There are some persons so amazingly destitute of reason, so exceedingly
stupid, and of so sleepy a disposition of mind, that neither advice, nor
danger, nor punishment are capable of awaking them; they pass through
life in a continual lethargy of wickedness, nor can they be obliged to
open their eyes even when at the point of death.
How shocking, how horrid soever such a character may be, certain it is
that the criminal Neeves, of whom we are now speaking, deserved no
better. His parents, though mean, had not omitted the care of his
education so far but that he had learned to read and write, which they
thought qualification sufficient for the business in which they intended
to breed him, viz., a cane chair-maker, to which employment they put him
apprentice. He did not serve out his time with his master, for having
got into an acquaintance with some lewd, debauched persons, he, whose
inclination from his youth turned that way, went totally into all their
measures, and quitting all thoughts of an honest livelihood, thought of
nothing but picking and stealing.
He associated himself with a woman of the same calling, who probably
furthered him in all his attempts, in consideration of which he married
her, and they were both together in Newgate for their several offences.
In the former part of this volume[83] we have mentioned his becoming a
witness against several street-robbers, who were executed upon his
evidence; of whom George Gale, _alias_ Kiddy George, Thomas Crowder,
James Toon, and John Hornby, denied the commission of those particular
facts which he swore upon them, and Richard Nichols (who was a grave
sober man) went to death and took it upon his salvation, that he was
never concerned either in that act for which he died, or in any other of
the same kind during the course of his life.
As the town naturally abhors perjuries which affect men's lives, and are
not very well affected towards evidences even when they do not exceed
the truth, so the misfortune of Neeves being a second time apprehended,
instead of creating pity, gave the public a general satisfaction. At the
sessions following his confinement he was indicted for privately
stealing out of the shop of Charles Lawrence a corduroy coat value
thirteen shillings. In respect of this robbery, the prosecutor deposed
that Thomas Neeves, about seven in the evening, came into his shop, he
being a salesman, and enquired for a dimity waistcoat; one accordingly
was shown him, but they not at all agreeing in the price, Neeves on a
sudden turned towards the door, and having with some earnestness cursed
the prosecutor, snatched up a coat and ran away. Upon which Mr. Lawrence
followed him, crying out, _Stop Thief!_ which Neeves himself also bawled
out as loud as he could until he was taken. Upon this evidence the jury
found him guilty.
Under sentence of death his behaviour was much of a piece with what it
was before. As to his confession, he would make none, saying he would
give no occasion for books or ballads to be made about him. Even in
chapel he behaved himself so rudely that he occasioned great
disturbance, and put the keepers under a necessity of treating him with
more severity than was usual to persons under his miserable condition.
When alone in his cell he expressed great diffidence of the mercy of
God, seemed to be in a slate of despair, and though he was often pressed
to declare whether depositions he had given against the afore-mentioned
street robbers were true or not, he either waived making an answer, or
used so much evasion or equivocation that it still remained doubtful
whether he swore truth or no.
As his end drew yet nearer, he appeared more and more confused and
uneasy, but not a bit more penitent or ready to confess, notwithstanding
that several persons, and some of them of distinction had applied to him
in the cells and earnestly exhorted him to that purpose. He also drank
excessively, though so near his end, and his conscience so loaded with
such a weight of horrible offences.
Yet it is very probable that he would have been much more tractable in
his temper and ingenuous in his confessions, if he had not been
continually visited and kept warm by a certain bad woman he at that time
owned for his wife. This wretched creature was employed by some persons
who thought themselves in danger if Neeves should once become truly
penitent, to keep him full of idle thoughts and delusive promises to the
very hour of his death, in which (from the temper of the fellow), they
flattered themselves his cowardice would make them safe. In which wicked
design both they and she succeeded but too well, for he continued
careless, obstinate and impenitent to the last moment of his life, and
at the place of execution staggered and was scarce able to stand,
bawling out to a man in a coach who was to carry away his body, until
the Ordinary reprimanded him and told him he believed he had drunk too
much that morning; to which Neeves answered, _No indeed, Sir, I only
took a dram._ He then besought him that a Psalm might be sung, which
request of his being complied with, he yet could not forbear smiling
while they were singing.
[Illustration: AN EXECUTION IN SMITHFIELD MARKET
(_From the Newgate Calendar_)]
The father and wife of Mr. Nichols, the barber so often mentioned, got
into the cart and earnestly enquired whether the deposition he had given
against him was the truth or not. Neeves, thereupon, with tears in his
eyes owned that it was not, and thence fell into a greater agony than he
had ever been perceived in before, beseeching God to have mercy on him
for shedding innocent blood, into which he had been induced by the
persuasion of others, who represented it to him as a means for getting
money both for them and him, owning that he never saw Nichols in his
life before they were at the justices together. After this he cried two
or three times unto God to forgive him, and so was turned off with the
rest on the 27th of February, 1729, being then about twenty-eight years
of age.