young men, who had been recently cast for death for privately stealing
some valuable rings, &c., from the shop of a jeweller in Leadenhall
Street. As a conformity of character, or similarity of pursuits, is the
strongest source of friendship, so these persons and myself had become
very intimately acquainted. In the course of our frequent conversations
on the subject with which we were all three alike most conversant, the
brothers informed me that they had, like myself, made a successful tour
of the jewellers' shops in London: and on our comparing notes as to the
particular persons we had robbed, or attempted to rob, they pointed out
about half-a-dozen shops, which, it appeared, I had omitted to visit,
arising either from their making no display of their goods, or from
their being situated in private streets, where I had no idea of finding
any such trades. Though at that time neither they nor myself entertained
much hope of my acquittal, it was agreed that, in the event of my being
so fortunate as to recover my freedom, I should pay my respects to the
several tradesmen I had so overlooked; and I promised, in case I was
successful, to make them a pecuniary acknowledgment in return for their
information. At the moment of my joyful departure from Newgate, they
accordingly furnished me with a list of the shops in question, and gave
me full instructions and useful hints for my guidance therein. They
particularly pointed out a Mr. Bilger, a goldsmith and jeweller of the
first eminence in Piccadilly. This gentleman, they assured me, I should
find, in the technical phrase, a _good flat_. They advised me to bespeak
a diamond ring, or similar article, and to request a sight of some loose
diamonds, for the purpose of selecting such stones as I might wish to
have set, informing me that he was generally provided with a large
quantity, which he would not fail to show me, and that I might with ease
purloin a good number of them. A day or two after my release I made the
prescribed experiments, and was fortunate enough to succeed pretty well
at nearly every shop; but I reserved Mr. Bilger for my final essay, as
he was the principal object of consideration, and from whom I expected
to obtain the most valuable booty. On the day se'nnight after my trial
at the Old Bailey, I prepared in due form to pay him a visit. About five
o'clock in the evening I entered his shop, dressed in the most elegant
style, having a valuable gold watch and appendages, a gold eye-glass,
&c. I had posted my old friend and aid-de-camp, Bromley, at the door, in
order to be in readiness to act as circumstances might require, and
particularly to watch the motions of Mr. Bilger and his assistants on my
quitting the premises. On my entrance Mrs. Bilger issued from a back
parlour behind the shop, and, politely inquiring my business, I told her
I wished to see Mr. Bilger; she immediately rang a bell, which brought
down her husband from the upper apartments. He saluted me with a low
bow, and handed me a seat. I was glad to find no other person in the
shop, Mrs. Bilger having again retired. I now assumed the air of a Bond
Street lounger, and informed Mr. Bilger that I had been recommended by a
gentleman of my acquaintance to deal with him, having occasion for a
very elegant diamond ring, and requested to see his assortment. Mr.
Bilger expressed his concern that he happened not to have a single
article of that description by him, but, if I could without
inconvenience call again, he would undertake in one hour to procure me a
selection from his working jeweller, to whom he would immediately
despatch a messenger. I affected to feel somewhat disappointed, but
looking at my watch, after a moment's reflection, I said, 'Well, Mr.
Bilger, I have an appointment at the Cannon Coffee-house, which requires
my attendance, and if you will without fail have the articles ready, I
may probably look in a little after six.' This he promised faithfully to
do, declaring how much he felt obliged by my condescension; and I
sauntered out of the shop, Mr. Bilger attending me in the most
obsequious manner to the outer door. After walking a short distance,
Bromley tapped me on the shoulder, and inquired what conduct I meant
next to pursue; for he had viewed my proceedings through a glass-door in
the shop, and saw that I had not executed my grand design. I related to
Bromley the result of my conversation with Mr. Bilger, and added that I
meant to retire to the nearest public-house, where we could enjoy a pipe
and a glass of negus until the expiration of the hour, to which I had
limited myself. We accordingly regaled ourselves at a very snug house,
nearly opposite Bilger's, until about half-past six, when I again
repaired to the scene of action, leaving Bromley, as at first, posted at
the door. Mr. Bilger received me with increased respect, and, producing
a small card box, expressed his sorrow that his workmen had only been
enabled to send three rings for my inspection; but that, if they were
not to my taste, he should feel honoured and obliged in taking my
directions for having one made, and flattered himself he should execute
the order to my satisfaction. I proceeded to examine the rings he
produced, one of which was marked sixteen guineas, another nine guineas,
and the third six guineas. They were all extremely beautiful; but I
affected to consider them as too paltry, telling Mr. Bilger that I
wanted one to present to a lady, and that I wished to have a ring of
greater value than the whole three put together, as a few guineas would
not be an object in the price. Mr. Bilger's son, who was also his
partner, now joined us, and was desired by his father to sketch a
draught in pencil of some fancy rings, agreeable to the directions I
should give him. The three rings I had viewed were now removed to the
end of the counter next the window, and I informed the young man that I
wished to have something of a cluster, a large brilliant in the centre,
surrounded with smaller ones; but repeated my desire that no expense
might be spared to render the article strictly elegant, and worthy a
lady's acceptance. The son having sketched a design of several rings on
a card, I examined them with attention, and appeared in doubt which to
prefer, but desired to see some loose diamonds, in order to form a
better idea of the size, &c. of each ring described in the drawing. Mr.
Bilger, however, declared he had not any by him. It is probable he spoke
the truth: or he might have lost such numbers by showing them, as to
deter him from exhibiting them in future. Without having made up my mind
on the subject, I now requested to see some of his most fashionable
brooches or shirt-pins. Mr. Bilger produced a show-glass, containing a
variety of articles in pearl, but he had nothing of the kind in
diamonds. I took up two or three of the brooches, and immediately _sunk_
a very handsome one, marked three guineas, in my coat sleeve. I next
purloined a beautiful clasp for a lady's waist, consisting of stones set
in gold, which had the brilliancy and appearance of real diamonds, but
marked only four guineas. I should probably have gone still deeper, but
at this moment a lady, coming in, desired to look at some ear-rings, and
the younger Mr. Bilger immediately quitted his father to attend upon her
at the other end of the shop. It struck me that now was my time for a
decisive stroke. The card containing the diamond rings, procured from
the maker, lying very near the show-glass I was viewing, and many small
articles irregularly placed round about them, the candles not throwing
much light upon that particular spot, and Mr. Bilger's attention being
divided between myself and the lady, to whom he frequently addressed
himself, I suddenly took the three rings from the card, and committed
them to my sleeve to join the brooch and lady's clasp; but had them so
situated that I could in a moment have released and replaced them on the
counter, had an inquiry been made for them. I then looked at my watch,
and, observing that I was going to the theatre, told Mr. Bilger that I
would not trouble him any further, as the articles before me were too
tawdry and common to please me, but that I would put the card of
draughts in my pocket-book; and, if I did not meet with a ring of the
kind I wanted before Monday or Tuesday, I would certainly call again and
give him final directions. I was then drawing on my gloves, being
anxious to quit the shop while I was well; but Mr. Bilger, who seemed
delighted with the prospect of my custom, begged so earnestly that I
would allow him to show me his brilliant assortment of gold watches that
I could not refuse to gratify him, though I certainly incurred a great
risk by my compliance. I therefore answered, 'Really, Mr. Bilger, I am
loath to give you that unnecessary trouble, as I have, you may perceive,
a very good watch already, in point of performance, though it cost me a
mere trifle--only twenty guineas; but it answers my purpose as well as a
more valuable one. However, as I may probably, before long, want an
elegant watch for a lady, I don't care if I just run my eye over them.'
Mr. Bilger replied that the greater part of his stock were fancy
watches, adapted for ladies; and he defied all London united to exhibit
a finer collection. He then took from his window a show-glass,
containing about thirty most beautiful watches, some ornamented with
pearls or diamonds, others elegantly enamelled, or chased in the most
delicate style. They were of various prices, from thirty to one hundred
guineas; and the old gentleman rubbing his hands with an air of rapture,
exclaimed, 'There they are, sir; a most fashionable assortment of goods;
allow me to recommend them, they're all a-going, sir--all a-going.' I
smiled inwardly at the latter part of this speech, and thought to
myself, 'I wish they were going, with all my heart, along with the
diamond rings.' I answered they were certainly very handsome, but I
would defer a minute inspection of them till my next visit, when I
should have more time to spare. These watches were ranged in exact
order, in five parallel lines; and between each watch was placed a gold
seal or other trinket appertaining to a lady's watch. It was no easy
matter, therefore, to take away a single article without its being
instantly missed, unless the economy of the whole had been previously
deranged. I contrived, however, to displace a few of the trinkets, on
pretence of admiring them, and ventured to secrete one very rich gold
seal, marked six guineas. I then declared I could stay no longer, as I
had appointed to meet a party at the theatre; but that I would certainly
call again in a few days, and lay out some money in return for the
trouble I had given. Mr. Bilger expressed his thanks in the most
respectful terms, and waited upon me to the door, where he took leave of
me with a very low _congé, à la mode de France_, of which country he was
a native. I now put the best foot foremost, and having gained a remote
street, turned my head, and perceived Bromley at my heels, who seized my
hand, congratulating me on my success, and complimenting me on the
address I had shown in this exploit; for he had witnessed all that
passed, and knew that I had succeeded in my object, by the manner in
which I quitted the shop. He informed me that Mr. Bilger had returned to
his counter, and, without attending to the arrangement of the articles
thereon, had joined his son, who was still waiting upon the lady, and
that he, Bromley, had finally left them both engaged with her."
Such was his rapacity, that he renewed his visit to Mr. Bilger's shop;
but the reception he met satisfied him that he was suspected. He,
however, left an order for a splendid ring; and, while the jeweller's
son, as Vaux thought, was taking down his directions, he was only
writing a description of his person, and a handbill in a few days was
widely circulated among the pawnbrokers, peace-officers, &c. A day or
two after Vaux called at Turner's--a pawnbroker, in Brydges Street,
Covent Garden--to redeem some article he had pledged, when he saw such
manoeuvres in the shop as induced him to make a precipitate retreat,
and go into concealment.
At length, "necessity," as he says himself, forced him out; and, the
first night, he stole, from a shop in Ludgate Street, property to the
amount of four or five pounds, with which he was so much pleased that he
returned for his wife, and took her out to walk. Contrary to her earnest
remonstrance, they went to a flash-house, near Clare Market, where the
landlord betrayed him into the hands of justice, and he was hurried off
to the watch-house. Next day he underwent an examination at Bow Street,
and was remanded. During the interval between his first and second
appearance he had completely metamorphosed his person by cutting his
hair and whiskers, and putting on a mean suit of clothes. But all would
not do; he was recognised through his disguise, and fully committed. His
trial came on at the Old Bailey, February the 15th, 1809, and, the facts
being sworn to, he was found guilty--death. His sentence was afterwards
commuted to transportation for life, preparatory to which he was
conveyed on board the Retribution hulk at Woolwich.
"I had now," says Vaux, "a new scene of misery to contemplate; and, of
all the shocking scenes I had ever beheld, this was the most
distressing. There were confined in this floating dungeon nearly six
hundred men, most of them double-ironed, and the reader may conceive the
horrible effects arising from the continual rattling of chains, the
filth and vermin naturally produced by such a crowd of miserable
inhabitants, the oaths and execrations constantly heard among them; and,
above all, from the shocking necessity of associating and communicating
more or less with so depraved a set of beings. On arriving on board, we
were all immediately stripped, and washed in large tubs of water; then,
after putting on each a suit of coarse slop clothing, we were ironed,
and sent below, our own clothes being taken from us, and detained till
we could sell or otherwise dispose of them, as no person is exempted
from the obligation to wear the ship-dress. On descending the hatchway,
no conception can be formed of the scene which presented itself. I shall
not attempt to describe it; but nothing short of a descent to the
infernal regions can be at all worthy of a comparison with it. I soon
met with many of my old Botany Bay acquaintances, who were all eager to
offer me their friendship and services,--that is, with a view to rob me
of what little I had; for in this place there is no other motive or
subject for ingenuity. All former friendships or connexions are
dissolved, and a man here will rob his best benefactor, or even
messmate, of an article worth one halfpenny. Every morning, at seven
o'clock, all the convicts capable of work, or, in fact, all who are
capable of getting into the boats, are taken ashore to the Warren, in
which the Royal Arsenal and other public buildings are situated, and are
there employed at various kinds of labour, some of them very fatiguing;
and, while so employed, each gang of sixteen or twenty men is watched
and directed by a fellow called a guard. These guards are most commonly
of the lowest class of human beings; wretches devoid of all feeling;
ignorant in the extreme; brutal by nature, and rendered tyrannical and
cruel by the consciousness of the power they possess: no others, but
such as I have described, would hold the situation, their wages being
not more than a day-labourer would earn in London. They invariably carry
a large and ponderous stick, with which, without the smallest
provocation, they will fell an unfortunate convict to the ground, and
frequently repeat their blows long after the poor sufferer is
insensible. At noon the working party return on board to dinner, and at
one again go on shore, where they labour till near sun-set. On returning
on board in the evening, all hands are mustered by a roll, and the whole
being turned down below, the hatches are put over them, and secured for
the night. As to the food, the stipulated ration is very scanty, but of
even part of that they are defrauded. Their provisions, being supplied
by contractors, and not by government, are of the worst kind, such as
would not be considered eatable or wholesome elsewhere; and both the
weight and measure are always deficient. The allowance of bread is said
to be about twenty ounces per day. Three days in the week they have
about four ounces of cheese for dinner, and the other four days a pound
of beef. The breakfast is invariably boiled barley, of the coarsest kind
imaginable; and of this the pigs of the hulk come in for a third part,
because it is so nauseous that nothing but downright hunger will enable
a man to eat it. For supper, they have, on banyan days, burgoo, of as
good a quality as the barley, and which is similarly disposed of; and on
meat days, the water in which the beef was boiled is thickened with
barley, and forms a mess called 'smiggins,' of a more detestable nature
than either of the two former! The reader may conceive that I do not
exaggerate when I state that among the convicts the common price of
these several eatables is,--for a day's allowance of beef, one
halfpenny;--ditto, of cheese, one halfpenny;--ditto, of bread,
three-halfpence; but the cheese is most commonly so bad that they throw
it away. It is manufactured, I believe, of skimmed milk, for this
particular contract. The beef generally consists of old bulls or cows
who have died of age or famine; the least trace of fat is considered a
phenomenon, and it is far inferior upon the whole to good horse-flesh. I
once saw the prisoners throw the whole day's supply overboard the moment
it was hoisted out of the boat, and for this offence they were severely
flogged. The friends of these unhappy persons are not allowed to come on
board, but must remain alongside during their visit; the prisoners are,
it is true, suffered to go into their boat, but a guard is placed within
hearing of their conversation; and if a friend or parent has come one
hundred miles, they are not allowed above ten minutes' interview: so
that, instead of consolation, the visit only excites regret at the
parties being so suddenly torn asunder. All letters, too, written by
prisoners, must be delivered unsealed to the chief mate for his
inspection, before they are sent ashore; and such as he thinks obnoxious
are of course suppressed. In like manner, all letters received from the
post-office are opened and scrutinised. If I were to attempt a full
description of the miseries endured in these ships, I could fill a
volume; but I shall sum up all by stating that besides robbery from each
other, which is as common as cursing and swearing, I witnessed among the
prisoners themselves, during the twelvemonth I remained with them, one
deliberate murder, for which the perpetrator was executed at Maidstone,
and one suicide; and that unnatural crimes are openly committed."
From the misery of the hulks he was removed on the 15th of June 1810,
for the second time, to Botany Bay. His wife, who had all along
manifested the utmost attention, was prevented by a succession of
unfortunate circumstances from seeing him previous to his departure; nor
does it appear that he knew what become of her afterwards. On the 16th
of the following December, the transport arrived at Sydney Cove, where
Vaux found that the report of his exploits in London had preceded him.
He endeavoured to make interest with the governor, in the hope of being
employed as a clerk; but this being his second visit, he was listened to
with distrust, and was sent up the country to a settler, who used him
with great barbarity. To escape from this tyranny Vaux feigned himself
sick, and thus procured his removal to the hospital, from which he was
discharged in a month, and appointed overseer to a town gang. He now
resolved to lead a correct life, and establish, if possible, a character
for himself, seeing, as he says, the necessity of good conduct, from the
consequences that invariably attend on an improper one. If we believe
him, he adhered firmly to his vows of rectitude; but his notorious
character operated against him, and he fell a victim to prejudice and
the depravity of a youth, who was a veteran in iniquity. This young
villain's name was Edwards. He was servant to Mr. Bent the
judge-advocate, from whom he purloined bills and money. Vaux, suspecting
his dishonesty, warned him of his danger; but the artful thief accounted
for his being so flush in money by the presents he was in the habit of
receiving from his master's visitors.
One evening he came running into Vaux's lodgings, and requested of him
to keep some articles and parcels which he put into his hand. Vaux at
first refused, but was ultimately prevailed on to keep them for a few
minutes. Edwards had scarcely departed when he thought he did wrong, and
acquainted his landlord with the transaction. That person desired him to
go immediately and deliver the property up to the judge-advocate in a
public manner, as the only way left him to escape being implicated with
Edwards, and with this advice Vaux resolved to comply, but having
stopped first to smoke a pipe, before he had finished it, two officers
entered and apprehended him. His conduct was open, and his landlord
deposed in his favour; but Edwards accused him, in revenge for giving up
the property, of being an accomplice, and he was finally banished to the
Coal River, where he continued doing all kind of work for two years,
after which he was permitted to return to Sydney, where he was once
more placed in the town-gang.
Again he renewed his vows of rectitude, but was unable to obtain any
station less degrading than the one in which he was placed. The picture
before him was disheartening in the extreme--an exile for life--and
compelled to labour at the basest and lowest employment of mankind. A
British sailor took compassion on him and offered, in 1814, to conceal
him in his vessel, until she should sail, and he embraced the generous
proposal; but after lying close and undiscovered for four days, some one
on board gave information, and the unfortunate wretch was dragged
ashore, punished with fifty lashes, and sentenced to transportation to
the Coal River for one year.
"In a few days," says he in his Memoirs, "I was accordingly embarked
with eleven other prisoners, and a second time landed at Newcastle, from
whence I had been absent nearly twelve months. On my arrival, it
happened that the storekeeper of that settlement was in want of a clerk,
and he applying to the commandant for me, I was appointed to that
situation, in which I still continue; and having scrupulously adhered to
my former vows of rectitude, and used every exertion to render myself
serviceable to my employer, and to merit his good opinion as well as
that of the commandant. I have had the satisfaction to succeed in these
objects; and I am not without hope that, when I am permitted to quit my
present service and return to Sydney, my good conduct will be rewarded
with a more desirable situation. I have now been upwards of seven years
a prisoner, and, knowing the hopeless sentence under which I labour, I
shall, I trust, studiously avoid in future every act which may subject
me to the censure of my superiors, or entail upon me a repetition of
those sufferings I have already too severely experienced. I have thus
described (perhaps too minutely for the reader's patience) the various
vicissitudes of my past life. Whether the future will be so far
diversified as to afford matter worthy of being committed to paper,
either to amuse a vacant hour, or to serve as a beacon which may warn
others to avoid the rocks on which I have unhappily split, is only known
to the great Disposer of events."
The "Memoirs written by himself," from which we have extracted the most
interesting passages, here terminate.
We have been the more willing to give the adventures of this notorious
villain, as he gives them,--although we confess that we are of opinion
that there is some exaggeration in what he states--because, however
great may be the depravity, of which he admits he was guilty, his
punishments and his miseries convey a moral, most forcibly depicting the
danger of such a line of conduct as he adopted. His memoirs were written
by himself in the year 1816, and were published in London in about three
years afterwards. Of his subsequent career we know little, but we learn
by recent accounts received from Sydney, that this hoary old sinner, at
the age of fifty-seven, has been convicted and sentenced to an
imprisonment of two years' duration, upon a charge of indecently
assaulting a girl of tender age. Whatever may have been his course of
life in later years, however frightful may have been his career of sin
in his younger days, we hold that this new offence, of which he has been
found guilty, is the crowning crime of the whole; and we regret that the
human heart should have arrived at such a degree of profligacy as to
admit the guilt of youth, and to be unable to withstand its temptation,
in old age.
JOHN WHITMORE, _alias_ OLD DASH.
EXECUTED FOR A RAPE.
The summary punishment of a ravisher, by a conscientious Emperor of the
Turks, in days of old, if now, perchance, inflicted, might more tend to
check the inordinate, unlawful lust of men, than all the public
executions of such destroyers of the peace of females.
It is said that Mahmoud, Sultan of Damascus, one night while he was
going to bed, was addressed by a poor villager, who complained that a
young Turk of distinction had broken into his apartment, and forced him
to abandon his wife and family to his abuses. The good sultan charged
that, if the Turk returned, he should immediately give him notice of it.
Three days after the poor man came again with the same complaint.
Mahmoud took a few attendants with him, and, being arrived at the
complainant's, commanded the lights to be extinguished, and rushing in,
cut the ravisher to pieces. He then ordered a light, to see whom he had
killed, and being satisfied, he fell on his knees and returned God
thanks; after which he ate heartily of the poor man's bread, and gave
him a purse of gold. Being asked the reason of this extraordinary
behaviour, he replied, "I concluded this ravisher was one who might
fancy himself entitled to my protection, and consequently might be no
other than my son; therefore, lest the tenderness of nature should
enervate the arm of justice, I resolved to give it scope in the dark.
But, when I saw that it was only an officer of my guards, I joyfully
returned God thanks. Then I asked the injured man for food to satisfy my
hunger, having had neither sleep nor sustenance from the moment I heard
the accusation till I had thus punished the author of the wrong, and
showed myself worthy of my people's obedience."
Upon the same principle as that acted upon by the worthy Turkish sultan,
the hut of the meanest peasant is, by the law of England, as sacred as
the most gorgeous palace, and the chastity of his wife or daughter
should be held inviolate. The instances of disobedience to the laws in
this respect are but too frequent, and in no case have circumstances of
greater atrocity appeared than in that which we shall now detail.
John Whitmore was capitally indicted for a rape on the person of Mary,
the wife of Thomas Brown, on the 24th of October, 1810, on the Common
between Hayes and West Bedford. The prisoner was a labourer in the
powder-mills at Harlington Common; and the prosecutrix, who lived at
Hayes, having one of her sons by a former husband living as servant with
Mr. Potts, a farmer, at West Bedford, had gone thither about twelve
o'clock with some clean linen for him. She stopped at a public-house in
the neighbourhood whilst he changed his linen, and there saw the
prisoner, who, after asking her several questions, told her she had come
much the longest way about, on her way from Hayes, and offered to show
her a much shorter cut over the heath on her return. The prosecutrix
thanked him, and accepted his offer. He accompanied her as if for that
purpose, decoyed her two miles out of her way to an unfrequented part of
the heath, amongst some bushes, under pretence of looking after a stray
horse, and there brutally violated her person.
The poor woman, who was forty-seven years of age, as soon as she could,
ran away from him, over the heath, and again lost her way; by accident
she met a gentleman, who put her in the right road, and she reached her
home about eight o'clock at night. She was afraid to tell her husband
what had occurred till the following Sunday.
The husband next day set out with the constable in search of the
prisoner, from the description given by his wife, and on Tuesday traced
him to a public-house at Twickenham, where he was known by the familiar
appellation of "Old Dasher;" and there, after a stout resistance, he was
taken into custody. The facts were, on his trial, which took place at
the Old Bailey, in October 1810, clearly established by the poor woman,
and the Common Serjeant having summed up the evidence, the prisoner was
convicted and received sentence of death, in pursuance of which he was
subsequently executed.
AGNES ADAMS.
IMPRISONED FOR UTTERING A FORGED NOTE.
For three or four years previous to this trial, numberless impositions
had been practised upon the unwary in the metropolis, by the passing of
paper manufactured in imitation of the notes of the Bank of England,
which were traced to have originated in the Fleet Prison, a receptacle
for debtors only.
The notes, it seems, were printed on paper similar to those of the Bank
of England; but upon the slightest inspection they were easily detected.
The great success of sharpers passing them chiefly arose from the hurry
of business, and from the novelty of the fraud. The shopkeeper would see
the word one, two, three, &c., an exact imitation of the genuine notes,
but did not examine farther, or he would have found, instead of pounds,
the counterfeit expressed pence; and instead of "Governor and Company of
the Bank of England," the words "Governor and Company of the Bank of
Fleet," substituted. The offence of publishing these notes, however, was
not deemed a forgery.
The circulation of Fleet paper was generally intrusted to profligate
women, who cohabited with the men who made them. This mode was less
suspicious, and in a single year had been carried on to a considerable
amount.
Of this description, and we could adduce many such, was Agnes Adams who,
in passing one of such notes, filled up with the words "two pence," as a
two-pound Bank of England note, to Mr. Spratz, a publican of St. John
Street, Clerkenwell, was by him detected, seized, prosecuted and
convicted at the Middlesex Sessions, 1811. The punishment could only be
extended to six months' hard labour in the House of Correction.
The fraternity of thieves about London have fabricated cant names for
the different articles which they steal. The Fleet notes were called
"Flash Screens."
RICHARD ARMITAGE AND CHARLES THOMAS.
EXECUTED FOR FORGERY.
The crime for which these men justly suffered was a forgery of the very
worst description, having for its effect a scandalous breach of public
trust--a robbery upon the very corporation which they were bound to
protect from the nefarious attempts of others.
It appears that they were connected with a person named Roberts, who was
apprehended on a charge of swindling, on which he was remanded from the
police-office to Coldbath-Fields' Prison, in the year 1810. In a few
days he succeeded in making his escape from the jail, in company with a
man named Harper, by the most extraordinary means. From the evidence
adduced before the magistrates, before whom an inquiry into the escape
took place, it appeared that the prisoners were locked up in the usual
way at night, but that in the morning they were found to have escaped.
On the jail being examined, six gates which had been locked were found
standing open, and it was discovered that the prisoners had completed
their design by scaling the outer wall, which they had ascended by means
of the scaffolding round a lodge which was in the course of being built,
and from which they had reached the ground by means of a rope which was
found still hanging on the outside. The most anxious inquiries were made
after Roberts, but it was not until the month of April 1811 that he was
discovered at a tavern at Vauxhall, where he had passed himself off as a
country attorney, and was taken into custody. He then, to save his own
life, impeached the partners in his villany, and Armitage and Thomas,
who were clerks in the Bank of England, were in consequence secured.
Armitage was first taken, and he was examined at Marlborough-street, and
committed for trial on charges of forging dividend warrants to the
amount of £2400; and Thomas was almost immediately afterwards
apprehended, and committed on the same charges.
At the ensuing Sessions they were put on their trial, when the case
proved against them was, that they were bank clerks in the Imperial
Annuity Office, and that they had forged a warrant to obtain the
dividends due upon a sum of money belonging to a person who had been
dead three years, and whose executors had not applied for the property.
In pursuance of the warrants forged in this case the amount paid was
£360, and the prisoner Thomas signed the book as an attesting witness.
The case was proved by Roberts and his wife, whose testimony, however,
was corroborated by that of other witnesses, and the prisoners were
found guilty and were sentenced to death.
The unhappy men were executed on the 24th of June, 1811, at the Old
Bailey, pursuant to their sentence. Armitage, from severe illness, was
supported to the scaffold by a friend; he was also accompanied by a
clergyman, to whose admonitions he appeared to pay great attention. His
companion was a catholic, and was attended by a priest of that
persuasion. He exhibited great fortitude.