Scoundrel’s Alley Presents: The Scholarly Scoundrel, on A Continuing Series of Thoughts Pertinent to Historical Scoundrels Everywhere.


The following articles first appeared in the now defunct Reliving History Magazine. They remain the property of Scoundrels Alley and their specific authors. Use of the articles are by written permission only. Use of the resourses and suggeted readings-hey, knock yourselves out!
Scoundrel’s Alley Presents: The Scholarly Scoundrel on A Continuing Series of Thoughts Pertinent to Historical Scoundrels Everywhere.

The Colonial Dumping Ground

(Americans)…are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.
-Samuel Johnson, 1769 (Boswells Johnson, Vol. II, pg. 312; Penny Cyclopaedia, XXV. 138)


(Americans)…are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.-Samuel Johnson, 1769 (Boswells Johnson, Vol. II, pg. 312; Penny Cyclopaedia, XXV. 138)
In the collection Memoirs and Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson, one of the letters therein, written in 1785 from France by Jefferson, will reveal an interesting belief he had about English criminals sent to America. He writes: “…the malefactors sent to America were not sufficient in number to merit enumeration (and) it was at a later period of their history that the practice began. I do not think the whole number would amount to 2,000 and, being principally men eaten up with disease, they married seldom and propagated little. I do not suppose that themselves and their descendants at present number 4,ooo, which is little more than one thousandth part of the whole inhabitants.”This statement, by one of the preeminent founding fathers is of course undeniably true. After all, our founding fathers had only our best interest at heart and to think they might lie to put on a good face to another nation is as unpatriotic as claiming peach pie more American than apple!
But do we see any reason to doubt his assessment? In short, yes.
The purpose of this and future articles will look at the aspects of the ‘scoundrels’ who came to America. Why they came, how the survived, their place in history, the arts, entertainment and the lingering effects into today.
As to Jefferson’s comment about the exact number of transported criminals sent to America, were they really so few malefactors as to not even mention? Hardly. As Anthony Vaver points out in his well researched and documented book Bound with an Iron Chain, the amount of transported criminals from England to America between 1718 and 1775 was closer to 50,000 than Jefferson’s estimate of 2,000. Of these, approximately 18,600 from London, 16,000 from Ireland, 5,000 from Wales, 700 from Scotland and the rest, some 30,000 from all over England proper. Further evidence suggests that 75% of all immigrants coming into the American Colonies in the 18th century were either slave, indentured servants or transported criminals. Jefferson surely knew this to be true, for after all it was common and accepted knowledge .
Benjamin Franklin, another of our well-known founding fathers, will pen an ‘op-ed’ to the Pennsylvania Gazette in may of 1751, an article entitled ‘Felons and Rattlesnakes’ addressing this very issue of England transporting her prisoners to the Colonies. In the article he laments the decision of Great Britain to fill America (referred to as “her child”), with the dregs of society because it was a lucrative trade. Never mind that
“…these Thieves and Villains introduc’d among us, spoil the Morals of Youth in the Neighbourhoods that entertain them, and perpetrate many horrid Crimes: But let not private Interests obstruct publick Utility. Our Mother knows what is best for us. What is a little Housebreaking, Shoplifting, or Highway Robbing; what is a Son now and then corrupted and hang’d, a Daughter debauch’d and pox’d, a Wife stabb’d, a Husband’s Throat cut, or a Child’s Brains beat out with an Axe, compar’d with this “Improvement and WELL PEOPLING of the Colonies!” (Pennsylvania Gazette, 9 May, 1751).
In truth, England was overrun by criminals-both those who chose the life and the poor who were given no choice but thieve or die. As the population of the cities grew, the need for land expanded, so where once the countryside could help support the laborers by farming, hunting and fishing, the city had swallowed up the lands and resources, forcing more and more people into the cities looking for what once was freely provided. Work was scarce, food even more limited. The desperate poor often had no choice but to turn to thievery just for basic survival, leading to a crime epidemic the culture of the time was ill equipped to deal with.
In 1731, Daniel Defoe will pen and publish his work entitled An Effectual Scheme for the Immediate Preventing of Street Robberies whereby he bemoaned about the violence and plunder no longer being confined to the countryside with highwaymen the biggest threat but rather ‘…the streets of the city are now the places of danger, men are knocked down and robb’d, nay, sometimes murdered at their own doors, and in passing and reposing but from house to house or shop to shop.’ It was obvious that a workable solution had to be found.
To the culture of the day, the idea of long-term incarceration smacked of ‘cruel and unusual punishment’. Generally prisons were crowded, filthy and disease ridden. It was also thought by some to have a detrimental effect on the petty thief, because throwing a petty thief in with the ‘hardened’ criminals could very possibly lead them to becoming ‘professionals’ just by the close proximity of the two entities. Plus, quick punishment was desired as to decrease the cost to the government. To understand this attitude, it first must be understood that the justice system of this time was considerably different from ours of today. The government had very little interest or ability in way of ‘rehabilitation’ and in truth very little monies were spent on food, clothing and housing of criminals. The penal code was very short and-to our minds-severe. Whipping, branding and public shaming were the first order of business, with execution a close second. Often a ‘two strikes and you’re dead’ policy was the norm rather than the exception. What we would consider ‘petty crimes’-such as the theft of two handkerchiefs-would carry a mandatory sentence of execution.
It was overcrowded prisons that would lead to the problem of excessive executions and eventually the solution known as the Transportation Act. So many executions were being carried out in the early part of the 18th century that many jurists concluded that instead of deterring crime, it had become a public spectacle. Hanging days became a grand event, with London placing on her books an edict that workers were allowed 9 ‘execution day’ excuses to miss work.They even took their families to see the display, often making these execution days not days of mourning and consideration of the law, but rather a fair-like atmosphere was created, complete with speeches, sermonizing, histories of the crimes and of those being hanged. There were games and gaming, ‘Punch’ shows, races and other activities before the ‘grand event’. At times, even some of those scheduled for the gallows joined in, laughing and joking all the way up the steps to the hangman’s noose.
Thus, in 1718 the English Parliament set ‘The Act for the Further Preventing Robbery, Burglary and other Felonies, and for the More Effectual Transportation of Felons’ into the statute book. In essence, it legitimized the transportation of criminals as a direct sentence for felonies that did not warrant the death sentence, a seven year forced indentureship for petty and grand larceny and other such non capital offenses deemed to be so by a judge. Capitol offenses, if pardoned by the Crown, increased the number of years from seven to fourteen. It also gave the Courts leeway to charge for a lesser crime so that instead of transportation, branding on the thumb and public whippings would suffice. While this seems a kinder, more humane gesture, the sad truth was that as time went on more and more women were given the reduced punishments rather than being transported. The simple reason was that women were not worth as much, nor wanted as much, as the men were.
This is not to say that these were the first criminals to be transported and sold as indentured servants, but the Transportation Act did speed up the amount of immigrants coming of their own free will. As stated above, between 1718-1755 some 75% of immigrants coming to America came by force, with transported criminals being second only to African slaves. Still, as pointed out by Peter Coldham in the Complete Book of Emigrants, 1607-1776 that prior to the Transportation Act, it has been estimated that the 17th Century saw only about a third of all immigrants arriving in a state of freedom.
England did not seem to care what happened to these convicts once they left England proper. All she seemed concerned with was that they were gone and wouldn’t return-under penalty of death-until their time was served. Simply put, England kept an ‘out of site, out of mind’ approach. In addition, their term of ‘indentureship’ did not start at conviction, sentencing or even while still on English soil. It did not start until they were in the Colonies proper, on shore where a government agent verified that they had arrived, whether dead or alive it mattered not. Just as long as they could be accounted for, then their time started. It should be noted here that the idea of ‘transported criminals’ was not to send them to a ‘penal colony’ such as Australia’s ‘Botony Bay’ but instead these people were brought to the Americas where they were to be sold at auction for their indenture time.
Oddly enough,England herself did not see the profit in the sale of these indentureship, for in truth she only cared that they were gone and she no longer had the care or trouble of them. Instead it would become a very profitable venture for some. On July 19, 1718 Johnathon Forward was awarded the contract for transport at the rate of £3 for any convict leaving from London and £5 for any prisoner leaving from any other place in England. He did this as a flat rate, while he himself covered the cost for food on the journey and transportation to the harbor, as well as supplying his own chains! besides the contract payment, he also kept the profits from the sale of the prisoners. His total cost for the first group of prisoners was £375 total. He estimated a return of some £2,700 pounds for the sale of the indentured servant contracts plus an agreement to return with a cargo of tobacco to be sold at market in London.
With everything in place, in the summer of 1718 the first ship of ’His Majesty’s Seven-Year Passengers’, as they would become commonly known, left England, headed for the markets of Virginia and Maryland. One hundred thirty-four convict crowded into the hold of the slave ship Dolphin, owned by Gilbert Powlson. The ‘Transportation Act’ had begun, and would continue uninterrupted until 1776 when the newly emerging United Stated of America would finally say ‘No More’.
 Although difficulties did arise with the Transportation Act, the Crown took great troubles to ensure that those that were sentenced to be deported were removed from the kingdom as promptly as ships came available. Conditions aboard a transport ship were harsh; goal fever racked each ship as the convicts, sometimes shackled, were packed in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. Treatment of convicts on board the ships ranged from liberality to harsh brutality depending on the officers in charge. James Revel, who was transported in April of 1771 to serve for fourteen years, penned his ode, The Poor Unhappy Transported Felons Sorrowful Account of Fourteen Years’ Transportation at Virginia in America, and described his crossing with these words:   The Captain and the sailors us’d us well,   But kept us nude lest we should rebel.   We were in number about threescore,   A wicked lousy crew as e’er went o’er.   Five of our number in the passage died,   Which soon was thrown into the ocean wide. 
When they arrived, as all future Transported Criminals would be, they were cleaned up and notices were sent out, for the indentureships were often sold at auction. And while an average unskilled male slave in good condition could command up to £35, an unskilled transported convict would only average £12.84 pounds sterling. If they had a skill or a trade, up to £25. Taller criminals, thought to be more productive, commanded up to 20% higher, teenagers 20% lower. If a convict had been sentenced for simple theft, they generally went for a higher price than someone convicted of a more heinous crime such as arson. Often, however the aged, lame, weak and many children were just given away to whomever would take them or simply turned loose with no resources.
While most were sold as common field hands, if they showed aptitude or had some skill, they would be used in the common trades of the time-blacksmith, coopers, peruke makers to name a few. Unskilled persons could also be used as chimney sweeps, fishermen, sailors and soldiers. If a criminal was educated and could read and write, he might even be indentured into the role of teacher. George Washington was taught reading, writing and accounts by a transported convict, purchased by his father for that very reason.
Runaways were widespread among these indentured convicts, generally within the first 6 months, with runaways rare after their second year of indentureship. Those who did run were often quickly captured as the population was not large enough for someone to easily hide in. Those who were caught were usually taken back, publicly whipped and often time would be added to their indentureship. At times they would be ‘collared’ by having an iron ring-called a ‘pothook’ placed around their neck and riveted in place. Execution was the punishment for someone who helped a convict so ‘collared’ remove it without permission.
As the 18th Century moved along and the need for workers both skilled and unskilled spread out from the seaside and into the west, many convicts were sold as ‘lots’ by ‘Soul Drivers’. These men would purchase them in groups, line them up and head out into the countryside, selling as they went.
It is to be noted tho that the ultimate purpose was to turn a quick profit, so if a criminal being transported had the money-and some did-they could easily make a bargain with the captain of the vessel to pay the expected amount they would fetch on the block. As soon as the captain made his report to the official verifying that the convict had landed-thereby guaranteeing him his ‘transportation’ fee upon returning to England, he would simply let the convict go free. England truly did not care, as long as they were not IN England.
One of the reasons often sited by the government as to why these prisoners should be so transported was that they could, while serving out their sentences be given valuable experience and skills, thereby making something of themselves. Because they were considered the same as ‘indentured servants’ they were eligible for ‘Freedom Dues’ at the end of their contract. Each colony determined her own ‘Freedom Dues’ which usually consisted of a lot of land, seed, tools and money. Virginia, for instance, gave to each male completing service 1 musket, 10 bushels of corn and 30 shillings (or items of equal value). Women were given 15 bushels of corn and 40 shillings. This was given to both criminal indentureship (by the state) or anyone signing into indentureship by their employer. Unfortunately, Virginia passed a law in 1753 stopping the requirement for giving the convicts ‘freedom dues’.
But even without these ‘Freedom Dues’, most convicts were ill equipped to handle the work (often simply plantation field work) without ever learning a trade. As such, it is estimated that at the end of their service, 1 in 10 became planters, 1 in 10 artisans and 8 in 10 transient, setting up America’s own criminal element.
And what was the result of this first ship of ‘officially licensed’ criminals? It did not end well. What Forward did not know when he gave the first ship assignment to Powlson, was that Powlson himself was wanted in Maryland for past debts, so when the Dolphin lands in Annapolis, not only had 7 of the convicts died in transport, but Powlson was clapped in irons for debt, some £2,ooo of assets were frozen and the Dolphin herself after unloading sank in the harbor. This misfortune, however, did not stop Forward, as he would continue to hold the contract to transport prisoners to the colonies until he retired a very wealthy man in 1739. It was reported in the Calendar of Treasury Books and Papers, Vol. 4, 1739-1741 published by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, London that ‘Andrew Reid of London, merchant, loco Jonathan Forward, and the contract to be made with him for that purpose is to be for 3 years certain.’ What is even MORE certain is the lucrative trade to be made in transporting and selling off these criminals in the colonies.
Thus we leave our discourse with one final thought; while many of us can point with pride to the knowledge that our ‘forefathers’ came to America in the 18th century, perhaps now knowing that fully 75% arrived in chains makes us pause and ask:
 Do we truly wish to look at just how OUR ancestors arrived?

-‘Scoundrel’s Alley’ is the collaboration of Faire Wynds Entertainments and Parson John Living History. The ‘Scholarly Scoundrel’ is Eric Paul Scites who can be reached at eric@fairewynds.com.
Scoundrel’s Alley Presents: The Scholarly Scoundrel on A Continuing Series of Thoughts Pertinent to Historical Scoundrels Everywhere.
N.B. This article was written as a story. While the happenings described here are not a true account of any known event, it is based upon the Bellman of St. Sepulchre and his duty to the condemned prisoners of Newgate Prison through the 17th and 18th Century. -E.P.S.

For Who Does the Bell Toll

Two Sticks and Apple,Ring ye Bells at Whitechapple,Old Father Bald Pate,Ring ye Bells Aldgate,Maids in White Aprons,Ring ye Bells a St. Catherines,Oranges and Lemons,Ring ye bells at St. Clements,When will you pay me,Ring ye Bells at ye Old Bailey,When I am Rich,Ring ye Bells at Fleetditch,When will that be,Ring ye Bells at Stepney,When I am Old,Ring ye Bells at Pauls. -Oranges and Lemons c. 1744
He lay awake, unable to sleep on his final night on this earthly coil. The cold seeped through the thin clothing he wore-just his shirt, breeches and shoes. The rest of his clothing-indeed the rest of his life’s possessions he had long ago sold to the bailiff for a bit of bread and meat. And now the cold, cutting like a knife right though the moldy straw in which he lay, was the only barrier between him and the stone floor. The noises of the night he listened to with an intensity that only one soon to be executed could ever know. The rustling of rats and mice looking for the few crumbs that might have fallen. The shuffle of the guards slowly making their nightly rounds. The low drip, drip, drip of water somewhere off in the distant. The groans of the prisoners around him-some softly whispering for their mothers or their lovers, some deeply groaning as they cried in their sleep, crying to whatever god they hoped would take pity on them. His mind drifted to happier days-if indeed they could be called happier days. But still, his memories chose to place them in that way, reminding him of a time when he and his wife were just so happy to have welcomed their young son, their firstborn and-unbeknownst to them their only child. Those were the memories he tried desperately to cling to, but pushing in on them was the agonizing memory of standing outside the apothecary, the bitter winter wind biting into his exposed flesh as he stared longingly at the bottle of medicine he had tried to buy with the few coins he had-not nearly enough. He had tried so desperately to explain to the clark how he needed the medicine-his son and wife, just a few months ago so happy and gay, now lay gasping and coughing in the grips of the terrible disease that threatened their very lives. Perhaps if he had known that at the very moment he grasped the rock in his hand that his wife breathed her last, or maybe as he reached through the broken window to grab that precious medicine that his son, his only child, was at that moment giving the throaty rattle that proceeds death he would have stopped what he was doing. That instead his usual good sense would have prevailed and he would have turned away and faced his despair head on, alone but free. Instead he was found the next day by two thief takers. They had been stopped by the shopkeeper earlier and were told what had taken place the previous night. With a description from the clark, they easily found him the next morning at the small hovel he had called ‘home’. He gave no fight, instead still clutching the bottle he had traded his freedom for, kneeling over the still, cold forms of his wife and son. No longer weeping for his emotions had long ago burned themselves out and were just as dead as the two lying before him. His trial at the Old Baily was swift, and his execution date set. And still, he found no spark of life, no reason to live within his breast. And now, his last night. 7 weeks he had been kept in the lowest of the cells at Newgate Prison, waiting for the next ‘execution day’ to arrive. The darkness was almost complete, the nauseating smell of sweat, mold, bodily functions and-most of all, fear-he had long ago learned to ignore. The sounds tho, try as he might, he could not still the noises around him. Especially the bells, for they sounded out the hour from the towers of St. Sepulchre, the church on the other side of the walls. Hourly they sounded out their mournful peals, calling out as if they marked the approaching footsteps of death himself. Tonight tho, as he counted out the strokes-one, two, three, four-a soft glow began to appear from the tunnel at the far end of the condemned cell block-five, six-the tunnel that led to the church-seven-a dim form began to take shape out of the darkness-eight, nine-a shape that slowly formed into a man as it approached-ten, eleven-and stopped at his cell-twelve. Slowly the man raised his hand in which held a large bell, and as that bell too began to toll, the man began to slowly speak...’All you that in the condemned hole do lie, prepare you, for tomorrow you shall die...’ The Bellman of St. Sepulchre had arrived. Immediately his mind rushed him back to his childhood. It was the night before an ‘Execution Day’, the first one he could remember. His was not a wealthy home, just a home. And now he was lying on his rag filled mattress, listening to his parents talking in the next room about the following day. He wasn’t sure what an ‘execution day’ was, but he was gathering that it was something very important and at the same time exciting and fun. He could never remember a time that his father did not go to work or his mother not take in her sewing. And he had never been on a whole day trip into the town. But that is exactly what they told him at supper that evening was going to happen. His father explained to him that ‘bad men’ were going to pay the price for their sins and crimes, and that the government encouraged everyone that could to attend them for the ‘...betterment of society and a more lawful existence’ or something like that. He was more interested in hearing his older siblings talk about what else was going to be happening. They talked about Punch puppet shows, the street food, the music and jugglers. They spoke of the many different games they saw, and how some were even illegal but somehow no-one seemed to care. Of the book sellers and the preachers calling out about the ‘condemned who are about to die, repent and fair warning to all who see and hear’ and other such things. His mother talked of taking them to see the church known as ‘St. Sepulchre’ or, as his father gently corrected her ‘The Church of the Holy Sepulchre Without Newgate’. At this his brother said something about the strange old man called the ‘Bellman of St. Sepulchre’ who was said to attend to the prisoners about to die. And at that thought his mind jerked him back to the present, just as the figure before him intoned the next line...’Watch all, and pray, the hour is drawing near, that you before Almighty God will appear.’ And just as quickly he was back in his memories. Finally, the night was over and the day was here! This was going to be some day, it seemed! Among others being executed was going to be the highwayman known as ‘Sixteen String Jack’. He wondered about the ‘sixteen strings’ but was too engrossed with listening to the talk about him to ask. But from what he could hear from the street preachers calling out about the sins of this man, his real name was John Rann and was called ‘Sixteen String Jack’ for his penchant for wearing sixteen strings of different colors to tie up his knee breeches. From what he could gather over all of the noise, ‘Sixteen String Jack’ had been at his vagaries a long time, and had been captured for highway robbery, all dismissed for lack of evidence or a failure of the witnesses to identify him. But this last one, he was apprehended for robbing a chaplain. But not just any chaplain, but the personal chaplain of Princess Amelia of Brentford. Whom ever that was, but she must have been important, to hear everyone talk about it. He wanted to stay and watch the shows-there was a man doing magical tricks, another had a monkey that was dancing, and the smells-oh, those grand smells of the food being sold from stalls quickly erected, from baskets, from wheelbarrows, even right from braziers smoking hot- was making him so hungry. Gingerbreads, fat smoking sausages, sweet treats-but his mother, ever one to teach, insisted that they first go into that great building before him, the building where even now the bells-12 of them! rang out from the towers. This was his first time being in such a grand place.
 His mother quickly began to talk of this amazing building. She said it was on the site of an old Saxon church, whoever Saxon was. But he was too polite to interrupt his mother to ask. She told him about it being dedicated to King Edmund-he knew who THAT was-and how the soldiers going off to the Holy Land would stop here to dedicate themselves to the freeing of Jerusalem-wherever that was. And that is why it was named ‘St. Edmund and the Holy Sepulchre’. Something about a ‘Holy Seplchre’ church in Jerusalem. He made a note to himself to ask later where Jerusalem was, it seemed important. Maybe his father could take him there some afternoon. His mother continued on her lessons tho, explaining how it had been burnt-all but one outer wall-in the Great Fire that was still on everyones memories, tho it had happened one a hundred years ago, that its name was changed to ‘The Church of the Holy Sepulchre Without Newgate’, being that it was originally built outside of the city walls, opposite of Newgate Prison. He knew where that was, they passed it on the way to the church. It was dark, forboding and smelled even from a distance. He didn’t think he had smelled anything so bad. As if the smells assailed him again he was abruptly jerked from his revelry, the smells now just as real and pungent as had been his daily companions for six weeks now. And once again he stared at the face in the shadowy coil, and the voice of the Bellman continued the intonation. ‘Examine well yourselves, in times repent, that you not to eternal flames be sent, and when St. Sepulchre’s bell tomorrow tolls, the Lord above have mercy on your souls’. With great relief once again his mind took him back. Now, his mother was showing him where people were buried inside of the church-what a silly notion, but he supposed they needed to do something with the bodies. His brother the night before had talked of ‘ghouls’ called ‘resurerctionists’ who dug up bodies and sold them away, but his brother was always trying to scare him so he took no thought of them. But his mother did point out a couple of graves he found interesting-Admiral John Smith, who was so instrumental in starting Jamestown and the colony of Virginia-he knew where that was, everyone was talking about the ‘rebellion’ that was going on-and she showed him where the ashes of John Rogers was kept. He didn’t know who that was, but his mother went on to say he used to be the Vicar at St. Sepuchre, but got in trouble by printing the first English Bible and was burned at the stake by Mary I. Why she was so mad that Rogers printed a Bible his mother didn’t explain, so he just put it aside.Finally, they found themselves at the entrance to a tunnel. An old man sat there with a bell-a big bell, almost as big as he was. He couldn’t imagine anyone carrying that thing around, let alone ringing it. The man seemed friendly enough, tho, enough that he felt emboldened to ask if he would ring the bell so that they could all hear what it sounded like. ‘No, son.’ the old man replied. ‘This is a bell you do not want to hear. It is a bell that rings only at midnight-and only outside of the cell of one about to die. If you ever hear this bell, look to your own eternal soul.’ A shiver ran up his spine, and he almost bolted right then. The old man, sensing he had frightened the boy, gave a gentle smile and began to talk in a soothing voice, telling him about the bell. It was bequeathed for the sum of £50 in 1605 by Robert Dow, a member of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, he himself who once considered taking the cloth. It was to be rung at midnight outside of the cells of the condemned prisoners 12 times, and a call for them to see to their souls and to ask forgiveness of God. He went on to tell the boy that he found it at once a horrible task, but if even one of those poor souls would repent and seek forgiveness, he felt that he had done his duty to God and mankind. After the bell had been rung, he himself would return to await the morning, and as the carts carrying the ones to be executed passed by, they stopped at the entrance to the church. Some to drink a toast, some to seek absolution, some for no reason other than it was expected of them. There, he handed them a nosegay for tradition sake, and his work then was done until the next execution day. He pointed out a tunnel near where they stood and explained that that was the tunnel he went through roughly every six weeks at midnight. It led directly into the condemned cells in the bowels of Newgate Prison. And, for the last time his mind was brought back to the present, and he was staring into the eyes of the Bellman of St. Sepulchre.They were eyes that expressed pity, sympathy and a yearning to bring solace and peace. And in those eyes he finally-finally realized he WAS at peace. His sin had been forgiven-tho what sin was there in trying so desperately to save the lives of two innocents. For he realized that at the moment he broke the window to get the life-saving medicine that he was willingly giving up his own life so that the others could live, even tho he was too late. He reached his hands through the bars and grasped the old man’s hands that in turn grasped the bell, and simply said ‘Thank you’. The old man nodded, and stepped away. To begin the journey back through the darkness, through the tunnel and back to the living. The next day he awoke-that he was able to sleep initially surprised him, until he realized that it was with a sense of calmness and peace and-yes-excitement that he greeted the day. For today was more than just the day of his death. And with that thought he walked in chains with the other condemned prisoners and got on the carts outside of the prison. When they stopped but a short distance away at the steps of St. Sepulchre, he waited patiently for the Bellman to walk down the line of prisoners, some shouting horrible epitaphs towards the man, some smiling and laughing, some just staring, already dead to the world. And when the old man reached him, he took the nosegay that was offered and placed it in the buttonhole of his shirt and grasped the old mans hand. No words were spoken, because the look he gave the old man was enough. A look that was one the old man longed to see in all of them-a look of peace, of the acceptance of grace of salvation. The old man gave a gentle smile, nodded in understanding and turned to the next prisoner. It was three miles to Tyburn Tree, where the execution was to take place, and he looked with anticipation as each mile passed, the bells of St. Sepulchre slowly fading from sound. For just like last night, when the Bellman of St. Sepulchre had finished his duty and turned to walk back into the darkness of the tunnel on his way back to light and the living, he knew now that at the end of his own journey and the passing through that dark tunnel was not the end of his life, but the beginning of the living reunion with his Savior, his wife and their son.
-‘Scoundrel’s Alley’ is the collaboration of Faire Wynds Entertainments and Parson John Living History. The ‘Scholarly Scoundrel’ is Eric Paul Scites who can be reached at eric@fairewynds.com.
LOTTERY: Building a Better America since 1612 Vol. IV Issue II Summer, 2021

Law and Order: The Original Series

Scoundrel’s Alley Presents: The Scholarly Scoundrel. A Continuing Series of Thoughts Pertinent to Historical Scoundrels Everywhere.
‘Many cartloads of our fellow creatures are once in six weeks carried to slaughter’-Henry Fielding, Author and Magistrate,1749
Law and Order: The Original Series
N.B. Greetings, Dear Reader. As one might expect, the area of Law Enforcement is paramount to those of us dwelling in the shadows of polite society. But even wading gently into the waters of the subject of justice is not without it’s peril. Each colony in the 18th Century had it’s own ideas of how to proceed, indeed even from individual town to town. Our interest then today is not so much to tackle the absolute, complete and end-all of what was occurring through the justice system of the colonies of the 18th century and into the fledgeling country of the early 19th, instead give a broad overview of what one might expect to face. Provided, that is, one did not hear our resident Bo Peep ‘cry beef’ and was then found by the Harmanbeck not ‘playing least in sight’! Law and Justice: A Brief Beginning English law, and by extension Colonial law of the 18th century in it’s raw form can be traced back to Alfred the Great (ruling 871-899) and his introduction of what will be the basis of all law going forward, a ‘Doom Book’ or ‘Judgement Book’ completed in 893. In it he will codify the three major Saxon law collections as well as incorporating Mosaic law from the Old Testament books of Deuteronomy and Exodus as well as a code of ethics he took from the New Testament book of Acts. This ‘Doom Book’ will stand until the Assize of Arms, known as the Statute of Winchester is published in 1233 which will form the basis of our laws until the ‘Metropolitan Police Act’ of 1829 begins the era of ‘modern’ policing. Where Alfred had divided the kingdom into family groups known as ‘Tithings’, with anyone over the age of 12 being responsible for raising a ‘Hue and Cry’ if witnessing a crime, King Edmund (ruling from 939-946) would expound on this idea. He would form these family ‘tithings’ into blocks of 10. As the groups enlarged and people began to move more and more outside of their original family, the term ‘Tithing’ will quickly change to ‘Shire’ and finally much later to ‘County’. In addition, he charged each Tithing/Shire to have a ‘Reeve’ appointed by the crown to apprehend and present in front of a magistrate-also appointed by the crown-scofflaws for punishment. Except for High Treason, by and large punishment was monetary. And this fine was not expected to be paid by the criminal, but by the family ‘tithing’ he belonged to, forcing a style of ‘self-policing’ within each group. With the Assize of Arms (Statute of Winchester) being enacted by Edward I (ruling 1272-1307) a central figure known as the ‘Shire Reeve’ (later corrupted to ‘Sheriff) as the chief law enforcement officer of a county was established. With the ability to impress men into a ‘posse comitatus’ for the tracking and apprehension of criminals, this ‘Shire Reeve’ was, for the first time also given the authority to travel outside of his own Shire in pursuit of the criminal. Edward at this time also establishes both ‘watchmen’, and ‘constables’.These two had no jurisdiction outside of their respective Shires unless being part of a ‘posse comitatus’. The sole purpose of the watchman was actually not to apprehend or stop a crime being committed, but to set up a ‘hue and cry’ if witnessing one, alerting the Reeve and/or Constable. The Constable had the authority to quell uprisings as well as call men to arms in order to stop a crime or criminal from leaving the Shire. Because the Crown had as it’s focus crimes involving insurrection, treason, coining and cattle rustling, any other crime involving property and the recovery of same relied on the ability of the victim, often as not without the help of the constable to be able to capture, gather the evidence and present it to the Shire Reeve. It was then his, that is the Shire Reeve’s responsibility to present the evidence as well as the offender to the crown appointed magistrate for punishment. Simply put, if there was no evidence, there was no crime. Henry I (ruling 1100-1135) will, in 1114 change many of the punishments from monetary to executions. In 1196 William Fitz (Longbeard) Osbert will be the first person executed at the famed Tyburn Tree. He himself was university educated, had been on Crusade to the Holy Land and held civic office in London. His crime? Organizing riots in areas of London by the poor and robbing the richer houses during the uprisings. John Austin, highway robber, would be the last to be hanged at Tyburn, 7 Nov. 1783. In between there have been an estimated 50,000 persons hanged at the famed gallows, not including burnings, beheadings and strangulations. Punishments: An Overview After Henry I had instituted the movement away from monetary to physical punishments-because the poor had no money and incarceration was considered ‘cruel and unusual’-there became a large range of what would by today’s standards BE ‘cruel and unusual’. Branding or burning on the cheek, palm, forehead (if the crime was committed on Sunday) or thumb was instituted for everything from petty theft to fornication. Whipping was common, often as a public spectacle with the person, be they male, female, child or adult stripped of their upper garments and tied to a post. Cropping of the ears, whereby the earlobe or even the whole ear was removed without anesthesia. Stocks and pillory were common, but limited in their usage by time. The stocks consisting of holes whereby feet were inserted and locked between two boards and the victim sat, the pillory had the head and hands placed in holes between two boards and the victim forced to stand stooped over. Often the timeframe, measured in hours would be divided up over two or more days, one hour per day being the most common. Much of the time the pillory included having one or both ears nailed to the board. Standing with the hangman noose tight around the neck for an amount of time was common, an ostentatious way to remind a criminal that the noose could be fully tightened or the rope could be pulled or board pulled from their feet at any time if they were found to commit another crime. While these were seen as the lighter of the sentences, they carried with themselves the possibility of long term effects, if not death. Branding was a lifelong disfigurement, as was the cropping of the ears. Whipping could and often did lead to infections which in turn led to death. The stocks and pillory, used often on women instead of whipping, carried it’s own problems. For once restrained in the device the offender was subject to public ridicule and ofttimes ‘pummeling’. Although ‘pummeling’ was not considered a part of the punishment and was frowned upon, it was a common occurrence. Rocks, sticks, fruit and vegetables, even fecal matter both human and animal wold be gathered up and thrown at the helpless victim, unable to fend off the missiles. This itself could be considered a further punishment and could-often did-become worse than the original punishment itself. An example was Elizabeth Needham, famed not only as a ‘procuress’ of young men and women for wealthy clients but also featured as the bawd in Hogarth’s series ‘Harlot’s Progress’. When Needham was finally captured-or, rather she came to the unwanted attention of the ‘Society for the Reformation of Manners’, she was brought before the magistrate, found guilty of running a ‘disorderly house’ and sentenced to stand in the pillory for three hours, divided over 2 days. Unfortunately, she was so pummeled by the crowd that gathered to witness her punishment that even tho she was removed alive at the end of her first day, she succumbed to her injuries two days later, the day before she was to finish out her sentence.But these punishments were often only for the commoners, the poor, professional criminals and their ilk. The crown took very little interest in the doings of this class, provided they did not cross the line into treason, sedition or coining (counterfeiting currency or shaving the metal off coinage). For these, the Crown took a very dim view and the punishment for this was sometimes quick but always severe. Burning, strangulation, beheading and hanging were quick and highly effective of making sure the criminal did not return to their vagaries. Drawing and quartering were done to the most heinous of offenders, usually those found guilty of treason. For this they were ‘dragged’ behind horses to the place of execution, hanged by the neck ‘until mostly dead’, taken down alive (usually), their entrails removed and then their arms and legs cut off and placed at the four points of the compass around the city with the head mounted in public view. The Crown really DID take a dim view of sedition and insurrection. This rather barbaric practice the Crown plied as their favorite way of stopping treasonous acts would stay as law until a movement for reformation of the criminal code that begins in the early part of the 19th century finally gains ground. Considering ‘hanged by the neck until almost dead’ to be rather ‘cruel and unusual’, The ‘Crimes Act’ of 1814 changed the law to read ‘hanged until dead’. Public display of the body parts was removed from the law in 1843 and drawing and quartering in 1870. Hanging quickly grew to be the most common punishment, so much that in 1571 Tyburn, the major execution spot for London, was enlarged to have the hanging tree built as a triangle, what would be known as the ‘Triple Tree’ for multiple executions to happen at the same time. Of course burnings were occurring in the same location, tho by 1686 both burning and beheading fell out of favor and was replaced with hanging as the major form of execution. Parliament did change the law to reflect this but that was more for the time it took to execute by burning and the fact that the ‘Royal Hangman and Cutter’ John (Jack) Ketch was so bad at beheadings. But his name lives on, as a ‘Jack Ketch’ is a colloquialism for executioners throughout history. Oddly enough, the colonies seemed to be more ‘forgiving’ than her mother England.
The Colonies: An Offspring In 1691 Queen Mary, now co-regent with William helped fund the ‘Society for the Reformation of Manners’. This came about partially due to the Jacobite Uprising of 1689 and the newly released soldiers upon the populous with their ‘debauchery and vagaries’. In addition to making profanity, prostitution and brothels illegal, the Coinage Act of 1692 which devalued the currency of Ireland to nothing will cause England and especially London to be overrun with the poor and destitute who had to survive any way they could, petty crime being the most common. And the most common punishment was hanging. So many hangings that London had mass hangings approximately every 6 weeks and the whole of the town would turn out to watch the spectacle. To counter that the Transportation Act of 1717 was enacted. And while England had been transporting their criminals to the colonies since the beginning, this law now gave the courts the option of either hanging or-for minor offenses-to be sent to the colonies and sold at public auction for a 7-year indentureship. And at the end of the indentureship these criminals were free. With no place to go. Stuck in the colonies. It has been estimated that three-quarters of all immigrants to the Americas in the 18th century came in some sort of chain-slave, indenture by hire and some 50,000 men, women and children as transported criminals under this law. While there were certainly executions in the colonies, they were not nearly as common as England, even without the influx of criminals, both those who finished their indentureship and those that ran away from it. Branding, whipping, caning, stocks, pillories, tongue boring, running a gauntlet, public shaming in the form of a dunking stool and metal ‘brank’ or ‘gossip bridle’ for gossips were much more common. The colonies made much use of the pillory, and all sharpers, beggars, vagabonds, and shiftless persons stood a good chance of finding themselves set in one. Actually there are many records of the pillory being used not just for such vagaries as listed, but there is documents of the pillory being used for such as arson, blasphemy, witchcraft, perjury, wife beating, cheating, forgery, coin clipping, dice cogging, slandering, conjuring, fortune-telling, quack medicine selling and drunkenness. Why this was the case could be very much the population size. For the population of London in 1800 was 1.2 million people, the population of the whole of the United States was 5.2 million people. They closer resembled the population areas seen by Edmund when he instituted his ‘Shires’ and depended more on the group to police themselves. For most of the people here lived under what is often called ‘Parochialism’, that is most of the people were born, lived, married and died within their own towns and counties. It has been estimated that most would never see more than between 1,000-3,000 other people in their lifetime, and would know most of them by sight, if not by name. Troublemakers were easily spotted and headed off. The public perception of punishment was different and changing fast. One of the earliest ‘governmental’ changes would occur in the Connecticut Colony, who felt the pain and degradation of these punishments really weren’t the way that a civilized man should respond, so a way to isolate them from society and reform them was much more humane. And while gaols had been used to hold condemned persons awaiting their punishment, they had never been intended for long-term incarceration. Indeed, many towns had no gaol, those who had been apprehended were often housed at the home of the local constable or sheriff awaiting both the trial and punishment. So, in May of 1773 three men-namely Col. William Pitkin, Erastus Wolcott and Captain Jonathan Humphrey were sent by the Connecticut General Assembly to Simsbury (now East Granby) where an abandoned copper mine was thought a suitable location. Opened in 1705 as the first chartered mining company in the America’s, by 1772 the ore deposits had become too hard to mine and still retain any profits. But what it did have were two shafts, one 25-feet deep and another 67 feet deep. It was thought that by carving a 16-foot ‘lodging room’ off of the first shaft, an escape-proof prison could be established where men could not only pay for their sins, but also learn a trade. Eventually the state used these inmates in the trades of shoemakers, coopers, blacksmiths, wagon makers, bakers and basket makers. Those not willing to learn a trade were set operating a treadwheel-consisting of continuing to climb the paddle blades attached to the grinders in order to grind grain. Earlier that year the General Assembly of Connecticut had passed an act that outlined the terms of imprisonment in preparation for the founding of a prison. A first offense for burglary, robbery and counterfeiting which under English law were all punishable by death, instead carried a sentence of no more than 10 years incarcerated, with a second offense resulting in life in the prison. And with a new iron gate installed near the top of the 25 foot shaft, the 63-foot shaft being deemed too deep for escapes, the ‘prison’-now named New-Gate after her English counterpart Newgate Prison was ready for her ‘guests’. So, on 22 December 1773, John Hinson, a 20-year old found guilty of burglary had the honor of being that first person to be incarcerated. 18 days later, on 9 January 1774 John Hinton, with the assistance of an unknown woman and a very long rope dropped down the 63-foot shaft, had the honor of being the first person to escape. The prison itself was never considered a success. A reputation for lack of security, poor living conditions and an inability to show a profit even with all of it’s commercial ventures using prison labor, it was shut down by the state in 1827. It does, however survive today as a tourist attraction and, as of 1973 has been designated a National Historic Landmark and is run by the NPS. The Cast of Characters Trying to unravel the names of the law enforcement being employed in the 18th century is often riddled with misunderstanding, in part because a ‘sheriff’ in one county might be a ‘constable’ in another, and a ‘beadle’ could be an officer of the church OR an officer of the court. And that is just two examples. What we can do, is list some of the common ones and a general description of their jobs. Magistrate was a representative of and appointed by the crown. Their duties were to dispense justice when cases were presented. Unless it was a crime against the crown (or government, as the Colonies gave way to the United States) they ruled and passed sentence there and then. Sheriff (the Shire Reeve) was and still is the chief law enforcement officer of a county or shire, responsible for apprehension of criminals as well as presenting them and evidence before the magistrate. The first listing for a sheriff in the colonies was in the Shire of Northampton, Va. where in 1634 Captain William Stone was appointed. This is also the location where, in 1652 William Watters will become the first ELECTED sheriff in the Colonies. Constable ostensibly appointed to report crimes to the Sheriff, they will become synonymous as ‘undersheriff’ or ‘deputy’, often working with the granted authority of the magistrate to carry out the duties of the sheriff if he is unavailable. Night Watch one of the earliest of the ‘law enforcement’, their sole job was to watch for fires and criminal activity, alerting the sheriff or his underlings of the crime being committed. They were to offer a ‘Hue and Cry’ as a warning and deterrent and had no arrest powers. Beadle better known in the Church as the one who calls people to ecclesiastical council, because of their dual responsibilities of running the parish poorhouse and charities, their duties would overlap as a Constable in a secular role, usually for the running of the workhouse.Bailiff another name for a Constable, later they would be known primarily for their role in keeping order in a Magistrate court and running gaol and prisons. Bum-Bailiff a criminal ‘Cant’ term referring to a constable who was charged with gathering up debtors to be turned over to the BeadleHarmanbeck another criminal ‘Cant’ term that referred to any law enforcement official. Thief-Taker not found in the Colonies, they were anyone who could capture, present evidence and win a conviction of a criminal. Established by Queen Mary, anyone doing so was awarded 40 pounds per criminal. So successful was this undertaking, the court system was overwhelmed with hangings which will lead to the Transportation Act of 1718. Posse derived from the ‘posse comitatus’ of the Statute of Winchester, this group was pressed into service by the sheriff to track down and apprehend a specific criminal. They had no jurisdiction outside of the county and only for the specified crime/criminal. Most of the law enforcement early on was paid for by private individuals who hired ‘Charlies’ as their own private security. The term Police, while a 16th century French word (Poliz), would not find favor in the Americas until into the 19th century. Boston will establish the first official ‘Police Force’ in 1838, followed by New York City in 1845. And while most of the law enforcement fell to the local militia until that time, Charleston, South Carolina had formed the ‘Charleston Guard and Watch’ in 1785 and included a chain of command, uniforms of a sort, a salary and had instructions on the use of force and focused on preventing crime. So that is but a brief overview of law enforcement. In the criminal Canting world tho, the focus is more on just not getting caught. So if you hear someone ‘cry beef’, beware, lest the Harmanbeck cly your stampers and scour the cramp-ring and to the chates at lightmans you go!
-‘Scoundrel’s Alley’ is the collaboration of Faire Wynds Entertainments and Parson John Living History. The ‘Scholarly Scoundrel’ is Eric Paul Scites and can be reached at eric@fairewynds.com.

Quack...er...Crack No More: a short treatise of 'Crazy' Sally Mapp

Scoundrel’s Alley Presents: Our Own 'Crank Cuffin', "Cranky" Katie with A Continuing Series of Thoughts Pertinent to Historical Scoundrels Everywhere.
quack (noun) (Middle English) An untrained person who pretends to be a physician and dispenses medical advice and treatment. A charlatain or mountebank. -Oxford Dictionary
If you think of a chiropractor, you probably imagine a massage table in a private office, with a trained professional maneuvering your back. However, if you imagine an 18th or 19th century chiropractor, you will find someone vastly different. Picture a coffee house in London, the Grecian Coffee House to be exact. Inside are several patrons clustered around one stout, unattractive woman with a crooked cap and well-worn clothes. A man sits before her with an arm that looks bent the wrong way. She grabs his arm with her meaty fists and without warning twists and pulls. He grimaces with pain, then holds up his arm, now straight and free of pain. The other patrons cheer as the woman stands and chugs a celebratory mug of beer. This odd woman is Sarah Mapp, or if you call her by her self-given title: Cracked Sally- the One and Only Bone Setter. Believe it or not, her skill and brute strength have earned her the respect of hundreds of people, rich and poor alike. Sarah Mapp was born near Hindon, Wiltshire, England in the early 1700s. Sally’s mother gave birth to her half-sister, Lavinia, a few years later. Close in age but not in lifestyles, Lavinia found her way to taverns as a waitress and Sally as the announcer for her father, John Walin, a bonesetter. She would work her way through the crowds at festivals, shouting her father’s praises to attract more customers to him. As she grew older, however, she and Walin began to butt heads, culminating in a final argument where Sally decided to move out. Unlike other bonesetters whose main income came from farming or blacksmithing, Sally’s sole job was her bonesetting. She had little formal education; like other members of her profession her education was passed down through the family’s generations. This led to the belief that most bonesetters were “quacks'' with false medical knowledge. Be that as it may, no one could deny Sally’s success in the field. Eventually, Sally’s sister Lavinia made her theatrical debut in 1726 in the play “Orphans; or, The Unhappy Marriage.” She later appeared as Polly Peachum in the premiere of the successful satire, The Beggar’s Opera. This musical was extremely successful, as was Lavinia, whose acting caught the eye of a noble lord, whom she eventually married. Contrarily, Sally made her way to Epsom, England after her split from her father in the 1730s. Epsom was a city full of horse racers, and riders who had fallen from their saddle found themselves cured after a visit to “Crazy Sally,” so named for her messy and unappealing features, frequent drunkenness, and vulgar speech. Even so, her fame and reputation grew to the point where Epsom’s citizens feared she may leave them in search of more clients. As a result, they happily offered her a present of 100 guineas a year if she would stay. Stay she did and soon found herself in love with Hill Mapp, a footman for a wealthy textile merchant. She and Hill set a wedding date, August 4th, 1736, despite the opposition from her friends. On that day, she still received patients, both before and after the ceremony, but the actual getting married part was quite difficult. Dissuaded from being married in London, she tried a local church. After finding out the local minister was unavailable, she tried another village. When that minister refused, someone took pity on the people awaiting her care and provided passage to London, their original wedding location.After only one week of marriage, Hill Mapp took his wife’s 100 guineas and disappeared. At first angry, she later looked on the situation optimistically, stating that she was pleased the money went to such a good cause as being rid of Hill. During this time, she went to a few horse races, bestowing one guinea upon the rider of a horse named Mrs. Mapp when the horse won. She continued to receive patients at the Grecian coffee house and White Hall Inn, both located near London. She traveled to and from the places in her covered carriage decorated with her “trophies:'' the old crutches of her patients, each one a tribute to her success. One of her more notable customers included the niece of Hans Sloane, a baronet and physician, and Sloanehimself. Both of them had suffered from a back injury for several years, and Mrs. Mapp set their bones quickly and expertly so they were healthy again. On one of her travels, a mob, supposing she was one of the lovers of the king, crowded around her carriage until it couldn’t move without trampling someone. In response, Sally stuck her head out the window, swore at the crowd, and said, “Don’t you know me? I’m Mrs. Mapp!” Once the crowd realized who she was, they backed off, cheering loudly. One month after he ran off, Mr. Mapp returned and was reportedly welcomed back with open arms. She went to the theater to see The Husband’s Relief; or The Female Bonesetter and the Worm Doctor, a comedy written by Charles Johnson inspired by Sally’s fame and misfortune. Misfortune did befall the great Crazy Sally shortly thereafter, as people began comparing the woman to other quacks, such as an eye doctor named John Taylor and a tonic inventor named Joshua Ward. The three of them appear in a popular illustration called “The Company of Undertakers,” which portrays them in a less than desirable light. This portrayal did nothing to defend her against the increased suspicion of quacks, and people began to turn toward educated professionals. She lost business as her gambling and alcohol addictions grew. The following year, Mrs. Sally Mapp, the one and only bonesetter, died in London so poor that her church had to bury her. She is buried near the famous Seven Dials, where she had lived for many years. In her short but colorful life, “Cracked Sally'' made history as one of the most famous bonesetters in Britain and, perhaps, the whole world.
-‘Scoundrel’s Alley’ is the collaboration of Faire Wynds Entertainments and Parson John Living History. "Cranky" Katie is Catherine Pope and can be reached at info@fairewynds.com.
Scoundrel’s Alley Presents: The Scholarly Scoundrel on A Continuing Series of Thoughts Pertinent to Historical Scoundrels Everywhere.

Life on the Wicked Stage: An Introduction to the Roaring Girl and the German Princess

What mighty ills have not been done by woman? Who was’t betrayed the Capitol? A woman! Who lost Mark Antony the world? A woman! Who was the cause of a long ten years’ war, And laid at last old Troy in ashes? Woman! Destructive, damnable, deceitful woman. T. Otway.
N.B. Greetings, Dear Reader. Once again we come to you from our own Stop Hole Abbey to give you a peek at the underside of the world in which you live. It is said that leisure time gives way to idle hands, and idle hands are-at least according to Chaucer, the devil’s tools. To combat this, the 17th and 18th century saw an uptick in morality lectures and laws which were set in place to warn of the rampant sin presented in leisure theatrical entertainment in an attempt to preclude or at least slow the moral downfall of youth. Indeed, as proof of such criminations directed at the stage, it is often pointed out that authors will take it upon themselves to pen works that highlighted criminals in a friendly, if often misunderstood way after their deaths: Robin Hood, Edwin Teach, Mary Webb and Johnathon Wild come to mind to name but a few. And it was not after some long passing of time that these people came to be memorialized on stage. For instance, ’Honest Jack' Sheppherd had his exploits presented in the pantomime entitled ‘Harlequine Sheppard’ a mere two weeks after his execution at Tyburn Tree near London’s famed Newgate Prison. He was hanged November 16, 1724 and the play of his exploits premiered on the 28th of that same month at the famed Theatre Royal on Duty Lane. Today tho, with your kind indulgence we would like to introduce two lovely lady criminals who were well known to both lawless and law abiding citizens alike, to readers of criminal court broadsides as well as readers of theater playbills. For their exploits were so outlandish, so colorful that not only were they immortalized on stage before their deaths, judgements or even ultimate capture, they stepped off of the criminal path and onto the theater boards long enough to play themselves in theatrical stories of their own exploits! Let us present to you ‘The Roaring Girl’ and ‘The German Princess’, to wit: Mary Frith and Mary Carleton. After reading of their exploits, we will leave it up to you, Dear Reader to place them in history’s zograscope and choose for yourself how they should be remembered: criminal, actress, neither or both.
Mary Frith-‘The Roaring Girl’ (1584/5-1659)
Early Life Mary Frith, sometimes known as Mal (Moll) Cutpurse or Tom Faconer, known as a ‘wearer of men’s fashion’ and the ‘first English woman smoker’, was born in late fall 1584 or early spring of 1585 to Ron Stuart. A shoemaker by trade, little is known of her mother, other than the possibility of her name being Catherine. The area they lived, however was the section of London called ‘The Barbican’ and would be her biggest influence. The Barbican itself was outside of the old city walls of London. Originally a barbican was a building that sat outside of the city gates, acting like the first line of defense. This particular barbican lay outside the ‘parish of St. Giles without Cripplegate’, meaning that it was located outside of the walls near the Cripplegate entrance in an area that was nothing short of a marsh. It was mentioned first as an area called ‘the Barbican’ by Edward III in 1336 when he gifted it to Robert Brandon, the Earl of Suffolk. An area where offal and suicides were regularly thrown into Fleet Ditch, it was known as the ‘Great Sink of London’. The city regularly cleaned the streets-by the use of pigs let loose after dark. In short, it was a diseased, filthy morass. The perfect place for crime and the theater to flourish. By Mary Frith’s time it had grown to be rather well known to the denizens of the theater. William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Nicholas Bretton, Edward Allyn and John Trundle, all well known in the world of the theater lived there in Mary’s early years. It is no wonder that she was familiar with the theater. Besides the plays being presented in the ’Bear Gardens’ when bear baiting was not going on, in 1600 the Fortune Theater would be built nearby as a competitor to the Globe and Mary found both very much to her liking. As a child she was a ‘tomrig and rumpskuttle she was, and delighted and sported in boys’ play and pastime,’ and indeed if her mother was alive she had very little influence on Mary. She regularly fought with the other boys, often beating them. So ‘unfeminine’ was she that it the senior Stuart allowed his brother, a minister of the cloth to take matters into his own hands by having her placed on a boat bound for the colony of New England. The intent was for Mary to be sold there as an indentured servant in order to cure her of her ‘issues’ and give her a proper education as would be seeming for a young girl, in addition to possibly marrying her off to a good, upstanding husband. She never made it to New England. She never made it out of the harbor. Jumping overboard before the captain could even weigh anchor, Mary swam to the shore and refused to go near her uncle again. Instead, she found other ways to make her way through life, most of which centered around Bear Garden.Bear Garden was located across the river Thames in Southwark. Believed to have been first established by the Romans, it had been a site for bear and bull baiting as well as dog fighting since. By the time Mary arrived after her near indentureship, the building-round, stone and capable of seating over a thousand persons-had already been standing since at least 1542. Torn down and rebuilt as the ‘Hope Theater’ in 1614, it continued the practice of both plays and bloodsports until the latter was ended in 1682, but continued on as an active theater and major area for criminal enterprises to flourish. Criminal life It was in this environment that Mary would flourish. ‘Canting Crews’-groups of beggars and criminals who acted as their own family frequented the area and Mary found their free-spirited ways much to her liking. Clothing styles were changing, and the ‘cutpurse’-the thief who would cut the strings from bags holding valuables from a person’s belt-was falling out of favor in direct correlation to the popularity of sewn-in pockets. Instead, a new thief was coming on-the ‘diver’. These industrious and agile persons needed to be quick, subtle and possessing the ‘marks of a happy, industrious hand, having a long middle finger, equally suited with what they call the fool’s or first finger’. Unfortunately for Mary, she was neither quick nor subtle. She did, however possess strength, guile and a friendly personality, useful attributes along with her skill in both sword and short club known as a cudgel. These traits, along with her kindness and generosity quickly led to her advancement and in short order she soon rose in ranks to the position of ‘Upright Man’, a term Canting Crews of the time assigned to their elected leader. And she ran her crew with intelligence and an inflexible justice, treating her ‘people’ with kindness and loyalty and expected the same in return. Mary was known as a leader who protected those around her and in her care, but would turn on anyone who was found cheating her.So respected was Mary in her honesty, that when she started a ‘Lost Property Office’ to move the stolen goods that her crew fenced, a number of highwaymen started using her as their own personal banker to hold their money! She herself admitted to being a noted fence as well as a pimp, not only of young women for men, but young men for wealthier women even tho she was known to physically attack men who referred to women as prostitutes. Mary was quick to realize the best way to keep from punishment was to avoid the necessity of a trial. So when she learned that the clerk of Newgate Prison, Ralph Briscoe at the time, was a lover of the blood sport of bear baiting Mary took it upon herself to make sure he always had a seat available as well as providing the best mastiffs for the spectacle when he was in attendance. In exchange he would pack the jury or even write a reprieve for members of her crew. In addition, she befriended Gregory Brandon, known as Gregory the Hangman who was the ‘Common Executioner of London’. Whether this was so anyone of her crew that used Gregory’s expertise could expect a quick and easy time going through or just because Mary was an outgoing and friendly person can only be speculated on. But it really wasn’t necessary. For Mary had her own unique way of dealing with things. Once, she received a stolen watch at her ‘Lost Property Office’. Usually items like this were set aside for a time until the ‘heat cooled off’. For some reason Mary put it out for resale the next morning. Unfortunately the owner happened by and recognized it, but instead of going in and paying the ‘finder’s fee’, he recognized the shop for what it was and left, returning with the constable. Mary was arrested and taken to Newgate to stand trial for receiving stolen goods, a verdict of guilty which would very possibly lead to her meeting up with her friend Gregory the Hangman in a situations she would rather avoid. At this time in history, the stolen items were not kept at a central location as ‘evidence’, but instead had to be kept in the possession of the accusing constable and then presented at Sessions to be used as the evidence. Mary, however, made arrangements with one of her own ‘Divers’ to slip in and steal the watch from the pocket of the constable right before her case was presented. Having no evidence to produce, Mary was released. Mary’s penchant for wearing men’s clothing also caused a number of issues. Early on she had adopted as her preferred means of dress a jerkin, doublet, galligaskins and petticoat. Finally she replaced the galligaskins with ‘Dutch slops’, the wide-legged trousers favored by sailors and ceased wearing petticoats altogether. This, of course often led to run-ins in a time when morality and the law were constantly changing. Once, Mary was picked up by a constable named Dogberry for wearing ‘men’s clothing in a public arena’. Taken to the ‘Round House’ where the magistrate allowed her to pay her garrish, the next day she met with the Lord Mayor and had him cancel the charges. But Mary was not done with Constable Dogberry. Mary eschewed violence as revenge unless she herself was led to do it and forced her people to respect that decision. But she wasn’t above a bit of revenge, especially if she found humor in it. So, she had her people investigate Dogberry and found out the constable had a rich uncle in Shropshire. Arranging for a retainer who spoke the dialect to dress the part, she had him arrive at the constables house with news that the uncle had died and left the entire estate to him. Immediately, Dogberry purchased appropriate clothing, horse and livery and set off to Ludlow. Upon his arrival he found his uncle very much alive and not at all interested in leaving his estate to his nephew. Dogberry instead returned home in ridicule and contempt. Mary herself lived on Fleet Street near Newgate and ran her empire from there. She was at one time known as the ‘Queen of Thieves’, a title often bestowed upon the ‘Great Tawney Prince’. This was the person elected by the area ‘Canting Crews’ as the arbiter between the different criminal groups. Theater life Mary was well versed not only in the criminal element around the theaters and entertainments, but on the stage itself. A frequent performer, singing and playing the lute in between acts at the Fortune Theater in the early years of the 17th century, as her criminal reputation grew and her outlandish dress and activities caught the public’s attention, between 1610 and 1613 there were three known stories written and published that included Mary. ‘The Madde Prankes of Merry Moll of the Bankside’, a chapbook by John Day, , ‘Amends for Ladies’ a play written by Nathan Field, and ‘The Roaring Girl’, a play written by Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton. Dekker, a noted author, publisher and playwright was well versed in the world of the criminal ‘Canting Crews’, having previously published his work on the history and language of them, entitled ‘Lanthorne and Candlelight, or the bellman’s second night-walkIn which he brings to light, a brood of more strange villainies than ever were all this year discovered.’ It is to Dekker’s play about her, while being performed at the Fortune Theater that Mary is believed to have stepped in more than once to play herself. It is also where she was given her nickname ‘The Roaring Girl’, a nod to the ‘roaring boys’ of the times, those rough and tumble carefree ne’er do wells that throughout history have always been known as the ‘high-spirited boys who just want a bit of fun’. While Mary created quite a stir, it was not solely based on the plays written about her. At the turn of the 17th century and going through the final years of the reign of King James, there were enough women acting and dressing like men both on stage and off that in 1615 the term ‘Hic Mulier’ (Latin for ‘this ‘manlike’ woman’) was coined in a phamplet of that name complaining about ‘transvesticism’ being an affront to God, nature and society. By 1620 the practice was widespread enough to cause James to direct his clergy to teach "against the insolencie of our women, and their wearing of broad brimmed hats, pointed dublets, their hair cut short or shorn, and some of them stilettoes or poinards, and such other trinckets of like moment.” The fashion, as all do, soon fell out of favor. Or at least as an object of worry. Later life While no record can be found that she ever ‘officially’ married, she was known to have been courted by a number of men, and might have actually married the son of a playwright in 1614, but is thought that if this indeed happened it was purely for appearance sake. Rather than submit to the feminine ideals of womanhood and affections, she chose instead to lavish her affection on her dogs, providing each with a bed and blankets of their own and insisting in preparing and feeding them herself. Tho manly in dress, her house was feminine and full of mirrors as befitted her own personal vanity. In her later years she lived an ‘orderly and lawful life’, she was known for her absolute hatred of anyone who would mistreat a child, and a number of times she herself was known to have physically assaulted people who referred to women as prostitutes. No other records have been found that might suggest she gave up her criminal empire, tho the lack of court records seem to suggest she did ‘step down’ from much of the work. Nor does evidence suggest she appeared on the stage after her early years. Her final years were spent in quiet repose at her home in Fleet Street where, on July 26, 1659 at the age of 73 she once and for all put aside her manly dress and passed from this earth, a victim of age and dropsy.

Mary Carleton-‘The German Princess’ (1642-1673)
Mary Carleton, unlike Mary Frith did not grow up around the theater. Instead she seemed to go through life taking Shakespeare’s words literally, that ‘All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts…’ Early life Mary Carleton was born Mary Moders in Canterbury on 11 August, 1642. Little is known about her upbringing save that her father was employed by Canterbury Cathedral as a chorister and ‘fiddle player’. Of her mother nothing is know. Perhaps because of her father’s connections to the Cathedral and access to the library housed there, she somehow obtained an education, learning a number of languages in the process. This would serve her well in what would become her chosen profession. It has been suggested that her first-and possibly only ‘legitimate’ marriage was an arranged one to Thomas Stedman, an apprentice shoemaker when she was 17, a position that certainly was well below what she had dreamed of aspiring to. She had dreams, plans and desires and the station in life she seemed to be destined to was not to her liking. She gave birth twice, both children dying early in infancy and after that she left Canterbury, leaving behind her husband but not bothering with the legalities of a separation. Her early life was, if anything uneventful and-probably in her mind-blessedly short. Criminal life After leaving her husband, Mary would end up in Dover, meeting and marrying a much older surgeon, John Day. Shortly after she was accused of bigamy, but because Stedman was unable to travel to the trial, she was acquitted and in late 1661 she fled, presumably with much of Day’s money, to Cologne, Germany. Again, without the bothersome notion of a legal separation. There, at the age of 20 she found herself employed in a brothel, where she met and was wooed by an older statesman. After she had succeeded in getting a proposal of marriage-and evidently the dowry itself, she slipped out and made her way to Holland. There she sold most of the jewelry and much of the finery, returning finally to Billingsgate, England not as Mary Moders or Mary Stedman or even Mary Day, but instead as Henrietta Maria Von Wolway, daughter of Henry Von Wolway, Lord of Holmstein and the ‘German Princess’ was born. Her first night back and she succeeded in convincing the patrons and the owner of the Exchange Tavern of her harrowing escape from an overbearing father and an upcoming forced arranged marriage. So convincing was she, that the patrons took up a collection for her and the owner gave her lodging for free. Mary took very little time in establishing herself as a desirable and single young lady of breeding, soon capturing the eye of a law student, John Carleton. He, with the help of his relatives pretended to be a Lord. She, with the help of forged letters and documents claimed to be the wealthy Princess. The wedding soon followed and was almost immediately followed by an anonymous letter to Carleton’s father, unmasking her true identity and her (never would be) annulled marriage to the shoemaker Stedman. She was arrested, charged with bigamy and taken to the Old Baily for trial.A battle of self-serving and self-written and published pamphlets ensued between Mary and Carleton, ensnaring the interest of Londoners who fell on the side of Mary. She convinced not only the public but the jurors at the trial, that she was the innocent of the wiles of Carleton, who had duped her with his claims of being a Lord. Once again Stedman failed to appear to attest to the marriage and the judge ruled that the evidence presented-one witness and the aforementioned anonymous letter-was scandalous hearsay and inadmissible. Mary, on the other hand presented herself well as the innocent victim of Carleton’s family and so Mary, head held high, walked free-and right onto the stage of London. Theater life Mary found herself once again without funds but not without her wits. She immediately captured London’s attention yet once again by encouraging the printing of pamphlets about her ‘wrongful’ imprisonment, writing and publishing one herself, entitled The Case of Madam Mary Carleton Lately Stiled the German Princess, Truely Stated: With an Historical Relation of Her Birth, Education, and Fortunes; in an Appeal to His Illustrious Highness Prince Rupert. Not to be outdone, John Carleton fired back by writing and publishing The Ultimum Vale of John Carleton of the Middle Temple, London. But Mary had struck first and hardest, and became London’s new fascination. These two pamphlets will lend the foundation for a series of ‘True Crime’ pamphlets that will be combined in the 18th century and begin the famed ‘Newgate Calendar’. Mary spent the following year acting the part of the falsely accused, being woo’d by a number of suitors and bilking them in return. So great was her success and admiration by Londoners that a year after the trial Mary stepped onto the stage to play herself in a comedic farce about her own life entitled The German Princess by John Holden. There seems to be some disagreement on whether this play was a success, or whether it was-as Samuel Pepys described it after seeing it on 15 April 1655: '....and then with my wife by coach to the Duke’s house, and there saw The German Princess acted, by the woman herself; but never was any thing so well done in earnest, worse performed in jest upon the stage; and indeed the whole play, abating the drollery of him that acts her husband, is very simple, unless here and there a witty sprinkle or two.’ Regardless, after performing as herself Mary disappears from the record for the next 7 years. Though she continued her acting career is undeniable, tho not on the stage but in public life. She claimed to be a virginal heiress, complete with forged papers, jewelry from former suitors and a handmaid to keep up appearances. The sheer volume of anecdotal stories of her many suitors she picked up, used then cast aside after taking their monies bears weight to the notion that she did something that caused severe embarrassment to her victims, enough so that while quiet innuendo abounded, no proof was brought to light. Even so, it would seem that her star, as all such that tread the boards must, faded with the fickleness of the audience. Later life Some might say that her final years were but the final payment for the piper she danced to. The documentable record picks up in 1671. For whatever reason, she seemed to have turned to petty crime as well as continuing to bilk her suitors. A ‘clank knapper’ in the Canting Tongue, a stealer of tankards, Mary was apprehended in February of that year and was listed as having the alias’ of Maria Darnton, Mary Blacke, Mary Kirton, Maria Lyon and Mary Carlston. This crime, what we today would think of as a minor misdemeanor, if not just a prank, was punishable either by death or transportation-the forced seven year indentureship away from England. Mary herself was transported to Port Royal, Jamaica where she was treated more like royalty than a criminal, tho some sources indicated she worked as a prostitute instead of being sold into the intended indentureship. Regardless, Mary returned to England sometime in 1672, seemingly unconcerned that the penalty for breaking the transportation indentureship was hanging. In December of that year she was recognized by a jailer who happened to see her while looking for stolen property. She was recaptured and taken to Newgate Prison to await her fate. She tried one last bit of acting, that of claiming to be pregnant, or ‘pleading the belly’. It was found that she indeed was not, and on 22 Jan., 1673 was hanged, the curtain finally falling on her short but eventful life. She was buried in St. Martin’s churchyard, and on her grave was written: The German Princess here, against her will, lies underneath, and yet, oh strange! lies still.
-‘Scoundrel’s Alley’ is the collaboration of Faire Wynds Entertainments and Parson John Living History. The ‘Scholarly Scoundrel’ is Eric Paul Scites and can be reached at eric@fairewynds.com.
Scoundrel’s Alley Presents: The Scholarly Scoundrel on A Continuing Series of Thoughts Pertinent to Historical Scoundrels Everywhere.

Cant: Language of the Universal Travelers

For the Gypsies they and the Foul Disease have alike the Fate to run through a Geography of Names, and to be made free of as many Countries, as almost there are Languages to call them Names in;
-B.E., Gent., A new DICTIONARY of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the CANTING CREW. London, 1698
They have been called by many names over the centuries-vagabonds, rogues, maunders, beggars, thieves, tramps, vagrants, the list goes on. Gent points out that in France they were called ‘Bohemians’, in Italy ‘Zingari’, Spain ‘Itanos’. He goes on to explain that Holland has no beggars for ‘the Dutch themselves are…the greatest beggars in the world’, and Switzerland has no thieves for they are ‘…altogether soldiers, who are the greatest thieves in the world.’ Probably they are best remembered in the 16th-18th century England by the terms ‘Gypsy’ and ‘Canting Crews’. It would be impossible to discuss ‘Canting Crews’ and the language of ‘Cant’ without first addressing the term ‘Gypsy’. For that image, romanticized as it is conjures up images of wagons, fortune tellers, bright colorful clothing, exotic dancers, strange rituals, children stealing and-most importantly-the famous quote “even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, can turn to a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms, and the autumn moon is bright!” (The Wolfman. Dir. George Waggner, Universal Studios, 1941. Film) Fun it might be, but these people-actually the ‘Roma’ or ‘Romanichal’, seem to be more a victim of happenstance. For the arrival of this group to England, probably in the very early 16th century, was proceeded by the ‘Ancient Order of Rogues’, another of these loose groups of vagrants and vagabonds known as ‘Travellers’. In England this group called themselves Egyptians or the shortened ‘Gypsies’ and were known to darken their faces and skin, wear antique dress and spent the summer months. Gent will record this definition of ‘Gypsy’ in his dictionary: ‘a Counterfeit Brood of wandering Rogues and Wenches, herding together, and Living promiscuous or in common, under Hedges and in Barns…strolling up and down, and under colour of Fortune telling, Palmestry Physiognomy, and Cure of Diseases; impose all waies upon the unthinking Vulgar, and often Steal from them, whatever is not too Hot for their Fingers, or too Heavy to carry off.’ Using their own peculiar made up language that became known as ‘Cant’ to recognize each other, they were what would become known as ‘Canting Crews’. The Romanichal unfortunately were lumped in with these groups because of their wandering nature and clannish ways. Over time, the term ‘Gypsy’ will fall out of favor in the circle of rogues and scoundrels who will give up the practice of darkening their skin, but the damage to the Romanichal would be done and they would be forever saddled with the name ‘Gypsy’ and the reputation the Canting Crews had given it. PART I Although ‘B.E., Gent’ will publish in 1698 ‘A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew, in its several Tribes’, considered the ‘first’ full dictionary of ‘slang’ language and the basis for all dictionaries dealing with the language of the criminal underground for the next 200 years, his was not the first writings-nor even the first collection of ‘Cant’ language-to have been published. Richard Head (1637-1686) will sometime later in his life publish ‘Villanies Discovered: OR THE DEVILS CABINET Broken Open, &’. In it he will speak of his travels in the countryside meeting and dealing with these ‘Canting Crews’, as well as giving lists of words they used, phrases, oaths to be taken in order to join the band and an outline of the ‘Ancient Order of Rogues’ of which he lists 17. (Other writers will list as many as 24). Head will spend much of his time writing from a moralistic point of view, showing the vagaries that lead to the downfall of good men, interspersing tales of woe with his warnings of places to avoid if one were of good moral character and intended to remain as such. In it he will also record a number of songs and poems that will become popular, showing the power and seduction of the ‘glamorous’ life of a free beggar, under no one’s power and free to come and go as one pleases. Until, of course, they are captured and hanged which Head takes into consideration by ending his discourse with warnings in the form of sayings and prose about the ‘evil Consequences which heavily wait on Lust and such exorbitant actions.’ Lanthorne and Candle-light. OR, the Bell-Mans second Nights-walke. was published in 1608 by the play rite Thomas Dekker, the best known of his 4 pamphlets wherein he wrote as a ‘Bellman’ or night watchman at the prison at Peckham. In it is a series of ‘conversations’ both overheard between as well as directly with the inmates. In addition, Dekker takes a historical viewpoint, going back to the Tower of Babel and the splitting of the languages. He will spend much time describing the language itself and how it was used, taking pains to point out the language itself ‘…retaine a certain salte, tasting of some wit and some Learning.’ He compares some of their words to their Latin roots: i.e. the cant word for cloak is ‘Togeman’, bread is ‘pannum’ and cheese ‘caseus’. In Latin, these three examples are ‘toga’, ‘panis’ and ‘caseus’. He has a small dictionary but its use is to show examples of how the phrasing is put together, rather than a definition of the words. Most of the pamphlet is given over to his descriptions of the rogues and how they will go about their particular vagaries. Caveat for Common Cursitors (1566) is the earliest published works and probably the most known due to the reprinting of it all the way up until 1811. While the author, one Thomas Harman references the older Fraternitye of Vacabondes (1561 by John Awdely but seemingly has not survived) he claimed to be taking much of his work from actual dealings with the characters he describes due to his being a Justice of the Peace and tax collector. The most notable parts of the Caveat is the first use of the word ‘Rogue’ as well as his taxonomy that will form the basis of our understanding of the ‘Ancient Order of Rogues’. Harmon is considered by scholars today an accepted sociologist of the time. It includes some small dictionary, phrasing and the earliest complete listing of rogues. PART II Harmon’s list of ‘Ancient Order of Rogues’-earliest ‘complete’ listing : Upright man: Leader, second only to ‘Great Tawney Prince in the crew. Tom of Bedlam (Bedlam Beggar or Abram Man): poorly but gaudily dressed, stealer of children clothing from the children. Also poultry and linens. Irish Toyle (Bawd Basket): Carrying pins, papers, chapbooks etc. under pretext of selling them so as to thieve instead of beg. Counterfeit Cranks: pretending sickness-usually ‘falling sickness’ (epilepsy) Demanders for Glimmer: begging women claiming to have lost everything to fire. Dommerar: beggars claiming to be deaf and dumb, often playing at being mad. Frater: beggar using false papers Whip jacket: counterfeit mariners claiming shipwreck, often with false papers Angler (Hooker) petty thief who uses a pole with an iron hook on the end to snatch things from baskets, out of store windows, etc. Jarkman/Patrico: counterfeiter and writer of false passes, often an unfrocked priest. Palliards: (also ‘Clapperdogeons’) born beggars. Prig(gers) of Prancers: riders of horses. (horse stealing) Rufflers: Sham soldiers using threats of violence in their begging. Drunken Tinker Swadler/Pedlar: Often runaway or ex soldiers, used to ‘enforce’ or sent on specific violent jobs. Usually binding their victims then rob, beat, maim and often kill. Rogue/Wild Rogue: Professional beggar. A ‘Wild Rogue’ is a Palliard. Autem Mort: Woman (mort) married in a church (Autem-having to do with church) usually clothing thieves. By late 18th century the term is synonymous with prostitute. Dell: young girl usually (or claiming to be) virginal. 18th century a ‘common wench’. Doxie: mistress or prostitute who claim they are not. Walking Mort: tramp beggar woman. Kinching Mort Little girls brought up to thieve. Kinching Cove: Little boys brought up to beg.
By the time of the 18t century, these ‘Ancient Order of Rogues’ will expand out and add to their group-some, such as the ‘Great Tawney Prince’ will fit heavily into the hierarchy, others like the ‘Adam Tylers’ more an afterthought. The following are but a few of this large cast of characters. Great Tawney Prince: Leader of the ‘crew’, often not a beggar themselves but the one who decides where to beg, how to beg, divvies up the ‘take’ and settles disputes. Fence: Receiver/reseller of stolen goods. Adam Tyler: Street children-not necessarily in the ‘crew’ that the Irish Toyle will use to run stolen property to the ‘Stalling Ken’ where the Fence resells the items. Diver: A pick pocket. The name derives from stiffening the fingers and ‘diving’ into any pocket or pouch available and grasping whatever comes in contact with them. Faulkner: A ‘shower of small tricks’, usually to keep a person’s attention while the Diver does their work. Sharper: Not a ‘beggar’ but a ‘street hustler’ usually cheating at ‘games of chance’. Late a ‘card sharp’. PART III The language itself was not necessarily a ‘made up’ language. Often it was simply a different meaning to common word-such as ‘cheat’ in ‘cant’ means ‘thing’. More often than not it was taking common words but put together in a way that was intended to fool others into thinking that the speaker was ‘quite mad’ as they might have put it. Using the ‘cant’ word for ‘thing’-cheat-with another common word-nap (an old common word referring to ones head) and we have ‘nab-cheat’. Literally a ‘head thing’ or what to a ‘canter’ is a hat. But it did identify each other as being part of a ‘crew’ and not just some ‘tatterdemillion’ (poorly dressed, wretched man) who was just what he seemed. It was as much a ‘descriptive’ language as anything. For instance, one might hear the phrase ‘do not turn cat in pan’. The phrase itself to a common listener means nothing. To someone in the ‘Cant’ know, it brings up an image of a cat in a hot pan, turning and twisting anyway they can to escape the heat and get away. That image sends a warning: if you get caught, don’t start saying or doing anything just to get away. ‘Cackling cheat’ is a ‘cackling thing’- a chicken. To ‘play least in sight’ is to run away and hide. ’Blind man’s holiday’ would have not just the blind groping, but everyone. So, its meaning is a very dark, moonless night where everyone gropes around and no-one works. A holiday. Even individual words-lightmans and darkmans for example-are just descriptive in nature. Lightmans-day. Darkmans-night. ‘Throw the bones’, another phrase still in use at gambling casinos and back alley crap games is another of our carryovers. For ‘bones’ were dice-usually made from bone or horn-and throwing them was simply tossing them. This differentiated itself from ‘rattling the tats’, in that ‘rattling’ was a term used to indicate some secret maneuver and ‘tats’ referred to dice or die modified (loaded) to show a predetermined amount. If, that is, they could be ‘rattled’ properly. Among it’s other attributes, ‘Cant’-specifically ‘Thieves Cant’-as a language survives today not only in the criminal underground, but in our modern, everyday speech. Herein follows a short list of those words that found their way out of the Canting Crews and have survived today, hidden in plain sight! Drawers: Hosen, then stockings, later undergarments now long pants Lick: To beat in a fight Thrash: To beat severely Stow You (Stow It): keep quiet, stop talking Filch: To steal, usually a small item Shoplift: Steal from a store Gypsy: Roma people, also vagabond or free spirit Transmogrify: Change or Alter Double Cross: to turn on someone trusting Tidbit (Titbit): small girl child, later any small delicate morsel Snigger (Snicker): ill suppressed laughter We also see this language carry over into people and then into the arts. ‘Jenny Diver’ was at first the generic name of a female pickpocket-because they ‘dove’ into the pockets of the unsuspecting, hooking their fingers around whatever was there and pulling it out. Later it will be the well known nickname of Mary Young, a leader of a crew dedicated to pickpocketing and shoplifting. Mary would be the real-life model for the character of Jenny Diver in John Gay’s ‘Beggars Opera’. PART IV These people as a whole were an amoral bunch, but with a code of conduct between themselves that stands at odds with their position in society. At night they would gather at whatever barn or haystack or abandoned house or backroom or hedgerow they could find, and after the Upright Man dolled out the days take, they ate and drank in communal bliss, drifting off with whomever they chose until the next day when they would part, wandering in their vagaries until meeting up together again. It was not uncommon tho to find them almost ‘Robin Hood’ in some of their dealings. When begging they would procure money, drink and food. The money got spent, the food got drunk and much of the food was left for local widows and orphans who were themselves starving. Whether this was out of compassion or the desire not to have more ‘competition’ in the begging is debatable. Between themselves they also had a strict code. When, in 1745 Bamphylde Moore-Carew, the self-proclaimed ‘King of the Beggars’ published his aptly-named biography The Life and Adventures of Bampfylde Moore-Carew, he spends a number of pages describing the deathbed ‘orders’ of his predecessor, Clause Patch. In it Patch leaves certain instructions on not only how to beg, who to beg from, how much you should expect to get but ‘…remembering social virtue is the next duty and tell your next friend where he may go and obtain the same relief by the same means.’ There may not be ‘honor among thieves’, but there WAS ‘honor among beggars’. At least in the Canting Crew! PART: The End While America did not see a lot of the ‘Canting Crews’ per say, that is not to say that they were not here. Both Moore-Carew and Mary Webb would be transported to the colonies, but both would find it difficult to continue their work as it was known in England. There just were not enough people to hide in and not enough of anything to beg or steal at the level they were used to in England. Both would end up returning early to England. Both would be recaptured and transported a second time. Both would once again return early to England. Moore-Carew to a life of leisure to write of his adventures, Webb to be captured a third time and executed. What America WILL see was a different type of ‘Canting Crew’-the rise of gamblers, sharpers and what is often known as ‘confidence men’ or simply ‘con men’. Only but one of these we shall mention here-‘Canada’ Bill Jones. Born in Yorkshire to a canting crew-an actual Romanichal family, he immigrated to Canada and finally made it into the United States and became one of the greatest con men gamblers in American history. So great was his skill that at his death, John Quinn will write in Fools of Fortune about his funeral that ‘…as the coffin was being lowered into the grave, one of his friends offered to bet $1,000 to $500.00 that ‘Bill’ was not in the box’. The offer found no takers…’ But that is for another time.






-‘Scoundrel’s Alley’ is the collaboration of Faire Wynds Entertainments and Parson John Living History. The ‘Scholarly Scoundrel’ is Eric Paul Scites and can be reached at eric@fairewynds.com.
Scoundrel’s Alley Presents: The Scholarly Scoundrel on A Continuing Series of Thoughts Pertinent to Historical Scoundrels Everywhere.

An Opera for Beggars


To be Hanged by the Neck for the Sake of an Opera Written by a Beggar!-Capt. MacHeath (The Beggar’s Opera. Dir. Peter Brook, Warner Bros., 1953. Film)
Bad company corrupts good character. Apostle Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 15 verse 34, quoting the Greek poet Menander.
In 1715, a select group of men that included Alexander Pope, Thomas Parnell and John Arbuthnot joined John Gay and Jonathon Swift to create the ‘Scriblerus Club’, a group dedicated to mercilessly satirizing the contemporary literature of the time. Swift and Gay would strike up a close friendship, writing to each other their thoughts on ideas, literary consideration and even court gossip. It was Swift who suggested that Gay enlarge his poem ‘Newgate Garland’, about the influence Jonathon Wild had on the criminal elements of the time, into a longer more thoughtful work. Thus the ‘Beggar’s Opera’ was born.
But who WAS the criminal Jonathon Wild, and why was he interesting enough to be the basis for not only a ballad poem, but the foundation of ‘musical theater’? What of the others that we can see so heavily influencing the characters Gay will create? What made them so interesting as to capture the imagination of theatergoers for well over 150 years? Three real life people figured heavily in influencing Gay’s libretto of ‘The Beggar’s Opera’. These were the aforementioned Wild, Mary Webb and Jack Sheppherd.
Jonathon Wild was born around 1682 in Wolverhampton, England. At the age of 21 he was apprenticed to a London lawyer, but within two years had run away to become a bounty hunter for debtors, known as a ‘setter’. At every turn though, Wild seems to have wandered both sides of the law. In 1709 he himself will be thrown into Wood Street Compter for a debt owed to William Smith, who was himself a professional burglar. Wild will stay there until released in 1712 by a statute passed entitled ‘An Act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors by obliging their Creditors to accept the utmost Satisfaction they are capable to make and restoring them to their liberty.’ (Statutes of the Realm 1712: 10 Anne c.20: An Act for Relief of Insolvent Debtors.) In short, the courts came to accept that incarceration of the debtor until he ‘paid in full’ was untenable given they were incarcerated and unable to work. Therefore, the debt had to be satisfied with whatever could be given, up to including sale of all properties owned by the debtor. Once that had occurred, the debtor was given his freedom. What debt to a ‘professional burglar’ could have caused this mishap in Wild’s life is, alas unknown. Leaving prison Wild landed in St. Giles in the Field, a district in southwest London long known to be a gathering place for every sort of vagaries. There, Wild would partner with Mary Milliner (Mary Mollineaux), a known thief. Together along with Moll King (Elizabeth Adkins, the inspiration for Daniel DeFoe’s Moll Flanders) they ran both a tavern and a brothel. There they practiced and expounded on the crime known colloquially as ‘Buttocks and Twang’, accomplished by having Milliner entice someone into an alleyway with promises of an illicit sort. After picking his pocket while he was otherwise distracted, Wild would then attack him, giving Milliner time to escape. What made them so specialized at this art was that unlike others who might do this and immediately sell off whatever they could grab, Wild and Milliner would use what they found to blackmail their victim, or to present themselves a day or so later with the ‘recovered goods’ to seek reward. Wild will later parlay this later into a vast ‘Lost Property Office’ which was in reality nothing more than a building to resell stolen goods, known as a ‘stalling ken’ in the criminal language. But instead of reselling the stolen goods, they would advertise them in such a way that the victim would come and claim them, making it seem a legitimate and needed business. Unless of course he was able to blackmail the victim or, in the case of ‘business’ items or papers sell them to the victims’ competitors. Probably his greatest ‘achievement’, which also led to his eventual downfall, was to name himself ‘Thief Taker General of England’, a title and position that did not exist. Wild would give himself this ‘title’ and it was with this move that his criminal empire began to grow.
The name ‘thief taker’ was not new when Wild took on the title. The practice of capturing and prosecuting criminals for a guaranteed fee from the government began as a result of the ‘Society of a Reformation of Manners’, a group of wealthy London persons in 1690. They will publish a series of pamphlets and other writings, the best known and most widely spread being A Proposal for a National Reformation of Manners as well as petitions to the court in order to garner the beginnings of an early ‘police’ force. It was in response to both the political fear of another Catholic uprising as well as the increase in general criminal activity, that on September 13, 1692, Queen Mary II will issue a royal proclamation offering 40 pounds per head for the apprehension and conviction of highwaymen and burglars. While the ‘office’ of ‘thief taker’ as it was colloquially known was never officially sanctioned, under this law any person could act as an impromptu ‘bounty hunter’ and collect these monies.(Anonymous, A Proposal for a National Reformation of Manners, John Dunton, London 1694) This in itself sets Wild up to have both sides of the coin. For in truth, as he was well known for his other businesses, he would use the ‘thief taker’ excuse to go after and apprehend competitors. In addition, he kept a list of people, friends and foe alike. If they did something against his wishes or cost him in some way, he would place a cross by their name. If they did something to warrant his attention in a bad way again, he would place a second or ‘double cross’ by their name, and turn them in for the bounty. This phrase ‘double cross’ will be used in the criminal language to mean to ‘turn on a partner’ and is one of many words that survive today in modern language today. He was known to have done this not only for enemies, but for his own crew who had ‘lost their usefulness’ or just for the extra money they might bring for him. In short, Wild was a tavern owner, brothel keeper, thief, thief taker, blackmailer, fence, coiner, forger, smuggler, protection racketeer and had bought off most of the government officials in London.
He was finally arrested and placed in Newgate Prison in February, 1725 for helping organize a prison break for one of his men. Then, on May 15, he was charged and tried on two counts. One count of stealing 50 yards of lace from Catharine Statham, a local lace merchant and the second for the fraud of helping ‘recover’ the stolen items but not prosecuting the thief. He was found innocent of the first, guilty of the second and on 24 May, 1725 executed at Tyburn tree Gallows.
Given that writers of the time will be sensationalizing these criminals and their actions, we would expect Wild, in the romanticized way that Gay will try to portray him in both the song ‘Newgate’s Garland’ and his ‘Beggars Opera’, to approach death with a flamboyant and care-free air. Instead, Wild tried to commit suicide by drinking laudanum the morning of the hanging, but was unsuccessful. He was the last to be hanged that day, in an almost death like stupor. (Defoe, Daniel. A True & Genuine Account of the Life and Actions of the late Jonathan Wild, Not made up of Fictions and Fable, but taken from his Own Mouth and collected from PAPERS of his Own Writing. London, 1725.) In what some might consider a ‘romantically fitting end’ to such a colorful criminal, no sooner than he was buried that evening next to his third wife in St. Pancras Churchyard, his body was exhumed and sold to the Royal College of Surgeons for dissection, a common and legal practice for convicted criminal bodies at the time. His skeleton is displayed there to this day. Gay would not stop there, but continued on using the known criminals of the time to create his characters.
Whether Gay knew Mary Young (at times known as Mary Webb or Jane Young) or not is not known. But he certainly knew the exploits of ‘Jenny Diver’, the nickname and one of the aliases she will use at her final court appearance in January of 1741. (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 19 March 2020), January 1741, trial of Mary Young , alias Jenny Diver Elizabeth Davis , alias Catherine the Wife of Henry Huggins (t17410116-15). Mary was born in Ireland in the early part of the 18th century to an unmarried handmaiden. She was quickly abandoned and raised by a ‘gentlewoman’ until she was 15, learning to read, write and needlepoint. She ran away from this gentler lifestyle to London, where she was introduced to pickpocketing-or “diving”-by her landlady, Anne Murray. Murray, herself a leader of a criminal gang recognized the dexterous talents that Webb had, and began to introduce her into that shadowy world of the pickpockets and lockpicks, known as “divers”and“kates”. Undoubtably, due to her needlework, she quickly outpaced the other “Divers” in the group and later broke off and formed her own criminal gang, going by the name ‘Jenny Diver’, the criminal ‘cant’ slang for a female pickpocket. Just as well known for her creativeness, she devised a method of pretending to be pregnant…’occasionally supplemented by the addition of false belly, hands and arms, the work of an ingenious artist’ and made the most of her pickpocketing time in church, theater and other social events’. (Lives of Twelve Bad Women, Illustrations and Reviews of Feminine Turpitude set forth by Impartial Hands. Umwin, Fisher T. London. 1897.) So good was she that as her exploits outpaced those of the other gangs working the area, she could use that reputation to recruit the best of them for her own crew. By all accounts a conscientious ‘chief’, to her companions, Webb insisted that all of her underlings set aside a percentage of all they took. This money, kept separately by Webb herself, was used to help anyone of her crew being captured and placed in prison to ease their time there, as prisoners were expected to pay for anything other than the meanest of all food and lodging. Mary herself was captured and imprisoned thrice. The first time on the June 5th, 1728, as Mary Webb for theft of “…,a Holland Shift, value of 5 shillings, the Goods of Elizabeth Gibbs; four Shifts, the Property of Barbary Pinfold, and five Aprons, with other Things.” She was found guilty with the results being a sentence of transportation to the Colonies for 7 years. (Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 19 March 2020), June 1728, trial of Mary Webb (t17280605-9). She will spend the next 4 months within Newgate Prison, awaiting transportation. While there, she will organize and run a “stallng ken” similar to what Wild had done, except she did it with the walls of Newgate itself! So good at moving stolen property even within the prison, that at the time they finally took her to the docks to be transported she will have with her four cartloads of goods. Instead of being forced to be chained in the cramped and ill fitted convict deck, she instead paid for and enjoyed the voyage staying in the best cabin on the ship. In addition, when arriving in Virginia to start her seven years forced indentureship that the Crown had committed her to, she simply paid the captain his ‘expected wage’ from the auction of indentureship (probably about £12) and walked away to do as she pleased.
Not finding the colonies suitable for her ‘talents’, she returned to England within a matter of a year. She will find herself captured, imprisoned and transported a second time, under the name of Jane Webb in April of 1738, with the same results as the first. Her third-and final-time had a different result. Then she was charged with ‘ViolentTheft’ and ‘Highway Robbery’ for “…assaulting Judith Gardner, on the King's Highway, putting her in Fear, and taking from her £12. in Money, the Money of the said Judith, in the Parish of St. Mary Woolchurch, Jan. 17.’ (Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 21 March 2020), January 1741, trial of Mary Young , alias Jenny Diver, Elizabeth Davis , alias Catherine the Wife of Henry Huggins (t17410116-15). Though she will ‘plead her belly’ by claiming to be pregnant, she was not and summarily executed Wednesday, March 18, 1741. She had already prepared for this, having arranged for her friends to claim her body to keep it from the ‘dissectionists’, a fate she did not want to share with Wild. That same day she was buried in St. Pancras Churchyard. (Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 21 March 2020), Ordinary of Newgate's Account, March 1741 (OA17410318). England’s population was both frightened and fascinated with the colorful criminal element. Gay knew this and had quickly latched on to the idea of using these people, whether their names or their adventures to round out his creative ideas. But it wasn’t only him, as the newspapers and broadsheet sellers were quick with an almost ghoulish glee to report both the exploits and consequences of the criminals. There was one in particular that Gay felt had that perfect blend of panache, daring do and reputation to be used as the basis for Captain MacHeath, the protagonist of Gay’s play. That was none other than Jack Sheppard, renowned thief, highwayman and escape artist.
Born March 4, 1704 as John Sheppard to a poor family in, London’s Spitalfields slums, from age 6 to 20 he bounced around from parish workhouse to parish workhouse, showing promise as a very good carpenter. This was one area that Gay took creative license. For MacHeath, renowned character that rode brave, strong and true was tall, well built and handsome in appearance Sheppard by all accounts was short, rather small, a noticeable stutter but exceptionally strong. He was however popular at the taverns where he was introduced to Johnathon Wild. Being impressed with his prowess at thievery, Wild would quickly enlist Sheppard into his gang. This part of Sheppard’s life will last slightly more than a year, but what a year. He will be arrested four times, escaping each time. The fourth time being handcuffed, locked in leg irons and chained with 300 pounds of iron. In less than one night’s time he was able to loose himself from all of this, break through the ceiling, climb six floors to the roof unlocking each door he came upon. After ascending to the roof he realized he would need his bedsheets from his cell to lower himself. So he simply returned back to his cell, retrieved the bed linens then back again to the roof. Managing to reach the shorter roof of an adjacent house, he broke into it and walked out the front door without disturbing the inhabitants therein. (Defoe, Daniel. The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard Containing a Particular Account of His Many Robberies and Escapes. London, 1724). Finally, less than two weeks later he returned to London as a beggar, similar to Gay’s MacHeath. Breaking into a pawnbrokers house early one morning he stole and donned a black suit, wig, rings and watch. He then spent the rest of the day gambling and drinking in the companionship of two of his mistresses. Later that same evening he was captured, blind drunk and still dressed as a dandy.
While there is some question about authorship, Defoe will publish the work ‘A Narrative of all the Robberies, Escapes &c. of JOHN SHEPPARD’ claiming it was Sheppard himself who orated it for the masses to inform them of what was claimed to be his ‘true exploits’. Supposedly this was done in the middle stone room in Newgate on Nov. 10, 1724 just six days before his hanging. The final sentence reads ’I beseech the infinite Divine Being of Beings to pardon my numberless and enormous crimes, and to have mercy on my poor departing soul’. (Defoe, Daniel. A Narrative of all the Robberies, Escapes &c. of JOHN SHEPPARD, Applebee, 1724.) It was with great fanfare and a large procession that Sheppard was taken to the gallows. It has been estimated that almost one third of London was on hand to watch the spectacle of his transportation to Tyburn, where he was hanged. Sheppard had planned well, tho. He had arranged for his friends to immediately cut him from the rope after the fall and rush him to a doctor who it was believed could revive him. Unfortunately, this was not to be. For so famous was he that as soon as his body dropped the scaffold was rushed by the spectators partially in fear he would be taken by the dissectionists, but mostly to get souvenirs from his person. Finally, the badly mauled remains were finally removed and buried in the churchyard of St. Martin-in-the -Fields. (Hibbert, Christopher. The Road to Tyburn: The story of Jack Sheppard and the Eighteenth-Century London Underworld. New York: The World Publishing Company, 1957)
But though his body was placed in the ground, Sheppard’s legacy lived on. Within a fortnight the play ‘Harlequin Sheppard’ opens at a theater in Drury Lane where one charater-‘Frisky Moll’ will sing of his final moments of freedom. Newgate Calendar will publish a three-act farce called ‘The Quaker’s Opera’ within a year, and Hogarth 27 years later will do a series of engravings entitled ‘Tom Idle’ believed to be based on Sheppard’s life. These are but a few of the stories, plays and books that will be written about Sheppard himself over the centuries.
It is often hard to separate fact from fiction. And Gay himself will enlarge these people and their exploits as any good author believes they have the authority and responsibility to do. But through it all one thing stands as true; for it can be said honestly and without reproach that Gay will have penned what is the most widely published musical work in 18th century England and still surviving today, ‘The Beggars Opera’.
-‘Scoundrel’s Alley’ is the collaboration of Faire Wynds Entertainments and Parson John Living History. The ‘Scholarly Scoundrel’ is Eric Paul Scites who can be reached at eric@fairewynds.com.