Millbank Penitentiary: An Experiment in ReformationGriffiths, Arthur
Philosophy
Millbank Penitentiary: An Experiment in Reformation
Griffiths, Arthur
Millbank Prison (London, England); Penal colonies; Prisons -- Great Britain -- History
Ikey left no traces, and the police could hear nothing of him. He had
in fact gone out of the country, to Copenhagen, whence he passed on
to New York. There he devoted himself to the circulation of forged
notes. He was also anxious to do business in watches, and begged his
wife to send him over a consignment of cheap “righteous” watches, or
such as had been honestly obtained, and not “on the cross.” But Mrs.
Solomons could not resist the temptation to dabble in stolen goods,
and she was found shipping watches of the wrong category to New York.
For this she received a sentence of fourteen years’ transportation,
and was sent to Van Diemen’s Land. Ikey joined her at Hobart Town,
where they set up a general shop, and soon began to prosper. He was,
however, recognized, and ere long an order came out from home for his
arrest and transfer to England, which presently followed, and he again
found himself an inmate of Newgate, waiting trial as a receiver and a
prison-breaker. He was indicted on eight charges, two only of which
were substantiated, but on each of them he received a sentence of seven
years’ transportation. At his own request he was reconveyed to Hobart
Town, where his son had been carrying on the business. Whether Ikey was
“assigned” to his own family is not recorded, but no doubt he succeeded
to his own property when the term of servitude had expired.
No doubt, on the removal of Ikey Solomons from the scene, his mantle
fell upon worthy successors. There was an increase rather than an
abatement in jewel and bullion robberies in the years immediately
following, and the thieves seem to have had no difficulty in disposing
of their spoil. One of the largest robberies of its class was that
effected upon the Custom House in the winter of 1834. A large amount
of specie was nearly always retained here in the department of the
receiver of fines. This was known to some clerks in the office, who
began to consider how they might lay hands on a lot of cash. Being
inexperienced, they decided to call in the services of a couple of
professional housebreakers, Jordan and Sullivan, who at once set to
work in a business-like way to obtain impressions of the keys of the
strong room and chest. But before committing themselves to an attempt
on the latter, it was of importance to ascertain how much it usually
contained. For this purpose Jordan waited on the receiver to make a
small payment, for which he tendered a fifty-pound note. The chest was
opened to give change, and a heavy tray lifted out which plainly held
some £4,000 in cash. Some difficulty then arose as to gaining admission
to the strong room, and it was arranged that a man, May, another Custom
House clerk, should be introduced into the building, and secreted there
during the night to accomplish the robbery. May was smuggled in through
a window on the esplanade behind an opened umbrella. When the place
was quite deserted he broke open the chest and stole £4,700 in notes,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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