PRE-TWENTIETH-CENTURY CRIME

George Barrington

c.1775-1791. George Barrington (d.1804) was a noted elegantly dressed pickpocket who moved in exalted circles. Gave eloquent speeches in court in which he represented himself as a young gentleman. The press turned him into a super-thief. He was known of by the likes of Dickens, Walter Scott, and Edgar Allen Poe. In 1791 he was sent to Australia. Chap books were printed under his name about his journey to Australia.

In Australia he became a trustee and eventually chief constable. He was unhappy about the chap books being published in his name. He was given to portray himself as a victim.

George Barrington A Voyage To New South Wales (1795) plagiarised material from John Hunter's official account and dressed it up with fictional episodes.

The same publishers produced Letters From Mr Fletcher Christian (1796), which plagiarised accounts of travelling to South American

The Barrington named was affixed to other books that were revamps of older books.

Barrington books were published in Europe and America. These made alterations.

Behind The Bar

In 1822 a gang of thieves robbed Lord Ashbrook's house. They were arrested in The Porcupine pub. This was after they had asked the pub s landlord to keep their safe cracking equipment safe behind the bar.

Location: 48 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0BS (blue, brown)

Highway Robbery

Highway robbery dwindled away as a practice because of the development of banking. People could travel with only modest amounts of cash.

Finchley Common

In 1732 an unknown highwayman spied a coach and four that was being driven over Finchley Common in the direction of London. He rode up behind it and stuck his pistol into the carriage and demanded the passenger's money. The vehicle belonged to a rich gentleman but he was not travelling in it. Instead, it had been empty and the coachman had offered a lift to a poor rustic who had been walking along the road. The terrified man exclaimed that he was poor but that the robber could have the two shillings that he had on them. Taken aback, the highway told him to keep his money and pulled out a shilling from one of his own pockets. He threw this into the carriage and told the yokel to drink his health.

Partnership

John Everet and Joseph Williams established a partnership with each other under which they agreed to work as highwaymen on Finchley Common. Everet believed that his colleague swindled him out of some of their earnings and sued him in 1725. The court found for the plaintiff and awarded him 20. The defendant launched an appeal. The court required Everet to pay costs and ordered both men's solicitors to pay 50 for the involvement in such a discreditable matter. The two criminals ended up being executed.

Everet and Joseph Williams were active on both Finchley Common and Hounslow Heath. Everet filed a Bill of Equity in the Court of Chancery. Yet, the two highwaymen were not arrested. Williams was hanged at Maidstone in 1727 and Everet at Tyburn in 1730.

The Newgate Calendar

The Newgate Calendar was a bulletin of public executions that was produced by the Keeper of Newgate Prison. It described the acts of condemned in a censorious and sensational manner. In the mid-18^thC issues started to be sold together in bound copies.

Location: 32 Old Bailey, EC4M 7HS (blue, red)

Rookeries

See Also: SLUMS & AVENUES

Jack Sheppard

Jack Sheppard (1702-1724) was an apprentice carpenter. He took to drinking in The Black Lion on Drury Lane, where he fell in with a bad lot. He developed into being a charismatic highwayman. He was apprehended a number of times but succeeded. This, plus the fact that he did not use violence, led his becoming popular with the public.

In 1724 Sheppard was sentenced to be hung at Tyburn. On the day of his execution, some of Sheppard's criminal associates planned to cut him down before he was dead. However, when the group tried to carry out their plan, the crowd thought Sheppard's body was being taken down to be used for anatomical dissection, and so fought off his would-be rescuers. Sheppard died from his own popularity with those who had come to watch him die. That he was a small, light man had aided in his escapes, however, it probably was a factor in his being slow to hang.

The term Jack-the-lad for a self-assured young man derives from Sheppard.

Location: Vinegar Yard, WC2B 5JF (red, grey)

Tyburn, Edgware Road, W2 1DX (orange, pink)

Jonathan Wild

The rebuilding of the City of London after the Great Fire of 1666 placed the finances of the Corporation of the City under extreme pressure. In 1694 an Act of Parliament was used to bankrupt the City. One of the means to raise money that the Corporation then utilised was to auction off its principal civic offices, including those of City Marshal and the Keeper of Newgate. The purchasers then set about making back their outlay and then a profit. This fostered an atmosphere of corruption, in which the definition of legality became blurred.¹ It was in this environment that the criminal career of Jonathan Wild flourished. Wild purported to act as an agent through whom individuals, who had been robbed, might try to recover their stolen goods. In fact, it was Wild who was orchestrating the thefts. There was a period during which he effectively ran London's criminal world.

Receiving stolen goods became an offence because of Wild's activities. He was hanged at Tyburn in 1725 for unrelated offences.

¹. The civic offices were all eventually bought back.

The Beggar's Opera

The satirist the Rev Jonathan Swift suggested to the composer John Gay that he should look at London's underworld for possible subject matter. Gay saw the scope for viewing Wild as an Olympian figure and thus was born The Beggar's Opera. The piece was first performed in 1728 in a production that was staged by the actor-manager John Rich at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre. It proved to be a great success; a bon mot was coined that the work had made Rich gay and Gay rich .

While The Beggar's Opera was in part a critique of the political morality of the day, none of its characters was intended to represent the then Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole. Gay had accepted the patronage of the Duchess of Queensberry, who hated the first minister with a passion. The premier flexed his power by banning Polly (1729), which Gay had written as a sequel to the Opera.

Location: Lincoln s Inn Fields Theatre, Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC2A 3PE (orange, brown)

David Backhouse 2024