The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 1/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841.Pelham, Camden
History
The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 1/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841.
Pelham, Camden
Crime -- Great Britain; Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England)
Accompanied by one of her female accomplices, Jenny joined the crowd at
the entrance of a place of worship in the Old Jewry, where a popular
divine was to preach, and observing a young gentleman with a diamond
ring on his finger she held out her hand, which he kindly received in
order to assist her. At this juncture she contrived to get possession of
the ring without the knowledge of the owner, after which she slipped
behind her companion, and heard the gentleman say, that, as there was no
probability of gaining admittance, he would return. Upon his leaving the
meeting he missed his ring, and mentioned his loss to the persons who
were near him, adding that he suspected it to be stolen by a woman whom
he had endeavoured to assist in the crowd; but as the thief was unknown
she escaped. This proof of her dexterity was considered so remarkable
that her associates determined to allow her an equal share of all their
booties, even though she should not be present when they were obtained.
In a short time after this exploit she procured a pair of false hands
and arms to be made, and concealing her real ones under her clothes, she
put something beneath her stays so as to make herself appear as if in a
state of pregnancy, and repaired on a Sunday evening to the place of
worship above-mentioned in a sedan chair, one of the gang going before
to procure a seat for her among the genteeler part of the congregation,
and another attending in the character of a footman.
Jenny being seated between two elderly ladies, each of whom had a gold
watch by her side, she conducted herself with great seeming devotion;
but, the service being nearly concluded, she seized the opportunity,
when the ladies were standing up, of stealing their watches, which she
delivered to an accomplice in an adjoining pew. The devotions being
ended, the congregation were preparing to depart, when the ladies
discovered their loss, and a violent clamour ensued. One of the parties
exclaimed "That her watch must have been taken either by the devil or
the pregnant woman!" on which the other said, "She could vindicate the
pregnant lady, whose hands she was sure had not been removed from her
lap during the whole time of her being in the pew."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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