The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 2/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841Pelham, Camden
History
The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 2/2: 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)
Being now left without an associate, Haggart returned to Newcastle,
where he resided for four months, in the house of his old friend, Mrs.
A----. During his stay there, one of the young ladies was married to a
respectable shopkeeper, when Haggart took the lead in conducting the
festivities of the wedding. One evening, having accompanied one of the
Miss A----'s to the theatre, on their return, a gentleman much in
liquor attempted to insult the young lady; struggling in her defence,
Haggart contrived to pick the pocket of his antagonist of nineteen
guineas, with which he escaped unsuspected. At length having, as he
conceived, remained as long as was expedient in this place, he took his
departure in the month of June, and he then proceeded to Edinburgh,
where he pursued the occupation of a shop-lifter. At this time, it
appears, that he was suddenly seized with a severe and dangerous fit of
illness, and being struck with remorse at his past conduct, he returned
to the house of his parents; but he was soon after apprehended on a
charge of shop-lifting, of which he had been previously guilty, and
being sent to jail, all his determinations to be more circumspect and
honest, were put to flight. On his release he joined one of his fellow
prisoners, named Graham, and with him recommenced the system of plunder,
by means of which he had before supported himself.
Having stolen a pedlar's pack, and several articles of linen drapery and
hosiery, Haggart assumed the character of a pedlar, and travelled the
country to dispose of his ill-gotten goods. After this he returned to
Edinburgh, where he remained till January 1820, committing depredations
of every description. On the 1st of March he was arrested at Leith, in
company with an accomplice named Forest. The offenders made a desperate
resistance, but were at length secured and committed for trial. The
confinement was too much for our hero, however, and on the evening of
the 27th of March, having obtained a small file, he cut the irons from
his legs, and then forced up the door of his cell, and got into the
passage. He next set to work upon a very thick stone wall, through which
he at length made a hole, and got on the staircase just as the clock
struck twelve. He had still the outer wall to penetrate, on which he
fell to work with great caution, lest he should be heard. Having made
considerable progress, he returned to the room where his companion
Forest was, and brought him to his assistance; he also awoke one of the
debtors whom he knew, and obtained his assistance in removing his
handcuffs, having all along been working with them upon him. After great
labour and violent pain they succeeded in wrenching the chain in two
pieces. He then renewed his operations on the outer wall, and, having
removed a large stone, got out a few minutes before five o'clock in the
morning. When he gained the outside stair he saw a man coming towards
him, and, supposing him to be an officer in pursuit of him, he leaped
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