Chronicles of Newgate, Vol. 1: From the twelfth to the eighteenth centuryGriffiths, Arthur
History
Chronicles of Newgate, Vol. 1: From the twelfth to the eighteenth century
Griffiths, Arthur
Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England); Prisons -- England; Punishment -- Great Britain
William Page did a better business as a highwayman than Maclane. Page
was apprenticed to a haberdasher, but he was a consummate coxcomb, who
neglected his shop to dress in the fashion and frequent public places.
His relations turned him adrift, and when in the last stage of distress
he accepted a footman's place. It was while in livery that he first
heard of what highwaymen could do, and conceived the idea of adopting
the road as a profession. His first exploits were on the Kentish road,
when he stopped the Canterbury stage; his next near Hampton Court. When
he had collected some £200 he took lodgings in Lincoln's Inn Fields and
passed as a student of law. He learnt to dance, frequented assemblies,
and was on the point of marrying well, when he was recognized as
a discharged footman, and turned out-of-doors. He continued his
depredations all this time, assisted by a curious map which he had
himself drawn, giving the roads round London for twenty miles. His
plan was to drive out in a phaeton and pair. When at a distance from
town he would turn into some unfrequented place and disguise himself
with a grizzle or black wig and put on other clothes. Then saddling
one of his phaeton horses, he went on to the main road and committed
a robbery. This effected, he galloped back to his carriage, resumed
his former dress, and drove to London. He was often cautioned against
himself; but laughingly said that he had already lost his money once
and could now only lose his coat and shirt. He was nearly detected on
one occasion, when some haymakers discovered his empty phaeton and
drove it off with his best clothes. He had just stopped some people,
who pursued the haymakers with the carriage and accused them of being
accomplices in the robbery. Page heard of this, and throwing the
disguise into a well, went back to town nearly naked, where he claimed
the carriage, saying the men had stripped him and thrown him into a
ditch. The coach-builder swore that he had sold him the carriage, and
they were committed for trial, but Page did not appear to prosecute.
Page after this extended his operations, and in company with one
Darwell, an old schoolfellow, committed more than three hundred
robberies in three years. He frequented Bath, Tunbridge, Newmarket, and
Scarbro', playing deep everywhere and passing for a man of fortune.
Darwell and he next "worked" the roads around London, but while the
former was near Sevenoaks he was captured by Justice Fielding. He
turned evidence against Page, who was arrested in consequence at the
Golden Lion near Hyde Park, with a wig to disguise him in one pocket
and his map of the London roads in another. He was remanded to Newgate
and tried for a robbery, of which he was acquitted; then removed to
Maidstone and convicted of another, for which he was hanged at that
place in 1758.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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