but in the mean time Stone, recovering his senses, jumped out of bed,
and escaped to the roof of the house, through the window. The thieves
now descended and plundered the house of all the plate they could
discover; but finding no money, they went to Mrs. Hutchings, and
threatened to murder her if she did not disclose the place of its
concealment. She gave them her watch, and was afterwards compelled to
give up a purse containing 65_l._, with which they immediately retired.
Mrs. Hutchings now directly set her female servants at liberty, and
having gone in search of the men, she found Slow, who declared he was
dying, and dropped insensible on the floor. He languished until the
following afternoon, and then died of the wounds which he had received.
It was a considerable time before the perpetrators of this most
diabolical outrage were discovered; but they were at length given up to
justice by one of their accomplices, named Isaacs, who was a German Jew,
and who, reduced to the greatest necessity, was tempted by the prospect
of reward to impeach his fellows. It then turned out that the gang
consisted of eight persons, who were headed by the physician
before-mentioned. Dr. Weil had been educated in a superior manner. He
had studied physic in the university of Leyden, where he was admitted to
the degree of doctor in that faculty; and, then coming to England, he
practised in London, with no inconsiderable degree of success, and was
always known by the name of Doctor Weil; but so destitute was he of all
principle, and such was the depravity of his heart, that he determined
to engage in the dangerous practice of robbery; and, having formed this
fatal resolution, he wrote to Amsterdam, to some poor Jews, to come to
England, and assist him in his intended depredations on the public; and
at the same time informed them that in England large sums were to be
acquired by the practice of theft.
The inconsiderate men no sooner received Dr. Weil's letter than they
procured a passport from the English consul, and, embarking in the
Harwich packet-boat, arrived in England.
They lost no time in repairing to London, and, immediately attending Dr.
Weil, he informed them that his plan was, that they should go out in the
day-time, and minutely survey such houses near London as might probably
afford a good booty, and then attack them at night.
At the sessions held at the Old Bailey, in the month of December 1771,
Levi Weil, Asher Weil, Marcus Hartagh, Jacob Lazarus, Solomon Porter,
and Lazarus Harry, were indicted for the felony and murder
above-mentioned, when the two of the name of Weil, with Jacob Lazarus
and Solomon Porter, were capitally convicted; while Marcus Hartagh and
Lazarus Harry were acquitted for want of evidence.
These men, as is customary in all cases of murder, when it can be made
convenient to the Court, were tried on a Friday, and on the following
day they were anathematised in the synagogue. As their execution was to
take place on the Monday following, one of the rabbis went to them in
the press-yard of Newgate, and delivered to each of them a Hebrew book;
but declined attending them to the place of death, nor even prayed with
them at the time of his visit.
They were attended to Tyburn, the place of execution, by immense crowds
of people, who were anxious to witness the exit of wretches, whose
crimes had been so much the object of public notice.
Having prayed together, and sung a hymn in the Hebrew language, they
were launched into eternity, December 9, 1771.
After the bodies had hung the customary time, they were conveyed to
Surgeons' Hall to be dissected.
JAMES BOLLAND.
EXECUTED FOR FORGERY.
The adventures of this fellow exhibit him to have been a person of a
most profligate disposition. By means of his employment as a bailiff, he
obtained the custody of great numbers of unfortunate debtors, whom it
became his entire occupation to fleece of any small property which might
be left in their possession at the time of their incarceration. Bailiffs
at the present day are not much esteemed as persons of respectable
character, or whose mode of life is at all calculated to raise them in
the opinions of their fellows; but, judging from the case of Bolland,
the race appears to have much improved since the year 1772.
Bolland was the son of a butcher in Whitechapel, and having been brought
up to his father's trade, he opened a shop on his own account, almost
immediately on the termination of his apprenticeship. His ideas of life,
however, did not permit him to pay that attention to his business which
it demanded; and having spent no small portion of his time and money in
the society of bailiffs, thief-takers, and blacklegs, he at length found
himself tottering on the eve of bankruptcy. To avoid a catastrophe which
might have damaged him in the estimation of his companions, he now sold
off his effects; and in order to indulge a taste which he appeared to
have imbibed from his recent associations, he procured himself to be
appointed one of the officers of the sheriff of Surrey, and opened a
"sponging-house," or receptacle for newly-arrested debtors, at the
bottom of Falcon-court, near St. George's Church, Southwark. The
sponging-houses of the last century, as it may be well supposed, had no
better qualities to recommend them than those of the present day, and
that of Mr. Bolland appeared to outvie its fellows in the wretchedness
and poverty of its equipments. It was, however, speedily inhabited by a
number of wretched debtors, and now came the opportunity for its
proprietor to exercise his power of discrimination between those who
were unable to contribute to his benefit, and those whose purses even
yet afforded the possibility of his squeezing from them a few golden
drops. Those whose money was all spent were not long permitted to remain
in his "establishment," but were sent off to the county prison as soon
as the discovery of their poverty was made; but those who could afford
to pay for their accommodations, and besides to enter with him into the
amusements of cards and dice, were welcomed as honoured visitors, so
long as their money lasted, until, in order to avoid further imposition,
they demanded to be conveyed to prison, or until the exigency of the
writs upon which they had been arrested rendered their removal
necessary.
It may be readily imagined that no occasion was allowed by Bolland to
slip, on which, either by the exercise of fraud or artifice, he could
procure money from his unfortunate guests; and situated as he was--the
master of the house, all efforts to oppose his will were of course
unavailing so long as his dupes remained under his roof. But while his
frauds at home were carried on with the most daring effrontery, he was
no less active abroad, in endeavouring to "raise the wind." He became a
horse-dealer, and a bill-discounter; and in both of these professions
ample opportunities for the exercise of all sorts of chicanery were
afforded. At length, however, his name and his infamous practices became
so notorious that his business forsook him--his employers justly
imagining that when his conduct was so villanous, they might be justly
reflected upon for encouraging him--and with his business, the means of
meeting his numerous and very heavy expenses declined. His creditors
became clamorous, and a commission of bankruptcy was sued out by a
friend, but not until he had managed to gull the public to a large
extent, and to secrete a very considerable quantity of valuable effects.
Having been "whitewashed" of his old debts, upon his discharge from
prison he managed once again to enter into business, and having procured
new bondsmen, he was appointed an officer to the sheriff of Middlesex,
and opened a sponging-house in the Savoy. His successes in his new
avocation were by no means so great as those which he had experienced in
his late employment in Surrey; but he managed to eke out the means of
existence between his house and his successes at play in the various
billiard-rooms in the vicinity of his dwelling.
At length, however, having by his fraudulent schemes involved himself in
almost innumerable difficulties, he determined upon once more "passing
the court," to get rid of his liabilities; and the necessary proceedings
were taken to procure a second commission of bankruptcy. During his
sojourn in the Fleet Prison, whither, like many of his late victims, he
was now obliged to go, he formed acquaintances by no means calculated to
improve his character for respectability, nor to induce him to adopt any
new mode of life. On his discharge, through the instrumentality of some
of his prison friends, he procured himself once again to be appointed a
sheriff's officer of Middlesex, and he now commenced business in Great
Shire Lane, Fleet-street. If his exertions as a bailiff in the Savoy had
failed in procuring for him those returns which his situation might lead
him to expect, he had now no reason to complain of want of patronage.
His acquaintance among the "sharp practice" attorneys had been lately
increasing, and he was soon almost fully employed by them. His house was
again rendered the means of procuring for him the most extravagant
returns for his outlay on behalf of his prisoners, and his ingenuity and
impudence supplied any deficiency which might have before appeared in
his income.
One or two instances of the devices to which he had recourse may prove
interesting. Having been employed by a gentleman to arrest a person who
was his debtor to the amount of three hundred pounds on a bill of
exchange, and who held the situation of captain of an East Indiaman,
Bolland immediately proceeded to make the necessary inquiries respecting
his prey. He learned that his vessel was about to sail in the course of
a very few days; but, determined to be beforehand with him, he caused
him to be immediately arrested and carried to his lock-up house. His
employer, in the mean time, had gone out of town, and therefore looked
for no immediate account from the officer; but the latter having
procured the debt and costs from his prisoner, suffered him immediately
to depart. Some months elapsed before the plaintiff in the suit returned
to London, and then he demanded to know what success the bailiff had had
in procuring the payment of the debt; but he was assured by him that the
vessel had sailed before the writ was lodged in his hands, and that all
his efforts to procure the money had been unavailing. He then tendered a
charge of the costs which had been incurred, and the amount having been
paid, he walked off. His cheat was soon destined to be discovered,
however; for the captain having returned, a writ was lodged in the hands
of another officer, by whom he was a second time arrested. The result
may be easily imagined: Bolland's receipt for the debt and costs, dated
eighteen months before, was produced, and the prisoner was at once set
at liberty. Proceedings were then immediately instituted against our
hero, and after a long course of opposition to the law, through which he
imagined that he would not be followed, he was compelled to refund the
money which he had so dishonestly obtained.
The following case shows that he did not always come off the
winner:--The custom of putting in sham bail has long been well known;
and although recent enactments of the legislature have put an end to
this system, founded on perjury and fraud, the "men of straw" who
formerly paraded Westminster Hall, ready to swear that they were worth
any amount, and who were easily recognised by the straw which hung out
of their shoes, are yet well remembered. Bolland, in the course of his
professional avocations, had frequent necessity for the use of persons
of this description; and he had gone so far as to hire two men for the
exclusive use of his establishment, whom he had attired in something
like decency, for the sake of giving his transactions an air of
respectability. Having upon one occasion accompanied his servants to a
public-house in Covent Garden, to regale them after a "good hit," he was
surprised to see them suddenly carried off by two Bow-street runners on
a charge of highway-robbery. At the ensuing Old Bailey Sessions, they
were put upon their trial charged with the offence alleged against them,
and a verdict of conviction having been recorded, they were sentenced to
be hanged. Bolland, in his capacity of sheriff's officer, was compelled
to accompany them to the gallows, and had the mortification of seeing
them turned off, wearing the clothes which he had provided them, and
which, by custom, became the property of the executioner.
Another instance will show how far his villany extended. A Mrs.
Beauclerc was the wife of a captain in the navy, and her husband having
been detained at sea for a period much longer than was expected, she
contracted a debt amounting to thirty pounds. The creditor became
solicitous that the money should be repaid; but Mrs. Beauclerc being
devoid of the means of payment, and having no friend to whom in her
strait she could apply, was at length arrested by Bolland upon a writ
which had been placed in his hands for execution, and conveyed to Great
Shire Lane. Having tasted all the pleasures of a residence in a
sponging-house, she became anxious in a day or two for her release upon
any terms which she could make; and, upon her entreaty, Bolland procured
bail to be put in for her on a fee of five guineas being handed over.
She had scarcely obtained her liberty, however, before she was rendered
into custody by her bail, acting upon the advice of Bolland, who
represented that her circumstances were such as to render the
continuance of their liability in her behalf exceedingly dangerous.
Every post was expected to bring news of Captain Beauclerc, and with it
the means of discharging the debt; and the poor woman, terrified at an
incarceration in Newgate, with which she was threatened, was induced to
raise ten pounds, in order once more to procure her liberation upon
bail. The money being tendered, her jailor was too good a judge to
permit her to go at large without some further security; and he insisted
upon her signing a bond to confess judgment, levyable upon her
furniture, as a collateral security. Mrs. Beauclerc was ignorant of the
nature of such an instrument, and readily assented to everything that
was proposed; and her surprise may be imagined when, on the very day
after her liberation, a writ of execution was put into her house,
founded upon the judgment signed upon her confession, under which all
her goods were seized. Distracted at the prospect of her husband's
speedy return, and at his discovery of her destitution, in a state of
the wildest desperation she attempted to set fire to the house which she
occupied. Her offence was, from its nature, immediately discovered, and
the unhappy woman was dragged to Newgate to await her trial. Scarcely
had she become an inmate of the jail, the name of which she had before
so much dreaded, when her husband arrived in London, and was
horror-struck at discovering her situation. Every effort was made by him
on her behalf; but before the trial of his wretched wife came on, he was
suddenly arrested by Bolland, upon a writ sued out upon an affidavit of
debt, falsely sworn at the instance of the officer. His condition may be
easily supposed to have been heart-rending in the extreme; and his wife,
deprived of the assistance which she might have obtained had he been at
large, was convicted and received sentence of death. The captain, in
order as soon as possible to be able to render his wife that comfort
which her situation demanded, and to make some exertions in her behalf,
procured his liberation, though it was by paying the debt to which he
was sworn to be liable; and the case of his wife being represented to
the king, she was at length released from confinement, upon an
unconditional pardon which was granted to her.
By these and other artifices, and by the most unblushing effrontery,
Bolland succeeded at length in amassing a sum of two thousand pounds;
and the office of City-marshal becoming vacant, he determined, if
possible, to become its possessor by way of purchase. The situation, as
was then customary, was put up for sale, and after a spirited bidding,
he became the buyer at a price of two thousand four hundred pounds; and
having paid the deposit-money, and raised such portion of the whole sum
as he did not possess, he only waited the approval of the Court of
Aldermen at once to take upon himself the duties of the office. His
character had, however, became too notorious to permit of his being
allowed to assume a situation of so much importance in the City; and a
message was communicated to him by the recorder, in which the nature of
the grounds of the refusal were stated. An action was threatened upon
the breach of contract, as well as upon the defamation of his character,
conveyed by the message of the recorder; but finding that he was likely
to gain nothing by an opposition to the corporation of London, he
desisted from any further proceedings, and demanded the restitution of
the amount of the deposit money. But here he was doomed to suffer
another disappointment. The amount handed over had been attached by the
persons, who had become his sureties to the sheriff, on account of
certain liabilities which he had incurred to them under their bail
bonds, and it was detained in order to await the decision of a court of
law upon the claim.
Before the proceedings which arose upon the subject, however, had
terminated, Bolland was guilty of the offence for which he became liable
to trial, and was convicted and executed. It appears that his crime
consisted in the introduction of a false indorsement upon the back of a
bill of exchange, made by Bolland for the purpose of giving it a
fictitious value. A person named Jesson having discounted a bill for
him, they accidentally met at the George and Vulture Tavern, Cornhill,
on the day when it became due. Jesson demanded payment; but Bolland
declared that he was unprepared with the money requisite to take up the
instrument, and tendered another bill for one hundred pounds, accepted
by a Mr. Bradshaw, as an equivalent. Jesson, after some demur, consented
to take the bill; and Bolland indorsed it with his own name. This was
exclaimed against by Jesson, on the ground that it would not be
negociable if his name appeared on it; and he then took a knife, and,
according to Jesson's belief, scratched out the whole name, while, in
reality, he scratched out all except the initial, which he left, and to
which he added the letters "anks," so as to make the name "James Banks."
The bill was then handed back to Jesson; and on the following day it was
discounted for him by a person named Cardineaux. The latter subsequently
demanded to know who Banks was; and Bolland informed him that he was a
victualler in the neighbourhood of Rathbone Place, in an extensive and
reputable way of business. Before the bill became due it was again
discounted for Cardineaux by his banker, and Bradshaw, the acceptor,
became bankrupt. Cardineaux, in consequence, applied to Jesson to take
up the bill, and he in turn went to Bolland; but the latter positively
refused to have anything to do with it, and even went so far as to deny,
with the utmost effrontery, that he had ever seen it. At a subsequent
meeting between Cardineaux, Jesson, and Bolland, the latter endeavoured
to excuse himself from payment, by alleging that his name did not appear
on the instrument; but on his being called upon to explain how Banks's
indorsement came upon it, he desired that all further disputes might
subside, and that he would take it up. An investigation, however,
subsequently took place, and Jesson, annoyed at the double fraud which
had been practised upon him, took the advice of counsel as to what
should be done. An opinion was given that an indictment for forgery
would lie, and Bolland was taken into custody; but then immediately a
person, who stated his name to be Banks, applied to Cardineaux to take
up the bill. The one hundred pounds were accepted, and the supposed Mr.
Banks obtained a receipt for that amount; but on his demanding the
delivery of the bill, he was informed that it was detained in order to
be produced in evidence at the trial, after which he should be welcome
to it.
The prisoner was indicted at the ensuing Old Bailey sessions, when proof
of the facts which we have detailed having been given, and all efforts
to prove the existence of any such Mr. Banks as had been described
having failed, a verdict of Guilty was returned. Every effort was
subsequently made by the prisoner's counsel, on a motion in arrest of
judgment, to procure the verdict to be set aside, but in vain, and
sentence of death was passed upon him in the usual form.
On the morning of his execution, the unhappy wretch confessed that he
had been guilty of innumerable sins, but declared that he had no
fraudulent intention in indorsing the bill when he put it off.
He was hanged at Tyburn on the 18th of March 1772, and his body was in
the evening conveyed to Bunhill Fields, and there buried.
WILLIAM GRIFFITHS.
EXECUTED FOR HIGHWAY ROBBERY.
The person robbed in this case was the celebrated and unfortunate Dr.
Dodd, whom, a few years afterwards, Fate decreed to be hanged at the
very spot where Griffiths suffered.
William Griffiths was a native of Shropshire, and followed the business
of husbandry till he had attained his eighteenth year, when he engaged
in a naval life, and remained near three years in the East Indies. The
ship was paid off on his return to England; and our hero receiving a
considerable sum for wages, spent his money, as sailors generally do, in
no very reputable company, at public-houses in Wapping and adjacent
parts.
Being now reduced to poverty, he was persuaded by two fellows named
David Evans and Timothy Johnson to join them in the commission of
highway robberies. Their efforts were attended with small success, and
Griffiths's reign was soon terminated. It appears that the Rev. Dr. Dodd
and his lady were returning from a visit they had been making to a
gentleman at St. Albans, but were detained on the way at Barnet, because
a post-chaise could not be immediately procured. Night was hastily
approaching when they left Barnet; but they proceeded unmolested until
they came near the turnpike at the extremity of Tottenham-Court-Road,
when three men called to the driver of the carriage, and threatened his
instant destruction if he did not stop. The postboy did not hesitate to
obey the summons; but no sooner was the carriage stopped than a pistol
was fired, the ball from which went through the front glass of the
chaise, but did not take any effect to the injury of the parties in it.
Griffiths then immediately opened the door of the chaise; on which the
doctor begged him to behave with civility, on account of the presence of
the lady. He delivered his purse, which contained only two guineas, and
a bill of exchange, and also gave the robber some loose silver.
Griffiths, having received the booty, decamped with the utmost
precipitation; but Dr. Dodd lost no time in repairing to Sir John
Fielding's office, where he and his lady gave so full a description of
the person of the principal robber, that he was immediately apprehended.
At the trial, the doctor declared that he had only come forward on
account of the pistol having been fired, but refused to swear to the
person of the prisoner. His lady, however, was more positive in her
evidence; and no doubt being left as to his identity, he was found
guilty and received sentence of death.
He afterwards confessed the crimes of which he had been guilty, and was
executed on the 20th of January 1773, apparently sincerely penitent for
his offences.
JOHN LEONARD.
EXECUTED FOR A RAPE.
The circumstances of this case are marked by peculiar atrocity. It
appears that a man named Vere, a sheriff's officer, having put an
execution into a house of Mr. Brailsford, in Petty France, Westminster,
he placed Leonard, Graves, and Gay, three of his followers, in
possession.