Ten Thousand Wonderful Things: Comprising whatever is marvellous and rare, curious, eccentric and extraordinary in all ages and nations
History
Ten Thousand Wonderful Things: Comprising whatever is marvellous and rare, curious, eccentric and extraordinary in all ages and nations
Curiosities and wonders; Encyclopedias and dictionaries; Folklore
That notorious burglar, Jack Sheppard, finished his disgraceful career
at Tyburn in the year 1724, and we notice the event, not with the view
of detailing the disgusting particulars of an execution, but because
the outrages which were allowed to take place after the dreadful scene
was over, exhibit in a striking light the miserable police regulations
which existed at that period, and the manner in which the mob were
allowed to have it nearly all their own way. The Sheriff's officers,
aware of the person they had to contend with, thought it prudent to
secure his hands on the morning of execution. This innovation produced
the most violent resistance on Sheppard's part; and the operation was
performed by force. They then proceeded to search him, and had reason
to applaud their vigilance, for he had contrived to conceal a penknife
in some part of his dress. The ceremony of his departure from our
world passed without disorder; but, the instant the time expired for
the suspension of the body, an undertaker, who had followed by his
friends' desire with a hearse and attendants, would have conveyed it to
St. Sepulchre's churchyard for interment; but the mob, conceiving that
surgeons had employed this unfortunate man, proceeded to demolish the
vehicle, and attack the sable dependants, who escaped with difficulty.
They then seized the body, and, in the brutal manner common to those
wretches, beat it from each to the other till it was covered with
bruises and dirt, and till they reached Long-acre, where they deposited
the miserable remains at a public-house called the Barley-mow. After
it had rested there a few hours the populace entered into an enquiry
why they had contributed their assistance in bringing Sheppard to
Long-acre; when they discovered they were duped by a bailiff, who
was actually employed by the surgeons; and that they had taken the
corpse from a person really intending to bury it. The elucidation of
their error exasperated them almost to phrensy, and a riot immediately
commenced, which threatened the most serious consequences, The
inhabitants applied to the police, and several magistrates attending,
they were immediately convinced the civil power was insufficient to
resist the torrent of malice ready to burst forth in acts of violence.
They therefore sent to the Prince of Wales and the Savoy, requesting
detachments of the guards; who arriving, the ringleaders were secured,
the body was given to a person, a friend of Sheppard, and the mob
dispersed to attend it to the grave at St. Martin's in the fields,
where it was deposited in an elm coffin, at ten o'clock the same night,
under a guard of soldiers, and with the ceremonies of the church.
A TRIUMPH OF ENERGY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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