afternoon, he went to work, taking off first his handcuffs;
next with main strength he twisted a small iron link of the
chain between his legs asunder; and the broken pieces proved
extremely useful to him in his design; the fetlocks he drew
up to the calves of his legs, taking off before that his
stockings, and with his garters made them firm to his body,
to prevent their shackling: he then proceeded to make a hole
in the chimney of the Castle about three feet wide, and six
feet high from the floor, and with the help of the broken
links aforesaid, wrenched an iron bar out of the chimney,
of about two foot and half in length, and an inch square; a
most notable implement. He immediately entered the Red room,
which is directly over the Castle, and went to work upon the
nut of the lock, and with little difficulty got it off, and
made the door fly before him; in this room he found a large
nail, which proved of great use in his farther progress.
The door of the entry between the Red room and the Chapel
proved an hard task, it being a laborious piece of work; for
here he was forced to break away the wall, and dislodge the
bolt which was fastened on the other side: this occasioned
much noise, and he was very fearful of being heard by the
master-side debtors. Being got to the Chapel, he climbed over
the iron spikes, with ease broke one of them off, and opened
the door on the inside: the door going out of the Chapel to
the leads, he stripped the nut from off the lock, and then
got into the entry between the Chapel and the leads, and
came to another strong door, which being fastened by a very
strong lock, he had like to have stopped, and it being full
dark, his spirits began to fail him, as greatly doubting of
success; but cheering up, he wrought on with great diligence,
and in less than half an hour, with the main help of the nail
from the Red room, and the spike from the Chapel, wrenched
the Box off, and so was master of the door. A little farther
in his passage another stout door stood in his way; and this
was a difficulty with a witness; being guarded with more
bolts, bars, and locks, than any he had hitherto met with:
the chimes at St. Sepulchre's were then going the eighth
hour: he went first upon the box and the nut, but found it
labour in vain; he then proceeded to attack the fillet of
the door; this succeeded beyond expectation, for the box of
the lock coming off with it from the main post, he found his
work was near finished. He was got to a door opening in the
lower leads, which being only bolted on the inside, he opened
it with ease, and then clambered from the top of it to the
higher leads, and went over the wall. He saw the streets
were lighted, the shops being still open, and therefore
began to consider what was necessary to be further done. He
found he must go back for the blanket which had been his
covering a-nights in the Castle, which he accordingly did,
and endeavoured to fasten his stockings and that together, to
lessen his descent, but wanted necessaries, and was therefore
forced to make use of the blanket alone: he fixed the same
with the Chapel spike into the wall of Newgate, and dropped
from it on the Turner's leads, a house adjoining the prison;
it was then about nine of the clock, and the shops not yet
shut in. It fortunately happened, that the garret door on
the leads was open. He stole softly down about two pair of
stairs, and then heard company talking in a room, the door
being open. His irons gave a small clink, which made a woman
cry, 'Lord! what noise is that?' A man replied, 'Perhaps
the dog or cat;' and so it went off. He returned up to the
garret, and laid himself down, being terribly fatigued; and
continued there for about two hours, and then crept down
once more to the room where the company were, and heard a
gentleman take his leave, who being lighted down stairs,
the maid, when she returned, shut the chamber door: he then
resolved at all hazards to follow, and slip down stairs; he
was instantly in the entry, and out at the street-door, and
once more contrary to his own expectation, and that of all
mankind, a free man.
"He passed directly by St. Sepulchre's watch-house, bidding
them good-morrow, it being after twelve, and down Snow-hill,
up Holborn, leaving St. Andrew's watch on his left, and then
again passed the watch-house at Holborn-bars, and made down
Gray's-Inn-lane into the fields, and at two in the morning
came to Tottenham-court, where getting into an old house in
the fields, he laid himself down to rest, and slept well for
three hours. His legs were swelled and bruised intolerably,
which gave him great uneasiness; and having his fetters
still on, he dreaded the approach of the day. He began to
examine his pockets, and found himself master of between
forty and fifty shillings. It raining all Friday, he kept
snug in his retreat till the evening, when after dark he
ventured into Tottenham, and got to a little blind chandler's
shop, and there furnished himself with cheese, bread, small
beer, and other necessaries, hiding his irons with a great
coat. He asked the woman for an hammer, but there was none
to be had; so he went very quietly back to his dormitory,
and rested pretty well that night, and continued there all
Saturday. At night he went again to the chandler's shop, and
got provisions, and slept till about six the next day, which
being Sunday, he began to batter the basils of the fetters in
order to beat them into a large oval, and then to slip his
heels through. In the afternoon the master of the shed, or
house, came in, and seeing his irons, asked him, 'For God's
sake, who are you?' He told him, 'an unfortunate young man,
who had been sent to Bridewell about a bastard-child, and
not being able to give security to the Parish, had made his
escape.' The man replied, 'If that was the case it was a
small fault indeed, for he had been guilty of the same things
himself formerly,' and withal said, 'However, he did not like
his looks, and cared not how soon he was gone.'
"After he was gone, observing a poor-looking man like a
Joiner, he made up to him, and repeated the same story,
assuring him that twenty shillings should be at his service,
if he could furnish him with a Smith's hammer, and a
puncheon. The man proved a shoe-maker by trade, but willing
to obtain the reward, immediately borrowed the tools of
a blacksmith his neighbour, and likewise gave him great
assistance, so that before five that evening he had entirely
got rid of his fetters, which he gave to the fellow, besides
his twenty shillings.
"That night he went to a cellar at Charing-cross, and
refreshed very comfortably, where near a dozen people were
all discoursing about Sheppard, and nothing else was talked
on whilst he staid amongst them. He had tied an handkerchief
about his head, tore his woollen cap, coat, and stockings
in many places, and looked exactly like what he designed to
represent, a beggar-fellow; and now concluding that Blueskin
would have certainly been decreed for death, he did fully
resolve and purpose to have gone and cut down the gallows the
night before his execution.
"On Tuesday he hired a garret for his lodging at a poor
house in Newport-market, and sent for a sober young woman,
who for a long time past had been the real mistress of his
affections, who came to him, and rendered all the assistance
she was capable of affording. He made her the messenger to
his mother, who lodged in Clare-street. She likewise visited
him in a day or two after, begging on her bended knees of
him to make the best of his way out of the kingdom, which
he faithfully promised; but could not find in his heart to
perform.
"He was oftentimes in Spital-fields, Drury-lane,
Lewkenor's-lane, Parker's-lane, St. Thomas's-street, &c.
those having been the chief scenes of his rambles and
pleasures.
"At last he came to a resolution of breaking the house of the
two Mr. Rawlins's, brothers and pawnbrokers in Drury-lane,
which he accordingly put in execution, and succeeded; they
both hearing him rifling their goods as they lay in bed
together in the next room. And though there were none others
to assist him, he pretended there was, by loudly giving out
directions for shooting the first person through the head
that presumed to stir, which effectually quieted them, while
he carried off his booty, with part whereof, on the fatal
Saturday following, being the 31st of October, he made an
extraordinary appearance; and from a carpenter and butcher
was now transformed into a gentleman; he went into the
City, and was very merry at a public-house not far from the
place of his old confinement. At four that same afternoon,
he passed under Newgate in a Hackney-coach, the windows
drawn up, and in the evening he sent for his mother to the
Sheers alehouse, in Maypole-alley, near Clare-market, and
with her drank three quarterns of brandy; and after leaving
her drank in one place or other about that neighbourhood
all the evening, till the evil hour of twelve, having been
seen and known by many of his acquaintance; all of them
cautioning him, and wondering at his presumption to appear
in that manner. At length his senses were quite overcome
with the quantities and variety of liquors he had all the
day been drinking, which paved the way for his fate; and
when apprehended, he was altogether incapable of resisting,
scarce knowing what they were doing with him, and had but two
second-hand pistols scarce worth carrying about him.
"From his last re-apprehension to his death some persons
were appointed to be with him constantly day and night; vast
numbers of people came to see him, to the great profit both
of himself and those about him; several persons of quality
came, all of whom he begged to intercede with his Majesty
for mercy, but his repeated _returning to his vomit_ left no
room for it; so that, being brought down to the King's-bench
bar, Westminster, by an _habeas corpus_, and it appearing
by evidence that he was the same person, who, being under a
former sentence of death, had twice made his escape, a rule
of court was made for his execution, which was on Monday
last. The morning he suffered he told a gentleman, that 'he
had then a satisfaction at heart, as if he was going to enjoy
an estate of 200_l._ a year.'"
A tumult of a different description in some particulars, but
originating from an execution, happened in May 1725, when the infamous
Jonathan Wild expiated his numerous offences at Tyburn. The mob in
the former case were willing to have rescued Sheppard, _because he
was a man utterly unfit to be at large_; but they would have torn
Wild to pieces, because he was the means of ridding the publick of
many villains, though one of the blackest die himself. Jonathan Wild
was born at Wolverhampton in 1684, and commenced his active life as
a buckle-maker, whence he migrated to London, where he became in a
short period thief-taker general. In this office his body received a
greater variety of wounds than the hardiest soldier ever exhibited;
his scull actually suffered two fractures; and his throat was scarred
by the erring knife of a wretch hanged by his means, the companion of
Sheppard. That the reader may fully comprehend this man's crimes, I
shall insert an abstract of his indictment.
"That he hath for many years past been a confederate with great numbers
of highwaymen, pick-pockets, house-breakers, &c.
"That he hath formed a kind of corporation of thieves, of which he
is the director; and that his pretended services in detecting and
prosecuting offenders consisted only in bringing those to the gallows
who concealed their booty, or refused to share it with him.
"That he hath divided the town and country into districts, and
appointed distinct gangs for each, who regularly accounted with him
for their robberies. He had also a particular set to steal at churches
in time of Divine service; and also other moving detachments to attend
at Court on birth-days, balls, &c. and upon both Houses of Parliament,
Circuits, and Country Fairs.
"That the persons employed by him were for the most part felons
convict, who have returned from transportation before their due time
was expired; of whom he made choice for his agents, because they could
not be legal evidence against him, and because he had it in his power
to take from them what part of the stolen goods he pleased, and
otherwise abuse or even hang them at his will and pleasure.
"That he hath 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 diminishing and counterfeiting broad pieces and guineas.
"That he hath not only been a receiver of stolen goods, as well as of
writings of all kinds, for near fifteen years last past, but frequently
been a confederate, and robbed along with the above-mentioned convicted
felons.
"That, in order to carry on these vile practices, and gain some credit
with the ignorant multitude, he usually carried about him a short
silver staff as a badge of authority from the government, which he used
to produce when he himself was concerned in robbing.
"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 has a
superannuated thief for his factor.
"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
as he thought might be of service to him.
"That he seldom helped the owners to lost notes and papers, unless he
found them able to specify and describe them exactly, and then often
insisted on more than half the value.
"That he frequently 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, at other times for
the sake of the great reward given by the government."
This consummate criminal, after dealing so widely and to an enormous
amount, fell a sacrifice to a paltry theft of a little lace stolen
from a window on Holborn-hill, when Wild's usual foresight so far
deserted him as to enable the person he employed while he waited on
the Bridge to turn evidence against him. His execution attracted
the greatest concourse of spectators ever known to have assembled
on a similar occasion; and an incredible number of thieves of every
description attended, to wreak their vengeance on their general enemy.
They shouted incessantly with frantic yells of joy, and threw stones at
the miserable man as he rode, till his head streamed with blood; but,
when he fell from the cart, the air was literally rent by reiterated
cries of triumph. Wild had endeavoured to commit suicide; but the
dose of laudanum intended for the purpose, proving too great, his
stomach rejected it in time to save his life. It, however, rendered him
nearly insensible, and consequently prevented the anguish he must have
experienced in his last moments from the conduct of his enemies and the
brutality of the populace.
Several prosecutions were instituted in 1725, in order to prevent a
shamefully indecent practice of the populace, which was the storming of
hearses and tearing from them the various heraldic ornaments used at
funerals.
A dissolute young man named Gibson, a Mercer, and one of the Society
of friends, occasioned very serious riots in the summer of 1727 by
persisting to preach in defiance of the elders of Gracechurch street
meeting, and indeed of the whole posse of the Police, who were more
than once compelled to convey him by force to St. George's fields,
where he was permitted to hold forth unmolested. Gibson had a mob
constantly surrounding him, which committed many extravagances.
He afterwards rented the London Assurance Coffee-house in Birchin-lane,
before which he erected a sign representing a person extended on his
back with the head bloody and a hat and wig near him. Several persons
supposed to have committed the assault were shewn hiding under bushes.
In another part of the design, the wounded person waded through a
marsh supported by crutches, and a friend assisted him towards a
house on a hill. The other side represented him lying on his face,
and again washing blood and tears from his features; a rising moon in
each painting lighted the scene, under which was inscribed "Gibson
from Gracechurch-street."--The aim of Gibson in this allegory was to
introduce himself to the publick in a pitiable situation, to shew the
Quakers in a disgraceful light as assassins, and to compliment the
friend by whom he was placed in his new house.
The populace had not indulged in their favourite excesses for several
years; but, an opportunity occurring in September 1729, they seized it
with avidity. The King had been to Hanover, and, returning in safety,
a party from Whitechapel chose to express their loyalty by breaking
many hundreds of windows on each side of the way between that place
and Charing-cross, under a pretence that the inhabitants should have
illuminated them. The damage done by these desperadoes is said to have
amounted to more than 1000_l._; and it is remarkable that the King
rode through the same street within an hour after the havock had been
committed; no doubt, infinitely vexed that he was the innocent cause of
so much injury to his peaceable subjects.
The public mind was greatly agitated in 1733 by the introduction of
an Excise bill into the House of Commons, which experienced great
opposition, and was deferred till June in that year. The populace,
highly elated, made effigies of the Minister, burnt them in various
places, and demonstrated their joy by breaking numbers of windows.
This excess was repeated on the anniversary of the above event with
increased violence, when, in addition to breaking the Lord Mayor's
windows, they broke his officers' heads; but several of the ringleaders
were apprehended, and sent to different prisons.
On the 30th of March, 1734, a disgraceful tumult occurred in
Suffolk-street, Charing-cross, occasioned by several young men whose
situation in life ought to have produced far different conduct. They
met at a house in the above street under the denomination of the
Calves-head club, prepared a fire before the door, and after several
indecent orgies appeared at the first-floor windows with wine and a
calf's head dressed in a napkin cap, which they threw into the flames
with loud huzzas. As the populace assembled round the fire were
entertained with plenty of beer, they shouted at many of the toasts
drank by the _Club_; but, some being proposed that interfered with
the Majesty of the People, they were considered as the signal for
attack, which immediately commenced with so much impetuosity as to
render it necessary for the founders of the feast to fly for their
lives. The mob broke all the windows of the house, forcibly entered it,
and demolished every article in their way, to the amount of several
hundred pounds. The royal guards put an end to the tumult. I have a
print, published immediately after the transaction, which faithfully
represents the wickedness and folly of it.
"The Hyp Doctor" observed on this occasion: "It is an honour to the
Dissenters, that we do not hear of one of their body who belonged
to this ingenious and refined cabal. It must not be overlooked,
that if the report be right, the Calves-heads were bought in St.
James's-market; the _double entendre_ was intended to have _wit
prepense_; but methinks the emblem was wrong-_headed_; for how can a
_Calf_, which is a _tame gentle creature_, and _incapable_ of _sin_,
represent a _supposed_ Tyrant, or a bad Monarch? Some of the parties
concerned were, as the chronicles of Suffolk-street record it, sons of
nobles of _England_, _Scotland_, and _Ireland_, besides _Commoners_;
but the transaction was _carried on_, like Io in the _farce_, by a
_Bull_ rather than a _Calf_ (by which it might appear to be more
_Irish_ than _English_), if you examine the criticism of the _Shew_.
It was a sequel to Punch at the masquerade, putting his Opera bills
into the hands of some too great for a familiar mention; but neither
the Haymarket Punch, nor the Suffolk-street Puppet-shew _took_: one
was acted but once, the other was not acted thoroughly the first time:
the _people_ were the _criticks_, the connoisseurs, and corrected the
play. We are now assured it had no _plot_; the _head_ had no _brains_,
like Æsop's masks: this may be true, but no credit to a tragi-comedy:
it only proved they were no _Poets_, and but _indifferent actors_.
Was there none who bore a Calf's-head _couped_, as the Heralds speak,
in his coat of Arms? The device of the escutcheon might be more
_significant_ than that of the _Club_. Such a proceeding might have
been proper in a _slaughter-house_; but, perhaps, they were replenished
with the wisdom of the Egyptians, who worshiped Osiris in _the form of
a Calf_: was it an _Essex_ or a _Middlesex_ Calf?--_Baa_ be the motto
of this speculation. The _Gens Vitellia_, the _Vitellian_ family at
Rome, were denominated from the like. This adds light from the Roman
history."
The next disturbance of the public peace proceeded from the dregs
of the people, who were exasperated beyond measure at the laudable
attempts of their superiors to suppress the excessive use of _Gin_;
and their resentment became so very turbulent in September 1736, that
they even presumed to exclaim in the streets, "No _Gin_ no _King_:"
in consequence, double guards were posted at Kensington, St. James's,
Somerset-house, and the Rolls. Besides these precautions, 500 of
the Grenadier-guards, and the Westminster troop of Horse-militia,
were distributed as patroles, and in Hyde and St. James's Parks,
Covent-garden, &c.
Many satirical and pleasant attacks upon that pernicious liquor
appeared in the diurnal publications; two of which are worth preserving:
"To the dear and regretted memory of the best and most potent of cheap
liquors, _Geneva_; the solace of the hen-pecked husband, the kind
companion of the neglected wife, the infuser of courage in the _tame_
and _standing_ army, the source of the thief's resolution, the support
of pawnbrokers, tally-men, receivers of stolen goods, and a long _et
cetera_ of other honest fraternities, alike useful and glorious to
the Commonwealth. A _Victor_, fuller of fire than Bajazet, and who
destroyed more men than Tamerlane in his numerous conquests. The bane
of chastity, the foe of honesty, the friend of infidelity, the _very
spirit of sedition_, through the inhuman malice of ---- and ----, by
the edge of an Act of Parliament, cut off in her prime September 19,
1736, _anno regni Georgii secundi decimo_. Her constant votary Nicholas
_No-shoes_, in testimony of a friendship subsisting after death, erects
this monument.
"Attend, my Sons, and you, my friends, draw near,
And on my last remain bestow a tear;
Your dear, dear _Punch_, must yield his nect'rous breath,
And ere to-morrow noon submit to death.
No hopes of pardon, no reprieve is nigh,
My death is sign'd: and must I, must I die?
It is resolv'd.--Then rouse your noble souls,
And crown _this_ night with cheerful flowing bowls;
Let none but you, my friends, support my pall,
And bilk those fops who triumph in my fall[51:A]."
Numberless evasions of the Act were practised; and even Apothecaries
were tempted to retail Gin under the specious name of a medicine or
cordial.
The month of July 1736 afforded a singular _popular explosion_,
contrived in the following strange manner. A brown paper parcel,
which had been placed unobserved near the side-bar of the Court of
King's-bench, Westminster-hall, blew up during the solemn proceedings
of the Courts of Justice assembled, and scattered a number of printed
bills, giving notice, that on the last day of Term five Acts of
Parliament would be publicly burnt in the hall, between the hours of
twelve and one, at the Royal Exchange, and at St. Margaret's hill,
which were the Gin Act, the Smuggling Act, the Mortmain Act, the
Westminster Bridge Act, and the Act for borrowing 600,000_l._ on the
Sinking fund.
One of the bills was immediately carried to the Grand Jury then
sitting, who found it an infamous libel, and recommended the offering
of a reward to discover the author.
The labourers and weavers of Spitalfields were infected with a
contagious _mania_ at the same period, which led them to suppose that
numbers of Irishmen had recently arrived in London, for the purpose of
working at under-prices and starving them. Influenced by a species
of despair they assembled in crowds, and proceeded to Brick-lane,
Whitechapel, where they immediately attacked a house supposed to
contain Irishmen, and completely destroyed it, bearing away the
furniture in triumph; but they lost one man, and had several wounded,
by a musket discharged amongst them from the house. The neighbouring
Magistrates, alarmed at this outrage, immediately attended at the scene
of action, and read the Riot Act, but without effect, although the
Tower Hamlet association and a party of the Tower guard were summoned
to their assistance; nor did they desist till a company of Regulars
dispersed them by force.
Several severe combats occurred between the English and Irish in other
parts of the town, in which much mischief was done to each party.
The cause appears to have originated chiefly through the parsimony
of the person who contracted to erect the new church of St. Leonard
Shoreditch, in employing no other than Irish labourers at five or six
shillings a week, when the British demanded twelve shillings. These two
affairs occurring nearly together led government to suspect the authors
of the paper-plot, and the rioters, or at least their leaders, to have
been connected in seditious if not treasonable designs.
An estimate was made in July 1738 of the numbers convicted under the
Act for preventing the excessive use of spirituous liquors. Claims were
entered at the Excise-office by 4000 persons for the 5_l._ allowed
to the informer from the penalty of 100_l._, 4896 such convictions
having taken place. 3000 persons paid 10_l._ each to avoid being sent
to Bridewell; and it was computed that 12,000 informations had been
laid within the bills of mortality only. It is therefore not to be
wondered at that the newspapers frequently mentioned the quiet and
decency observed in the streets subsequent to these convictions; but
in effecting them several informers were killed, and others dreadfully
hurt, by the mob.
It sometimes happens that articles of information are so vaguely
mentioned in the public papers, that, though they might be understood
by their contemporaries, we are at a loss to comprehend them. An
instance of this kind occurred in August 1757, when a number of riotous
persons assembled before the Craven-arms, Southampton-street, with
an intention to level it with the earth, and destroy the goods; but
for what reason the papers are silent. The officers of the Police
attended, but were beat off with stones; and it was two o'clock in the
morning before two serjeants and twenty-four soldiers of the guards
could disperse them; at which hour fourteen were apprehended, several
wounded, and two were afterwards committed to prison. The following
letter was sent on this occasion to Mr. Justice Fielding:
_Christ-church, Surrey, Aug. 13, 1757._
"SIR,