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)
At length, however, having by his fraudulent schemes involved himself in
almost innumerable difficulties, he determined upon once more "passing
the court," to get rid of his liabilities; and the necessary proceedings
were taken to procure a second commission of bankruptcy. During his
sojourn in the Fleet Prison, whither, like many of his late victims, he
was now obliged to go, he formed acquaintances by no means calculated to
improve his character for respectability, nor to induce him to adopt any
new mode of life. On his discharge, through the instrumentality of some
of his prison friends, he procured himself once again to be appointed a
sheriff's officer of Middlesex, and he now commenced business in Great
Shire Lane, Fleet-street. If his exertions as a bailiff in the Savoy had
failed in procuring for him those returns which his situation might lead
him to expect, he had now no reason to complain of want of patronage.
His acquaintance among the "sharp practice" attorneys had been lately
increasing, and he was soon almost fully employed by them. His house was
again rendered the means of procuring for him the most extravagant
returns for his outlay on behalf of his prisoners, and his ingenuity and
impudence supplied any deficiency which might have before appeared in
his income.
One or two instances of the devices to which he had recourse may prove
interesting. Having been employed by a gentleman to arrest a person who
was his debtor to the amount of three hundred pounds on a bill of
exchange, and who held the situation of captain of an East Indiaman,
Bolland immediately proceeded to make the necessary inquiries respecting
his prey. He learned that his vessel was about to sail in the course of
a very few days; but, determined to be beforehand with him, he caused
him to be immediately arrested and carried to his lock-up house. His
employer, in the mean time, had gone out of town, and therefore looked
for no immediate account from the officer; but the latter having
procured the debt and costs from his prisoner, suffered him immediately
to depart. Some months elapsed before the plaintiff in the suit returned
to London, and then he demanded to know what success the bailiff had had
in procuring the payment of the debt; but he was assured by him that the
vessel had sailed before the writ was lodged in his hands, and that all
his efforts to procure the money had been unavailing. He then tendered a
charge of the costs which had been incurred, and the amount having been
paid, he walked off. His cheat was soon destined to be discovered,
however; for the captain having returned, a writ was lodged in the hands
of another officer, by whom he was a second time arrested. The result
may be easily imagined: Bolland's receipt for the debt and costs, dated
eighteen months before, was produced, and the prisoner was at once set
at liberty. Proceedings were then immediately instituted against our
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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