Townsend, the Bow-street officer’s interesting examination before the
police committee of the House of Commons in June, 1816, contains some
curious particulars respecting Abershaw, the pirates, “the dangers of
the _road_” and “hanging matters,” toward the close of the last century.
_Q._ The activity of the officers of Bow-street has infinitely increased
of late years?
_A._ No doubt about it; and there is one thing which appears to me most
extraordinary, when I remember, in very likely a week, there should be
from ten to fifteen highway robberies. We have not had a man committed
for a highway robbery lately; I speak of persons on horseback. Formerly
there were two, three, or four highwaymen, some on Hounslow Heath, some
on Wimbledon Common, some on Finchley Common, some on the Romford Road.
I have actually come to Bow-street in the morning, and while I have been
leaning over the desk, had three or four people come in and say, ‘I was
robbed by two highwaymen in such a place;’ ‘I was robbed by a single
highwayman in such a place.’ People travel now safely, by means of the
horse-patrol that sir Richard Ford planned. Where are there highway
robberies now? As I was observing to the chancellor, as I was up at his
house on the Corn Bill: he said, ‘Townsend, I knew you very well so many
years ago.’ I said, ‘Yes, my lord; I remember your coming first to the
bar, first in your plain gown, and then as king’s counsel, and now
chancellor. Now your lordship sits as chancellor, and directs the
executions on the recorder’s report; but where are the highway robberies
now?’ and his lordship said, ‘Yes, I am astonished.’ There are no
footpad robberies or road robberies now but merely jostling you in the
streets. They used to be ready to pop at a man as soon as he let down
his glass.
_Q._ You remember the case of _Abershaw_?
_A._ Yes; I had him tucked up where he was; it was through me. I never
left a court of justice without having discharged my own feeling as much
in favour of the unhappy criminal as I did on the part of the
prosecution; and I once applied to Mr. Justice Buller to save two men
out of three who were convicted; and on my application we argued a good
deal about it. I said, ‘My lord, I have no motive but my duty; the jury
have pronounced them guilty. I have heard your lordship pronounce
sentence of death, and I have now informed you of the different
dispositions of the three men. If you choose to execute them all I have
nothing to say about it; but was I you, in the room of being the
officer, and you were to tell me what Townsend has told you, I should
think it would be a justification of you to respite those two unhappy
men, and hang that one who has been convicted three times before.’ The
other men never had been convicted before, and the other had been three
times convicted; and he very properly did. And how are judges or
justices to know how many times a man has been convicted but by the
information of the officer in whose duty and department it is to keep a
register of old offenders. The magistrate sits up there, he knows
nothing of it till the party is brought before him; he cannot.
_Q._ Do you think any advantages arise from a man being put on a gibbet
after his execution?
_A._ Yes, I was always of that opinion; and I recommended sir William
Scott to hang the two men that are hanging down the river. I will state
my reason. We will take for granted, that those men were hanged as this
morning, for the murder of those revenue officers--they are by law
dissected; the sentence is, that afterwards, the body is to go to the
surgeons for dissection; there is an end of it--it dies. But look at
this: there are a couple of men now hanging near the Thames, where all
the sailors must come up; and one says to the other, ‘Pray what are
those two poor fellows there for?’--‘Why,’ says another, ‘I will go and
ask.’ They ask. ‘Why, those two men are hung and gibbeted for murdering
his majesty’s revenue officers.’ And so the thing is kept alive. If it
was not for this, people would die, and nobody would know any thing of
it. In Abershaw’s case I said to the sheriff, ‘The only difficulty in
hanging this fellow, upon this place, is its being so near lord
Spencer’s house.’ But we went down, and pointed out a particular place;
he was hung at the particular pitch of the hill where he used to do the
work. If there was a person ever went to see that man hanging, I am sure
there was a hundred thousand. I received information that they meant to
cut him down. I said to sir Richard Ford, ‘I will counteract this; in
order to have it done right, I will go and sit up all night, and have
eight or ten officers at a distance, for I shall nail these fellows;’
for I talked cant language to him. However, we had the officers there,
but nobody ever came, or else, being so close to Kent-street, they would
have come down and sawed the gibbet, and taken it all away, for
Kent-street was a very desperate place, though it is not so now. Lord
chief justice Eyre once went the Home Circuit; he began at Hertford, and
finished at Kingston. Crimes were so desperate, that in his charge to
the grand jury at Hertford, he finished--‘Now, gentlemen of the jury,
you have heard my opinion as to the enormity of the offences committed;
be careful what bills you find, for whatever bills you find, if the
parties are convicted before me, if they are convicted for capital
offences, I have made up my mind, as I go through the circuit, to
execute every one.’ He did so--he never saved man or woman--and a
singular circumstance occurred, that stands upon record fresh in my
mind. There were seven people convicted for a robbery in Kent-street;
for calling in a pedlar, and after robbing the man, he jumped out of
window. There were four men and three women concerned; they were all
convicted, and all hanged in Kent-street, opposite the door; and, I
think, on Kennington Common eight more, making fifteen:--all that were
convicted were hung.
_Q._ Do you think, from your long observation, that the morals and
manners of the lower people in the metropolis are better or worse than
formerly?
_A._ I am decidedly of opinion, that, with respect to the present time,
and the early part of my time, such as 1781, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, where
there is one person convicted now--I may say, I am positively
convinced--there were five then. We never had an execution wherein we
did not grace that unfortunate gibbet (at the Old Bailey) with ten,
twelve, to thirteen, sixteen, and twenty; and forty I once saw, at
twice; I have them all down at home. I remember in 1783, when sergeant
Adair was recorder, there were forty hung at two executions. The
unfortunate people themselves laugh at it now; they call it ‘a
bagatelle.’ I was conversing with an old offender some years ago, who
has now quite changed his life; and he said, ‘Why, sir, where there is
one hung now, there were five when I was young;’ and I said, ‘Yes, you
are right in your calculation, and you are very lucky that you were
spared so long, and have lived to be a better man.’ I agree with George
Barrington--whom I brought from Newcastle--and however great lord chief
baron Eyre’s speech was to him, after he had answered him, it came to
this climax: ‘Now,’ says he, ‘Townsend, you heard what the chief baron
said to me; a fine flowery speech, was it not?’ ‘Yes:’ ‘But he did not
answer the question I put to him.’ Now how could he? After all that the
chief baron said to him after he was acquitted--giving him advice--this
word was every thing: says he, ‘My lord, I have paid great attention to
what you have been stating to me, after my acquittal: I return my
sincere thanks to the jury for their goodness: but your lordship says,
you lament very much that a man of my abilities should not turn my
abilities to a better use. Now, my lord, I have only this reply to
make: I am ready to go into any service, to work for my labour, if your
lordship will but find me a master.’ Why, what was the reply to that?
‘Gaoler, take the prisoner away.’ Why who would employ him? It is really
farcical. I have heard magistrates say, ‘Young man, really I am very
sorry for you; you are much to be pitied; you should turn your talents
to a better account; and you should really leave off this bad course of
life.’ Yes, that is better said than done; for where is there any body
to take these wretches? They have said to me; ‘Sir, we do not thieve
from disposition; but we thieve because we cannot get employment: our
character is damned, and nobody will have us:’ and so it is; there is no
question about it.
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