known, he called for a pint of beer, and drank it, holding a pistol in his hand, by way of protection: he then paid for his beer, and went off with the greatest apparent uncon

cern.

At this time he kept company with two infamous women, one of whom was the wife of a man named Leonard, who, having belonged to the gang, thought to recommend himself to mercy by the apprehension of Burnworth. Having told his wife what he intended, she informed some magistrates of the proposed plan, and they sent six men to assist in carrying it into execution.

Shrove Tuesday being the day appointed, the men waited at a pub. lic house till they should receive a hint to proceed. About six in the evening Burnworth went to the lodgings of the women, to which there was a back door that opened into a yard. It was proposed to have pancakes for supper, and, while one of the women was frying them, the other went to the public house for some beer, and on her return pretended to bolt the door, but designedly missed the staple: at that moment six men rushed in, and seized Burnworth before he had time to make any resistance, though he had a pistol in the pocket of his great coat.

Being carried before three magistrates, he was committed to Newgate; but his accomplices were so infamously daring as to attempt the murder of the woman who had occasioned his apprehension: a pistol was fired at her as she was entering the door of her own house, which being communicated to the magis. trates, constables were appointed to watch nightly for her protection, till the desperadoes gave over their attempts.

Burnworth, while in Newgate,

projected the following scheme of escape: having been furnished with an iron crow, he engaged some of the prisoners, who assisted him in pulling stones out of the wall, while others sung psalms, that the keepers might not hear what they were doing.

On the day following this transaction, which was carried on during the night, five condemned criminals were to be executed; but, when the gaolers came to take them out, there was such an immense quantity of stones and rubbish to remove, that it was two o'clock in the afternoon before the criminals could be got out of their cells.

This scheme of Burnworth's occasioned his closer confinement. He was removed into a `room, known by the name of the Bilboes, and loaded with a pair of the heaviest irons in the prison : but he intended to have made his escape even from this place; and, being furnished with files and saws from some of his acquaintance, he worked his way through a wall into a room in which were some women prisoners, one of whom acquainting the keeper with what had happened, Burnworth was chained to the floor of the condemned hold.

Application was made to the secretary of state to take measures for the apprehension of Berry, Dickenson, and Blewitt, who had gone over to Holland; and hereupon instructions were sent to the English ambassador at the Hague, empowering him to request of the States General that the offenders might be delivered up to justice, if found any where within their jurisdiction.

The ambassador, on receiving the necessary instructions, made the application, and orders were issued accordingly; in consequence which Blewitt was apprehended in

of

Rotterdam, but Dickenson and Berry had taken refuge on board a ship at the Brill. Blewitt was lodged in the state-house prison, and then the officers who took him went immediately on board the ship, and seized his two accomplices, whom they brought to the same place of confinement.

They were chained to the floor till the English ambassador requested permission to send them home, which being readily obtained, they were guarded to the packet-boat by a party of soldiers, and were chained together as soon as they were put on board. When they reached the Nore they were met by two of the king's messengers, who conducted them up the river.

On the arrival of the vessel they were put into a boat opposite the Tower, which was guarded by three other boats, in each of which were a corporal and several soldiers. In this manner they were conducted to Westminster, where they were examined by two magistrates, who committed them to Newgate, to which they were escorted by a party of the foot-guards.

On sight of Burnworth, they seemed to pity his situation, while he, in a hardened manner, expressed his happiness at their safe arrival from Holland.

On the approach of the ensuing assizes for the county of Surrey, they were handcuffed, put into a waggon, and in this manner a party of dragoons conducted them to Kingston. Their insolence on leaving Newgate was unparalleled: they told the spectators that it would become them to treat gentlemen of their profession with respect, especially as they were going a journey; and likewise said to the dragoons, that they expected to be protected from injury on the road; and dur

ing their journey they behaved with great indifference, throwing money among the populace, and diverting themselves by seeing them scramble for it.

A boy having picked up a half. penny, one of a handful which Blewitt had thrown among the people, told him that he would keep that halfpenny, and have his name engraved on it, as sure as he would be hanged at Kingston, on which Blewitt gave him a shilling to pay the expense of engraving, and enjoined him to keep his promise, which, it is affirmed, the boy actually did.

On their arrival at Kingston they were put in the prison called the Stockhouse, where they were chained to the floor; and, on the following day, bills of indictment were found against them, and they were brought up for trial before Lord Chief Justice Raymond and Judge Denton; but some articles having been taken from Burnworth when he was apprehended, he refused to plead unless they were restored to him. The judges made use of every argument to prevail on him to plead, but in vain; in consequence of which sentence was passed that he should be pressed to death.

Hereupon he was taken back to the Stockhouse, where he bore the weight of one hundred, three quarters, and two pounds, on his breast.

The high-sheriff, who attended him on this occasion, used every argument to prevail on him to plead, to which he consented, after bearing the weight an hour and three minutes, during great part of which time he endeavoured to kill himself by striking his head against the floor. Being brought into Court, he was tried and convicted with his companions.

They were no sooner convicted

than orders were given for their being chained to the floor; but in this deplorable situation they diverted themselves by recounting some particulars of their robberies to such persons whose curiosity in. duced them to visit the gaol. Some people wished they would leave an account of their robberies, but Burnworth said the particulars could not be contained in a hundred sheets of paper.

On passing sentence, the learned judge most earnestly entreated them to prepare for another world, as their time in the present must necessarily be short. They begged that their friends might visit them; and this being complied with, files and saws were conveyed to them, to assist them in their escape.

Their plan was to have mixed opium in wine, to have made the keepers sleep; and, if this had taken place, they then proposed to have set fire to some piles of wood near the prison, and in other parts of the town, and to get a considerable distance during the conflagration; but the keepers having listened to their discourse, they were more strictly guarded than before, and their whole scheme rendered abortive.

A short time before their execution Burnworth told one of the keepers that, If he did not see him buried in a decent manuer, he would meet him after death in a dark entry, and pull off his nose.' When the day of execution arrived the prisoners were put into a cart, and a company of foot-soldiers escorted them to the fatal tree. On their way Blewitt saw a gentleman named Warwick, and, having obtained permission to speak to him,

most earnestly entreated his pardon for having attempted to shoot him, in consequence of an information which Mr. Warwick had given against him.

Dickenson and Blewitt appeared more penitent than any of the rest. They wept bitterly at the place of execution, and said they hoped their untimely fate would teach young men to avoid such courses as had brought them to their fatal end. They suffered April 12, 1726.

After execution their bodies were brought to the new gaol in Southwark, to be fitted with chains. The bodies of Burnworth and Blewitt were suspended on a gibbet in St. George's Fields, near where the murder was perpetrated. Legee and Higgs were hanged on Putney Common, and Berry and Dicken. son on Kennington Common; but representation being made to the people in power that Dickenson's father, when a lieutenant in the army, had died fighting for his country in Flanders, permission was given to his friends to take down and bury the body, after he had hung one day.

Marjoram, the evidence, obtained his liberty, of course, when his accomplices were convicted: but in a few days afterwards he cut the string of a butcher's apron, and ran away with his steel.

Being pursued, he was apprehended, committed, and, being indicted for privately stealing, was convicted, and received sentence of death; but, in consideration of his having been the means of bringing the above-mentioned atrocious offenders to justice, the sentence of death was changed to that of transportation.

1

course of which time his wife gave birth to a son, he formed the resolution of visiting London, deserted his wife and child, and set out for the metropolis, where he got into employment, and maintained himself by his trade: being, however, of an extravagant disposition, many months had not elapsed after his arrival before he was arrested for debt, and thrown into Wood Street Compter, where he remained up wards of four years. In a pamphlet which he published, and which we shall more particularly mention hereafter, he says, that during his imprisonment it was impossible but he must, in some measure, be let into the secrets of the criminals there under confinement, and particularly Mr. Hitchin's management.' Whilst in the Compter, Wild assiduously cultivated the acquaintance of his fellow-captives, and attended to their accounts of the exploits in which they had been engaged with singular satisfaction. In this prison was a woman named Mary Milliner, who had long been considered as one of the most abandoned prostitutes and pick pockets on the town. After having escaped the punishment due to the variety of felonies of which she had been guilty, she was put under confinement for debt. An intimacy soon commenced between this woman and Wild, and they had no sooner obtained their freedom than they lived under the denomination of man and wife. By their iniquitous practices they quickly obtained a sum of money, which enabled them to open a little public house in Cock Alley, facing Cripplegate church.

Milliner being personally acquainted with most of the depraved characters by whom London and its environs were infested, and perfectly conversant as to the manner of their proceedings, she was con

sidered by Wild as a most useful companion; and indeed very mate. rially contributed towards rendering him one of the most accomplished proficients in the arts of villainy. He industriously penetrated into the secrets of felons of every description, who resorted in great numbers to his house, in order to dispose of their booties; and they looked upon him with a kind of awe, arising from the consciousness that their lives were at all times in his power.

Wild was at little trouble to dispose of the articles brought to him by thieves at something less than their real value, no law existing at this period for the punishment of the receivers of stolen goods; but the evil increased at length to so enormous a degree, that it was deemed expedient by the legislature to frame a law for its suppression. An act was passed, therefore, consigning such as should be convicted of receiving goods, knowing them to have been stolen, to transportation for the space of fourteen years.

Wild's practices were considerably interrupted by the above-mentioned law; to clude the operation of which, however, he adopted the following plan :-he called a meet. ing of all the thieves known to him, and observed that, if they carried their booties to such of the pawnbrokers as were known to be not much affected by scruples of conscience, they would scarcely receive on the property one-fourth of the real value; and that if they were offered to strangers, either for sale, or by way of deposit, it was a chance of ten to one but the parties offering were rendered amenable to the laws. The most industrious thieves, he said, were now scarcely able to obtain a livelihood, and must either submit to be half starved, or live in great and continual danger