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)
When night came on, our adventurer tied a handkerchief about his head,
tore his woollen cap in several places, and also his coat and stockings,
so as to have the appearance of a beggar; and in this condition he went
to a cellar near Charing Cross, where he supped on roast veal, and
listened to the conversation of the company, all of whom were talking of
the escape of Sheppard. On the Monday he sheltered himself at a
public-house of little trade in Rupert-street, and conversing with the
landlady about Sheppard, he told her it was impossible for him to get
out of the kingdom, and the keepers would certainly have him again in a
few days; on which the woman wished that a curse might fall on those who
should betray him.
On the next day he hired a garret in Newport Market, and soon
afterwards, dressing himself like a porter, he went to Blackfriars, to
the house of Mr. Applebee, printer of the dying speeches, and delivered
a letter, in which he ridiculed the printer and the Ordinary of Newgate,
and inclosed a communication for one of the keepers of the gaol.
Some nights after this he broke open the shop of Mr. Rawlins, a
pawnbroker, in Drury Lane, where he stole a sword, a suit of wearing
apparel, some snuff-boxes, rings, watches, and other effects to a
considerable amount; and determining to make the appearance of a
gentleman among his old acquaintance in Drury Lane and Clare Market, he
dressed himself in a suit of black and a tie-wig, wore a ruffled shirt,
a silver-hilted sword, a diamond ring, and a gold watch, and joined them
at supper, though he knew that diligent search was making after him at
that very time. On the 31st of October he dined with two women at a
public-house in Newgate-street, and about four in the afternoon they all
passed under Newgate in a hackney-coach, having first drawn up the
blinds. Going in the evening to a public-house in Maypole Alley, Clare
Market, Sheppard sent for his mother, and treated her with brandy, when
the poor woman dropped on her knees, and begged that he would
immediately retire from the kingdom. He promised to do so; but now being
grown mad from the effects of the liquor he had drunk, he wandered about
from public-house to public-house in the neighbourhood till near twelve
o'clock at night, when he was apprehended in consequence of the
information of an ale-house boy, who knew him. When taken into custody
he was quite senseless, and was conveyed to Newgate in a coach, without
being capable of making any resistance, although he had two loaded
pistols in his possession at the time. He was now lodged securely
enough; and his fame being increased by his recent exploits, he was
visited by many persons of distinction, whom he diverted by a recital of
the particulars of many robberies in which he had been concerned, but he
invariably concluded his narration by expressing a hope that his
visitors would endeavour to procure the exercise of the royal mercy in
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