to partake of that glorious resurrection and immortality He has been
so graciously pleased to promise to the sincere penitent. I
earnestly exhort and beg of all here present to think seriously of
eternity--a long and endless eternity!--in which we are to be
rewarded or punished according to our good or evil actions in this
world; that you will all take warning by me and refrain from all
wilful transgressions and offences. Let a religious disposition
prevail upon you, and use your utmost endeavours to forsake and fly
from sin. The mercies of God are great, and He can save even at the
last moment of life. Yet do not therefore presume too much, lest you
provoke Him to cast you off in His anger, and become fearful
examples of His wrath and indignation. Let me prevail upon you to
forget and forgive me all the offences and injuries I have committed
or promoted in action, advice or example; and entreat your prayers
for me that the Lord would in mercy look down upon me in the last
moment of my life.

His Prayer

Look down in mercy, O God, I beseech Thee, upon me a miserable,
lost, and undone sinner. Number not my transgressions nor let my
iniquities rise up in judgment against me. Wash me and I shall be
clean; purge me and I shall be free from offence. Though my sins be
as scarlet, they shall be whiter than snow if Thou pleasest but to
receive me amongst those whom Thou hast redeemed, that I may sing
praises to the Most High and extol Thy Holy Name in the courts of
Heaven for ever and ever more. Amen.

He suffered on the 27th of March, 1728, being then about
eight-and-twenty years of age.

FOOTNOTES:

[78] Trinkets and such trifles, not children's playthings.




The Lives of WILLIAM RUSSELL, ROBERT CROUCH and WILLIAM HOLDEN,
Street-Robbers, Footpads


Although the insolency of those street-robbers to whose gang the
malefactors we are now speaking of belong be at present too recent a
fact to be questioned, yet possibly in future times 'twill be thought an
exaggeration of truth to say that even at noon-day, and in the most open
places in London, persons were stopped and robbed. The offenders for
many months escaped with impunity, until those crimes became so frequent
and the terrors of passengers so great that the Government interposed in
an extraordinary manner, a royal proclamation being issued offering one
hundred pounds reward for apprehending any offender, and also promising
pardon to any who submitted and revealed their accomplices. This brought
numbers of young rash youths who had engaged in this wicked course of
life to a violent and ignominious death.

William Russell was descended from persons of honourable family and
unblemished reputation. In his youth he had received a tolerable
education, which even in his misfortunes rendered him more civilized
than any of his companions. He was a young fellow of tolerable good
sense, ready wit, and great courage; he always spoke frankly of the
wickedness of his own life and acknowledged that sensual pleasures were
only what he aimed at in the course of life he led; yet he had never
been able to reap any satisfaction in them, but had been always
miserable in his own mind, from the time he pursued those base methods
of gaining money. His father being gone over to Ireland, and he left at
liberty to pursue what methods he thought best, evil women and bad
company soon prevailed with him to fall into those methods which
afterwards led him to the gallows.

Robert Crouch, the second of these criminals, was born at Dunstable, of
very honest parents who afforded him as good an education as it was in
their power to give; and then, upon his own inclination to follow the
business of a butcher, bound him to one in Newgate Market, with whom he
served his time. But as soon as he was out of it he addicted himself to
gaming, drinking and whoring, and all the other vices which are so
natural to abandoned young fellows in low life. Dalton, who was an
evidence against him, was one of the chief persons of his gang, and
specially persuaded Crouch to join with him, though he had very little
occasion to fall into such ways of getting money, since his father was a
man in very good circumstances, who designed to set his son in his trade
in a short time, having not the least suspicion that this melancholy
accident would intervene.

William Holden, the third of these unhappy persons, was born of very
mean parents, had little education, and had followed no particular
trade, but had sometimes gone to sea, and at other times driven a
hackney coach; so that throughout the whole course of his life he had
been continually plunged in the grossest debaucheries, whereby he became
ripe for such practices as he and his associates afterwards went upon.

It does not appear, from the papers that I have, that any of these
criminals had followed that infamous course of life for above a year,
when Dalton, to save his own life, surrendered and made a confession by
which these and the rest of ms associates were quickly apprehended and
committed dose prisoners to Newgate. At the ensuing sessions at the Old
Bailey they were all indicted for assaulting one Martha Hide on the
highway, and taking from her a broad-cloth coat, value forty shillings;
a looking-glass, value thirty shillings; a woman's nightgown; and other
goods, to the value of thirty shillings more. To prove this charge James
Dalton was produced, who swore that about nine o'clock at night himself
and the prisoners overtook the prosecutor, Martha Hide, in Fleet Street;
and observing that she had a bundle they resolved to take it from her.
In order to accomplish their design they followed her into Lincoln's Inn
Fields, where Robert Crouch, _alias_ Bob the Butcher, knocked her down
and Russell took up the bundle and ran away with it. Upon their opening
thereof the looking-glass fell out and was broke all to pieces. The rest
of the things they sold to one Sarah Watts, who made it her business to
buy stolen goods and kept what in their cant is called a 'lock', that is
a place for the receipt of such things. Dalton swore, moreover, that not
having carefully examined the things, they were extremely mortified to
hear afterwards that there was forty shillings in specie wrapped up in a
rag, which the woman that bought them got into the bargain.

Martha Hide, herself, deposed that crossing Lincoln's Inn Fields she was
knocked down and the bundle taken from her as Dalton had before related.
One Solomon Nicholas deposed that not long after, Russell and Crouch
quarrelling between themselves at a brandy-shop, Russell said to his
companion, _If you offer to meddle with Nicholas I'll cut the coat off
your back, for it's the woman's coat that we knocked down in Lincoln's
Inn Fields, and I have as much right to it as you have._ It appeared,
also, by another witness, that Crouch pawned an old coat to pay for the
altering of this, and after taking off a cloth cape which it had at the
time of its being stolen, he caused a velvet one to be sewn on in its
room. Mr. Willis, the constable, was the last witness called for by the
prosecutor. He swore that at the time that he apprehended the prisoner
Russell, he acknowledged that the goods before-mentioned were stolen and
sold for one pound two shillings, but said he did not value it, since he
should die in the company of such brave fellows.

The jury withdrawing after hearing this evidence, returned soon after
and found them guilty, and sentence of death was passed upon them, at
one of the fullest sessions which had happened for many years at the Old
Bailey, there being twenty-two men and seven women capitally convicted.

As these unhappy men could have little hope of life, considering the
nature and notoriety of their offences; they ought certainly to have
laid aside all other thoughts and have applied themselves strictly,
beseeching pardon of God for their numberless offences against Him.
Instead of this, there appeared too much affectation of unconcernedness
in all of them, especially in Russell, who, being confined in the same
cell with Holden, said to his companion a day or two before his death,
with an air of indifference, _I'll undertake, Will, to procure a coach
to carry off our bodies from the place of execution; but I must leave it
to the care of your fraternity_ (meaning the hackney coachmen) _to
prevent their being seized on by the surgeons._ Holden heard all this
very gravely, assented to the proposition without altering his
countenance or giving any other mark of his concern for that infamous
death which shortly they were both to suffer.

Russell also took a certain pleasure in speaking of the state of
street-robbing at the time they left the world. He averred that the town
was much mistaken in imagining that the king's proclamation had
effectually crushed their fraternity, into which opinion they perhaps
might be drawn by seeing so many of them perish in so short a time;
which, he said, did not lessen their society, but would, notwithstanding
that, put all that remained of them upon bolder exploits than ever, to
show that they were yet unhanged. In which conjecture he was not very
much out. However, he said, gentlemen might now safely walk the streets
without fear of having their pockets picked, for that Benjamin Branch,
who died the last sessions, and Isaac Ashley, who was to suffer with
him, were the two neat masters in that way, and were capable of earning
fifteen or sixteen shillings by it in two or three hours' time; sorting
the fruits of their industry into several parcels, from the value of
sixpence to half a crown apiece as dexterously as any milliner in
London.

After the coming out of the death warrant Russell laid aside much of his
boldness, appeared with more gravity at prayers and expressed greater
sorrow for his misspent life than he had done before. Crouch carried
himself very quietly all along, but could not forbear being unseasonably
merry and jocose upon several occasions, smiling at chapel and affecting
to talk with greater gaiety than became his condition. He himself owned
that this was very unbecoming in a person so near an ignominious death,
but he said it was in his temper, and he could not help it. He frankly
acknowledged the enormity of that course of life which for some years
past he had led, acknowledged that on the coming out of the king's
proclamation he had resolved on a four years' voyage to sea, but was
prevented from putting it in execution by Dalton's information. As the
time of their death drew near he became more and more sensible of his
miserable condition and the danger there was of losing his soul as well
as his body.

William Holden at first denied very strongly his being in any degree
guilty of the fact for which he died; but when he heard that Russell had
owned it and at the same time confessed that he was concerned in it,
thinking it no further use to adhere to that denial he retracted it and
acknowledged that he had been a great sinner, and had committed several
thefts before that for which he died. In a word, these three, as they
had been companions together in wickedness and fellow-sufferers in the
punishment which their crimes had drawn upon them, so they appeared to
be all of them sensibly touched with sorrow and remorse for that
multitude of crimes which they had committed, endeavouring to merit the
pardon of God by hearty prayers and a sincere repentance. Russell,
however, declared but a day or two before his execution that Dalton, the
evidence, had proposed to him to join in that information he gave
against their companions, but that he scorned to save his life by so
mean a practice as betraying those who had received him into their
friendship.

Their deportment at the place of execution was resolute without
obstinacy or impenitence, and the last moments of their lives were full
of seriousness, without any marks of timorousness or confusion. Russell
was about twenty-five, Crouch about twenty, and Holden somewhat more
than twenty-eight years of age at the time they suffered, which was on
Monday, 20th of May, 1728.




The Lives of CHRISTOPHER, _alias_ THOMAS RAWLINS; ISAAC ASHLEY, _alias_
ALSEBY; JOHN ROUDEN, _alias_ HULKS; EDWARD BENSON, _alias_ BROWN,
_alias_ BOYSTON; GEORGE GALE, _alias_ KIDDY GEORGE; THOMAS CROWDER;
JAMES TOON; JOHN HORNBY; WILLIAM SEFTON; and RICHARD NICHOLS, Thieves,
Street-Robbers, Housebreakers, etc.


Although the several criminals whose lives we are now going to relate do
not so well tally with one another, they having been of different gangs
and dying for various offences, yet as they were all apprehended in
consequence of the before-mentioned proclamation, were street-robbers
and most of them not unknown to each other, I thought it would be better
to speak of them here all at once rather than divide them into several
lives. I have very little to say of any of them worthy the attention of
the reader.

To begin, then, with Christopher, _alias_ Thomas Rawlins. He was the son
of very honest parents here in town, who brought him up as well as their
circumstances would permit, and when he grew big enough to go out to a
trade put him apprentice to a silversmith with whom he served out his
time with tolerable reputation. But being a lad of great gaiety and
spirit, having much addicted himself to the company of young fellows of
a like disposition, frequented dancing meetings, and taken delight in
everything but his business, such inclinations as these easily betrayed
him to the commission of the greatest crimes and a certain alertness in
his temper made him very acceptable to those debauched young fellows who
were his usual companions to such places. Whether he was at first
seduced by the persuasions of others to the committing thefts and
robberies, or whether those necessities to which their extravagancies
had reduced them put him and his associates on taking such measures for
filling their purses, is hard to be determined. But certain it is that
for some time before his being apprehended he had been very busy in
committing such exploits and for his courage and dexterity was looked
upon as one of the chief of the gang.

Isaac Ashley, who was Rawlins's companion, and who went commonly amongst
them by the nickname of Black Isaac, was a fellow of a very different
cast. His parents were poor people, who had, indeed, taken as much care
as was in their power of his education and afterwards provided for him
as well as they were able, putting him out to a weaver in Spitalfields.
But he made them a very ill return for all their care and tenderness,
proving an obstinate, idle and illiterate fellow, willing to do nothing
that was either just or reputable, and who, except for his dexterity in
pocket-picking was one of the most stupid, incorrigible wretches that
ever lived. He followed the practice of petty thieving for a
considerable space, but though he got considerably thereby, he lost his
money continually at gaming, and so remained always in one state, viz.,
very poor and very wicked; which is no very uncommon case amongst such
sort of miserable people, who lavishly waste what they hazard their
souls and throw away their lives to obtain.

John Rouden, _alias_ Hulks, the latter being his true name, had the
advantage of a very tolerable education, the effects of which were not
obliterated by his having been many years addicted to the vilest and
most flagitious course of life that can possibly be imagined. The
principles with which he had been seasoned in his youth served to render
him more tractable and civilized when under his last misfortunes, unto
which he fell with the two afore-mentioned malefactors; they being all
indicted for assaulting one Mr. Francis Williams on the highway, and
taking from him a silver watch value three pounds, two guineas and a
moidore,[79] on the 28th of February, 1728. The prosecutor deposed that
going in a hackney coach, between Wading Street and St. Paul's School he
heard the coachman called on to stop; immediately after which a man came
up to the side of the coach, presented a pistol and demanded his money.
Four more presented themselves at the coach windows, offering their
pistols and saying they had no time to lose. One of them thereupon
thrust his hand into his fob and took out his money and his watch. Jones
next produced the watch to the Court and said he had it from Dalton, who
was the third witness called to support the indictment. He deposed that
himself, the three prisoners at the bar, and another person not yet
taken, were those that attacked the coach; that himself came up first
and Rouden afterwards, who took the watch, as himself did the money,
Rawlins and he secreting one guinea from their companions and afterwards
pawning the watch for two guineas more.

Mr. Willis, the constable, swore that having received information of
certain disorderly persons, he thereupon went and apprehended Dalton,
the evidence, who, making an ingenious confession, told him of the
robbery committed on Mr. Williams and where the prisoners then were;
whereupon he went immediately to apprehend them also. Dalton produced a
pistol after he was apprehended, and declared that Rawlins had the
fellow to it which was loaded with a slug. When they came to the place
where the prisoners were, Rawlins and Rouden made an obstinate defence,
sword in hand, and were with great difficulty taken, while Ashley hid
himself under the bed, in hopes of making his escape in the confusion.
Mr. Willis's brother swore to taking a pistol from Rawlins, such as
Dalton had described, and which was loaded with a slug.

The prisoners had nothing to say in their defence except flatly denying
everything, and averring that they did not so much as know Dalton. But
Mr. Wyatt being produced, swore to the contrary of that, affirming that
they were very intimate and that they all lodged together at his house.
The jury having received their charge from the judge, took but a small
time to consider, and then returning, brought in their verdict that they
were all guilty; whereupon at the close of the sessions they received
sentence with the rest.

Edward Benson was the son of very reputable persons in the City of
London, who had taken all due care in providing him a suitable education
with respect both to the principles of learning and of religion; and
when he was at years of discretion, they put him out apprentice to a
silver-wire-drawer. In himself he was a young man of good understanding,
of a sweet temper and but too tractable in his disposition, which seems
to have been the cause of most of his misfortunes. For during the time
of his apprenticeship, being so unlucky as to fall into bad company, he
was easily seduced to following their measures; although he was far
enough from being naturally debauched, and seemed to have no great vice
but his inclination to women, which occasioned his marrying two wives,
who notwithstanding lived peaceably and quietly together. The papers I
have do not give any distinct account of the manner in which he first
came to join in the execrable employment of plundering and robbing in
the streets, and therefore it may be presumed he was drawn into it by
his companions whom we are next to mention.

George Gale, _alias_ Kiddy George, was a perfect boy at the time of his
suffering death, and though descended of very honest parents, who no
doubt had given him some education in his youth, yet the uninterrupted
course of wickedness in which he lived from the time of his being able
to distinguish between wrong and right had so perfectly expunged all
notions of justice or piety, that never a more stupid or incorrigible
creature came into this miserable state. Thomas Neeves[80], who had been
their associate in all their villainies, was the person who gave
information against him, Benson, and several other malefactors we shall
hereafter speak of. Gale, as is common with such people, complained
vehemently against the evidence who had undone him. As death approached
he shed tears abundantly, but was so very ignorant that he expressed no
other marks of penitence for his offences.

Thomas Crowder was a young man of an honest family and of a very good
education. His friends had put him out apprentice to a cabinet-maker.
Before he was out of his time he thought fit to go to sea, where, for
aught appears by our papers, he behaved himself very honestly and
industriously. Coming home from a voyage, a little before his death, he
was so unfortunate as to fall into the company of Neeves, the evidence,
who, pretending to have money and an inclination to employ it in the
Holland trade, prevailed on poor Crowder to attend him three or four
days, in which space Neeves was married and had great junkettings with
his new wife and her friends. In the midst of this they were all
apprehended, and Neeves, with how much truth must be determined at the
Last Day, put this unhappy man into his information and gave evidence
against him at his trial, when Benson, Gale and this Crowder were
indicted for assaulting James Colver on the highway, and taking from him
a watch value forty shillings, and five shillings in money. For this
offence, chiefly on the oath of Neeves, they were all capitally
convicted.

James Toon was another of those unhappy persons who suffered on the oath
of Neeves. He had spent his time mostly upon the water, having been a
seaman for several years, and after that a bargeman. He was a young man
of tolerable good sense, very civil in his behaviour and in nothing
resembling those who are ordinarily addicted to robbing and thieving.
His parents were persons in tolerable circumstances, and had taken a due
care of his education. The particular crime for which he died was
assaulting James Flemming, in the company of George Gale and Edward
Brown, _alias_ Benson, and taking from him, the said Flemming, a silver
watch value forty shillings, and two guineas in money, the third of
April.

John Hornby had been bred for some time at school, being descended of
honest parents, who put him apprentice to a joiner. But being naturally
inclined to idleness and vice, in a short time he had occasion to take
base and illegal methods to acquire money. His necessities were also
increased through foolishly marrying a woman, while he was yet a perfect
boy and knew not how to maintain her. Picking pockets was his first
resource, and the method of thieving which he always liked best and got
most money at; but being of a very easy temper, his companions found it
no hard thing to persuade him into taking such other methods of robbing
as they persuaded him would be more beneficial, and in this Benson seems
to have been one of his chief advisers. In himself, Hornby was
good-natured and much less rude and boisterous than some of his
companions. He had been but a very short time engaged in the
street-robbing practice and did not seem to have courage or boldness
sufficient to make himself considerable amongst his companions in those
enterprises, which in all probability was the reason that while under
confinement they treated him but very indifferently, and sometimes went
so far as to give him ill names and blows, which he endured without
saying much, and seemed perfectly resigned to the several punishments
which his own iniquities had brought upon him. The crime for which he
died was a robbery committed on the highway, upon the person of one
Edward Ellis, from whom was taken a silver watch, value four pounds, and
two guineas in money.

William Sefton was born in Lancashire, and during the life-time of his
father received a tolerable education. But on his mother's marrying
another husband, Sefton, who had been bred a barber and peruke-maker,
finding things not to go to his mind, came up to London. But changing
place did not seem to make him much easier, so that after having led an
unsettled life for a considerable space, he became at length a common
soldier. 'Twill be easily imagined that this choice of his did not much
better his fortunes and possibly the company which his military life
obliged him to keep served only to increase his courage so far as to
enable him to take a purse on the highway; a practice he had pursued
with pretty good success a considerable time before he was taken. But
being a naming, close fellow, he robbed with so much precaution that he
was little suspected until taken up for the offence for which he died,
which was for assaulting Henry Bunn on the highway, and taking from him
a silver watch, two pieces of foreign gold, and two pounds eleven
shillings in money.

Richard Nichols was a man in the middle age of life, of a grave and
civil deportment, of good character, and who was a barber and
peruke-maker. He had lived by his profession without the least suspicion
of his being guilty of any such crime as that for which he died. He was
convicted, chiefly on the evidence of Neeves, for feloniously stealing
nine silver watches and a gold watch, the property of Andrew Moran and
others in the dwelling-house of the said Moran. As there was nothing
remarkable in this man's life, and as it did appear that he was not
flagrantly guilty of any other vice except drinking and wasting his own
money, so it would be needless to dwell longer upon his adventures prior
to his condemnation; therefore we shall go on to speak of the behaviour
of these criminals while they remained under sentence of death.

Christopher Rawlins seemed to retain much of his old boisterous temper,
and though he would bring himself to speak with more decency concerning
the great duty of repentance which now alone remained for them to
practise, yet in a little time he would fly out into strange and
blasphemous expressions, for which being reproved by William Russell,
whom we have before mentioned as being under sentence at the same time,
he answered, _What does it signify to prepare ourselves, since we have
passed through so wicked a life in this world and have now so short a
time to remain in it?_ He frequently expressed a despair of God's mercy
though after the death warrant came down he appeared somewhat more easy,
and in a better disposition to offer up his prayers to the Almighty. As
to the crimes for which he suffered, he readily and ingenuously
confessed them, owning the justice of the sentence which had been passed
upon him and expressed this sense of the multitude of offences which he
had committed, such as he acknowledged deserved no mercy here, nor,
without the interposition of the mercy of God hereafter. Yet in the
midst of these expressions of penitence he could not forbear doing
something in his old way, and a few days before his execution actually
cut the tassels from the pulpit cushion in the chapel.

Ashley was very frank in his confessions of numberless thefts which he
had committed in the course of his wicked and licentious life; but he
peremptorily denied that he had any concern whatsoever in the robbery
for which he was to die, and this was confirmed by Rawlins and Benson,
who said that they, indeed, committed it, but that Ashley was no ways
concerned therein. However, as far as his stupid disposition would give
him leave, he sometimes expressed great penitence for the deeds which he
had committed. Yet the Sunday before his death he stole five or six
handkerchiefs at chapel, of which when the Ordinary spoke to him at the
place of execution, he only said that it was true, but that he must have
something to subsist on.

Rouden acknowledged the justice of his sentence, that he was guilty of
the crimes laid to his charge, and behaved in every respect like a true
and sincere penitent. Benson showed the same easiness and sweetness of
temper which he had always been remarkable for, even to the last moment
of his life. He expressed, indeed, much sorrow for his having lived
deliberately in a continued course of adultery with two women who both
of them averred that they had been lawfully married to him. He frankly
confessed his own guilt, and that the sentence of the Law was just,
dying, as far as we are able to judge, in a composed and penitent
disposition of mind.

George Gale, though he owned he had for some time been a thief, yet he
absolutely denied his having any concern in the robberies before
mentioned; but he averred that Neeves, knowing his character, took the
advantage of putting him in the information, as knowing that he had
neither friends nor interest to make his innocence appear. Indeed,
Benson did so far confirm what Gale had said that he owned he alone
committed the robbery for which he was convicted, and to this they both
adhered to their last moments at the place of execution, where Gale wept
bitterly, and with all outward tokens of sorrow confessed the multitude
of sins he had committed throughout the whole course of his life.

Thomas Crowder persevered even to death in denying any concern with
Neeves, further than his being deluded with the hopes of joining with
him in a trade to Holland and France; yet the Ordinary tells us in his
account of these criminals that he had reason to believe that Crowder,
notwithstanding this, was guilty, because a gentleman averred that he
had owned as much to him in the chapel the very day he died.

James Toon continued to behave with a uniform submission to the decrees
of Providence, absolutely denied his being guilty of the fact for which
he was convicted, yet acknowledged that he had led a very sinful life,
and therefore looked on it as a great mercy of the Providence of God
that he had so much time to reflect and repent in. Hornby wept and
lamented grievously for the miseries which he had brought on himself and
those who were related to him, said he had for a long time been guilty
of illegal practices, but would not acknowledge that he had been guilty
of that for which he was condemned.

Sefton appeared under condemnation to have a very just idea of the
wretched state he was in, the necessity there was of preventing, by a
thorough repentance, a yet more severe judgment than that under which he
then lay. He acknowledged the crime for which he died, said he had been
drawn to the commission of it by the persuasion of a person whom he
named, and at the place of execution declared he died sorry for all his
sins and in charity with mankind. He had hardly been turned off a minute
before the rope broke and he fell to the ground, but the sheriff's men
laying hold on him, he was soon tied up again and so executed in
pursuance of his sentence.

Richard Nichols, as he always behaved with great decency and was of a
sober, serious and religious disposition, so he constantly affirmed
(though without vehemence or any signs of passion) that he knew nothing
of the robbery whereof he stood convicted, but that his life was basely
sworn away by Neeves the evidence, without the least grounds whatsoever,
he having never associated himself with street-robbers or been concerned
in any sort of thieving whatever. In this he persisted to the time of
his death, repeating it and averring it at the place of execution; and,
indeed, there is the greatest reason to believe that he spoke nothing
but the truth, because Thomas Neeves, the witness, when he came
afterwards to die at Tyburn, did acknowledge that he knew nothing of
Nichols, nor had ever seen him before his being committed at the
Justice's, and begged that God would pardon his crying sin of perjury
and murder in taking the life of an innocent man.

These malefactors suffered on the 20th of May, 1728; Rawlins being
twenty-two, Ashley, twenty-six; Rouden, twenty-four; Benson,
twenty-four; Gale, seventeen; Crowder, twenty-two; Toon, twenty-five;
Hornby, twenty-one; Sefton, twenty-six; and Nichols, forty years of age.

FOOTNOTES:

[79] A Portuguese gold coin current in England, worth about 23s.

[80] See page 463.




The Lives of RICHARD HUGHS and BRYAN MACGUIRE, Highwaymen and Footpads


Idleness, lewd women and bad company are the sum total of those excuses
urged by criminals when they come to be punished, even for the most
flagrant offences. With just reason Richard Hughs exclaimed on them all,
for from youth upwards he had ever addicted himself to laziness and a
dislike to that business to which he was bred, viz., that of a
bricklayer. Following loose women was the thing in which he took most
delight, and was probably the occasion of his subsequent misfortunes.
The immediate cause of them was his acquaintance with William Sefton
before-mentioned, with whom he joined in a confederacy to rob on the
highway, a thing to which his necessities in some measure drove him,
since he had squandered all he had in the world on those abandoned women
with whom he conversed, and had contracted so bad a reputation that he
found it hard to be employed in his business.

Into this wretched confederacy entered also the other offender, Bryan
Macguire, an Irishman born in the county of Wicklow. He had been bred a
sawyer, but was never very well pleased with the trade which required so
much hard labour. However, he worked at it some time after he came to
England, but some of his countrymen persuading him that it was much
easier to live by sharping, a practice they very well understood, he
readily fell into their sentiments and soon struck out a new method of
cheating, which brought them in more and with less hazard than any of
the ways pursued by his associates. The artifice was this: by repeated
practice he found a way to pull his tongue so far back into his throat
that he really appeared to have none at all, and by going to
coffee-houses and other places of public resort for the better sort of
people, he, by pretending to be dumb and then opening his mouth and
showing them what looked only like the root of a tongue, obtained large
charities. He had great success in this cheat for a long time, but at
last was discovered by a gentleman's blowing some snuff into his throat,
which, by setting him a-coughing, detected the imposture.

Then, being very straitened, he fell in with Sefton and Hughs with whom
having cheated and tricked for a little space, they at last came all to
an agreement of going together upon the highway and sharing their booty
equally amongst them. However, their partnership was of no very long
continuance, for in nine or ten days they were all apprehended and
brought to condign punishment. Hughs had been a soldier as well as
Sefton, and had quitted the Army to go upon the highway, which was a
very luckless occasion for him. Being quickly apprehended he was charged
with five several capital indictments, to all of which, when he came to
be arraigned, he resolutely pleaded guilty; and when admonished by the
Court that the crimes with which he was charged were felonies without
benefit of clergy, he persisted therein, saying that he would not give
the judge nor the gentlemen of the jury unnecessary trouble.

Macguire was indicted on four of the indictments which had been
preferred against Hughs, and capitally convicted upon them all. He was
no sooner under sentence than he declared himself to be of the communion
of the Church of Rome. However, he attended constantly at the chapel,
seemed to listen earnestly to what was said there, and made responses
very regularly to the several prayers, a thing which Papists very seldom
comply with. However, Bryan appeared to be a very reasonable man in this
respect, saying that he hoped God would be satisfied with that imperfect
atonement which he was able to make for his offences, and would not
impute it to him as a sin that he had taken all occasions which offered
of presenting his petitions for remission. In this disposition he
continued until the day of his execution, when both he and Hughs
appeared very composed and penitent, desiring the prayers of those who
were witnesses of their death, submitting thereto with all exterior
marks of proper resignation, on the 26th day of June, 1728; Hughs being
twenty-four and Macguire twenty-eight years of age or thereabouts.




The Life of JAMES HOW, _alias_ HARRIS, a notorious Highwayman and Thief


Though, generally speaking, the old saying holds true that nobody
becomes superlatively wicked at once, yet it may be also averred that a
long and habitual course of vice at last so hardens the soul that no
warnings are sufficient, no dangers so frightful, nor reflections so
strong as to overcome lewd inclinations, when their strength has become
increased by a long unrestrained indulgence.

The criminal of whom we are now to speak was a native of the town of
Windsor, in the county of Berks. His parents were honest people in
middling circumstances, who yet took such care of his education that he
was fit for any business to which he would have applied himself. But
he, on the contrary, continuing to lead a lazy and indolent course of
life, sauntering from one place to another, and preferring want and
idleness to industry and labour, at last became so burdensome to his
relations that with much ado they sent him to sea. There being of a
robust constitution and of a bold, daring spirit, he quickly gained some
preferment in the ship on board of which he sailed and might possibly
have done very well if he had continued at sea for any time, having the
good luck to serve on board the admiral's vessel, and to be taken notice
of as a sprightly young fellow, capable of coming to good.

But alas! James soon blasted this prospect of good fortune, for no
sooner was he on shore than laying aside all the views he had formed of
rising in the Navy, he associated himself with some of his old
companions. They persuaded him to take a purse, as the shortest and
easiest method of supporting those expenses into which his inclinations
for sensual pleasures naturally plunged him. He too easily listened to
their persuasions and from that time forward he left nothing unstolen
upon which he could lay his fingers.

Punishment did not pursue his crimes with a leaden pace; on the
contrary, he had scarce offended ere she made him sensible of the
offences. Bridewells, prisons, duckings, lashings, and beatings of hemp
were made familiar to him by his running through them several times in
the space of a few years. At length, as he increased the guilt of his
crimes, so he added to the weight of his sufferings; for after having
been at Newgate several times for lesser offences, he was at last
committed for a felony, and being convicted thereof, was ordered for
transportation. Rightly conceiving that if he was carried into the
Plantations he would be obliged to work very hard, which he most
dreaded, in order to escape he forged a letter as from a certain man of
quality directing that he should be set at liberty in order to serve as
a good hand on board of one of his Majesty's ships. His old ill luck
pursuing him, the forgery was detected and he was thereupon ordered to
remain two years at hard labour in Bridewell; but when he was brought
thither, the keeper absolutely refused to have anything to do with him.
They knew him of old and said that he was a fellow only fit to make the
other criminals who were there unruly, by projecting and putting them
into way of making their escape. Upon this he was carried back to
Newgate and remained a prisoner for that space of time.

How he came by his liberty again I cannot take upon me to say; all that
appears from my papers is that he made a very ill use of it as soon as
he obtained it, returning immediately to the commission of those crimes
for which he had before forfeited it. At length turning housebreaker he
was committed for feloniously stealing five pounds out of the house of
John Spence, for which fact, at the sessions following, a bill of
indictment was found against him, and he was thereupon arraigned.

At first he insisted that overtures had been made in order to procure
discoveries from him, and therefore he desired that he might be admitted
an evidence. The Court informed him that they would enter into no
altercations with a prisoner at the bar; that he had heard the nature of
the charge preferred against him; and that now they could hear nothing
from him unless he pleaded guilty or not guilty. He persisted
obstinately in his first demand, and in consequence thereof obstinately
refused to plead. Whereupon he was told from the Bench that such
behaviour was not a proper method to excite the mercy of the Court, that
it was not in their power to comply in any degree with what he desired,
but that on the contrary they should proceed to pass sentence upon him
as a mute, by which be would be subjected to a much greater and more
grievous punishment than if he were found guilty of the crime of which
he was accused. All this made no impression upon the criminal; he said
he could but die, and the manner in which he died was indifferent to
him. And so sentence, as is usual in such cases, was pronounced upon
him, and he was ordered to be carried back and put into the press. But
when he had carried it so far, and found there was no avoiding that
cruel fortune which was appointed for such obstinate persons as himself,
he desired time till the next morning to consider his plea, which being
permitted him, he that time pleaded guilty.

While under sentence of death something very extraordinary occurred in
relation to this malefactor. It seems that one Mrs. Dawson had a parcel
of plate, consisting of two silver tankards, two silver mugs, a silver
cup and a punch ladle, seven pounds sixteen shillings in money, and a
great quantity of papers of considerable value, stolen out of her house.
She suspected one Eleanor Reddey, and caused her to be apprehended, who
thereupon confessed that she opened the door of her mistress's house in
the night-time and let in one William Read; that she saw him take away
the plate and watched, in the meantime, to observe if anyone came. Upon
this confession she herself was convicted, but no evidence appearing
against William Read, who was tried with her, he was acquitted.

After she received sentence of death she declared herself absolutely
innocent of the fact for which she was to die, affirming that as soon as
she was taken up some neighbours persuaded her to make such a
confession, and to charge William Read with stealing the things,
assuring her that if she did so, she would preserve herself by coming a
witness against him. Being a silly timorous creature in herself, and
terrified by their suggesting that if she did not take the method they
proposed, somebody would infallibly swear against her, she with much ado
assented; and being carried before Justice Jackson, made and signed such
a confession as is before mentioned.

But How, _alias_ Harris, whose life we are now writing, declared that
he, himself, robbed Mrs. Dawson, and that he had a considerable quantity
of the plate and most of the papers in his power, offering to restore
them if the said Mrs. Dawson had interest enough to procure a pardon
either for himself or Eleanor Reddey. But the Ordinary assured him that
Mrs. Dawson could do no such thing, and at the same time exhorted him to
make what restitution was in his power, since otherwise his repentance
would remain imperfect and small hope could be given him of his meeting
with forgiveness from an offended God. At first this seemed to have
little or no weight with the criminal; he expressed himself very civilly
when spoken to on that head, but peremptorily refused to do anything
towards making satisfaction to Mrs. Dawson, unless she could do
something for him or the woman.

But when death approached nearer he began to relent, sent for the
Ordinary and told him that, as for the plate, it was indeed out of his