and misery are too common; nor can it be otherwise expected, while they
are destitute of the knowledge of salvation in a crucified and ascended
Saviour. One poor Gipsy, who had wandered in a state of wretchedness,
bordering on despair, for nearly forty years, had not in all that time,
_heard of the Name which is above every name_; _for there is salvation in
no other_; till in his last days some Christian directed him to the
Bible, as a book that tells poor sinners the way to God. He gave a woman
a guinea to read its pages to him; and he remunerated another woman, who
read to him the book of Common Prayer. The last few years of his life
were marked by strong conviction of sin. His children thought he must
have been a murderer. They often saw him under the hedges at prayer. In
his last moments he received comfort through a pious minister, who
visited him in his tent, and made him acquainted with the promises of the
gospel.
A similar instance has been related by a clergyman known to the author;
nor should the interview of GEORGE THE THIRD with a poor Gipsy woman, be
forgotten; for a brighter example of condescending kindness is not
furnished in the history of kings. This gracious monarch became the
minister of instruction and comfort to a dying Gipsy, to whom he was
drawn by the cries of her children, and saw her expire cheered by the
view of that redemption he had set before her.
But how few are there of the tens of thousands of Gipsies, who have died
in Britain, that, whether living or dying, have been visited by the
minister or his people! The father of three orphan children lately taken
under the Care of the Southampton Committee for the improvement of the
Gipsies, had lived an atheist, but such he could not die. He had often
declared there was no God; but before his death, he called one of his
sons to him and said--_I have always said there was no God_, _but now I
know there is_; _I see him now_. He attempted to pray, but knew not how!
And many other Gipsies have been so afraid of God, that they dreaded to
be alone.
It is a fact not generally known, that the Gipsies of this country have
not much knowledge of one another's tribes, or clans, and are very
particular to keep to their own. Nor will those who style themselves
respectable, allow their children to marry into the more depraved clans.
The following are a few of the family names of the Gipsies of this
country:--Williams, Jones, Plunkett, Cooper, Glover, Carew (descendants
of the famous Bamfield Moore Carew), Loversedge, Mansfield, Martin,
Light, Lee, Barnett, Boswell, Carter, Buckland, Lovell, Corrie, Bosvill,
Eyres, Smalls, Draper, Fletcher, Taylor, Broadway, Baker, Smith, Buckly,
Blewett, Scamp, and Stanley. Of the last-named family there are more
than two hundred, most of whom are known to the author, and are the most
ancient clans in this part of England.
It is a well-authenticated fact, that many persons pass for Gipsies who
are not. Such persons having done something to exclude them from
society, join themselves to this people, and marrying into their clans,
become the means of leading them to crimes they would not have thought
of, but for their connection with such wicked people. Coining money and
forging notes are, however, crimes which cannot be justly attributed to
them. Indeed it has been too much the custom to impute to them a great
number of crimes of which they either never were guilty, or which could
only be committed by an inconsiderable portion of their race; and they
have often suffered the penalty of the law, when they have not in the
least deserved it. They have been talked of by the public, and
prosecuted by the authorities, as the perpetrators of every vice and
wickedness alike shocking to civil and savage life. Nor is this to be
wondered at, living as they do, so remote from observation and the walks
of common life.
Whoever has read Grellman's Dissertation on the Continental Gipsies, and
supposes that those of England are equally immoral and vicious, will be
found greatly mistaken. The former are a banditti of robbers, without
natural affection, living with each other almost like brutes, and
scarcely knowing, and assuredly never caring about the existence of God;
some of them are even counted cannibals. The Gipsies of this country are
altogether different; for monstrous crimes are seldom heard of among
them.
The author is not aware of any of them being convicted of house-breaking,
or high-way robbery. Seldom are they guilty of sheep-stealing, or
robbing henroosts. {45} Nor can they be justly charged with stealing
children; this is the work of worthless beggars who often commit far
greater crimes than the Gipsies.
They avoid poaching, knowing that the sporting gentlemen would be severe
against them, and that they would not be permitted to remain in the lanes
and commons near villages. They sometimes take osiers from the banks and
coppices of the farmer, of which they make their baskets; and
occasionally have been known to steal a sheep, but never when they have
had any thing to eat, or money to buy it with; for according to a proverb
they have among themselves, _they despise those who risk their necks for
their bellies_.
The author however recollects a transgression of the sort in the county
of Hants. Eight Gipsy men united in stealing four sheep: four were
chosen by lot for the purpose. They sharpened their knives, rode to the
field, perpetrated the act, and before day-break brought to their camp
the sheep they had engaged to steal; and, before the evening of the same
day, they were thirty miles distant. But when pressed by hunger, they
have been known to take a worse method than this. For as the farmers
seldom deny them a sheep that has died in the field, if they apply for
it, _so many_ were found dead in this way, that a certain farmer
suspected the Gipsies of occasioning their deaths. He therefore caused
one of these animals to be opened, and discovered a piece of wool in its
throat, with which it had been suffocated. The Gipsies, who had no
objection to creatures that die in their blood, had killed all these
sheep in the above manner.
Horse-stealing is one of their principal crimes, and at this they are
very dextrous. When disposed to steal a horse, they select one a few
miles from their tent, and make arrangements for disposing of it at a
considerable distance, to which place they will convey it in a night. An
old and infirm man has been known to ride a stolen horse nearly fifty
miles in that time. They pass through bye-lanes, well known to them, and
thus avoid turnpikes and escape detection.
Unless they are taught better principles than at present they possess,
and unless those on whom they impose, use their understandings, it is to
be feared that swindling also will long continue among them; for they are
so ingenious in avoiding detection. When likely to be discovered, a
change of dress enables them to remove with safety to any distance.
Instances of this kind have been innumerable. But as it is the aim of
this book to solicit a better feeling towards them, rather than expose
them to the continuation of censure, the writer will not enter into
further detail in reference to their crimes, than barely to shew the
great evils into which they have been led by many of those in high life,
who have long encouraged them in the savage practice of prize-fighting.
Pugilism has been the disgrace of our land, and our nobility and gentry
have not been ashamed to patronize it.
Not long ago a fight took place in this county which will be a lasting
disgrace to the neighbourhood. One of the pugilists, a Gipsy, in the
pride of his heart, said during the fight, that he _never would be beaten
so long as he had life_. The poor wretch fought till not a feature of
his countenance could be seen, his head and face being swollen to a
frightful size, and his eyes quite closed. He attempted to tear them
open that he might see his antagonist; and was at last taken off the
stage. Not satisfied with this brutal scene, the spectators offered a
purse of ten guineas for another battle. This golden bait caught the eye
of another Gipsy, who, but a few months before, had ruptured a
blood-vessel in fighting. Throwing up his hat on the stage, the sign of
challenge, he was soon met with a fellow as degraded as himself, but with
much more strength and activity. He was three times laid prostrate at
the feet of his antagonist, and was taken away almost lifeless. His
conqueror put a half-crown into his hand as he was carried off, saying,
it was a little something for him to drink. About three months after
this, the author saw this poor Gipsy in his tent, in the last stage of a
consumption; but he was without any marks of true penitence. Surely the
way of wickedness is full of misery!
What a disgrace is this demoralizing mode of amusement to our country!
Degrading to the greatest degree, it is nevertheless pursued with avidity
by all classes of people; and large bets are often depending on these
brutal exercises. Gentlemen, noblemen, and even ladies, are, on such
occasions, mixed with the most degraded part of the community. In the
instance referred to it is said, that fifty pounds were taken by
admitting carriages into the field in which the fight took place. Where
were the peace-officers at this time? Perhaps some of them spectators of
the horrid scene!
Verily our men of rank and fortune are guilty in encouraging these
shocking practices; and they are little better than murderers, who goad
their fellow-men on to fight by the offer of money. Such persons are
frequently instruments of sending sinners, the most unprepared, into the
presence of a righteous God. What an account will they have to give when
they meet the victims of their amusement at the bar of Christ!
The Gipsies often fight with each other at fairs, and other places where
they meet in great numbers. This is their way of settling old grudges;
but so soon as one yields, the quarrel is made up, and they repair to a
public house to renew their friendship. This forgiving spirit is a
pleasing trait in their character.
CHAP. V. Further Account of the English Gipsies.
It has been the lot of Gipsies in all countries to be despised,
persecuted, hated, and have the vilest things said about them. In many
cases they have too much merited the odium which they have experienced in
continental Europe; but certainly they are not deserving of universal and
unqualified contempt and hatred in this nation. The dislike they have to
rule and order has led many of them to maim themselves by cutting off a
finger, that they might not serve in either the army or the navy: and I
believe there is one instance known, of some Gipsies murdering a witness
who was to appear against some of their people for horse-stealing: the
persons who were guilty of the deed have been summoned to the bar of
Christ, and in their last moments exclaimed with horror and despair,
"Murder, murder." But these circumstances do not stamp their race
without exception as infamous monsters in wickedness. Not many years
since several of their men were hung in different places for stealing
fourteen horses near Bristol, who experienced the truth of that
scripture, _be sure your sins will find you out_. Indeed there is not a
family among them that has not to mourn over the loss of some relative
for the commission of this crime. But even in this respect their guilt
has been much over-rated; for in many cases it is to be feared they have
suffered innocently. There was formerly a reward of 40_l_ to those who
gave information of offenders, on their being capitally convicted. Those
of the lower orders, therefore, who were destitute of principle, had a
great temptation before them to swear falsely in reference to Gipsies;
and of which it is known they sometimes availed themselves, knowing that
few would befriend them. For the sake of the above sum, vulgarly, but
too justly called _blood-money_, they perjured themselves, and were much
more wicked than the people they accused. But the Gipsies were thought
to be universally depraved, and no one thought it worth his while to
investigate their innocence. Let us be thankful that many at the present
day look upon them with better feelings.
Very lately one of these vile informers swore to having seen a Gipsy man
on a horse that had been stolen; and although it came out on the trial,
that it was night when he observed him, and that he had never seen him
before, which ought to have rendered his evidence invalid, the prisoner
was convicted and condemned to die. His life was afterwards spared by
other facts having been discovered and made known to the judge, after he
had left the city.
The Gipsies in this country have for centuries been accused of
child-stealing; and therefore it is not to be wondered at, that, when
children have been missing, the Gipsies should be taxed with having
stolen them. About thirty years since, some parents who had lost a
child, applied to a man at Portsmouth, well known in those days, by the
name of Payne, or Pine, as an astrologer, wishing to know from him what
was become of it. He told them _to search the Gipsy tents for twenty
miles round_. The distressed parents employed constables, who made
diligent search in every direction to that distance, but to no purpose;
the child was not to be found in their camps. It was however soon
afterwards discovered, drowned in one of its father's pits, who was a
tanner. Thus was this pretended astrologer exposed to the ridicule of
those who but a short time before foolishly looked on him as an oracle.
On another occasion the same accusation was brought against the Gipsies,
and proved to be false. The child of a widow at Portsmouth was lost, and
after every search was made on board the ships in the harbour, and at
Spithead, and the ponds dragged in the neighbourhood, to no effect, it
was concluded that the Gipsies had stolen him. The boy was found a few
years afterwards, at Kingston-upon-Thames, apprenticed to a chimney
sweeper. He had been enticed away by a person who had given him
sweet-meats; but not by a Gipsy.
I may be allowed here to say a word about this boy's mother. She was a
good and pious woman, and had known great trials. Her husband was
drowned in her presence but a short time before she lost her son in the
mysterious way mentioned; and before he was heard of, she was removed to
the enjoyment of a better world. Her death was a very happy one, for it
took place while she was engaged in public worship. _Many are the
afflictions of the righteous_, _but the Lord delivereth them out of them
all_.
Instances have been known of house-breakers leaving some of their stolen
goods near the tents of the Gipsies; and these being picked up by the
children, and found upon them, have been the cause of much unjust
suffering among them. The grandfather of three little orphans now under
the care of the Southampton Committee, was charged with stealing a horse,
and was condemned and executed; although the farmer of whom he bought it,
came forward and swore to the horse being the same which he had sold him.
His evidence was rejected on account of some slight mistake in the
description he gave of it. When under the gallows, the frantic Gipsy
exclaimed--_Oh God_, _if thou dost not deliver me_, _I will not believe
there is a God_!
The following anecdote will prove the frequent oppression of this people.
Not many years since, a collector of taxes in a country town, said he had
been robbed of fifty pounds by a Gipsy; and being soon after at Blandford
in Dorsetshire, he fixed on a female Gipsy, as the person who robbed him
in company with two others, and said she was in man's clothes at the
time. They were taken up and kept in custody for some days; and had not
a farmer voluntarily come forward, and proved that they were many miles
distant when the robbery was said to be perpetrated, they would have been
tried for their lives, and probably hanged. The woman was the wife of
Wm. Stanley, (who was in custody with her,) who now reads the Scriptures
in the Gipsy tents near Southampton. Their wicked accuser was afterwards
convicted of a crime for which he was condemned to die, when he confessed
that he had not been robbed at the time referred to, but had himself
spent the whole of the sum in question.
Another Gipsy of the name of Stanley was lately indicted at Winchester,
for house-breaking, and had not his friends at great expense proved an
_alibi_, it is likely he might have been executed. And in this way have
they been suspected and persecuted ever since the days of Henry the
Eighth. They have been hunted like wild beasts; their property has been
taken from them; themselves have been frequently imprisoned, and in many
cases their lives taken, or what to many of them would be much worse,
they have been transported to another part of the world, for ever divided
from their families and friends.
In the days of Judge Hale, thirteen of these unhappy beings were hanged
at Bury St Edmonds, for no other cause than that they were Gipsies; and
at that time it was death without benefit of clergy, for any one to live
among them for a month. Even in later days two of the most industrious
of this people have had a small pony and two donkeys taken away merely on
suspicion that they were stolen. They were apprehended and carried
before a magistrate, to whom they proved that the animals were their own,
and that they had legally obtained them. The cattle were then pounded
for trespassing on the common, and if their oppressed owners had not had
money to defray the expenses, one of the animals must have been sold for
that purpose.
Not long ago, one of the Gipsies was suspected of having stolen lead from
a gentleman's house. His cart was searched, but no lead being found in
his possession, he was imprisoned for three months, for living under the
hedges as a vagrant; and his horse, which was worth thirteen pounds, was
sold to meet the demands of the constables. And another Gipsy, who had
two horses in his possession, was suspected of having stolen them, but he
proved that they were legally his property. He was committed for three
months as a vagrant, and one of his horses was sold to defray the
expenses of his apprehension, examination, &c.
While writing this part of the GIPSIES' ADVOCATE, the author knows that a
poor, aged, industrious woman, with whom he has been long acquainted, had
her donkey taken from her, and that a man with four witnesses swore that
it was his property. The poor woman told a simple, artless tale to the
magistrates, and was not fully committed. She was allowed two days to
bring forward the person of whom she bought it. Conscious of her
innocence, she was willing to risk a prison if she could recover her
donkey, and establish her character. After a great deal of trouble and
expense in dispatching messengers to bring forward her witnesses, she
succeeded in obtaining them. They had no sooner made their appearance
than the accuser and his witnesses fled, and left the donkey to the right
owner, the poor, accused and injured woman.
It cannot be expected that oppression will ever reform this people, or
cure them of their wandering habits. Far more likely is it to confirm
them in their vagrant propensities. And as their numbers do not
decrease, oppression will only render them the dread of one part of their
fellow-creatures, while it will make them the objects of scorn and
obloquy to others.
It is the earnest wish of the author that milder measures may be pursued
in reference to the Gipsies. To endeavour to improve their morals, and
instruct them in the principles of religion, will, under the divine
blessing, turn to better account than the hateful and oppressive policy
so long adopted.
CHAP. VI. Further Account of the English Gipsies.
Many persons are of opinion in reference to the Gipsies, that, if all the
parishes were alike severe in forcing them from their retreats, they
would soon find their way into towns. But if this were the case, what
advantage would they derive from it? In large towns, in their present
ignorant and depraved state, would they not be still more wicked? They
would change their condition only from bad to worse, unless they were
treated better than they now are, and could be properly employed; but
from the prejudice that exists among all classes of men against them,
this is not likely to be the case: they would not be employed by any,
while other persons could be got. At a hop plantation, so lately as
1830, Gipsies were not allowed to pick hops in some grounds, while
persons as unsettled and undeserving, were engaged for that purpose. Had
this been a parochial arrangement to benefit the poor of their own
neighbourhood, who were out of employ, it were not blameable.
If they were driven to settle in towns, and could not, generally
speaking, obtain employment, it might soon become necessary to remove all
their children to their own parishes; a measure not only very unhappy in
itself, but one to which the Gipsies would never submit. Sooner would
they die than suffer their children to go to the parish workhouses.
The severe and unchristian-like treatment they meet with from many, only
obliges them to travel further, and often drives them to commit greater
depredations. When driven by the constables from their station, they
retire to a more solitary place in another parish, and there remain till
they are again detected, and again mercilessly driven away. But this
severity does not accomplish the end it has in view; their numbers remain
the same, and they retain the same dislike to the crowded haunts of man.
For they only visit towns in small parties, offering trifling wares for
sale, or telling fortunes; and this is done to gain a present support.
In this neighbourhood there was lately a sweeping of the commons and
lanes of the Gipsy families. Their horses and donkeys were driven off,
and the sum of 3 pounds 5_s_ levied on them as a fine to pay the
constables for thus afflicting them. In one tent during this distressing
affair, there was found an unburied child, that had been scalded to
death, its parents not having money to defray the expenses of its
interment. The constables declared that it would make any heart ache to
see the anguish the poor people were in, when thus inhumanly driven from
their resting places; but, said they, _We were obliged to do our duty_.
To the credit of these men, thirteen in number, it should be mentioned,
that, with only one exception, they returned the fines to the people; and
one of them, who is a carpenter, offered a coffin for the unburied child,
should the parish be unwilling to bury it.
In this instance of their affliction and grief, the propensity to accuse
these poor creatures was strongly marked by a report charging them with
having dug a grave on the common in which to bury it; a circumstance very
far from their feelings and general habits. The fact was, some person
had been digging holes in search of gravel, and these poor creatures
pitched their tent just by one of them.
It was supposed by many in this neighbourhood, that the poor wretches
thus driven away, were gone out of the country; but this was not the
case. They had only retired to more lonely places in smaller parties,
and were all seen again a few days after at a neighbouring fair. This
circumstance is sufficient to prove that they are not to be reclaimed by
prosecutions and fines. It is therefore high time the people of England
should adopt more merciful measures towards them in endeavouring to bring
them into a more civilized state. The money spent in sustaining
prosecutions against them, if properly applied, would accomplish this
great and benevolent work. And without flattering any of its members,
the author thinks the Committee at Southampton have discovered plans,
wholly different to those usually adopted, which may prove much more
effectual in accomplishing their reformation; for by these plans being
put in prudent operation, many have already ceased to make the lanes and
commons their home; and their minds are becoming enlightened and their
characters religious.