Part 1

Transcriber's Note.

There are thirty plates, located at the end of the text, that depict individuals described in it. They have been moved to follow the text that describes them. They are annotated "London Published as the Act directs [date] by J. T. Smith No. 4 Chandos St Covent Garden."

Inconsistencies in hyphenation and spelling have been retained.

Italics are indicated by _underscores_. Small capitals have been replaced by full capitals and a superscript by ordinary font.

LIVES OF FAMOUS LONDON BEGGARS,

WITH FORTY PORTRAITS OF THE MOST REMARKABLE.

DRAWN FROM LIFE BY JOHN THOMAS SMITH.

LONDON: DIPROSE AND BATEMAN, SHEFFIELD STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.

PREFACE.

_Mr Granger, at the close of his Biographical History of England, says, "I shall conclude this volume with observing, that Lord Bacon has somewhere remarked, that biography has been confined within too narrow limits; as if the lives of great personages only deserved the notice of the inquisitive part of mankind. I have, perhaps, in the foregoing strictures extended the sphere of it too far. I began with Monarchs, and have ended with Ballad-Singers, Chimney-Sweepers, and Beggars. But they that fill the highest and the lowest classes of human life, seem, in many respects, to be more nearly allied than even themselves imagine. A skilful anatomist would find little or no difference, in dissecting the body of a king and that of the meanest of his subjects; and a judicious philosopher would discover a surprising conformity, in discussing the nature and qualities of their minds."_

Beggary, of late, particularly for the last six years, had become so dreadful in London, that the more active interference of the legislature was deemed absolutely necessary; indeed, the deceptions of the idle and sturdy were so various, cunning, and extensive, that it was in most instances extremely difficult to discover the real object of charity from the impostor.

Concluding, therefore, from the reduction of the metropolitan beggars, that several curious characters would disappear by being either compelled to industry, or to partake of the liberal parochial rates provided for them in their respective workhouses, it occurred to the author of the present publication, that likenesses of the most remarkable of them, with a few particulars of their habits, would not be unamusing to those to whom they have been a pest for several years.

In order to convince his readers that he does not stand alone as a delineator of mendicants, he begs leave to observe, that several of the very first-rate artists have studied from them.

Michael Angelo Buonarotti often drew from beggars; and report says, that in the early part of his life, when he had not the means of paying them in money, he would make an additional sketch, and, presenting it to the party, desire him to take it to some particular person, who would purchase it. Fuseli, in his life of Michael Angelo, says that "a beggar rose from his hand the patriarch of poverty." The same artist, in one of his lectures, delivered at the Royal Academy, also observes, that "Michael Angelo ennobled his beggars into Patriarchs and Prophets, in the ceiling of the Sistini Chapel."

Annibal Caracci frequently drew subjects in low life. His "Cries of Bologna," etched by Giuseppe Maria Mitelli, pub. 1660, in folio, are evidently from real characters. It will also be recollected, that some of the finest productions of Murillo, Jan Miel, and Drogsloot, are beggars. Callot's twenty-four beggars are evidently from nature; and among Rembrandt's etchings are to be found twenty-three plates of this description.

Sir Joshua Reynolds frequently painted from beggars, and from these people have originated some of his finest pictures, particularly his "Mercury as a Pickpocket," and "Cupid as a Link-boy." His Count Ugolino, was painted from a pavier, soon after he had left St George's Hospital from a severe fever. Mr West painted the portrait of a beggar, on the day when he became a hundred years old; and considered him as a pensioner for several years afterwards. The same person was used also as a model by Copley, Opie, &c. Who can forget the lovely countenance of Gainsborough's Shepherd's Boy, that has once seen Earlom's excellent engraving from it? He was a lad well known as a beggar to those who walked St James's Street thirty years ago. The model for the celebrated picture of the Woodman, by the same artist, is now living in the Borough, at the venerable age of 107.

Mr Nollekens, in 1778, when modelling the bust of Dr Johnson, who then wore a wig, called in a beggar to sit for the hair. The same artist was not equally fortunate in the locks of another great character, for on his application to a beggar for the like purpose, the fellow declined to sit, with an observation that three half-crowns were not sufficient for the trouble.

The late Mr Nathaniel Hone, in the year 1850, painted the portrait of James Turner, a common beggar, who valued his time at a shilling an hour. Captain Baillie has made an etching of this picture.

That truly spirited painter, Mr Ward, made similar overtures to a lame sailor, who thought fit to reject them and prefer his begging occupation.

One of the many fine things produced by Flaxman, is a figure of a blind sailor, Jack Stuart, mentioned in page 19 of this work. The artist has introduced him in a beautiful monument, erected in Campsal Church, to the memory of Misses Yarborough.

Beggars have not only been useful to artists as models, but serviceable to them in other instances. Francis Perrier, who was born of poor parents, when a boy entered into the service of a blind beggar, for the express purpose of getting from France to Rome to pursue his studies in that city; and Old Scheemaker, the sculptor, Nollekens's master, absolutely begged his way from Flanders to Rome for the same purpose.

Though the biographical part of this publication exhibits some curious customs of the London beggars which have fallen within the author's observations, and though it may in some instances be deemed original, yet he confesses that he has adopted the usual craft of the common vender, who invariably puts the best sample into the mouth of the sack. Such, he needs not state the truly interesting Introduction to be; it was written and presented to him by his honoured and valuable friend, FRANCIS DOUCE, Esq.

INTRODUCTION.

The present work is very far from being offered as a general view of that peculiar branch of pauperism, which includes the many wandering classes of mankind that are supported by the casual and irregular bounty of others, or by means that have at least the appearance of industry or honourable ingenuity; for that would be a task requiring the united efforts of the historian, the legislator, and the antiquary. It may be deemed sufficient to submit to the reader's notice, such accounts and gleanings as immediately relate to the particular characters which are here once more embodied and presented to him by the aid of the graphic art. In the mean time, a slight sketch of the state and progress of mendicity in former ages may be neither unacceptable nor without its use.

The Beggar's calling, if not one of the most respectable, may doubtless be regarded as one of the most ancient. In every part of the globe where man is congregated, the inequality of his condition, the too frequent indolence of his habits, or the shifts to which human misery is occasionally reduced, will compel him to depend for his support on the generosity of his fellow-creatures, and even sometimes lead him to prefer this disgraceful state of existence. The sacred volume has supplied us with evidence of the mendicant profession at an early period. King David, when imprecating curses on the head of his enemy, prays that "his children be continually vagabonds, and _beg_;"[1] and the story of Ulysses and the beggar Irus, as related in one of the oldest works extant, is known almost to every one.

The state of mendicity among the Greeks and Romans is but obscurely recorded, nor have any specific laws or regulations that they might have framed relating to that subject been transmitted to us. The beggars in Horace, who lamented the death of the musician Tigellinus, were probably of the common kind, though some have supposed them to have been fortune-tellers or prophets. Their dress would be of the ragged sort, the _mendicula impluviata_ of Plautus. We learn from Seneca, that the beggars of his time practised every species of imposture, and even amputated their limbs for the purpose of exciting compassion.

During the middle ages, we meet with a few legislative acts relating to the vagrant classes. In a capitulary of the Emperor Charlemagne, beggars were prohibited from wandering about the country; and another ancient law of the Franks is cited by Beatus Rhenanus in his German chronicle, by which every city is ordered to maintain its own poor, who are nevertheless to be compelled to manual labour, or otherwise not to be entitled to relief; a vagrant life is also strictly prohibited. For a considerable time the kingdom of France was much infested with a set of itinerant beggars, usually known by the appellation of _Truands_, and their occupation by that of _Truandise_; from which terms our own language has adopted an obvious word of much significance. These people likewise gave name to one of the streets of Paris, called _La Truanderie_; and, under pretence of begging alms, committed the most atrocious crimes and excesses practising every kind of fraud and imposture; so that the name gradually became the representative of every thing that was bad and infamous. In later times they were called _Argotiers_. They assumed the form of a regular government, elected a king, and established a fixed code of laws, and a language peculiar to themselves, constructed probably by some of the debauched and licentious youths who, abandoning their scholastic studies, associated with these vagabonds. The facetious author of a poetical life of the famous French robber Cartouche, has given a very humorous account of the origin of the word _Argot_, which, at the expense of graver etymologists, he derives from the ship Argos; contending that this _jargon_, a term that would perhaps have supplied the real and perverted meaning of the other, was either invented by the navigators of that celebrated vessel, for the purpose of deceiving his majesty of Colchos, or constructed by Agamemnon at Argos, and transported afterwards to Troy, where the Greek generals used it to harangue their soldiers. The same writer has likewise compiled a dictionary of the language in question, which is given at the end of Cartouche's history. Their king assumed the title of the _Great Chosroes_, in imitation of the Persian monarch of that name, and his officers had their several cant denominations contrived with considerable ingenuity. One of these sovereigns thought fit to prefer his own name, and was called _Roi de Thunes_. This fellow used to be drawn triumphantly through the streets in a little cart by two stout dogs, and at length finished his career on a gibbet at Bourdeaux. The new members of this honourable fraternity were graciously received by the monarch, and consigned to his officers for instruction. These taught them to counterfeit wounds, sores, and ulcers, by means of the juice of celandine and other herbs; to make preparations of grease, &c., for the purpose of hindering dogs from barking, and many other tricks and contrivances essential to the profession of a beggar. The necessary qualifications for an officer at court, was the possession of masks, rags, plaisters, bandages, crutches, and other matters calculated to excite charity and compassion; a candidate for the monarchy, which was elective, must have passed through one or more offices, and have sported a limb in all appearance shockingly diseased, but curable in a day's time. The royal habits were composed of a thousand bits of rag, of various colours. Every year the king held a council of his officers and subjects, who reported their proceedings, and paid him the legal and accustomed tribute money; offences were inquired into, and summary punishment inflicted. Many of the above officers were runaway scholars and debauched priests, who taught the novices the _Argot_ language, and performed other duties which exempted them from the usual tribute to the sovereign. These impostors were divided into numerous classes, assuming various appellations. Those who counterfeited maimed soldiers were called _Narquois_, corresponding with our Rufflers. The little urchins, who before the establishment of regular hospitals were permitted to beg in groups, and appeared as half-starved, were denominated _Orphelins_, or _Orphans_. Fellows assuming the character of broken merchants and tradesmen, called themselves _Marcandiers_ and _Rifodés_; these, pretending to have been ruined by war, by fire, and other calamities, made use of false certificates of their loss, and were frequently accompanied by their wives and children. The _Malingreux_ were the dropsical and otherwise diseased impostors, who frequented the churches, and demanded alms to enable them to make pilgrimages and perform masses to particular saints. The _Hubins_ shewed certificates of having been bitten by wolves or dogs, and placed themselves under St Hubert's protection. The _Coquillarts_ pretended to have made a pilgrimage to St James or St Michael, and sold their cockle-shells even to those fools who had done so. The _Sabouleux_ counterfeited demoniacs, by means of soap held in the mouth, with which they produced their foam, and exhibited false wounds on their heads and bodies, which they pretended to have inflicted on themselves during their fits. These last were the most faithful subjects of the _Great Chosroes_, and paid him a much higher tribute than any of the rest. Besides the above, there were the _Pietres_, the _Courtaux_, the _Polissons_, the _Capons_, the _Francmitoux_, and a variety of others, all assuming different characters, to defraud the unwary in every possible manner. These particulars have been collected together as exhibiting a general view of the manners and practices of the begging tribe in the kingdom of France, where the regulations concerning them appear to have been very frequent and severe. In the reign of Francis I. many edicts of the court issued against them, by some of which all the beggars in Paris were compelled to clear the city sewers and ditches, and to assist in repairing the fortifications; and for this purpose the police officers seized upon all that were able-bodied and competent to work. Many were banished to the provinces, and if they continued to beg, and refused to assist in the vintage, they were ordered to be hanged. Whipping was the more general punishment; and where licensed, they were not suffered to go about in troops, but confined to travel in Paris only, to prevent robberies and other mischief. Those who could not labour, on account of infirmity, were maintained in hospitals, or by contributions at the churches, where they were not permitted, as at present, to beg, under pain of whipping. In the admirable Pictures of Paris by Mercier, there is an interesting article on the sturdy beggars of that city, where their noisy orgies at their places of rendezvous, when they have stripped themselves of their false limbs and hideous plasters, are eloquently described. He mentions one cruel and wicked practice among these impostors, namely, that when they steal other people's children for want of their own, they distort and even dislocate the members of the unfortunate victims, to give them what they impiously term the arms and legs of God Almighty.

With respect to the vagabonds of Spain, who will be found to resemble, with small difference, many of the classes above described, it will be sufficient to refer the reader to those excellent novels, Lazarillo de Tormes, and Guzman de Alfarache. The manners of the Italian mendicants and impostors are admirably depicted, with many entertaining stories, in the very curious work of Rafael Frianoro, entitled, "Il vagabondo, overo sferzo de bianti e vagabondi," _Viterbo_, 1620, 12mo, in which the catalogue of names of the parties, and of the impostures practised, far exceeded those of any other country.

Della Valle, in his travels to the East Indies, informs us, that the beggars there make use of a trumpet to express their wants, frequently terrifying the people into charity by their loud clamours. Of the Chinese mendicants, some particulars will be found in explaining one of the plates of this work.

It would amount to positive negligence, if, in the present sketch, those wanderers that are usually known among ourselves by the appellation of Gypsies, and on the continent by that of Bohemians, on account of their first appearance in that country, were passed over without some notice; but their history has been so learnedly and copiously detailed by M. Grellmann, that it may be thought sufficient on this occasion to advert to the English translation of that excellent work by Mr Raper, published 1787, in quarto.

Nor should the mention of the orders of mendicant friars be omitted, who, no doubt, had their prototypes in the knavish priests of Cybele. Of these persons there were four orders,--viz., the Augustinians, the Carmelites, the Dominicans, and the Minorites. They wandered from place to place, professing poverty, and exciting the charity of others. They had assumed and acquired an unlimited control over the consciences of the deluded victims of their artifice, and at length became particularly odious to the monks and the clergy in general, continuing nevertheless to maintain their power and influence, from the marked favour and protection of the Roman Pontiffs, who regarded them as some of their best friends and supporters. In our own country these people encountered a most bitter and inveterate enemy in the celebrated Wickliffe, who, in his sermons and other works, declaimed against them with much vehement eloquence as thieves, hypocrites, and children of Judas Iscariot; telling them that Christ never commissioned any one to appear in the character of a beggar; and that, although he preferred a state of poverty, he never demanded alms himself, nor allowed of others doing it, but in cases of extreme necessity.

Another set of ecclesiastical mendicants were those pseudo-monks, who, among many other irregularities, scrupled not to take to themselves wives, whilst their brethren contented themselves with concubines. These were branded by the regular monks with the appellation of _Beghards_, and are specially termed _sturdy beggars_, in a very bitter invective against them by Felix Hammerlein, a civilian and canon of Zurich, in the fifteenth century, who emphatically calls them the legitimate sons of Belial. Many other writers declaimed against them with great acrimony, and some of the more rigid Papists seem to have classed them among the _Lollards_, an appellation that has very much arrested the attention of the learned in etymology, though without any certainty as to its origin.

The records of our early history supply few, if any, materials that throw light upon the subject before us; and the laws of the Saxons, as well as those of our British ancestors, are entirely silent as to any regulation concerning vagrants or mendicants of any kind. A curious incident however in the life of Edward the Confessor, as related by his historian Alured of Rievaulx, is worthy of being mentioned. This sovereign is said to have been remarkable for his benevolence to the poor, many of whom he privately supported. Among these was one Ralph, a Norman, a miserable object, whose limbs were shockingly contracted by disease. This man, scarcely able to creep along on his knees, as was the usual practice with such persons, and urged by necessity, the mother of invention, was the first who is reported as making use of a hollow vessel of wood, in the form of a bason, in which he placed his hinder parts, guiding and supporting his crippled limbs by means of his hands, and thus sailed along, as it were, upon the ground. On the king's death he made a pilgrimage to his tomb, and addressing himself to the monarch as if alive, was healed, as says the legend, of his disease.

The next two centuries of English history are equally barren of incident to our purpose. From that time, however, the statute laws of the kingdom furnish abundant regulations concerning the vagrant classes, and it has therefore been thought worth while to submit to the reader's notice the following extracts and abridgments.

The statute of labourers, made in the 23d year of Edw. III., recites that there are many sturdy beggars, who prefer a life of indolence to active labour, and commit theft and other crimes; and therefore, with a view to discourage such practices, and compel these persons to work for their living, it enacts that none, on pain of imprisonment, shall, under colour of pity or of alms, give anything to those who are competent to labour, or presume by such means to "_favour them towards their desires_."

By Stat. xii. Rich. II. c. 6, every beggar who is able to work shall be put in the stocks, and such as are unable to work shall abide in the cities and towns where they be dwelling at the time of proclaiming this statute; and if the inhabitants shall not be able to maintain them, then the said beggars shall withdraw themselves to other places within the hundred, rape, or wapentake, or to the places of their nativity, within forty days as above, and there continually abide during their lives; and all that go in pilgrimage as beggars, but are able to work, shall be punished with the stocks, unless they have letters testimonial from a justice of the peace. The sheriffs and gaolers are also charged with the custody of beggars, though it does not appear for what particular offence. Religious persons and hermits who beg must have licence from their ordinaries, and scholars of the universities from their chancellors, under the like penalties.

The Stat. xix. Hen. VII., adverting to the rigour of the last-mentioned regulations, and to the great expense of confining vagabonds and beggars in prison, enacts, that an immediate discharge from the gaols shall take place, and all beggars be set in the stocks for a day and a night, without other food than bread and water, and then sent to the place of their nativity, or where they may have resided for the space of three years. It also enacts, that such beggars as are not able to work be passed to their own towns, where only they are to be allowed to beg.