This poor unhappy man, Thomas Timms, was the son of mean parents in the
country and as indifferently educated as he was born, so that his future
ill-deeds were capable of some little extenuation. With much to-do his
friends and parents raised money enough to put him out apprentice to a
chair-carver, with whom he lived easily and honestly during the space of
his apprenticeship, coming out of it with the character of an honest
religious young lad, which he maintained after he was set up and
married. He had probably continued to maintain it to the end of his life
if he had not fallen into unhappy circumstances, by being out of work.
This obliged him to come up to Town, where for a while he lived pretty
well upon his business; but at last it so far fell off that he was
obliged to list himself a soldier in the first regiment of Guards.
Notwithstanding this he worked still at his trade, as much as it was
possible for him to do, and to perform his duty; but misfortunes still
crowding upon him, he grew at first melancholy, and at last took to
drinking in the company of bad women, who soon drew him into thinking of
taking dishonest methods to obtain money for the support of their
debaucheries.
Amongst other of his acquaintance there was a woman who had formerly
lived with a very eminent lawyer in the City. It was said she had a
greater familiarity with her master than she ought to have had, from
whence she took the liberty to cheat him most egregiously, especially by
counterfeiting receipts from most of the tradesmen with whom her master
had any dealing, by which means she retained in her own hands the money
which she should have paid him. Some months after, however, the roguery
was discovered, and her master being newly married, he took this
opportunity to discharge her suddenly. However, he promised her, if she
went into any lodgings, and gave him notice, he would take care she
should not want, until she could get herself into some way of business
or other.
This gentleman had three clerks, all of good families and good fortunes.
The wench, after she was out of the house, first went into a
neighbourhood where the eldest of these clerks and his relations were
very well known. Here she took upon her to be his wife, and said that
they were privately married for fear of disobliging his relations. By
the help of this she got so far into credit that she took up near a
hundred and twenty pounds worth of things before the least apprehension
was had of her being a cheat; and then removing her lodgings, she fixed
herself in a first floor within a few doors of the guardian of her
master's second clerk. She gave it out there as she had done before,
that she was secretly married to this young gentleman; and on the credit
thereof she took up near a hundred pounds in silks and shifts. But just
as she was on the point of moving off and playing the same game with the
third, she was detected and committed to Bridewell. From thence she
found means of escape by wheedling one of the keeper's servants, and
afterwards took lodgings in the house where this Timms worked.
Whether she had any hand in persuading him to go out robbing or no, I
cannot take upon me to say, but soon after, he, with his companions,
Perry and Brown, on the 3rd of May, went out with a design to rob upon
Hounslow Heath. All that night they lay in the fields; the next morning
they met a poor old man, who telling them he had no money, they let him
go without misusing him. Not long after they stopped Samuel Sells
coming from Windsor, in his chair. He, it seems, kept a public-house
there. Him they commanded to deliver, whereupon he gave them three
half-crowns, but they toasting upon it that it was too little, he
thereupon gave them ten shillings more, which both he and his companions
averred was all that they took from him, though Sells at their trial,
swore to a much larger sum, and that one of them held a truncheon over
him, and threatened him with abundance of oaths in case he made any
resistance. All of them denied this part of the charge, even to death,
and said that though they had truncheons, yet they made no use of them,
but kept them either in their breasts or under their coats.
Thomas Perry, the second of these malefactors, was born of parents in
such wretched circumstances that when he was grown a good big lad, and
death suddenly snatched them away, he found himself destitute of money,
of business and even of clothes to cover him. He thereupon traveled up
to London, and put himself apprentice to a glass-grinder, with whom he
served his time very honestly and faithfully. Then he married and lived
by working very hard in a reputable manner for about a twelve month,
after which he listed in the first regiment of Foot Guards, in which he
served till the Peace of Utrecht and Flanders, after the conclusion of
which he returned to London in the same regiment, in which he continued
to serve till this misfortune overtook him. For the last year of his
life, he had, it seems, led a more loose and extravagant course than in
all his days before, contracting an acquaintance with several women of
the town, creatures who are the utter ruin of all such unhappy men,
especially of all unlettered unexperienced persons as fall into their
snares.
Some little time before he joined with Timms and his other companion in
this robbery, he had the misfortune of having his leg bit by a dog at
Windsor, where he was quartered. Having no friends, and but a small
allowance to subsist on, he fell under great miseries there, and on his
return to Town, those who had formerly employed him in glass-grinding,
taking distaste at his rude and wicked behaviour, refused to have
anything more to do with him. He readily gave way to the solicitations
of Timms, who, as he declared, first proposed their going upon the
highway, a crime which hitherto had not entered into Perry's head.
However, he yielded too readily thereto, and with the persons who had
shared in his crimes, came to share an ignominious and untimely death.
While under sentence, he applied himself with great seriousness and
attention both to the public devotions of the chapel and to what was
privately read to them in the place of their confinement, so that
though he was very illiterate, he was far from being obstinate, and
though he wanted the advantages of education, he was not deficient in
grace, so we may therefore hope he might obtain mercy.
Edward Brown, the last of these unfortunate criminals, drew his first
breath in the city of Oxford, and by the care of his parents, attained
to a tolerable degree of knowledge in the Christian faith, as also in
writing, reading and whatsoever was necessary in that station of life
which his parents designed for him. Being arrived at an age proper to be
put out an apprentice, they placed him with a glass-grinder, to whom he
served an apprenticeship faithfully, and to his good liking when out of
time. He worked hard as a journeyman, married a wife, and lived in
reputation and credit for some small space; but falling unluckily into
loose company, he gave himself up entirely to drinking, and running
after bad women, which soon ruined him in the country and obliged him to
come up to London for the sake of subsistance. How long he had been
there, or of what standing his acquaintance was with the other two
criminals, I cannot take upon me to say, only he in general was a fellow
of greater openness in his behaviour than any of the criminals before
mentioned. He said that they had all taken their cups pretty freely
together, and had spent every farthing that they had amongst them; it
was then resolved to go upon the highway for a supply, but he could not
say who was the proposer of the scheme; that he himself had a sword and
cane, and the rest truncheons, when they attacked Mr. Sells. He [Sells]
gave them at two several times, seventeen shillings, and when they
pressed for still more, said he had but eighteen pence about him, and
begged they would let him have that to come to town with, which he said
they agreed to, and did not offer him any ill-usage whatsoever.
At the same time these unhappy men were under sentence of death,
Alexander Jones, John Platt, Mary Reynolds, Silvia Sherlock and Anne
Senior were also condemned for several offences, and as is but too
common with persons in their condition, all of them entertained strong
notions of reprieves or pardons, so that when the death warrant came
down, and these three found themselves ordered for execution, they were
not a little surprised. But as they had much natural courage they made
even that surprise turn to their advantage, and applied themselves with
greater earnestness than ever to the duties necessary to be practised by
people in their sad state.
When the day of their execution came, they were carried in one cart to
Tyburn, and as they had been companions in that single action which had
brought all of them to death, so there was nobody to share in that
unhappy fate with them, nor were they disturbed with the sorrows of
other criminals, which often distract one another's devotions at Tyburn.
On the contrary, their behaviour was grave and decent, their public
devotions were closed with a Psalm, and with many demonstrations of
repentance they resigned their lives, on the 11th of August, 1727; Timms
being about twenty-eight years of age, Perry near forty, and Brown
somewhat less than twenty-four years old, at the time of their
execution.