Part 23
What finally became of him is not known. Mr. Angerstein offered the reward to Miss Porter, as it was by her instrumentality that the Monster was captured, but she refused it.
The recollection of _the Monster_, did not quickly fade away, for we read in the _Times_, 20 Dec. 1799, "Another new _Monster_ on Wednesday, made his appearance in town. His passion is for _biting_ the Ladies' _toes_ and _finger ends_. They say his name is _Frost_."
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Food riots, the natural outcome of an almost starving and ignorant population were rife; but, in the following paragraph, there is a curious allusion, that _the grain was intended to be shipped to France_, with which nation we were then at war.
"Several towns in Cornwall were last week visited by large bodies of Miners, from the different works, in search of concealed corn, which they insist upon is intended for exportation to France. At Wadebridge, they found about 25,000 bushels in store, which they obliged the Owners to sell at reduced prices. At Looe upwards of 6000 bushels of grain were stopped by them from being shipped, but we do not hear of their committing any other outrage. Part of the first regiment of dragoons is gone from Devonshire, to assist the magistrates in restoring peace."--(_Times, Feb. 6, 1793._)
Highway robberies were of daily occurrence, so much so, that they are not worth chronicling, unless some special circumstance occurs in connection with them.
"The pickpockets are all turned highwaymen. Thus far the metropolis has been delivered from these free-booters: and the relief is certainly owing to the new Police Bill."--(_Times, March 9, 1793._)
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"At Oxford, a person was convicted of having robbed the Worcester and Oxford Coach, near Woodstock, of a portmanteau, and this peculiar circumstance attended it:--The man committed the offence, was taken, indicted, tried, and convicted, within _twelve_ hours after the commission of the crime. He was indicted for petty larceny only."--(_Times, March 28, 1793._)
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"Mr. Burdon, the Member for the County of Durham, had 25,000 guineas in his chaise when he was stopped, the other evening by footpads, who robbed him of 25 guineas only. Mr. Burdon was carrying down this sum, for the relief of the Durham Bank."--(_Times, April 26, 1793._)
A shocking trade had sprung up, which was not long in developing. As Science grew, so was a knowledge of Anatomy becoming of more vital importance to the medical profession--but subjects for operation were scarce. True, those malefactors who were hanged, and had no friends, were given over to the Surgeons for dissection, but this means of supply, fell far short of the demand--which, however, was met, by the ghastly device of robbing the grave-yards of their newly buried dead. Here are some contemporary records of the doings of these ghouls:--
"Friday, a gang of persons, called _Resurrection men_, were apprehended between two, and three, o'clock in the morning, near the Churchyard at Hampstead; they had dug up the body of a Mr. John Lloyd, who had been buried the day before, put it into a sack, and a hackney-coach was waiting to receive it; but, by the vigilance, and resolution, of the watchmen, they lost their prey; for, having stopt the coach, they found the body in it, and two men, whose names are Tom Paine, and Peter Mackintosh, together with their shovels, and tools, for opening the coffin. They were both carried before Master Montague, together with John Peach, the driver of the Coach, and were committed to gaol upon the fullest evidence. There were two others of the party, who made their escape. One of them had the appearance of a Gentleman, and is supposed to be a surgeon."--(_Times, March 15, 1794._)
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"On Monday evening, a set of Resurrectionists, were apprehended at a house near the Turnpike, Mile end. That morning, a coach was observed to stop at this house, and an ill looking man came out of it with a sack; containing as it was supposed, a body, which he carried into the house, and returned immediately with a large hamper:--they then drove off to a neighbouring public-house, when, after a short stay, they took up some others, and were traced to the Launch, at Deptford. In the meantime, the parish officers were informed of the circumstance. About six in the evening, the coach again returned with a similar lading, which was deposited in the house. Some constables, accompanied by a number of people, surrounded the house, and forcing an entrance, they found two men, and a woman, drinking tea on a bench, at one end of which lay the bodies of two children. They were secured: and, on entering an adjoining room, the bodies of six adults were discovered, unmutilated; besides which, the floor was strewed with limbs, in a state too shocking for public description."--(_Times, March 20, 1794._)
"A very particular account has been sent to this Paper, of the late shocking discovery of dead bodies at Mile-End: but we deem it unfit for publication, as the circumstances are too horrid to meet the public eye. Every room in the house was a scene of the most shocking brutality, and it is supposed there were upwards of 100 bodies, some whole, others mangled. The remains found at this house have since been removed to Bethnal Green church-yard, for a second interment. We most sincerely hope that his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury will move for a bill in Parliament, making it _death_ to rob a church yard."--(_Times, March 22, 1794._)
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(Adv.) "Robberies in Churchyards and Burial Grounds.
"Some persons having been discovered, on the evening of the 8th February last, conveying dead Bodies in Sacks, from the Burial-Ground belonging to the Parish of St. Mary, Lambeth, and who, upon the alarm being raised, made their escape; a reward of One hundred Pounds, for apprehending them, was immediately offered by the Churchwardens, to be paid upon their conviction: and the first opportunity was taken of assembling the Parishioners in Vestry, in order to consider by what means they might secure the offenders, bring them to punishment, and prevent, in future, such depredations. A Committee was accordingly appointed for this purpose, and discoveries of similar robberies in Church-yards, and Burial-grounds, in, and near, this Metropolis, have been made, the recital of which, together with an account of the horrid traffic in which many have been long engaged, with impunity, cannot fail to excite the indignation of the Public, and which it is intended, in a short time, to give them, taken from Affidavits made before Magistrates, and from other evidence procured on this melancholy occasion. It will be needless to say, that the Relatives, and Friends, of those who have been lately buried there, before this discovery, have suffered great anguish of mind, and it is not doubted but that all will concur in adopting measures, which may effectually check such abominable practices. For this desirable end, an application to Parliament, early in the next Session, is deemed highly necessary, as, at present, the punishment is found to be by no means sufficient to prevent the crime. The Parishes therefore, within the Bills of Mortality, and near London, will, it is hoped, approve of such application, and it is intended that a Circular Letter shall be sent to them, to invite them to join in it. In the meantime, the Committee of the Parish of Saint Mary, Lambeth, will be glad to receive any communications from any other Parishes, on this subject, under cover, directed to Thomas Swabey, Vestry Clerk, Lambeth."--(_Times, April 21, 1794._)
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"Early on Tuesday Morning, some suspicion being entertained that the Pesthouse burial-ground, in Old-Street-Road, had been frequently violated, the parish watchmen were ordered to keep a good look out, when a hackney coach was observed, waiting near the spot. Upon the watchman's approaching it, he was assaulted, and beaten, by three men, who then made off: but afterwards, springing his rattle, the assistants took the coachman into custody, who had three sacks in his coach, two of them containing the body of a man each, and the other, three children. Several other bodies, which had been dug up for the purpose of carrying away, were found under the wall of the burying-ground: and, it is generally believed, that almost all the bodies deposited therein, for 5 weeks past, have been stolen, which, upon an average, must have been 15 per week. The hackney-coachman, who owned he was to have had ten guineas for his night's fare, was committed to the New Prison, Clerkenwell. This fellow, it should seem, was hardened to his business: for, though put into the cage with the bodies he was carrying off, he slept so sound, that it was with some difficulty he was awakened by the visit of a _brother-whip_, previous to his going before a Magistrate."--(_Times, Dec, 23, 1796._)
Sentence of death was passed on Criminals for offences we should now think totally inadequate to that punishment--but although sentenced, those convicted of the lighter offences--were almost all respited, and transported for life.
"At the Assizes for York and County, the following prisoners received sentence of death, viz., T. Jewitt, for stealing four heifers: Saml. Bathurst, for privately stealing in a shop; Wm. Atkinson, and Hannah Hobson, for riotously assembling and pulling down the house of John Cooper, of Whitby: John Holt and Richard Watson, for house breaking, and three others for sheep-stealing."--(_Times, March 30, 1793._)
"A petition from Wm. Brunskill, (commonly called _Jack Ketch_) was presented to the Court of Aldermen, stating that he was the public executioner, and, on that account, could not get any other employment: that he was obliged to keep an assistant, though his allowance was so small, and his income so trifling, as to be insufficient to maintain himself, and family, and praying relief.--The Court referred the same to the Sheriffs."--(_Times, Jan. 30, 1794._)
The next paragraph, which is very brief, tells its own story.
"There is now a man confined for debt in Newgate, who has been a prisoner there, over fifteen years, for a debt, the original sum of which does not exceed forty-five shillings."--(_Times, April 25, 1793._)
In Dec. 1794, and Jan. 1795, there was a terrible frost--and, in the latter month, we hear that seven men, attempting to pass over the ice, to a Collier, by Ratcliffe Highway--were drowned--and how--two days afterwards--two watchmen were frozen to death at Bloomsbury. Hard indeed must have been the lot of the poor debtors, and we may fancy the anxious scrutiny of the box, which the debtor whose turn it was, would rattle outside the bars of Ludgate, making the while his monotonous, and melancholy, whine, "Pity the poor debtors; pity the poor debtors." Some hearts were softened towards them, and they were sensibly grateful for such seasonable assistance.
"Advt.--The unfortunate DEBTORS in LUDGATE PRISON beg leave, thus publicly, to return their grateful Thanks to LADY TAYLOR, of Spring Gardens, for her munificent Benefaction of 149 lbs. of Beef, 21 half Peck Loaves, 21 sacks of Coals, and 66 lbs. of Cheese, each Article being of the best quality.
"At the same time, they entreat the LORD MAYOR to accept their unfeigned Thanks, for his kind present of a Guinea, which was equally divided among the unfortunate Debtors.
"_N.B._ The smallest Benefaction from their fellow Citizens and other liberal minded persons, will at all times be thankfully received, particularly at this inclement season of the year."--(_Times, Dec. 29, 1794._)
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"The unfortunate DEBTORS, in Ludgate Prison, beg leave to return their grateful Thanks, to the Right Hon. the LORD MAYOR, for 448 lbs. of Beef and Mutton of the best sort, which he has sent them since the 10th day of Nov., also for two Chaldron, and an half, of Coals sent yesterday."--(_Times, Jan. 1, 1795._)
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"As the Debtor and Creditor Bill comes on to-morrow, it is recommended to its noble framer, to try the pulse of the Law Lords, by introducing a clause which shall interdict the Marshal of the King's Bench, and the Warden of the Fleet, from taking a shilling per week from each debtor for his bed, unless as the very foundation, and cause of this fee originally was, that the Keeper of the Prison furnishes the Debtor with furniture to the amount of £30. The Keepers have very handsome salaries, and therefore, there should be no exactions from the prisoners. Indeed the nature of their imprisonment interdicts such a practice, for how is the insolvent man to find money? ex-nihilo, nihil fit."--(_Times, May 8, 1793._)
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"Were any one Lord in the House of Peers to move that the Royal Assent to Acts of Parliament should be given in _plain English_, and not in old _Norman French_, the House would unanimously adopt the idea of banishing, in future, the _barbarous_ language of that Country."--(_Times, May 10, 1793._)
"A curious matter was heard yesterday before the Borough Police, respecting the wife of a gentleman at Sheerness, who had eloped with a black servant. They were pursued to the Nags Head in the Borough on Sunday, where _Blackey_ fired a pistol at his pursuers, for which he was taken up and committed. The Lady had two children by her husband. The matter, we understand is _made up_."--(_Times, Feb. 11, 1794._)
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"The manner in which the _Black_ business was settled, in the Borough, was this:--The husband took her two children, and all the property he found in the coach, desired his wife to go where she pleased, (after she said she'd live with no one but the Black) and _Mungo_ was taken by a press gang, and put on board the tender."--(_Times, Feb. 12, 1794._)
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"Monday last two Bailiff's followers made a seizure for rent at a house in Kingswood, near Bristol: an alarm being given, they were surrounded by a number of colliers, who conveyed them to a neighbouring coal-pit, and let them down, where they were suffered to remain till about two the next morning, when they were had up, and, each having a glass of gin, and some gingerbread, given him, were immersed again into the dreary bowels of the earth, where they were confined, in all, near twenty four hours. On being released they were made to pay a fine of 6s. 8d. each, for their lodging, and take an oath never to trouble, or molest, any of them again."--(_Times, April 25, 1795._)
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"The friends of an apprentice to a stocking-weaver, at Lambeth, brought the lad to this office (Public Office, Bow St.) to shew one of the modes of punishment adopted by the master, when the boys committed any fault. It consisted of an iron collar, fastened round the neck, by a padlock. The lad said that he had worn it for above a month, and that he understood it was his master's intention he should wear it till he was out of his time. The master living in the county of Surrey, Mr Bond could not interfere in the business, but advised the parties to go to Union-Hall, in the Borough. The master of the apprentice alluded to, we understand, has got between 60 and 70 boys, most of whom he has had from the different workhouses in the county of Surrey."--(_Times, Aug. 27, 1795._)
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"Owing to the high price of victualling, the demand for shipping and risque of capture, or the price of insurance, the contract for conveying the last convicts from Great Britain, and Ireland, to Botany Bay, was £80 per man; and the expence exceeding all the good that could arise to either country, from the banishment, or the evil that could arise from the continuance in either country, of the miscreants.
"It is a known fact, that so far are the miscreants, who usually come under sentence of transportation, from considering it a punishment, that they laugh at the joke, and consider it a very great benefit.--Adventurous spirits like those, averse to all manner of industry, insensible to ignominy, and totally unconscious of any such feelings as the _amor patriæ_, delight in nothing more, than shifting the scene, and being conveyed to a distant country, from that in which they have no hope of existing, but at the perpetual risk of the gallows.
"It is more than probable that severe flagellation, such as military codes prescribe, would prove infinitely more formidable in detering villainy: and it is, at least, worth the experiment of a statute, which costs nothing, to try whether the penalty of 500, or 1000 lashes, which would not cost the country one shilling, would not prove a stronger barrier against larcenies, and clergyable felonies, than transportation to Botany Bay, at the enormous expense of £60 or 80 per man, which operates in reality as a heavy penalty on the Republic of honest men, and a bounty on villainy. Besides, have we not copper mines, coal mines, canals, and other such places of employment, at home, for those criminals, which, at present, alienate the husbandmen, and honest labourers of the country, from the business of agriculture. The labour of criminals, in this way, would prove a benefit to the country, and some compensation to the State, their crimes had injured."--(_Times, Sept. 9, 1795._)
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"The _Calamities of War_. Amongst the distresses it has occasioned, it is a lamentable fact, that _five Attornies_ have been deprived of an honest livelihood, and have actually entered as foremast men, on board a frigate in the Thames."--(_Times, Nov. 2, 1795._)
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"The Lord Chancellor was occupied on Friday, and Saturday, with hearing an important cause. Earl Pomfret _v._ Sir Ch. Turner.
"It respects a very valuable lead mine, in the vale of Arkinghall, Yorkshire. Such is the expedition of our laws, that this cause has lasted _only ninety three years_, being first instituted in the year 1703!!!"--(_Times, Apr. 12, 1796._)
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"The King _v._ Middleton.
"The defendant was convicted of enticing a number of Artificers from this country, to go to Kentucky in America; a rule was afterwards obtained, to shew cause why the judgment should not be arrested, for reasons, which appeared insufficient to the Court. That Rule therefore, was discharged, and the Defendant received judgment according to the Statute, that is, he was ordered to _pay a fine of £500, and to be confined in Newgate for the space of one year_."--(_Times, June 10, 1796._)
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"On Saturday _John Paviour_ (one of these persons called _Bullock Hunters_) was tried at the Old Bailey--for driving a bullock out of Smithfield Market, early on the morning of the 23rd May last and was found guilty--DEATH. It is hoped therefore, that this prosecution will greatly check, if not wholly put an end to that pernicious practice, by which not only the Property, but the lives of the Public are so much endangered, in and about this metropolis."--(_Times, June 28, 1796._)
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"The trial which was to have come on at the Assizes in York, concerning estates in Cleveland, for which a Special Jury was to be summoned, of _four Knights, and their twelve Esquires, girt with swords_, is deferred until next Assizes."--(_Times, July 27, 1796._)
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"Yesterday, a Jew was convicted at the Public Office Bow Street, for selling a hat, in the street, without a stamped lining, contrary to the late Act of Parliament, and was sentenced to be imprisoned for two months, in the House of Correction. Hatters selling Hats, without a stamped lining, are liable to the penalty of £10. In the above case, imprisonment is the only mode of punishment."--(_Times, Sept. 3, 1796._)
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"Certainly the number of Lawyers, which is _only_ computed to be 20,000 in Great Britain, is not so much their fault, as our own. We can neither marry, nor die, without them: but then there is no living for them."--(_Times, Sept. 28, 1796._)
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"The number of Attornies posted up for admission next term, outside the Court of King's Bench, are _eighty-two_. Surely some stop should be put to this growing evil, for there is not a doubt, but that, with an increase of Attornies, must consequently follow an increase of litigation. For where the numbers surpass all reasonable bounds, they will have recourse to the most desperate means to excite business."--(_Times, Jan. 31, 1797._)
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"The convict who was lately executed at Leicester, and who adopted the singular mode of travelling, in a post chaise, to the place of execution, was no less remarkable for his crimes, than a copious fund of low humour. He got the following notice put up in the most frequented houses in the town, 'Wanted an agreeable companion, in a post chaise, to go a journey of _considerable_ length, and upon _equal_ terms. Enquire for particulars at the Castle.' It is almost superfluous to mention that upon the _terms_ being made known, the gentleman could not find a partner."--(_Times, Sept. 8, 1797._)
The following is a somewhat curious Police Case (_Times_, Jan. 17, 1798): "Robert Richards, and William Packer, were indicted on a charge of assaulting Ryan Thackars, on the 30th of December, and robbing him of half a guinea, a 7s. piece, and 1s. 6d., in silver, his property.