The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 2/2Griffiths, Arthur
History
The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 2/2
Griffiths, Arthur
Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England); Prisons -- England; Punishment -- Great Britain
James Bolland, who was executed in 1772, deserved and certainly obtained
less sympathy. Bolland long filled the post of a sheriff's officer, and
as such became the lessee of a spunging-house, where he practised
boundless extortion. He was a man of profligate life, whose means never
equalled his extravagant self-indulgence, and he was put to all manner
of shifts to get money. More than once he arrested debtors, was paid all
claims in full, and appropriated the money to his own use, yet escaped
due retribution for his fraud. He employed bullies, spies, and indigent
attorneys to second his efforts, some of whom were arrested and
convicted of other crimes with the clothes Bolland provided them still
on their backs. His character was so infamous, that when he purchased
the situation of upper city marshal for £2400, the court of aldermen
would not approve of the appointment. He tried also to succeed to a
vacancy as Sergeant-at-mace, and met with the same objection. The
deposit-money paid over in both these affairs was attached by his
sureties, and he was driven to great necessities for funds. When called
upon to redeem a note of hand he had given, he pleaded that he was short
of cash, and offered another man's bill, which, however, was refused
unless endorsed. Bolland then proceeded to endorse it with his own name,
but it was declared unnegotiable, owing to the villanous character it
bore. Whereupon Bolland erased all the letters after the capital, and
substituted the letters "anks," the name of Banks being that of a
respectable victualler of Rathbone Place, in a large way of trade. When
the bill became due, Banks repudiated his signature, and Bolland, who
sought too late to meet it and hush up the affair, was arrested for the
forgery. He was tried and executed in due course.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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