great rewards given by
the government.
The information of Mr. Jones was also read in court, setting forth that
two persons would be produced to accuse the prisoner of capital
offences. The men alluded to in the affidavit were John Follard and
Thomas Butler, who had been convicted, but pardoned on condition of
their appearing to support the prosecution against their former master.
On the 12th of April a motion for the postponement of the trial until
the ensuing sessions was made on behalf of Wild, and after some
discussion it was granted; the ground of the postponement being alleged
to be the absence of two material witnesses for the defence, named ----
Hays, of the Packhorse, Turnham Green, and ---- Wilson, a clothier at
Frome, in Somersetshire.
On Saturday, May 15, 1725, the trial came on, and the prisoner was then
arraigned on an indictment for privately stealing in the house of
Catherine Stretham, in the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, fifty yards of
lace, the property of the said Catherine, on the 22d of January in the
same year.
He was also indicted for feloniously receiving from the said Catherine,
on the 10th of March, the sum of ten guineas, on account and under
pretence of restoring the said lace, and procuring the apprehension and
prosecution of the person by whom the same was stolen.
Before the trial came on, the prisoner was not a little industrious in
endeavouring to establish a feeling in his favour, and he distributed a
great number of printed papers among the jurymen and others walking
about the court, entitled. "A List of persons discovered, apprehended,
and convicted of several robberies on the highway; and also for
burglaries and housebreaking; and also for returning from
transportation; by Jonathan Wild." The list contained the names of
thirty-five persons for robbing on the highway, twenty-two for
housebreaking, and ten for returning from transportation, and the
following note was appended to it.
"Several others have been also convicted for the like crimes; but,
remembering not the persons' names who had been robbed, I omit the
criminals names.
"Please to observe that several others have been also convicted for
shoplifting, picking of pockets, &c. by the female sex, which are
capital crimes, and which are too tedious to be inserted here, and the
prosecutors not willing of being exposed.
"In regard, therefore, of the numbers above convicted, some that have
yet escaped justice, are endeavouring to take away the life of the said
"JONATHAN WILD."
The prisoner, being put to the bar, requested that the witnesses might
be examined apart, which was complied with.
The trial then commenced, and the first witness called was Henry Kelly,
who deposed that by the prisoner's direction he went, in company with
Margaret Murphy, to the prosecutor's shop, under pretence of buying some
lace; that he stole a tin box, and gave it to Murphy in order to deliver
to Wild, who waited in the street for the purpose of receiving their
booty, and rescuing them if they should be taken into custody; that they
returned together to Wild's house, where the box being opened, was found
to contain eleven pieces of lace; that Wild said he could afford to give
no more than five guineas, as he should not be able to get more than ten
guineas for returning the goods to the owner; that the witness received
as his share three guineas and a crown, and that Murphy had what
remained of the five guineas.
Margaret Murphy was next sworn, and her evidence corresponded in every
particular with that of the former witness[3].
Catherine Stretham, the elder, deposed that between three and four in
the afternoon of the 22nd of January, a man and woman came to her house,
pretending that they wanted to purchase some lace; that she showed them
two or three parcels, to the quality and price of which they objected;
and that in about three minutes after they had left the shop she missed
a tin box, containing a quantity of lace, the value of which she
estimated at fifty pounds.
The prisoner's counsel on this contended, that he could not be legally
convicted, because the indictment positively expressed that _he stole_
the lace _in_ the house, whereas it had been proved in evidence that he
was at a considerable distance outside when the fact was committed. They
allowed that he might be liable to conviction as an accessory before the
fact, or for receiving the property, knowing it to be stolen; but
conceived that he could not be deemed guilty of a capital felony, unless
the indictment declared (as the act directs) that he did _assist_,
_command_, or _hire_.
Lord Raymond, who presided, in summing up the evidence, observed that
the guilt of the prisoner was a point beyond all dispute; but that, as
a similar case was not to be found in the law-books, it became his duty
to act with great caution: he was not perfectly satisfied that the
construction urged by the counsel for the crown could be put upon the
indictment; and, as the life of a fellow-creature was at stake, he
recommended the prisoner to the mercy of the jury, who brought in their
verdict Not Guilty.
Wild was then arraigned on the second indictment, which alleged an
offence committed during his confinement in Newgate. The indictment
being opened by the counsel for the crown, the following clause in an
act passed in the fourth year of the reign of George the First was
ordered to be read:--