Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century; Vol. 2 (of 2)
by James Peller Malcolm · English · Gutenberg #48066 · 639,159 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century; Vol. 2 (of 2)
Author: James Peller Malcolm
Release date: January 24, 2015 [eBook #48066]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANECDOTES OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF LONDON DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; VOL. 2 (OF 2) ***
Transcriber's Notes: Words in italics in the original are surrounded by
_underscores_. A row of asterisks represents a thought break. A complete
list of corrections as well as other notes follows the text.
ANECDOTES
OF THE
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
OF
LONDON
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY;
INCLUDING
THE CHARITIES, DEPRAVITIES, DRESSES, AND AMUSEMENTS,
OF THE CITIZENS OF LONDON,
DURING THAT PERIOD;
WITH A REVIEW
OF THE
STATE OF SOCIETY IN 1807.
TO WHICH IS ADDED,
A SKETCH OF THE DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE, AND OF
THE VARIOUS IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METROPOLIS.
ILLUSTRATED BY FORTY-FIVE ENGRAVINGS.
BY JAMES PELLER MALCOLM, F. S. A.
AUTHOR OF "LONDINIUM REDIVIVUM," &c. &c.
THE SECOND EDITION.
VOLUME II.
_LONDON_:
PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME,
PATERNOSTER ROW.
1810.
John Nichols and Son, Printers,
Red Lion Passage, Fleet Street, London.
_CONTENTS_
OF
THE SECOND VOLUME.
CHAP. V. Page.
Public Methods of raising Money exemplified in
Notices relating to Lotteries, Benefit Societies, &c. 1
CHAP. VI.
The Religious and Political Passions of the Community
illustrated by Anecdotes of popular Tumults 11
CHAP. VII.
Amusement--Detail of its principal Varieties since
1700 107
CHAP. VIII.
Anecdotes of Dress, and of the Caprices of Fashion 312
CHAP. IX.
Domestic Architecture traced from its origin to its
present improved state in London--Lighting and
improving of Streets--Obstructions in them--Ornaments,
&c. 358
CHAP. X.
Sketch of the present State of Society in London 406
_PLATES_
TO
THE SECOND VOLUME.
The Plates of Dress (chronologically) 312
Croydon Palace }
Brick Gateway near Bromley } 364
The Views of Antient and Modern Houses 366
The general Views 404
CHAP. V.
PUBLIC METHODS OF RAISING MONEY EXEMPLIFIED, IN NOTICES
RELATING TO LOTTERIES, BENEFIT SOCIETIES, &C.
The community of London had superior advantages an hundred years past
in the State Lotteries, though, if interested Office-keepers could be
credited, the Londoners of the present Century enjoy greater gaming
privileges than the world ever yet produced. The reader shall judge
between the schemes of 1709 and 1807. The Post Boy of December 27 says,
"We are informed that the Parliamentary Lottery will be fixed in this
manner:--150,000 tickets will be delivered out at 10_l._ each ticket,
making in all the sum of 1,500,000_l._ sterling; the principal whereof
is to be sunk, the Parliament allowing nine _per cent._ interest for
the whole during the term of 32 years, which interest is to be divided
as follows: 3750 tickets will be prizes from 1000_l._ to 5_l. per
annum_ during the said 32 years; all the other tickets will be blanks,
so that there will be 39 of these to one prize, but then each blank
ticket will be entitled to fourteen shillings a year for the term
of 32 years, which is better than an annuity for life at ten _per
cent._ over and above the chance of getting a prize." Such was the
eagerness of the publick in subscribing to the above profitable scheme,
that Mercers-hall was literally crowded, and the Clerks were found
incompetent to receive the influx of names. 600,000_l._ was subscribed
January 21; and on the 28th of February the sum of 1,500,000_l._ was
completed.
The rage for Lotteries reigned uncontrouled; and the newspapers of the
day teemed with proposals issued by every ravenous adventurer who could
collect a few valuable articles; and from those shopkeepers took the
hint, and goods of every description were converted into prizes, even
neckcloths, snuff-boxes, toothpick-cases, linen, muslin, and plate. The
prices of tickets were generally sixpence, a shilling, half a crown,
&c. At the latter end of the year just mentioned, the Magistrates,
being alarmed, declared their intention of putting the Act of William
and Mary in force, which levied a penalty of 500_l._ on the proprietor,
and 20_l._ on each purchaser. In the tenth of Queen Anne another Act
was passed for suppressing private Lotteries, which was followed by a
second to prevent excessive and deceitful gaming.
Matthew West, a Goldsmith, of Clare-street, Clare-market, appears to
have been the man who first divided Lottery-tickets into shares. He
advertised in 1712, that he had sold 100 tickets in the million and an
half Lottery in twentieths, and purposed pursuing his plan, which was
well received.
The Lottery for 1714 contained 50,000 tickets at 10_l._ each, with 6982
prizes and 43,018 blanks; two of the former were 10,000_l._ with one
of 5, another of 4000_l._ a third of 3000_l._ and a fourth of 2000_l._
five of 1000_l._ ten of 500_l._ twenty of 200_l._ fifty of 100_l._ four
hundred of 50_l._ and six thousand four hundred and ninety-one of 20_l._
Besides the drawing for prizes and blanks, there was another for the
course of payment, and each 1000 tickets was called a course. The
payments to the receivers were on the 10th of November and 10th of
December 1713. When the Tickets were drawn, they were exchanged for
standing orders, and thus rendered assignable by endorsement; all the
blanks were repaid the 10_l. per_ ticket at one payment, in the order
their course of payment happened to fall, and they bore an interest
of four _per cent._ from Michaelmas 1713. The prizes were payable in
the same manner: the first drawn ticket had 500_l._; the last 1000_l._
besides the general chance; 35,000_l. per annum_ was payable weekly
from the Exchequer to the Paymaster for the discharge of the principal
and interest, and the whole funds of the Civil List were chargeable for
thirty-two years for 35,000_l. per annum_.
To shew the difference between past and present methods, it may be
worth while to insert a modern scheme.
"State Lottery begins drawing October 13, 1806, containing more Capital
Prizes, and 5000 less Tickets, than last Lottery. The first drawn
Ticket entitled to 10,000_l._; all other Capital Prizes are afloat.
Purchasers of Tickets and Shares will have the opportunity of obtaining
all the Capital Prizes, provided they purchase before the drawing
commences. The Scheme has equal advantages of 20,000_l._ Prizes,
10,000_l._ Prizes, 5,000_l._ Prizes, &c. &c. to former Lotteries of
double the number of Tickets.
No. of Prizes. Value of each: Total Value.
3 of £.20,000 are £.60,000
3 10,000 30,000
3 5,000 15,000
5 1,000 5,000
8 500 4,000
20 100 2,000
40 50 2,000
4,100 20 82,000
------ ---------
20,000 Tickets. £.200,000
20,000 Tickets only, and no other State Lottery to be drawn this year."
BENEFIT SOCIETIES, &C.
The first mention of any thing of this kind I have met with is in
the year 1708, under the name of the "Taylors' Friendly Society" for
insuring the lives of Adults and Children male and female; which was
held at the Cross Keys, Wych-street; and the Trustees met twice in
each month, when 1500 persons had subscribed 5_s._ each, including
policies, stamps, entrance, and first claim; and continued their
payments three years. They became entitled to relief in case of illness
or poverty, and their Executors after death to 200_l._ Another Society
was connected with it, and termed the "Amicable Society," the terms
5_s._ 6_d._ and 2_s. per_ quarter; for which relief was afforded, and
120_l._ paid at the decease of the Subscriber.
Another, called "The Fortunate Office," was intended to provide
marriage-portions for the Subscribers, who paid 2_s. per_ quarter for
their tickets.
A sort of Tontine had its origin in 1709 under the name of "The Lucky
Seventy, or the longest livers take all." It was declared to issue out
of the Annuities granted or to be granted by Parliament for the term of
99 years; the sum subscribed 10_l._ or as many tens as the Subscriber
chose. The income was immediate, tax free, and payable half-yearly
during the lives of their respective nominees. The office was held at
Haberdashers Hall.
An office was opened in Theobald-road, 1710, which, if really
answerable to the statement announcing it, promised great benefit to
the lower classes of the community; and was highly honourable to the
dignified Clergy, eminent Physicians, Surgeons, and Counsellors at Law,
who founded and supported it. Those persons, taking into consideration
the difficulty the poor laboured under of procuring medical and
surgical assistance and legal advice, offered to afford prescriptions
and opinions for one shilling on delivering a case, and one other
shilling at receiving the answer, which payments they declared would be
applied only to the actual expences of the office.
The success of these schemes sharpened the invention of the thrifty;
and immediately almost every street in London abounded with Insurance
offices, where policies for infants three months old might be obtained
for short periods. From those they diverged into other ages and various
descriptions of persons. Their reign, however, appears to have been
but short; as I meet with very few advertisements of the kind in 1712.
One specimen may be worth preserving: "By the United Friendly and
Perpetual Society, at the Naked Boy, the corner of Battle-bridge, in
Tooley-street, Southwark, on Thursday the 25th instant, will be opened
two offices on Marriages for three months, on Claims two, upon Births
for two months, and two on Servants for three months on dividends."
Another will verify the "Wisdom of Nations" in the adage of "Set a
Thief, &c.:" indeed, the Gentleman writer lets us into the whole secret
at once.
"From the _antient_ and _most reputable_ sale of Alphabetical Letters
at the Golden Ball in Whalebone-court, Lothbury, fronting the end
of Bartholomew-lane: Whereas several as well _impudent_ as ignorant
pretenders have of late erected offices of various methods, and under
several denominations, proposing such prodigious profits, in making
so many several returns of _cent. per cent._ for each principal sum
paid into them, that it is even _miraculous_ to those of the greatest
capacities in these undertakings how or with what _assurance_ they
could ever pretend to publish the same; but now it is presumed every
one who has any _concerns_ in matters of this kind are thoroughly
sensible of the difference between _honest_ and well-regulated schemes
(_as this is_) and those _chimerical_ ones which are only set up on
purpose to be a glittering show of profit, where the end fails of the
expectation. The failures of some of this kind, and the probability
of _all_ such methods taking the same course, _has been the only
motive_ of publishing this; the proposer hereof not having advertised
in print these eight months, though his sale has been of nine months
standing, and has paid for re-bought letters to his subscribers out
of the same upwards of 29,600_l._ never paying less than double for
_all_ money paid in, and that in a very short time. Proposals may be
had _gratis_ at the _Sale_ aforesaid, _all_ the books being now open
for subscriptions. And on Thursday the 22d instant will be opened a
subscription-book, where any person may subscribe _what sum he or they
please_, and receive the _principal and profit_ entire in three months,
proposals of which will be delivered out the same day. This book is
of the same nature with our other books; only in this, whatever sum
is subscribed must be paid down with 12_d._ for each pound entrance,
whereas in the other the money is paid weekly, which is a great trouble
to those who cannot spare so much time."
I think I may congratulate my fellow-citizens on the improvement in our
morals after their perusal of the following modest production:
"Observe well this Advertisement,
Which comes from the old and original Sale of the Queen's picture
(_Qu._ the Guinea), the very next house to the George Inn,
Coleman-street, London. There having been of late great discourse about
offices, _and I cannot but say great reason to suspect their honesty_
(_some not designing any_), and others who knew not how to be honest,
_being they wanted experience_, which business requires a regular
method to be observed, occasions me to satisfy the world that the
sale of the Queen's picture has been maintained this three quarters
of a year, the payment every Saturday paid honourably and justly,
which thousands can testify, and which is a plain demonstration of its
continuance; _good payments being the only security_ in these cases.
I have all along acquainted every single person concerned that I will
maintain it as long _as it is possible_ to be preserved; _whenever it
decays_, I have promised them all from the very beginning to summon all
my purchasers together, and _to distribute what is left_ among them.
This method I have taken; and I defy _any one to say it is unjust_, and
I will surely perform it. Pray take good notice we begin this present
Thursday to enter again, and shall continue until Saturday the 7th of
June. On that day we shall also pay above 500_l._"
One of the schemes which preceded the Bubbles of 1720 was an
Insurance-office for Lottery-tickets, opened at Mercers'-hall; and
120,000_l._ was actually subscribed on the following terms: for every
ninety-six tickets insured the proprietors agreed to allow to the
Company (after the tickets were drawn) 16_s. per_ ticket, and 5
_per cent._ on such prizes as occurred to the ninety-six tickets, the
Company returning the tickets, and in case the prizes did not amount to
288_l._ valuing the prizes at _par_; the Company to make up the money
3_l._ for every ticket. For every forty-eight tickets the proprietors
agreed to allow 19_s. per_ ticket, and 5 _per cent._ on the prizes as
above; the Company making up the tickets 144_l._ or 3_l. per_ ticket,
and so on down to twelve tickets. The proprietors of the tickets to
advance no money for this security; but, when drawn, to allow as above;
the tickets to be deposited with the Company, and placed by them under
seal in the Bank of England; if not called for in ninety days after the
drawing, to be forfeited.
We have at length reduced these schemes to a few honourable
Insurance-offices for Lives and Property; and Benefit Societies have
been sanctioned by the Legislature.
CHAP. VI.
THE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL PASSIONS OF THE COMMUNITY
ILLUSTRATED BY ANECDOTES OF POPULAR TUMULTS.
The first violent effervescence of party after the year 1700 originated
from the intemperance of certain Sectaries, who omitted no opportunity
of attacking the Established Church; one of the members of which,
Sacheverell, equally intemperate, contrived to raise the Demon of
Discord throughout the Nation by Sermons calculated to make all good
Churchmen detest him. In these half religious, half political contests,
the populace uniformly arrange themselves on the side of Liberty--that
Liberty which prompts them to assume the reins of Justice, and to
dispense it according to the best of their shallow judgments; but their
whips are firebrands, and indiscriminate destruction is substituted for
the terrors of the Law; _their_ Culprits are seized at the instigation
of some infamous leader, and punishment is inflicted before passion
subsides. While Sacheverell's trial was depending in 1709-10, the
many-headed monster of this monstrous Metropolis thought proper to
pronounce sentence on the harmless wainscot, pews, and other woodwork
of Mr. Burgess's Meeting, near Lincoln's-inn-fields, whither they
were conveyed and burnt. When this wicked exploit was accomplished,
and they had contrived to kill a young man in their undistinguishing
fury, they proceeded to Fetter and Leather lanes, and several other
places in which Meetings were situated; and would probably have
committed incredible mischief, had not the Queen's guards dispersed
them, and seized several of the ringleaders; one of whom was tried
and condemned, but afterwards reprieved. Some of those infatuated men
stopped coaches in the streets, to demand money of the passengers, to
drink Sacheverell's health; which occasioned an official communication
from the Queen to the Lord Mayor. Her Majesty declared her knowledge
of the riots, bonfires, illuminations, the assaults and stoppage of
coaches to demand money, in opposition to her Proclamation, and in
contempt of the proceedings of the High Court of Parliament; and that
she was credibly informed that great part of those lawless proceedings
were committed through the culpable inactivity of the Magistracy;
at which she expressed great displeasure; and concluded by charging
the Mayor and City Officers, at their peril, to apprehend all persons
exciting tumults and hawking seditious papers through the streets
for sale. To the above letter the Corporation addressed an humble
answer, observing that the insolent attacks on the Constitution and
Her Majesty's Prerogative, by the publication of books and pamphlets
intended to infuse Republican tenets in the minds of her subjects, had
roused them to a consideration of their fatal tendency; they therefore
declared their detestation of such doctrines, their determination to
support the Protestant succession, and, in obedience to her commands,
to suppress all riotous assemblies, and to oppose with undaunted vigour
all attempts to disturb the peace of her reign, or the serenity of her
Royal mind, at home and abroad.
The Queen addressed a similar complaint to the Magistrates of
Middlesex; and received assurances of support from them, those of
Westminster, and the Lieutenancy of London.
_After these professions_ of prevention, riots occurred on the 14th of
October, 1710, with the watch-word of "Sacheverell and High Church;"
and the mob beat off the Constables with brands from the numerous
bonfires they had lighted.
The month of November teemed with the seeds of riot; but the vigilance
of Government was then excited, and secret means employed to discover
those preparatives by which the mob were to be set in motion. Some of
the emissaries employed on this occasion gave information that a house
near Drury-lane contained certain effigies, intended to represent the
Pope, the Pretender, and the Devil; this trio were accompanied by
four Cardinals, four Jesuits, and four Monks, who were to have been
exhibited in due state on the evening of November 17, the anniversary
of Queen Elizabeth's accession, and then burnt, in testimony of the
abhorrence entertained against the Head of the Roman Catholic faith,
his engine for establishing it again in England, and his Majesty of
the Infernal regions, together with the inferior instruments of the
dissemination of his doctrines. Thus informed, Government preferred
opposing _such_ public support of _their_ cause, and wisely intimated
by their conduct that they were willing to rest it on the conscience
of each individual of the community, rather than terrify _wavering_
Protestants into their measures: in consequence, they issued orders
to seize the figures; which being promptly obeyed, the Messengers and
guards conveyed them in safety to the Earl of Dartmouth's office, by
whose means the sentence of the mob was probably more _privately_
performed, and the evening passed away without any particular
occurrence. This event was eagerly seized upon by the partizans of
the day; those of Government discovering in it the _stamina_ of a
thousand horrors intended to involve the Roman Catholicks and the
Established Church in one grand ruin; those of the Antimonarchical side
deeming the intended procession a mere common occurrence, occasionally
resorted to by the populace with the best motives. By _us_, who have
known the infernal proceedings accompanying the cry of "No Popery,"
riots of any kind must be dreaded; and we cannot but approve the
vigilance of the then Government in terminating the existence of an
expiring habit, whose vigorous movements were marked in the following
disgusting "Account of the burning the Pope at Temple-bar in London,
the 17th of November 1679;" an account that compels us to hail with
ten-fold reverence the auspicious Revolution of 1688, that defined
the boundaries of the Sovereign's and the People's right. At the
present period, praised be Heaven! a _Jury_ of twelve men would make
the instigators of such a procession tremble: and every Protestant
in the City would fly from it with indignation; and yet with all our
modern mildness the faith in question gains no proselytes:--a memorable
_memento_ of the liberality of the age[15:A]!
"Upon the 17th of November the bells began to ring about
three o'clock in the morning in the City of London; and
several _honourable_ and _worthy_ gentlemen belonging to the
Temple as well as the City, (remembering the burning both
of London and the Temple, which was apparently executed by
Popish villainy[16:A]) were pleased to be at the charge of
an extraordinary triumph, in commemoration of that blessed
Protestant Queen, which was as follows: In the evening of the
said day, all things being prepared, the _solemn_ procession
began from Moorgate, and so to Bishopsgate-street, and down
Hounsditch to Aldgate, through Leadenhall-street, Cornhill,
by the Royal Exchange, through Cheapside, to Temple-bar, in
order following.
1st. Marched six whifflers, in pioneers' caps and
red waistcoats.
2. A bellman, ringing his bell, and with a
_dolesome_ voice crying all the way "Remember
Justice Godfrey."
3. A _dead body_, representing Justice Godfrey in
the habit he usually wore, and the cravat wherewith
he was murdered about his neck, _with spots of
blood_ on his wrists, breast, and shirt, and white
gloves on his hands, his face pale and wan, riding
upon a white horse, and one of his murderers behind
him to keep him from falling, in the same manner as
he was carried to Primrose-hill.
4. A Priest came next, in a surplice and a cope
embroidered _with dead men's sculls_ and bones and
_skeletons_, who gave out pardons very plentifully
to all that would murder Protestants, and
proclaiming it meritorious.
5. A Priest alone, with a large silver cross.
6. Four Carmelite Friars, in white and black habits.
7. Four Grey Friars, in their proper habits.
8. Six Jesuits, carrying _bloody daggers_.
9. Four wind-musick, called the waits, playing all
the way.
10. Four Bishops, in purple, with _lawn_ sleeves,
and golden crosses on their breasts, and crosiers
in their hands.
11. Four other Bishops, in their _pontificalibus_,
with _surplices_ and rich-embroidered copes, and
golden mitres on their heads.
12. Six Cardinals, in scarlet robes and caps.
13. Then followed the Pope's chief Physician, with
Jesuits powder in one hand and an _urinal_ in the
other.
14. Two Priests in surplices, with two golden
crosses.
"Lastly, the Pope, in a glorious pageant or chair of state,
covered with scarlet; the chair being richly embroidered and
bedecked with golden balls and crosses. At his feet was a
cushion of state; and two boys sat on each side the Pope in
surplices, with white silk banners painted with red crosses
and _bloody consecrated daggers_ for murdering Protestant
kings and princes, with an incense-pot before them censing
his Holiness. The Pope was arrayed in a rich scarlet gown
lined through with ermines and adorned with gold and silver
lace, with a triple-crown on his head, and a glorious collar
of gold and precious stones about his neck, and St. Peter's
keys, a great quantity of beads, _Agnus Dei's_, and other
Catholic trumpery about him. At his back stood the _Devil_,
his Holiness's privy-counsel, hugging and whispering him
all the way, and often instructing him aloud to destroy his
Majesty, to contrive a pretended Presbyterian plot, and to
fire the City again; to which purpose he held an infernal
torch in his hand. The whole procession was attended with
150 torches and flambeaus by order; but there were so
many came in volunteers as made the number to be several
thousands. Never were the balconies, windows, and houses
more filled, nor the streets more thronged, with multitudes
of people, all expressing their abhorrence of Popery with
_continual shouts and acclamations_; so that in the whole
progress of their procession by a modest computation it is
judged there could be no less than 200,000 spectators.
"Thus with a slow and solemn state in some hours they arrived
at Temple-bar, where all the houses seemed to be converted
into heaps of men, women, and children, who were diverted
with variety of excellent fire-works. It is known that
Temple-bar since its rebuilding is adorned with four stately
statues of Stone, two on each side the Gate; those towards
the City representing Queen Elizabeth and King James, and the
other two towards the Strand King Charles I. and King Charles
II.: now, in regard of the day, the statue of Queen Elizabeth
was adorned with a crown of gilded laurel on her head, and in
her hand, a golden shield with this motto inscribed thereon,
"The Protestant Religion, Magna Charta." Several lighted
torches were placed before her, and the Pope brought up near
the gate.
"Having entertained the thronging spectators for some time
with ingenious fire-works, a very great bonfire was prepared
at the Inner Temple-gate; and his Holiness, after some
compliments and reluctances, was decently tumbled into the
flames; the _Devil_ who till then accompanied him left him in
the lurch, and, laughing, gave him up to his deserved fate.
This last act of his Holiness's tragedy was attended with a
prodigious shout of the joyful spectators. The same evening
there were bonfires in most streets of London, and universal
acclamations, crying, "Let Popery perish, and Papists with
their plots and counter-plots be for ever confounded. _Amen._"
_Protestant Postboy, Nov. 20, 1711._
The brutal ferocity of the scenes just described appeared in a more
matured state in the acts of an inconsiderable part of the populace
in 1712: indeed, had their numbers or their courage equalled the
fiend-like qualities of their souls, the consequences must have been
dreadful to the publick. Fortunately, however, there were but fifty
_Mohawks_, and their cowardice made them an easy prey to justice;
but not before they had committed the most unheard-of excesses, of
which the wounds they inflicted with their swords on the peaceable
passenger of the streets at night were the least. They treated women
in a manner too brutal for a man of the least spirit to repeat, and
their exploits were marked in every other respect with the violation
of decency: Modesty and Innocence became their victims, Impudence and
Lasciviousness they patronized and protected. The Queen issued a
Proclamation on this hateful occasion pregnant with just resentment,
and offered a reward of 100_l._ for the apprehension of any of the
offenders. The Gazette of March 18, 1711, mentions that Sir William
Thomas, Bart. had been apprehended (who was accompanied by two men then
unknown) for assaulting a gentleman in St. James's Park between nine
and ten at night on the 15th, and calls on the injured person to appear
in evidence before the Secretary of State: but whether the charge
applies to the above outrages is not discoverable from the notice.
April 19 following the Gazette mentions seven men and seven women who
had been assaulted.
At the Quarterly Sessions of that period the Justices had received
orders to put the law in force against Vice and Immorality; and in
consequence of a petition from the inhabitants of Covent-garden,
complaining of the indecency and riots of the loose women and their
male followers in the vicinity of the Theatre, they issued warrants for
their apprehension. The execution of those were violently opposed; and
the Justices were compelled to state to the Privy Council and the Lord
Lieutenant of Middlesex, that the Constables were dreadfully maimed,
and one mortally wounded by Ruffians aided by 40 Soldiers of the
guards, who entered into a combination to protect the women.
In May, Lord Inchinbroke, Sir Mark Cole, and some others, were found
guilty on the charge of being principals in some or other of the above
vile proceedings. After having complimented Government on the propriety
of preventing the populace from publicly burning effigies, it would be
injustice to the latter not to acknowledge they might have pleaded high
authority for doing it. On the 5th of November 1712, the Queen's guards
made a bonfire before the gates of St. James's Palace; into which the
Pretender's effigy was thrown and shot at. Such is Human Nature! The
Lord Mayor appears, however, to have done his duty, by requesting his
fellow citizens to keep at home on the night of the anniversary of
Elizabeth's accession.
One of the oddest occurrences I have yet met with under this head was
a political contest between the Whig and Tory Footmen, who served the
Members of the House of Commons. These worthy patriots had inviolably
observed a custom, for many years previous to 1715, of imitating their
masters in the choice of a Speaker, modestly conceiving themselves a
deliberative body. Now, as the parties happened at this period to be
nearly balanced, much animosity naturally ensued; and, not possessing
the forbearance of their superiors, they had recourse to active
hostilities, and severely beat each other, till the rising of the House
compelled them to desist; but, on the following Monday, the battle was
renewed, and the Tories having gained the day by dint of blows, they
carried their Speaker three times round Westminster-hall, and then,
in pursuance of antient usage, they adjourned to a good dinner at an
adjacent alehouse, and to expend their crown each in toasting their
success.
The accession of George I. was celebrated, in the month of July of
the same year, in the customary manner by the peaceable part of the
community; but the more violent assembled, to the amount of several
hundreds, at the Roebuck Tavern, Cheapside, where they burnt the
effigies of the Pretender habited in mourning before the door,
accompanied by a peal from Bow bells; and the populace were plentifully
supplied with liquor. The same persons, joined by many young men and
apprentices, busily employed themselves between the above date and
October 22, the anniversary of the King's coronation, in preparing the
effigies of the old Triumvirate for the same fate; but the Jacobin
interest, then in full effervescence, contrived to drop printed bills,
and to insinuate that those loyal persons meant to burn the effigies
of the late Queen and Dr. Sacheverell. To repel such ideas, the Loyal
Society deputed their Stewards to the Lord Mayor with a relation of
their real intention, who forbid a procession, but permitted them
to consume the effigies where they pleased. Thus privileged, they
adorned their hats with cockades of white and orange, and sallied
forth with effigies of the Pope, the Pretender, the Earl of Man, the
Duke of Ormond, and Lord Bolingbroke, accompanied by link-bearers,
and precipitated them into a fire near Bow-church. Hence they went to
Lincoln's-Inn-fields, and assisted at the hateful orgies of the same
description ordered by the foolish Duke of Newcastle, whose power
ought to have been exerted in a far different way, as the sequel will
shew. The Jacobites, full of rage and disappointment, trod on their
kibes, but were afraid to commit open violence. These processions
and burnings were repeated again on King William's anniversary, and
on the 5th of November; and, had the subject been less serious, the
exhibition of the _warming-pan_ and sucking bottle might have excited
a smile. Some slight opposition occurred on these evenings; but the
Loyal Society of the Roebuck routed the Jacobites on all sides. The
day of the inauguration of Queen Elizabeth, November 17, shews the
folly and wickedness of suffering the populace to exercise their
brutal celebrations uncontrouled. The Loyal Society met at their usual
rendezvous in Cheapside, whence they sent a deputation to examine a
house near Aldersgate, where certain effigies were placed under the
guard of a man with a hanger, said to be those of Cromwell, Ireton,
Bradshaw, and Dr. Burnet, which the Jacobites intended to burn that
evening. However, upon viewing the harmless figures, they were found
to be the representatives of George I. King William, Marlborough,
Newcastle, and Dr. Burnet. The Deputies immediately seized them, and
proceeded without opposition and no little triumph to the Roebuck. At
8 o'clock in the evening shouts of High Church and Ormond, &c. &c.
announced the approach of the Pretender's friends, who poured into
Cheapside from the neighbouring streets, proclaiming their intention
of tearing the house to pieces. The attack commenced with stones and
bricks, which soon demolished the windows; they then prepared for the
assault; but the Loyal Society, thinking to terrify them, fired with
powder only. The Jacobites, perceiving they had sustained no injury,
renewed the attack, when a second volley, accompanied by ball, laid two
of them dead on the pavement, and wounded several others. _Then_ the
Mayor made his appearance with the _posse comitatus_, and the Jacobites
fled. Thus the Tragedy proceeded scene after scene; and in which way
were either party benefited by the catastrophe? Rioters acting with a
majority are like the officious bear who flattened his friend's nose in
order to kill a fly that teased him; those on the side of a minority
can expect nothing but disgrace and hanging: a well-ordered government
should therefore suppress the turbulence of both. Another attempt was
subsequently made upon the Roebuck, but the Trained Bands prevented
the accomplishment of its demolition. The Coroner's Jury returned a
verdict of justifiable homicide on the two bodies.
During the rebellious year 1716 there were many violations of public
decorum, which, if not really dangerous to lives and property, were
alarming and extremely offensive to the quiet Citizens. One of those
was the exploding a train of powder and nauseous combustibles within
Shower's Dissenting Meeting in the Old Jewry in the midst of an
evening service. The sudden flash, the smoke, and suffocation, put the
audience into a most violent ferment; and the attempts on all sides to
escape occasioned the only injury done by this stupid contrivance of a
mischievous partisan, who probably congratulated himself on observing
broken pews, bruised bodies, scattered shoes, wigs, scarves, and
watches; a chaos begun and ended in smoke.
The anniversary celebrations which were usually accompanied by
conviviality and pleasure seem in this turbulent year to have been
authorised days for riot, fighting, and disorder, or stated times for
the display of brutal courage. Were the circumstances more congenial
to humanity, many instances might be given. The very focus of those
mischiefs were the various _mug_-houses, as they were politely termed,
or in other words Club-taverns. That of Salisbury-court was regularly
assaulted in July, and the leader, a Bridewell apprentice, was shot
by the Master of the House, for which he was tried and acquitted;
but five of the rioters were executed. The members of the Roebuck
mug-house carried their loyalty into the street on the first of August,
where they had an enormous bonfire, and a table near it, when they
drank their glasses of wine, and pronounced healths, accompanied by
the brazen lungs of the trumpet. Several of those gentlemen having
heard that the Jacobites held religious meetings in various parts
of the town, where they prayed for their lawful King without naming
him, determined to distribute some of their numbers in each, and when
the proper time arrived they exclaimed King George and their Royal
Highnesses, &c.: to which others added Amen. This expedient served
to confound if not to convince; but neither lenity nor punishment
operated with the fiery Jacobites, who dared to bury two of the above
rioters with grand funeral honours in September, and would have made a
procession of young persons in pairs habited as mourners to pass every
mug-house in the City, had not the officers of the Police interfered
and apprehended several.
The gentry of the Roebuck attracted public notice on the King's return
from one of his excursions to Hanover, by a fresh exhibition of
obnoxious effigies, which they had prepared some time before, and shown
for two-pence each person. Those were dragged about till the thousand
links that attended them were almost consumed, the persons who rode as
Highland prisoners jaded, and the Man in armour who represented the
King's champion sufficiently cooled (for it was January, good reader),
when they halted at Charing-cross, and committed the inanimate part
of the procession to the flames. As this folly was protected by three
files of soldiers, the Jacobites remained _perdu_.
The months of May and June 1717 were war-like periods in Westminster,
and marked by furious battles between the butchers of St. James's
market and the footmen and valets of the same courtly City. After
several actions the footmen solicited and obtained the assistance
of the Bridewell-boys; to balance this accession of strength, the
fraternities of Westminster, Clare, and Bloomsbury-markets were
summoned, and joined the St. James's.
The Roebuck Society seem to have been exhausted by their exertions in
the latter end of 1717, and determined to decline active hostility
against the Jacobites; but I find them subsequently roused, and the
assailants in a pitched battle and siege of Newgate-market. One of
them describes the Society in the following lines--a paraphrase from
Martial, lib. xiii. Ep. c.
"As Deer upon the rocks where Dogs can't go
Look down, and vex the noisy pack below,
So stands our Roebuck far above the spite
Of ill-look'd curs that growl but cannot bite;
And if they yelp against our Sun at noon,
'Tis but like puppies barking at the Moon."
The Nonjurors, unwilling to resign their pretensions and the Pretender,
continued their secret meetings. Government, however, appears to have
used summary measures with them. Mr. Hawes's meeting opposite St.
James's was stormed in October 1717 by two Justices, two of the King's
messengers, and a guard of soldiers, when an hundred persons were found
within, to whom the Justices tendered the oaths; five accepted them,
but the rest refused, and were dismissed after being compelled to
declare their names and residences: the preacher escaped. Dr. Welton,
the ejected or Nonjuring rector of St. Mary's Whitechapel, held the
same kind of assemblies at his house in Goodman's-fields, which was
visited in the same manner; but the Doctor thinking proper to resist,
the door was broken open, and about 200 persons were discovered, all
of whom except 40 refused the oaths. The Doctor not only rejected
the oath, but acknowledged he did not pray for the Royal family. His
escapes for a long time after furnished matter for paragraphs in the
newspapers.
The year 1718 closed with a faint revival of the turbulence of party.
In this instance the Bridewell-boys acted with hardened effrontery and
violence against the Loyalists. This period produced the long-required
interference of the Civil Power to prevent the Roebuck processions;
but this happy event was succeeded by the unjustifiable conduct of
the Spital-fields weavers, who were injured by the too common use of
foreign calicoes. These indiscreet persons, instead of applying for
redress to the Legislature, proceeded to terrify the wearers into a
compliance with their wishes, by throwing pernicious liquids on the
gowns of females, and tearing them from their backs in the most brutal
manner. The Police were compelled to interfere; but to little purpose,
till they were fired upon, and several killed and wounded, and others
committed to prison, whence some were conveyed corpses through the
raging of a Gaol fever, and others to the Pillory; but it was a long
time before the effervescence was allayed, and a paper war exhausted.
London was remarkably quiet from the above period till November 1724;
but that year produced a thief that seemed calculated to perform
successfully every scheme of desperation. He enjoyed a limited sway,
and during the time he was at large the publick were in constant
apprehension. Sheppard finished his career at Tyburn in the midst of
an incredible number of spectators; and their conduct occasions this
notice of him. The Sheriff's-officers, aware of the person they had to
contend with, thought it prudent to secure his hands on the morning
of execution. This innovation produced the most violent resistance on
Sheppard's part; and the operation was performed by force. They then
proceeded to search him, and had reason to applaud their vigilance,
for he had contrived to conceal a penknife in some part of his dress.
The ceremony of his departure from our world passed without disorder;
but, the instant the time expired for the suspension of the body, an
undertaker, who had followed by his friends' desire with a hearse and
attendants, would have conveyed it to St. Sepulchre's church-yard for
interment; but the mob, conceiving that Surgeons had employed this
unfortunate man, proceeded to demolish the vehicle, and attack the
sable dependants, who escaped with difficulty. They then seized the
body, and in the brutal manner common to those wretches beat it from
each to the other till it was covered with bruises and dirt, and till
they reached Long-acre, where they deposited the miserable remains at
a public-house called the Barley-mow. After it had rested there a few
hours the populace entered into an enquiry why they had contributed
their assistance in bringing Sheppard to Long-acre; when they
discovered they were duped by a bailiff, who was actually employed by
the Surgeons; and that they had taken the corpse from a person really
intending to bury it. The elucidation of their error exasperated them
almost to phrensy, and a riot immediately commenced, which threatened
the most serious consequences. The inhabitants applied to the Police,
and several Magistrates attending, they were immediately convinced the
civil power was insufficient to resist the torrent of malice ready to
burst forth in acts of violence. They therefore sent to the Prince
of Wales and the Savoy, requesting detachments of the guards; who
arriving, the ringleaders were secured, the body was given to a person,
a friend of Sheppard, and the mob dispersed to attend it to the grave
at St. Martin's in the Fields, where it was deposited in an elm coffin,
at ten o'clock the same night, under a guard of Soldiers, and with the
ceremonies of the church.
The Weekly Journal of November 21, 1724, gives a brief abstract of
Sheppard's life, published at the time, which may amuse the reader.
"An Abridgement of the Life, Robberies, Escapes, and Death,
of John Sheppard, who was executed at Tyburn on Monday the
16th instant, 1724.
"The celebrated Jack Sheppard, whose eminence in his
profession rendered him the object of every body's curiosity,
having made his exit on Monday last at Tyburn, in a manner
suitable to his extraordinary merits, we hope a short summary
of his most remarkable performances, before and since his
repeated escapes out of Newgate, together with his behaviour
at the place of execution, will not be a disagreeable
entertainment to our readers.
"He was born in 1701, and put apprentice by the charitable
interposition of Mr. Kneebone, whom he afterwards robbed, to
one Mr. Owen Wood, a Carpenter, in Drury-lane. Before his
time was out he took to keep company with one Elizabeth Lyon,
who proved his ruin: of her he gave this character. That
'there is not a more wicked, deceitful, lascivious wretch
living in England.' The first robbery he ever committed was
of two silver spoons at the Rummer-tavern, Charing-cross.
He owned several other robberies, particularly that of Mr.
Pargiter in Hampstead, for which the two Brightwells were
tried and acquitted; in relation to which he often said
jocosely, 'Little I was that large lusty man that plucked
him from the ditch,' as Pargiter had deposed at Brightwell's
trial. He was long comrade with Blueskin, lately executed,
who, according to the account Sheppard gave of him, was 'a
worthless companion, a sorry thief, and that nothing but his
attempt on Jonathan Wild could have made him taken notice
of:' afterwards he broke out of St. Giles's round-house,
throwing a whole load of bricks, &c. on the people in the
street who stood looking at him, and made his escape. After
this he broke out of New Prison; then out of the condemned
hold in Newgate; but his last escape from Newgate having made
the greatest noise, we shall insert the following particulars.
"Thursday, October the 15th, just before three in the
afternoon, he went to work, taking off first his handcuffs;
next with main strength he twisted a small iron link of the
chain between his legs asunder; and the broken pieces proved
extremely useful to him in his design; the fetlocks he drew
up to the calves of his legs, taking off before that his
stockings, and with his garters made them firm to his body,
to prevent their shackling: he then proceeded to make a hole
in the chimney of the Castle about three feet wide, and six
feet high from the floor, and with the help of the broken
links aforesaid, wrenched an iron bar out of the chimney,
of about two foot and half in length, and an inch square; a
most notable implement. He immediately entered the Red room,
which is directly over the Castle, and went to work upon the
nut of the lock, and with little difficulty got it off, and
made the door fly before him; in this room he found a large
nail, which proved of great use in his farther progress.
The door of the entry between the Red room and the Chapel
proved an hard task, it being a laborious piece of work; for
here he was forced to break away the wall, and dislodge the
bolt which was fastened on the other side: this occasioned
much noise, and he was very fearful of being heard by the
master-side debtors. Being got to the Chapel, he climbed over
the iron spikes, with ease broke one of them off, and opened
the door on the inside: the door going out of the Chapel to
the leads, he stripped the nut from off the lock, and then
got into the entry between the Chapel and the leads, and
came to another strong door, which being fastened by a very
strong lock, he had like to have stopped, and it being full
dark, his spirits began to fail him, as greatly doubting of
success; but cheering up, he wrought on with great diligence,
and in less than half an hour, with the main help of the nail
from the Red room, and the spike from the Chapel, wrenched
the Box off, and so was master of the door. A little farther
in his passage another stout door stood in his way; and this
was a difficulty with a witness; being guarded with more
bolts, bars, and locks, than any he had hitherto met with:
the chimes at St. Sepulchre's were then going the eighth
hour: he went first upon the box and the nut, but found it
labour in vain; he then proceeded to attack the fillet of
the door; this succeeded beyond expectation, for the box of
the lock coming off with it from the main post, he found his
work was near finished. He was got to a door opening in the
lower leads, which being only bolted on the inside, he opened
it with ease, and then clambered from the top of it to the
higher leads, and went over the wall. He saw the streets
were lighted, the shops being still open, and therefore
began to consider what was necessary to be further done. He
found he must go back for the blanket which had been his
covering a-nights in the Castle, which he accordingly did,
and endeavoured to fasten his stockings and that together, to
lessen his descent, but wanted necessaries, and was therefore
forced to make use of the blanket alone: he fixed the same
with the Chapel spike into the wall of Newgate, and dropped
from it on the Turner's leads, a house adjoining the prison;
it was then about nine of the clock, and the shops not yet
shut in. It fortunately happened, that the garret door on
the leads was open. He stole softly down about two pair of
stairs, and then heard company talking in a room, the door
being open. His irons gave a small clink, which made a woman
cry, 'Lord! what noise is that?' A man replied, 'Perhaps
the dog or cat;' and so it went off. He returned up to the
garret, and laid himself down, being terribly fatigued; and
continued there for about two hours, and then crept down
once more to the room where the company were, and heard a
gentleman take his leave, who being lighted down stairs,
the maid, when she returned, shut the chamber door: he then
resolved at all hazards to follow, and slip down stairs; he
was instantly in the entry, and out at the street-door, and
once more contrary to his own expectation, and that of all
mankind, a free man.
"He passed directly by St. Sepulchre's watch-house, bidding
them good-morrow, it being after twelve, and down Snow-hill,
up Holborn, leaving St. Andrew's watch on his left, and then
again passed the watch-house at Holborn-bars, and made down
Gray's-Inn-lane into the fields, and at two in the morning
came to Tottenham-court, where getting into an old house in
the fields, he laid himself down to rest, and slept well for
three hours. His legs were swelled and bruised intolerably,
which gave him great uneasiness; and having his fetters
still on, he dreaded the approach of the day. He began to
examine his pockets, and found himself master of between
forty and fifty shillings. It raining all Friday, he kept
snug in his retreat till the evening, when after dark he
ventured into Tottenham, and got to a little blind chandler's
shop, and there furnished himself with cheese, bread, small
beer, and other necessaries, hiding his irons with a great
coat. He asked the woman for an hammer, but there was none
to be had; so he went very quietly back to his dormitory,
and rested pretty well that night, and continued there all
Saturday. At night he went again to the chandler's shop, and
got provisions, and slept till about six the next day, which
being Sunday, he began to batter the basils of the fetters in
order to beat them into a large oval, and then to slip his
heels through. In the afternoon the master of the shed, or
house, came in, and seeing his irons, asked him, 'For God's
sake, who are you?' He told him, 'an unfortunate young man,
who had been sent to Bridewell about a bastard-child, and
not being able to give security to the Parish, had made his
escape.' The man replied, 'If that was the case it was a
small fault indeed, for he had been guilty of the same things
himself formerly,' and withal said, 'However, he did not like
his looks, and cared not how soon he was gone.'
"After he was gone, observing a poor-looking man like a
Joiner, he made up to him, and repeated the same story,
assuring him that twenty shillings should be at his service,
if he could furnish him with a Smith's hammer, and a
puncheon. The man proved a shoe-maker by trade, but willing
to obtain the reward, immediately borrowed the tools of
a blacksmith his neighbour, and likewise gave him great
assistance, so that before five that evening he had entirely
got rid of his fetters, which he gave to the fellow, besides
his twenty shillings.
"That night he went to a cellar at Charing-cross, and
refreshed very comfortably, where near a dozen people were
all discoursing about Sheppard, and nothing else was talked
on whilst he staid amongst them. He had tied an handkerchief
about his head, tore his woollen cap, coat, and stockings
in many places, and looked exactly like what he designed to
represent, a beggar-fellow; and now concluding that Blueskin
would have certainly been decreed for death, he did fully
resolve and purpose to have gone and cut down the gallows the
night before his execution.
"On Tuesday he hired a garret for his lodging at a poor
house in Newport-market, and sent for a sober young woman,
who for a long time past had been the real mistress of his
affections, who came to him, and rendered all the assistance
she was capable of affording. He made her the messenger to
his mother, who lodged in Clare-street. She likewise visited
him in a day or two after, begging on her bended knees of
him to make the best of his way out of the kingdom, which
he faithfully promised; but could not find in his heart to
perform.
"He was oftentimes in Spital-fields, Drury-lane,
Lewkenor's-lane, Parker's-lane, St. Thomas's-street, &c.
those having been the chief scenes of his rambles and
pleasures.
"At last he came to a resolution of breaking the house of the
two Mr. Rawlins's, brothers and pawnbrokers in Drury-lane,
which he accordingly put in execution, and succeeded; they
both hearing him rifling their goods as they lay in bed
together in the next room. And though there were none others
to assist him, he pretended there was, by loudly giving out
directions for shooting the first person through the head
that presumed to stir, which effectually quieted them, while
he carried off his booty, with part whereof, on the fatal
Saturday following, being the 31st of October, he made an
extraordinary appearance; and from a carpenter and butcher
was now transformed into a gentleman; he went into the
City, and was very merry at a public-house not far from the
place of his old confinement. At four that same afternoon,
he passed under Newgate in a Hackney-coach, the windows
drawn up, and in the evening he sent for his mother to the
Sheers alehouse, in Maypole-alley, near Clare-market, and
with her drank three quarterns of brandy; and after leaving
her drank in one place or other about that neighbourhood
all the evening, till the evil hour of twelve, having been
seen and known by many of his acquaintance; all of them
cautioning him, and wondering at his presumption to appear
in that manner. At length his senses were quite overcome
with the quantities and variety of liquors he had all the
day been drinking, which paved the way for his fate; and
when apprehended, he was altogether incapable of resisting,
scarce knowing what they were doing with him, and had but two
second-hand pistols scarce worth carrying about him.
"From his last re-apprehension to his death some persons
were appointed to be with him constantly day and night; vast
numbers of people came to see him, to the great profit both
of himself and those about him; several persons of quality
came, all of whom he begged to intercede with his Majesty
for mercy, but his repeated _returning to his vomit_ left no
room for it; so that, being brought down to the King's-bench
bar, Westminster, by an _habeas corpus_, and it appearing
by evidence that he was the same person, who, being under a
former sentence of death, had twice made his escape, a rule
of court was made for his execution, which was on Monday
last. The morning he suffered he told a gentleman, that 'he
had then a satisfaction at heart, as if he was going to enjoy
an estate of 200_l._ a year.'"
A tumult of a different description in some particulars, but
originating from an execution, happened in May 1725, when the infamous
Jonathan Wild expiated his numerous offences at Tyburn. The mob in
the former case were willing to have rescued Sheppard, _because he
was a man utterly unfit to be at large_; but they would have torn
Wild to pieces, because he was the means of ridding the publick of
many villains, though one of the blackest die himself. Jonathan Wild
was born at Wolverhampton in 1684, and commenced his active life as
a buckle-maker, whence he migrated to London, where he became in a
short period thief-taker general. In this office his body received a
greater variety of wounds than the hardiest soldier ever exhibited;
his scull actually suffered two fractures; and his throat was scarred
by the erring knife of a wretch hanged by his means, the companion of
Sheppard. That the reader may fully comprehend this man's crimes, I
shall insert an abstract of his indictment.
"That he hath for many years past been a confederate with great numbers
of highwaymen, pick-pockets, house-breakers, &c.
"That he hath formed a kind of corporation of thieves, of which he
is the director; and that his pretended services in detecting and
prosecuting offenders consisted only in bringing those to the gallows
who concealed their booty, or refused to share it with him.
"That he hath divided the town and country into districts, and
appointed distinct gangs for each, who regularly accounted with him
for their robberies. He had also a particular set to steal at churches
in time of Divine service; and also other moving detachments to attend
at Court on birth-days, balls, &c. and upon both Houses of Parliament,
Circuits, and Country Fairs.
"That the persons employed by him were for the most part felons
convict, who have returned from transportation before their due time
was expired; of whom he made choice for his agents, because they could
not be legal evidence against him, and because he had it in his power
to take from them what part of the stolen goods he pleased, and
otherwise abuse or even hang them at his will and pleasure.
"That he hath from time to time supplied such convicted felons with
money and clothes, and lodged them in his own house the better to
conceal them, particularly some against whom there are now informations
for diminishing and counterfeiting broad pieces and guineas.
"That he hath not only been a receiver of stolen goods, as well as of
writings of all kinds, for near fifteen years last past, but frequently
been a confederate, and robbed along with the above-mentioned convicted
felons.
"That, in order to carry on these vile practices, and gain some credit
with the ignorant multitude, he usually carried about him a short
silver staff as a badge of authority from the government, which he used
to produce when he himself was concerned in robbing.
"That he had under his care and direction several warehouses for
receiving and concealing stolen goods, and also a ship for carrying off
jewels, watches, and other valuable goods to Holland, where he has a
superannuated thief for his factor.
"That he kept in pay several artists to make alterations, and transform
watches, seals, snuff-boxes, rings, and other valuable things, that
they might not be known; several of which he used to present to such
as he thought might be of service to him.
"That he seldom helped the owners to lost notes and papers, unless he
found them able to specify and describe them exactly, and then often
insisted on more than half the value.
"That he frequently sold human blood, by procuring false evidence to
swear persons into facts of which they were not guilty; sometimes to
prevent them from being evidences against himself, at other times for
the sake of the great reward given by the government."
This consummate criminal, after dealing so widely and to an enormous
amount, fell a sacrifice to a paltry theft of a little lace stolen
from a window on Holborn-hill, when Wild's usual foresight so far
deserted him as to enable the person he employed while he waited on
the Bridge to turn evidence against him. His execution attracted
the greatest concourse of spectators ever known to have assembled
on a similar occasion; and an incredible number of thieves of every
description attended, to wreak their vengeance on their general enemy.
They shouted incessantly with frantic yells of joy, and threw stones at
the miserable man as he rode, till his head streamed with blood; but,
when he fell from the cart, the air was literally rent by reiterated
cries of triumph. Wild had endeavoured to commit suicide; but the
dose of laudanum intended for the purpose, proving too great, his
stomach rejected it in time to save his life. It, however, rendered him
nearly insensible, and consequently prevented the anguish he must have
experienced in his last moments from the conduct of his enemies and the
brutality of the populace.
Several prosecutions were instituted in 1725, in order to prevent a
shamefully indecent practice of the populace, which was the storming of
hearses and tearing from them the various heraldic ornaments used at
funerals.
A dissolute young man named Gibson, a Mercer, and one of the Society
of friends, occasioned very serious riots in the summer of 1727 by
persisting to preach in defiance of the elders of Gracechurch street
meeting, and indeed of the whole posse of the Police, who were more
than once compelled to convey him by force to St. George's fields,
where he was permitted to hold forth unmolested. Gibson had a mob
constantly surrounding him, which committed many extravagances.
He afterwards rented the London Assurance Coffee-house in Birchin-lane,
before which he erected a sign representing a person extended on his
back with the head bloody and a hat and wig near him. Several persons
supposed to have committed the assault were shewn hiding under bushes.
In another part of the design, the wounded person waded through a
marsh supported by crutches, and a friend assisted him towards a
house on a hill. The other side represented him lying on his face,
and again washing blood and tears from his features; a rising moon in
each painting lighted the scene, under which was inscribed "Gibson
from Gracechurch-street."--The aim of Gibson in this allegory was to
introduce himself to the publick in a pitiable situation, to shew the
Quakers in a disgraceful light as assassins, and to compliment the
friend by whom he was placed in his new house.
The populace had not indulged in their favourite excesses for several
years; but, an opportunity occurring in September 1729, they seized it
with avidity. The King had been to Hanover, and, returning in safety,
a party from Whitechapel chose to express their loyalty by breaking
many hundreds of windows on each side of the way between that place
and Charing-cross, under a pretence that the inhabitants should have
illuminated them. The damage done by these desperadoes is said to have
amounted to more than 1000_l._; and it is remarkable that the King
rode through the same street within an hour after the havock had been
committed; no doubt, infinitely vexed that he was the innocent cause of
so much injury to his peaceable subjects.
The public mind was greatly agitated in 1733 by the introduction of
an Excise bill into the House of Commons, which experienced great
opposition, and was deferred till June in that year. The populace,
highly elated, made effigies of the Minister, burnt them in various
places, and demonstrated their joy by breaking numbers of windows.
This excess was repeated on the anniversary of the above event with
increased violence, when, in addition to breaking the Lord Mayor's
windows, they broke his officers' heads; but several of the ringleaders
were apprehended, and sent to different prisons.
On the 30th of March, 1734, a disgraceful tumult occurred in
Suffolk-street, Charing-cross, occasioned by several young men whose
situation in life ought to have produced far different conduct. They
met at a house in the above street under the denomination of the
Calves-head club, prepared a fire before the door, and after several
indecent orgies appeared at the first-floor windows with wine and a
calf's head dressed in a napkin cap, which they threw into the flames
with loud huzzas. As the populace assembled round the fire were
entertained with plenty of beer, they shouted at many of the toasts
drank by the _Club_; but, some being proposed that interfered with
the Majesty of the People, they were considered as the signal for
attack, which immediately commenced with so much impetuosity as to
render it necessary for the founders of the feast to fly for their
lives. The mob broke all the windows of the house, forcibly entered it,
and demolished every article in their way, to the amount of several
hundred pounds. The royal guards put an end to the tumult. I have a
print, published immediately after the transaction, which faithfully
represents the wickedness and folly of it.
"The Hyp Doctor" observed on this occasion: "It is an honour to the
Dissenters, that we do not hear of one of their body who belonged
to this ingenious and refined cabal. It must not be overlooked,
that if the report be right, the Calves-heads were bought in St.
James's-market; the _double entendre_ was intended to have _wit
prepense_; but methinks the emblem was wrong-_headed_; for how can a
_Calf_, which is a _tame gentle creature_, and _incapable_ of _sin_,
represent a _supposed_ Tyrant, or a bad Monarch? Some of the parties
concerned were, as the chronicles of Suffolk-street record it, sons of
nobles of _England_, _Scotland_, and _Ireland_, besides _Commoners_;
but the transaction was _carried on_, like Io in the _farce_, by a
_Bull_ rather than a _Calf_ (by which it might appear to be more
_Irish_ than _English_), if you examine the criticism of the _Shew_.
It was a sequel to Punch at the masquerade, putting his Opera bills
into the hands of some too great for a familiar mention; but neither
the Haymarket Punch, nor the Suffolk-street Puppet-shew _took_: one
was acted but once, the other was not acted thoroughly the first time:
the _people_ were the _criticks_, the connoisseurs, and corrected the
play. We are now assured it had no _plot_; the _head_ had no _brains_,
like Æsop's masks: this may be true, but no credit to a tragi-comedy:
it only proved they were no _Poets_, and but _indifferent actors_.
Was there none who bore a Calf's-head _couped_, as the Heralds speak,
in his coat of Arms? The device of the escutcheon might be more
_significant_ than that of the _Club_. Such a proceeding might have
been proper in a _slaughter-house_; but, perhaps, they were replenished
with the wisdom of the Egyptians, who worshiped Osiris in _the form of
a Calf_: was it an _Essex_ or a _Middlesex_ Calf?--_Baa_ be the motto
of this speculation. The _Gens Vitellia_, the _Vitellian_ family at
Rome, were denominated from the like. This adds light from the Roman
history."
The next disturbance of the public peace proceeded from the dregs
of the people, who were exasperated beyond measure at the laudable
attempts of their superiors to suppress the excessive use of _Gin_;
and their resentment became so very turbulent in September 1736, that
they even presumed to exclaim in the streets, "No _Gin_ no _King_:"
in consequence, double guards were posted at Kensington, St. James's,
Somerset-house, and the Rolls. Besides these precautions, 500 of
the Grenadier-guards, and the Westminster troop of Horse-militia,
were distributed as patroles, and in Hyde and St. James's Parks,
Covent-garden, &c.
Many satirical and pleasant attacks upon that pernicious liquor
appeared in the diurnal publications; two of which are worth preserving:
"To the dear and regretted memory of the best and most potent of cheap
liquors, _Geneva_; the solace of the hen-pecked husband, the kind
companion of the neglected wife, the infuser of courage in the _tame_
and _standing_ army, the source of the thief's resolution, the support
of pawnbrokers, tally-men, receivers of stolen goods, and a long _et
cetera_ of other honest fraternities, alike useful and glorious to
the Commonwealth. A _Victor_, fuller of fire than Bajazet, and who
destroyed more men than Tamerlane in his numerous conquests. The bane
of chastity, the foe of honesty, the friend of infidelity, the _very
spirit of sedition_, through the inhuman malice of ---- and ----, by
the edge of an Act of Parliament, cut off in her prime September 19,
1736, _anno regni Georgii secundi decimo_. Her constant votary Nicholas
_No-shoes_, in testimony of a friendship subsisting after death, erects
this monument.
"Attend, my Sons, and you, my friends, draw near,
And on my last remain bestow a tear;
Your dear, dear _Punch_, must yield his nect'rous breath,
And ere to-morrow noon submit to death.
No hopes of pardon, no reprieve is nigh,
My death is sign'd: and must I, must I die?
It is resolv'd.--Then rouse your noble souls,
And crown _this_ night with cheerful flowing bowls;
Let none but you, my friends, support my pall,
And bilk those fops who triumph in my fall[51:A]."
Numberless evasions of the Act were practised; and even Apothecaries
were tempted to retail Gin under the specious name of a medicine or
cordial.
The month of July 1736 afforded a singular _popular explosion_,
contrived in the following strange manner. A brown paper parcel,
which had been placed unobserved near the side-bar of the Court of
King's-bench, Westminster-hall, blew up during the solemn proceedings
of the Courts of Justice assembled, and scattered a number of printed
bills, giving notice, that on the last day of Term five Acts of
Parliament would be publicly burnt in the hall, between the hours of
twelve and one, at the Royal Exchange, and at St. Margaret's hill,
which were the Gin Act, the Smuggling Act, the Mortmain Act, the
Westminster Bridge Act, and the Act for borrowing 600,000_l._ on the
Sinking fund.
One of the bills was immediately carried to the Grand Jury then
sitting, who found it an infamous libel, and recommended the offering
of a reward to discover the author.
The labourers and weavers of Spitalfields were infected with a
contagious _mania_ at the same period, which led them to suppose that
numbers of Irishmen had recently arrived in London, for the purpose of
working at under-prices and starving them. Influenced by a species
of despair they assembled in crowds, and proceeded to Brick-lane,
Whitechapel, where they immediately attacked a house supposed to
contain Irishmen, and completely destroyed it, bearing away the
furniture in triumph; but they lost one man, and had several wounded,
by a musket discharged amongst them from the house. The neighbouring
Magistrates, alarmed at this outrage, immediately attended at the scene
of action, and read the Riot Act, but without effect, although the
Tower Hamlet association and a party of the Tower guard were summoned
to their assistance; nor did they desist till a company of Regulars
dispersed them by force.
Several severe combats occurred between the English and Irish in other
parts of the town, in which much mischief was done to each party.
The cause appears to have originated chiefly through the parsimony
of the person who contracted to erect the new church of St. Leonard
Shoreditch, in employing no other than Irish labourers at five or six
shillings a week, when the British demanded twelve shillings. These two
affairs occurring nearly together led government to suspect the authors
of the paper-plot, and the rioters, or at least their leaders, to have
been connected in seditious if not treasonable designs.
An estimate was made in July 1738 of the numbers convicted under the
Act for preventing the excessive use of spirituous liquors. Claims were
entered at the Excise-office by 4000 persons for the 5_l._ allowed
to the informer from the penalty of 100_l._, 4896 such convictions
having taken place. 3000 persons paid 10_l._ each to avoid being sent
to Bridewell; and it was computed that 12,000 informations had been
laid within the bills of mortality only. It is therefore not to be
wondered at that the newspapers frequently mentioned the quiet and
decency observed in the streets subsequent to these convictions; but
in effecting them several informers were killed, and others dreadfully
hurt, by the mob.
It sometimes happens that articles of information are so vaguely
mentioned in the public papers, that, though they might be understood
by their contemporaries, we are at a loss to comprehend them. An
instance of this kind occurred in August 1757, when a number of riotous
persons assembled before the Craven-arms, Southampton-street, with
an intention to level it with the earth, and destroy the goods; but
for what reason the papers are silent. The officers of the Police
attended, but were beat off with stones; and it was two o'clock in the
morning before two serjeants and twenty-four soldiers of the guards
could disperse them; at which hour fourteen were apprehended, several
wounded, and two were afterwards committed to prison. The following
letter was sent on this occasion to Mr. Justice Fielding:
_Christ-church, Surrey, Aug. 13, 1757._
"SIR,
"We beg leave to acquaint you, that the house known by the
sign of the Craven-arms, in Southampton-street, belongs to a
charity in our parish; and we therefore beg the favour of you
to use what methods shall seem right to prevent the populace
doing any farther damage to it: and as to any extraordinary
expence which may happen on this account, the trustees will
readily pay. A Committee of the Trustees of the Charity
will be immediately called, and they will do themselves the
pleasure of waiting on you. We are, Sir, &c.
JACKSON, Rector,
BARTHO. PAYNE, Churchwarden.
HENRY BUNN, Secretary to the Trust[54:A]."
Nothing particular occurred for upwards of a year after the above
outrage; but in October 1758, the brutality of the mob was excited by
the interment of Mr. Wilson, an undertaker and pawnbroker, who had kept
the Punch-bowl near Moorgate. The cause of their resentment proves that
a British mob generally acts upon a noble principle; as the deceased
was reported to have left a legacy of 200_l._ to be paid in groats to
those persons who were then imprisoned at his suit, though he died
rich. This malice from the grave justly exasperated all who knew of it;
and their anger was properly inflamed by observing that a detachment
of the Artillery company, to which Wilson had belonged, intended to
pay him military honours on the way to Islington, where he was to be
buried. Every mark of abhorrence and contempt consequently ensued
from an astonishing number of persons, who severely hurt each other
by collision; and it was with the utmost difficulty that the priest
performed his office.
I am sorry to add that at the same time some miscreants in the middle
rank of life, inflamed by dissipation, were in the practice of
pretending to fight every evening on Ludgate-hill, for the diabolical
pleasure of dealing blows indiscriminately on peaceable passengers;
and, to use their own words, "in order to see the claret run." These
wretches who thus wantonly attacked the publick, broke the leg of a
Constable, and bruised several watchmen, before they could secure two
of them, who were committed till the Constable recovered.
Five years passed without producing a single offence committed by
numbers acting under temporary impulse; at length an affray happened
between certain Irish chairmen and sailors, who were all inflamed by
liquor, drank in honour of the election held in Covent-garden March
1763. After they had abused each other with the usual language of
vulgar irritation, a challenge was offered by a chairman to fight
the best sailor present: this ended in the defeat of the Irishman,
who was instantly reinforced by his brethren, when a general attack
with pokers, tongs, fenders, &c. &c. commenced on the sailors; those,
supported by a party of unarmed soldiers, drove their antagonists from
the field, and immediately proceeded to demolish every chair they could
find. These outrages continued till evening, and by that time a general
muster of chairmen had taken place, who, exasperated to madness, beat
down men, women, and children, in their progress to the scene of
action, where a dreadful conflict was prevented by a party of Soldiers
from the Savoy, whose exertions accomplished the capture of some of the
ringleaders, but not before a Soldier and a Sailor, and three other
persons, had been dangerously wounded, and the King's-head ale-house
almost demolished.
The hardy seamen, defenders of our island, are excellent subjects when
on-board their respective ships, but they are very apt to be turbulent
on shore; another instance of which succeeded the Covent-garden riot
almost immediately, though the cause was different. The conduct of the
Sailor is generally exceedingly thoughtless: low drinking-houses and
women are their favourite sources of amusement; and the keepers of
the former, united with the latter, never fail to make them repent,
as far as their insensible minds are susceptible. The Police of the
Tower Hamlets, aware of this, frequently sent peace-officers to houses
of ill-fame, in order to apprehend the most obnoxious inmates; and in
pursuit of this laudable custom several women and a few sailors were
sent to the Round-house in March 1763. On the following morning they
were taken before the Magistrates then assembled at the Black-horse
near the Victualling-office for examination; there numbers of Sailors
collected, and demanded the release of their comrades, which the
Justices complied with; but, still dissatisfied, they insisted on the
enlargement of the women. This presumptuous request was, however,
positively refused, and the Magistrates, dreading the consequences,
sent three different times for detachments of Soldiers to support their
authority, and as an equipoise for the increasing numbers of the
Sailors, who assembled from all sides to the amount, it is said, of
more than a thousand: the Riot Act was read no less than three times
to no purpose, during which time the Sailors had obtained flags from
the shipping, and having marshalled themselves _in a line of battle,
they bore down_ on the Soldiers drawn up to receive them. At the
instant the commanding officer of the latter was about to pronounce
the dreadful word _Fire!_ a naval officer made his appearance in front
of the Sailors, and intreated the order might be reserved till he
had endeavoured to convince his brethren of the impropriety of their
conduct. He then addressed himself to the Sailors, and said they would
forfeit the favour of the King, who had promised to take off their
R's; to which he added other arguments, and at length prevailed upon
two-thirds of them to follow him to Tower-hill, where he dismissed them.
A Serjeant and twelve Soldiers were sent about four o'clock on the same
afternoon to Clerkenwell Bridewell, as an escort to eight of the women
who had occasioned the riot. Those were pursued by a party of Sailors,
and overtaken at Chiswell-street. The instant release of the prisoners
was demanded and refused, when one of the Soldiers fired, and wounded
a Sailor and a Baker; but, as the assailants became more violent after
this precipitation, the Serjeant wisely determined to resign his
charge, rather than cause farther bloodshed.
The Weavers resident in Spital-fields were the next disturbers of the
public peace. Those useful members of Society had long disputed with
their employers respecting their wages; and at length a compromise
took place, when printed papers of the various prices of their work
were distributed, in order to prevent future disputes. Some avaricious
master-weavers, however, thought proper to reduce the weaving of
certain articles one half-penny _per_ yard; and hence the riots, which
commenced with the destruction of the looms belonging to one of the
most active opponents of the journeymen, whose effigies they afterwards
placed in a cart, hanged, and burnt. This conduct, though highly
improper, was innocence compared with that now to be related, which
originated in the strange folly and wickedness of Seamen almost at the
same time. The narrative was compiled from the minutes of the Coroner's
Inquest.
"On Thursday last an inquisition was taken in Holywell-street,
Shoreditch, upon the bodies of Ralph Meadows and John Whitrow, two
of the persons killed in the late riot before a public house, known
by the sign of the Marquis of Granby's-head, in Holywell-street. The
inquisition lasted six hours. It appeared in the evidence, that on
Monday last, about one o'clock, a great mob assembled before and in
the dwelling-house of Thomas Kelly the publican, committing outrages;
that on application to two Magistrates, they wrote to the Lieutenant
of the third regiment of foot-guards, then on duty, with an Ensign
and 100 men under his command, in Spital-fields, on account of a late
riot there, acquainting him, that there was a great mob assembled in
Holywell-street, Shoreditch, who had broke open a house in a violent
and outrageous manner, to the terror of his Majesty's quiet subjects,
and in breach of the peace; and desiring him to attend with a proper
force to disperse the mob and stop their proceedings.
"The Lieutenant assembled as many of his men as the short notice would
permit, before the passage door leading to the said public house, where
he found a great crowd of people; and on going into the house with
the Justices' order in his hand, he found some very desperate fellows
in it, some in sailors' habits, who were cursing and swearing that
they would not leave the house, but do what they pleased; one of them
behaving in a very affronting manner to the Lieutenant, some of the
soldiers led him out. About three o'clock, the Lieutenant prevailed on
them to depart, and they went away quietly, leaving only a crowd of
people standing before the passage door, who had gathered there out
of curiosity. The Lieutenant then withdrew himself, leaving only a
Serjeant, Corporal, and twelve private soldiers, which he did at the
solicitation of the publican, who was afraid of a second attack. The
Lieutenant then went to dinner, and informed the Serjeant he would
return in an hour. For about half an hour all was quiet; and then a
gentleman came up to the Serjeant, and bade him take care of himself,
as there was a body of sailors coming up the street, d--ing their eyes,
declaring, 'they would clear the soldiers, and pull the house down.'
The Serjeant seeing them advance, looked round to the soldiers, and
said, 'There they come;' and ordered his men to stand to their arms,
and he would meet the rioters, but bade them fix their bayonets. He
approached about twelve yards towards the rioters, and pulled off his
hat, and said, 'Gentlemen, I hope you do not come with any intent to
make a disturbance.' They d--ned their eyes, and informed him, that
'they had got one man, and would have the landlord of the house.' The
Serjeant, telling them 'that he was placed there by an order from the
civil power to take care of the house and preserve the peace,' returned
to his command. The sailors then advanced, and some of them mounted the
sign-post, and to prevent their getting up, some of the soldiers gently
struck them with their pieces; but the Serjeant, finding them resolute
to take down the sign, ordered the soldiers to let them, and informed
the soldiers, that he was then in hopes to disperse them without
mischief. As soon as the sign was down, they gave a huzza, and some
of them called out, 'Now for the landlord,' and in a riotous manner
advanced with their sticks towards the passage which the soldiers
were guarding. The Serjeant informed them he could not admit them
into the house upon any account: upon which they began to beat with
their sticks, and press on the soldiers; and the serjeant ordered the
soldiers to charge (which is fixing their musquets breast high) but it
had no effect: they then assaulted the soldiers with pieces of brick,
tile, and great quantities of mud, and forced two bayonets from the
musquets, one of which was broke, and the other was taken up by one of
the sailors, with which he made a full push at the Serjeant, but he
happily warded it off with his halbert; and the sailors got between
him and his men, and attacked them with such violence that they were
forced into the passage which leads to the public-house, and thereupon
a battle ensued, and the Serjeant used all his endeavours to come to
his men, but he was prevented by the sailors, and received several
blows. The men being thus pressed into the passage, were obliged to
fire, and two pieces were discharged, which, from the faint report, and
no mischief being done, and the sailors not giving way, the witnesses
all declared, that they believed the pieces were loaded with gunpowder
only. The sailors continuing to press violently upon the soldiers, and
endeavouring to force the passage, the soldiers fired again, and two
men, amongst the rioters, were seen to drop.
"The sailors now became very desperate, and most violently assaulted
the soldiers with their sticks; and the soldiers were, through
inevitable necessity, in defence of their lives, and for the public
peace, obliged to fire, and the firing continued till they cleared the
passage and street before it, which was very soon done: upon which the
Serjeant took the opportunity of running to his men, and cried out,
'For God's sake fire no more.' He then drew all his men out of the
passage, and formed a square in the street, and ordered them to ease
their arms, and on looking about him he saw three men lying dead in the
street, two of which appeared to be sailors. Several of the soldiers'
fingers were bloody from the blows they received from the rioters. In
the riot two sailors jumped into a window belonging to a butcher's
house, near the public-house, and one of them taking a chopper out of
the shop, endeavoured to rush by the Corporal into the passage to the
public-house, but was seized by the Corporal to prevent his going in,
by which means the Corporal's hand was cut by the chopper to such a
degree, that he was obliged to be sent to an hospital.
"The witnesses swore, that they verily believed the soldiers were
obliged to fire in defence of their lives, as well as for the
preservation of the public peace; and the Jury were well satisfied with
the evidence before them.
"The Coroner, in summing up the evidence, distinguished between murder,
manslaughter, and justifiable or excusable homicides, both voluntary
and involuntary; and chance-medley, or homicide by misadventure; under
one of which classes, he informed the Jury, the present case must fall.
He observed, that the soldiers did not come to that place wantonly to
do an injury, but were called in, as the Lieutenant understood, and
so called it (when he produced his authority) in his evidence, 'by an
order from the civil power,' to suppress the rioters, and preserve
the King's peace; and whether the civil power had taken the proper
steps before applying to the military, or whether the notice sent to
the Lieutenant was a legal warrant or order, or not, were not matters
of their enquiry; for that, supposing a Justice of Peace should issue
an illegal warrant, and an officer should be killed in the execution
of it, in that case the party killing would be deemed a murderer; for
the officer was obliged to execute his office: he is not supposed to
be a judge of law; he is only a minister of Justice, and the party
had a legal remedy, if he had been improperly arrested. The Coroner
said, that the conduct of the military power upon that occasion was
the immediate subject of their enquiry; that, if the Jury gave credit
to the witnesses, the major part of whom were disinterested persons,
the soldiers did not fire till they were pressed to it, by inevitable
necessity, in defence of their own lives, and for the preservation
of the public peace; and in killing any of the rioters, had done
no more than 'Justifiable Homicides' of inevitable necessity, for
the preservation of the King's peace, and in defence of themselves;
and added, that in such case, if any person was killed that was not
concerned in the riot, but unfortunately hemmed in by the rioters, or
was passing along at that time, in that case it would be chance-medley,
or homicide _per infortunium_, that is, death by misadventure; and as
it did not appear to the Jury that the persons upon whom they then sat
were acting in the riot, the Jury found the special matter, and brought
in their verdict Homicides by Misadventure.
"After the riot by the sailors was over, the people collected, and were
so much enraged against the soldiers, that the Lieutenant was obliged
to send to the Tower for a reinforcement to prevent mischief; and they
continued under arms till near twelve at night, when he withdrew,
leaving at the public-house a Serjeant, Corporal, and twenty private
men, who, reporting the next morning that all was well, were ordered to
their several quarters."
A third scene of popular tumult occurred before the close of the year
1763, and was caused by the execution of the sentence of burning Mr.
Wilkes's celebrated Number 45 of the North Briton.
The 3d of December was appointed for this silly ceremony, which took
place before the Royal Exchange amidst the hisses and execrations of
the mob, not directed at the obnoxious paper, but at Alderman Harley,
the Sheriffs, and constables; the latter of whom were compelled to
fight furiously through the whole business. The instant the hangman
held the work to a lighted link it was beat to the ground; and the
populace, seizing the faggots prepared to complete its destruction,
fell upon the peace-officers, and fairly threshed them from the field;
nor did the Alderman escape without a contusion on the head, inflicted
by a billet thrown through the glass of his coach; and several other
persons had reason to repent the attempt to burn that publicly which
the _sovereign people_ determined to approve, who afterwards exhibited
a large _jack boot_ at Temple-bar, and burnt it in triumph, unmolested,
as a species of retaliation.
February in the following year produced another description of outrage;
and, as the mob arranged themselves on the side of Liberty in the
above instance, they determined in the following to adopt the cause of
Justice, though, as it almost always happens, they listened only to
_one_ side of the case; in short, they are generally a Jury who retire
for a verdict when the evidence _for the prosecution_ is closed. The
Ambassador from the Emperor of Morocco resided in Panton-square, and
had in his suite a female servant who was arrested for debt, and sent
to a receiving or _spunging_ house. When the Resident heard of this
violation of diplomatic privilege, he immediately demanded that the
woman should be restored to liberty; and the officer in whose custody
she was, knowing of the illegality of the arrest, complied. So far
all was right; but the plaintiff (a chairman) despising the law of
Nations, watched at the Ambassador's door, and as soon as he obtained a
glimpse of his debtor claimed her _as his wife_, and under that claim
compelled her to attend him to a public-house in the neighbourhood.
Though the good lady strained every faculty in denying his assumed
rights, her clamour, of no avail with the chairman, reached the ears
of her fellow servants, who, melted with her distress, sallied forth,
and manfully released the captive from the fangs of a number of the
captor's brethren, whom he had wisely stationed at the public-house
to assist him in his views. Thus defeated, the creditor adopted a
most certain method to carry his point. He therefore assembled his
_posse_ in front of the Ambassador's house, and began his operations
by loud complaints, intended for the ears of those who passed, that
the servants of his Excellency had forcibly seized on his wife, and
conveyed her for some very dreadful purpose into his mansion, where
she was detained to his inexpressible grief and terror. A hint of
this description is sufficient in the streets of London; curiosity
soon collects a crowd, and the idea of injustice or oppression flies
like lightning from male to female, kindling in its progress the very
essence of indignation, and an immediate resolve to execute summary
justice. An hundred voices demanded the woman; an hundred arms were
lifted at the same moment with hands grasping dirt and stones, which
they hurled at the inoffensive windows without effect. At this moment
a cry to burst the door was accompanied by a successful effort, and in
rushed the mob; every thing that could be broken in the parlours was
demolished, and used as weapons for forcing the besieged, now driven to
the stairs head of the first floor, where they appeared, commanded by
the Ambassador and a gentleman, armed with drawn sabres. Intimidated
at the glances of the shining steel, the besiegers dared not ascend,
but made a drawn battle of the affair. A cannonade of legs and arms of
chairs, and other articles of broken furniture, succeeded, which no
sooner reached the heads of those above than they were darted back with
additional velocity. Captain Woolaston of the guards happened to pass
through the square with a party of soldiers, on his way to protect the
sufferers from a fire then raging in Eagle-street; and, attracted by
the shouts of the contending forces, examined into the affair, and soon
dispersed the rioters, several of whom were afterwards apprehended by
Justice Welch, and committed to prison.
In May 1764 several footmen who had attended their masters to Ranelagh
thought proper to attack certain gentlemen there for refusing vails to
their servants; and, not contented with hissing and abusing _them_,
proceeded to destroy the fences, break the lamps, and throw stones
through the windows upon the company in the Rotunda. The ringleaders
were as usual apprehended, and constables were afterwards placed at
Ranelagh to preserve the peace; but the best part of the fact is
that those worthy officers of Justice actually drank till they were
intoxicated on a subsequent evening, and _fought in the midst of the
company_.
We have now arrived at a period when riot and outrage was, to use
a modern phrase, _organized_; every real or imaginary evil led to
extremities, and the quiet Citizen passed his days in constant
apprehension. The year 1768 commenced with a fresh display of the
turbulence of weavers, who went well armed to the houses of other
journeymen in the same business, called single-handed Weavers, to
revenge the injuries asserted to have been inflicted by them on the
engine-loom Weavers, where they secured several, and conveyed them to a
Magistrate; and it appeared on examination their complaints were well
founded, as they proved the prisoners and their brethren had even fired
into their windows. Others in April, armed with cutlasses, pistols,
&c. and in disguise, went at 12 o'clock at night to the residences of
several journeymen in Spital-fields; and cut to pieces 16 looms, with
their contents, which belonged to Messrs. Everard and Phipps. On a
subsequent nocturnal excursion those miscreants narrowly escaped from a
party of soldiers who had nearly surrounded them unperceived.
Influenced by the above pernicious examples, the Coal-heavers of the
Metropolis entered into combinations before the end of April; and
collecting in considerable numbers went through Wapping, and thence
on board of colliers, where with weapons in hand they compelled their
sable brethren to desist from working, and even dangerously wounded
several. In this instance the military prevented greater outrages.
In May a large body of Sailors with drums and flags proceeded in two
divisions to St. James's Palace, and presented a petition to the King,
praying for an increase of their pay in consideration of the high price
of provisions. On the 10th of the same month, and at four o'clock in
the morning, many boats, manned by Sailors and Coal-heavers, entered
upon a survey of the wharfs above Blackfriars-bridge, and compelled
all they found at work to join them; others patroled the streets, and
collected those who were at home and in public-houses; when they began
their operations by forcing the drivers of carts and waggons loaded
with coals, flour, and wood, to return whence they came. After this
operation had been completely accomplished, they marched in a body,
increasing as they went, to Stepney-fields, whence parties of them
proceeded to unrig such vessels as they chose to prevent from sailing.
The fraternity of Sawyers, equally refractory, destroyed an excellent
saw-mill then recently erected by Charles Dingley, Esq. almost at the
same instant.
Government acted on this trying occasion with great lenity, or was
under the influence of fear; and it plainly appears that the safety
of the publick in their lives and property originated rather from the
_tempered_ madness of the rioters, than in any dread of resistance from
the Police or the Military. We are told of the marching of troops,
and of orders issued to Magistrates to be vigilant; yet the populace,
inflamed by politicks, even ventured to chalk No. 45 on the coaches
of the nobility as they passed through the streets. The cause of this
irritation I hardly need inform my readers was Mr. Wilkes, whose
conduct in attacking the Ministry had excited ministerial anger to a
degree that alarmed all ranks of people lest arbitrary proceedings
should be substituted for constitutional, to gratify that resentment;
and some of the decisions of the Courts proved their fears to be
well-founded. Thus far I have thought it necessary to state the cause,
but by no means intend to enter into the merits of the case, which I
shall conclude with Mr. Wilkes's address to the Gentlemen, Clergy, and
Freeholders of the county of Middlesex, in order to explain the origin
of the subsequent bloodshed.
"Gentlemen,
"In support of the liberties of this country against the
arbitrary rule of Ministers, I was before committed to the
Tower, and am now sentenced to this prison. Steadiness with,
I hope, strength of mind, do not however leave me; for the
same consolation follows me here, the consciousness of
innocence, of having done my duty, and exerted all my poor
abilities, not unsuccessfully, for this nation. I can submit
even to far greater sufferings with cheerfulness, because
that I see that my countrymen reap the happy fruits of my
labours and cruel persecutions, by the repeated decisions
of our sovereign Courts of Justice in favour of liberty. I
therefore bear up with fortitude, and even glory that I am
called to suffer in this cause, because I continue to find
the noblest reward--the applause of my native country, of
this great, free, and spirited people.
"I chiefly regret, gentlemen, that this confinement deprives
me of the honour of thanking you in person according to my
promise, and at present takes from me in a great degree the
power of being useful to you. The will, however, to do every
service to my constituents remains in its full force; and
when my sufferings have a period, the first day I regain
my liberty shall restore a life of zeal in the cause and
interests of the county of Middlesex.
"In this prison, in any other, in every place, my
ruling passion will be the love of England and our free
Constitution. To those objects I will make every sacrifice.
Under all the oppressions which ministerial rage and revenge
can invent, my steady purpose is to concert with you, and
other true friends of this country, the most probable
means of rooting out the remains of arbitrary power and
Star-chamber inquisition, and of improving as well as
securing the generous plans of freedom, which were the
boast of our ancestors, and I trust will remain the noblest
inheritance of our posterity, the only genuine characteristic
of Englishmen. I have, &c. &c.
JOHN WILKES.
"_King's-bench Prison, May 5, 1768._"
Some circumstances had induced the populace to suppose it was the
intention of Government to remove Mr. Wilkes from the King's-bench to
the House of Commons on Tuesday, May 10. Many idle and curious persons
probably assembled near the gates to _kill_ an hour by gazing at a man
who had excited their attention, and many others doubtlessly attended
for riotous and unjustifiable purposes, which Mr. Wilkes or any real
patriot must have disapproved, though in the usual blindness of zeal
those purposes are generally disregarded as unworthy notice in the
cause of liberty, when violent men choose to espouse her interest.
A detestable incendiary, a successful villain, to whom I attribute
the innocent deaths of those that fell on this fatal day, pasted
certain doggrel lines on the prison walls which were read with avidity
by the mob, and contributed to inflame their minds; they demanded
the appearance of the prisoner with shouts, and at length several
Magistrates and the military arrived, the paper was taken down, the
riot commenced, the soldiers fired, and a young man named Allen fell
under such circumstances as occasioned the following trial.
"Summary of the Trial of Donald Maclane, on Tuesday last, at
Guildford Assizes, for the Murder of William Allen, jun. on
the 10th of May last in St. George's Fields.
"Mr. Serjeant Leigh, Counsel for the prosecution, having
opened the trial with a speech suitable to the purpose,
proceeded to an examination of witnesses, and produced two,
one Skidmore a discharged marine, and one Twaites a country
lad, who had been about a fortnight in Mr. Allen's service as
an ostler. These evidences swore positively to the identity
of the prisoner, and were the only people on the part of
the prosecution, who declared any knowledge of his person.
The latter, however, differed in his own accounts of the
transaction; and the testimony which he gave before the
Coroner was contradicted by the deposition which he gave into
Court.
"The next witnesses, Okins and Brawn, swear that they were in
the cow-house with Mr. Allen at the time he was shot; and the
latter particularly says, that he was going to strike down
the soldier's musquet, which was levelled at the deceased,
but that another soldier seeming ready to present at himself,
the care which he had for his own life, together with his
terror at the situation of Mr. Allen, obliged him to retire.
Okins says, that when he heard the soldier threaten Mr.
Allen, he (Okins) fell down with an excess of apprehension;
neither, however, though so near to the soldier, could swear
to his identity; and what is the more remarkable, each was
unseen by the other, Okins never once recollecting Brawn's
being present, and Brawn being equally ignorant of Okins.
Several other witnesses appeared for the prosecution, but
as they prove nothing so material as the evidences already
mentioned, and chiefly tend to clear up what is universally
admitted, namely, Mr. Allen's being wholly unconcerned in the
riots of the day, it is not necessary to take any particular
notice of them.
"The evidence for the prosecution being ended, the prisoner's
Counsel produced their witnesses; the first of whom, Samuel
Gillam, Esq. declared, that on the 10th of May, having been
previously applied to by the Marshal of the King's Bench
prison for a guard, he came into St. George's Fields, where
a detachment of one hundred men, properly officered, had
been ordered. Here the mob were exceedingly riotous; and Mr.
Gillam tells us, that he himself was several times struck
with a variety of missile articles. A paper had been stuck
up against the prison, which seemed the raving of some
_patriotic_ bedlamite, and in six lines, as stupid as they
were seditious, talked about Liberty being confined with Mr.
Wilkes, and desiring all good Englishmen to pay their daily
homage, at the place where those invaluable blessings were
lodged. This paper had been taken down by the Constables, a
circumstance which gave the _generous_ assertors of Freedom
incredible offence, and they roared out, 'the paper, the
paper, give us the paper.' Mr. Gillam answered, that if
any person there would claim the property of the paper, it
should be immediately restored, and gave it into Mr. Ponton's
hands, before the rioters, to keep till somebody should be
bold enough to make so particular a demand. This enraged
the populace still farther, and a Patriot in two dirty red
waistcoats, but without any coat, distinguished himself
in throwing stones at the Magistrates, and the Constables
received orders to apprehend him; in this service they
were assisted by Mr. Murray, the Ensign on duty, and five
or six grenadiers. The fellow fled, and was pursued by the
grenadiers; he escaped into a Cow-house, and shut the door
after him, but the soldiers continued their pursuit, and in
a little time the report of a musquet was heard; in a few
minutes after they returned, and Peter Mac Cloughlan, with an
air of great concern, and a tone of much distress, informed
Mr. Murray that his piece had gone off accidentally, and
that a man was killed--'Damn you,' replied Mr. Murray, 'Who
gave you orders to fire?' 'Nobody,' answered Mac Cloughlan;
'it went off entirely by accident.' This circumstance Mr.
Gillam deposed he took particular notice of, because the man
testified every natural sign of concern and humanity.
"The Cow-house has three doors or gates, one at each side,
and another at one of the ends. The fellow in the red
waistcoat got in at a side door, and is supposed to have
escaped the opposite way; just at this unfortunate crisis
young Mr. Allen, who was also in a red waistcoat, entered
at the door out of which the rioter had fled, so that when
the soldiers opened the door nearest to them, they found a
person in a red waistcoat, and this person was shot by Mac
Cloughlan, as he himself confessed; but whether by accident,
or design is not at all necessary to the present object of
enquiry; the enquiry now is, whether Mr. Allen was shot by
Maclane, or whether he was not.
"Mr. Gillam swears peremptorily that Maclane is not the man
who made the confession alluded to; and Corporal Neale,
with Serjeant Earle, Serjeant Steuart, and several private
men, who were that day in St. George's-fields, and some
of whom were likewise at the Cow-house, in pursuit of the
rioter, either declare, that they heard Mac Cloughlan's
own acknowledgment of the fact, or swear that Maclane did
not enter the Cow-house at all. One of the private men
particularly, James Hide, says he was in the Cow-house when
Mac Cloughlan's piece went off, and adds, that there was at
that time nobody in it but the deceased, Mac Cloughlan, and
himself.
"Many of the military witnesses swear that they can easily
tell, by looking at a musquet, if it has been newly
discharged; and they express themselves with certainty, that
Maclane's was not discharged at all on the 10th of May. To
this they add, that Mac Cloughlan, from an apprehension of
consequences, has deserted.
"The evidence for the prosecution, however, took notice,
that Maclane's musquet was particularly examined, and that
he was even ordered from the ranks, upon a presumption, as
they imagine, that the officers themselves were satisfied
he was the person by whom Mr. Allen had been killed. But
this circumstance is very well accounted for on the other
side; where several of the witnesses prove, that after the
_accidental_ discharge which Mac Cloughlan mentions of his
piece, and the unhappy consequence, Mr. Murray, the Ensign,
observing Maclane's musquet on a full cock, reproached him
with negligence, and took the piece out of his hand to look
at; Maclane mentioned in his excuse, that his flint was too
large, and that if he kept it upon a half cock, he should
lose all the priming from his pan.
"Some persons seeing the transaction, and hearing Maclane
reproached, concluded he was the person who had shot Mr.
Allen; and they pointed him out as a murderer; the officer,
therefore, thought it necessary, for the man's security,
to remove him from the ranks; but, finding him more liable
to danger then than when he was with the corps, he ordered
him to his former station.--However, as he was positively
sworn to, the military were forced to give him up,
notwithstanding their consciousness of his innocence; and Mr.
Gillam, as a Magistrate, was obliged to receive the charge,
notwithstanding he was so perfectly acquainted with Mac
Cloughlan's declaration.
"Such was the general scope of the evidence on this trial;
after which the Judge summed up the evidence, declined saying
much from himself, as the question did not turn upon any
difficult points; the Jury withdrew, and in about an hour
returned with a verdict of _Not Guilty_. Mr. Wilkes, who was
all the time at the Red Lion Inn, opposite the Court, was
taken to town the moment the prisoner was acquitted. He was
only examined a few minutes by the Grand Jury. He was brought
back on Tuesday night to the King's-bench Prison.
"The Grand Jury dismissed the bills against the officer and
the other soldiers.
"The above trial began about half an hour after seven in the
morning, and lasted near nine hours. The counsel for the
prosecution were, Mr. Serjeant Leigh, Mr. Lucas, Mr. Lade,
and Mr. Baker; those for the prisoner were, Mr. Hervey, Mr.
Cox, Mr. Bishop, and Mr. Robinson."
The lines alluded to in the trial were:
"Let * * * * * Judges, Ministers combine,
And here great Wilkes and _Liberty confine_;
Yet in each English heart secure their fame is,
In spite of crowded levies at St. J--s's.
Then, while in prison Envy dooms _their_ stay,
Here grateful Britons daily homage pay."
It is by no means necessary to trace the effects of the several balls
fired upon this occasion; it will be quite enough to add that the
innocent alone suffered.
To conclude the eventful story of poor Allen; his remains were
deposited in the church-yard of St. Mary Newington, Surrey, where
_political_ friends honoured his memory with a handsome, if not a
superb monument, thus inscribed:
North side:
"Sacred to the memory of
WILLIAM ALLEN,
An Englishman of unspotted life and amiable
disposition,
Who was inhumanly murdered near St. George's-fields,
the 10th day of May, 1768, by the Scottish
detachment from the army. His disconsolate
parents, inhabitants of this parish, caused this
tomb to be erected to an only son, lost to them
and to the world, in his 20th year, as a monument
of his virtues and their affection!"
South side:
"O disembody'd Soul! most rudely driven
From this low orb (our sinful seat) to Heaven;
While filial piety can please the ear,
Thy name will still occur, for ever dear:
This very spot, now humaniz'd, shall crave
From all a tear of pity on thy grave.
O flow'r of flow'rs! which we shall see no more, }
No kind returning Spring can thee restore: }
Thy loss thy hapless countrymen deplore." }
East side:
"O earth! cover not thou my blood. Job xvi. 18."
West side:
"Take away the wicked from before the King, and his throne
shall be established in righteousness. Prov. xxiii. 5."
The unwarrantable inferences of the above inscription, and the spirit
which dictated the exposure of it, removes the compassion that
posterity would otherwise have felt for the parents of the innocent
youth, whose situation was certainly not more pitiable than that of
the relatives of the other persons killed on the same day. If we had
a single doubt that the senior Allen became a tool of party after
perusing the epitaph, the petition which he put into the King's own
hands on the 5th of October will prove it beyond dispute. His cries for
vengeance proceeded not from a broken spirit; such would have forgiven
mankind long before _a year and three months_ had elapsed.
"To his MAJESTY.
"The humble Petition of William Allen, the disconsolate
father of William Allen, who was barbarously murdered on the
10th of May, 1768.
"Most gracious Sovereign,
"Your Petitioner thinks it his duty to lay before your
Majesty, with great humility, a short account of the
unprovoked and outrageous murder committed by a Scotch
officer, and three soldiers of the same regiment, upon
the innocent body of your Petitioner's only son: a youth
that, all who knew him are ready to attest, was perfectly
sober, temperate, humane, dutiful to his parents, and a
sincere lover and worshiper of his God. It was a murder of
so complicated a die, and attended by so many barbarous
and cruel circumstances, as can hardly be paralleled in
any former age, and is a disgrace to the present, which
was proved to a demonstration, before an honest impartial
Jury summoned by the Coroner, and the officer and soldiers
brought in guilty of _Wilful Murder_; yet, by the powerful
interposition of the great, and the artful and sinister means
of some of your Majesty's Justices, who ordered the soldiers
to fire, and suffered one of the murderers to make his
escape, and the others have been screened from the punishment
they so justly deserved; and, as your Petitioner has been
informed, some of them rewarded for committing this most
execrable crime.
"That if your most gracious Majesty, the father of your
people, would permit your unhappy Petitioner to lay the whole
state of his case before you, he is well persuaded your
Majesty's fatherly heart would sympathise with the still
bleeding agonies of the disconsolate parents of so amiable
a child, snatched from them by the hands of ruffians in the
bloom of youth and innocence; of a daughter who did not long
survive the untimely death of her beloved brother, and of a
most afflicted mother, who (though still alive) incessantly
moans and weeps over the cruel death of the best of children,
and cannot be comforted. Your Majesty can never be offended
with your most afflicted Petitioner for applying to your
Majesty for justice against the cruel murderers of his
beloved child, whose blood cries aloud for vengeance.
"Your Majesty's Petitioner has spent a very large sum of
money in the prosecution of the perpetrators of this horrid
crime; and though this prosecution was carried on in your
Majesty's name, yet it is a notorious fact, that your
Majesty's Counsel, Solicitor, and Agents for the Treasury,
were employed against me, appeared publicly at the Assizes,
and by all other arbitrary acts, rendered every effort
of your poor Petitioner vain and insignificant, to the
astonishment of all unbiassed hearers who attended that
trial. Your Petitioner, therefore, has no hopes of justice
but from your Majesty: he has, indeed, this consolation
left, that he proved by incontestable evidence that his son
was innocent, and that he was not in the fields that fatal
day, neither had he given the least offence to any person
whatsoever; that he was employed in his own business to the
very minute of his being killed adjoining his father's own
premises; that neither his natural temper, nor inoffensive
behaviour, ever tempted him to mix with ill-disposed persons
in any private or public disturbance of any kind, and was
so remarkably harmless and mild, that he hath in these
particulars hardly left his equal; for the truth of which
facts, your Petitioner appeals to all that knew him.
"It is humbly hoped, your Majesty will pardon the length
of this Petition, laid before you by the most disconsolate
father of a murdered child, who now, with tears in his eyes,
and a bleeding heart, lies prostrate at your Majesty's feet,
meekly and humbly imploring your compassion and justice,
equally due to the meanest of your subjects.
"Your Petitioner, therefore, most humbly beseeches your
Majesty, to take the premises into your royal consideration,
and to issue out your proclamation for apprehending the
perpetrators of this horrid crime, which may still be useful,
though it is a year and three months since the commission
of the fact, that they may be brought to a fair trial, when
your Petitioner will be ready to prove what he has asserted,
or in any other way or method that your Majesty in your
great wisdom and justice shall think most proper; and your
Petitioner shall for ever pray for the ease, happiness, and
prosperity of your Majesty's Royal person and posterity.
WILLIAM ALLEN."
Exclusive of the foregoing attempt to terminate the strange infatuation
of the people, a Proclamation was issued in the ensuing words:
"GEORGE R.
"Whereas it has been represented to us, that divers dissolute
and disorderly persons have of late frequently assembled
themselves together in a riotous and unlawful manner, to
the disturbance of the public peace; and particularly, that
large bodies of Seamen, consisting of several thousands,
have assembled tumultuously upon the river Thames, and,
under a pretence of the insufficiency of the wages allowed
by the merchants and others, have in the most daring manner
taken possession by violence of several outward-bound ships
ready to sail, and by unbending the sails, and striking the
yards and topmasts, have stopped them in the prosecution of
their voyages; and that these acts of violence have been
accompanied with threats of still greater outrages, which
have spread terror and alarm among those most likely to
be immediately affected thereby; and it has been further
represented to us, that some of the said dissolute and
disorderly persons have audaciously attempted to deter and
intimidate the civil Magistrates from doing their duty:
we, having taken the same into our serious consideration,
and being duly sensible of the mischievous consequences
that may ensue from the continuance or repetition of such
disorders, have thought fit, by and with the advice of
our Privy-council, to issue this our Royal Proclamation;
hereby strictly requiring and commanding the Lord Mayor, and
other the Justices of the peace of our City of London, and
also the Justices of the peace of our City and Liberties of
Westminster and Borough of Southwark; and of our Counties of
Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, and all other our peace-officers,
that they do severally use their utmost endeavours, by every
legal means in their power, effectually to prevent and
suppress all riots, tumults, and unlawful assemblies; and to
that end to put in due execution the laws and statutes now in
force for preventing, suppressing, and punishing the same;
and that all our loving subjects be aiding and assisting
therein. And we do further graciously declare, that the said
Magistrates, and all others acting in obedience to this our
command, may rely on our Royal protection and support in so
doing.
"Given at our Court at St. James's the 11th day of May, 1768,
in the eighth year of our reign."
Two days before the appearance of the King's Proclamation the Lord
Mayor had published others, which follow:
"_Mansion-house, London, May 9, 1768._
"Whereas information has been given to me that great
numbers of young persons, who appear to be apprentices
and journeymen, have assembled themselves together in
large bodies in different parts of this city and liberties
thereof, for several evenings last past, and behaved
themselves in such manner that, if continued, may greatly
endanger the peace of the said City: this is therefore to
caution all masters to use their best endeavours to prevent
their apprentices and servants from assembling themselves
together in the public streets, as whoever shall hereafter be
found offending in the manner aforesaid will be prosecuted
according to law: and for the better preserving the peace of
the said City and Liberties, the Freemen thereof are at this
juncture reminded of the two following clauses contained in
their oath of admission before the Chamberlain:
'You shall keep the King's peace in your own
person. You shall know no gatherings, conventicles,
or conspiracies made against the King's peace, but
you shall warn the Mayor thereof, or hinder it to
your power.'
"If a Freeman breaks through this oath he forfeits his
freedom; and if having one, two, three, or more apprentices,
and does not in a time of public disorder restrain him or
them from going abroad, and from encreasing the said public
disorder, he may be deemed and construed an accessary
thereto, and guilty of a breach of his oath.
"THOMAS HARLEY, _Mayor_."
* * * * *
"Whereas a paragraph appeared in the public papers the 5th
instant setting forth, 'That 790 quarters of wheat had been
laid up upwards of six months in two lighters below bridge,
and was become rotten and thrown overboard into the Thames:'
and as such paragraphs are frequently void of truth, and tend
only to inflame the minds of people, who at this time are
too much deluded and deceived by what they read in public
newspapers; I think it necessary to inform the publick of
the state of that matter from the best information I could
obtain; _viz._ the Lady Adleheit, John Segal Ken, took on
board at Bremen, the 17th day of December last, 70 last
of wheat in bags, being 1400 bags; the frost setting in
immediately she was detained by the ice there, and did not
arrive at the port of London till the 4th of April; and the
cargo by being so long on board, and by the damage the ship
sustained among the ice, proved in a most terrible condition,
and was disposed of in the following manner:
300 quarters at 40_s._ 6_d._
90 ditto 41
270 40
50 14
35 ditto in the lump at five guineas; 9 one-half thrown
overboard.
"THOMAS HARLEY, _Mayor_."
A set of wretches, taking advantage of the general confusion, adopted
a new method of depredation, by passing through the streets in the
characters of Sailors and Coal-heavers in such numbers as to intimidate
persons into complying with their demands for money. It is but justice,
however, to add, that the real Sailors treated them with the utmost
severity when they had an opportunity of meeting with them.
The Journeymen Tailors soon after caught the combination-fever, and
collected, in humble imitation of the Seamen, in Lincoln's-inn-fields,
to proceed with a petition for redress of their _sewing_ grievances.
They too had leaders, and to those the Magistrates applied successfully
in dissuading them from their purpose; but unfortunately these helms of
the vast body were unable to swerve the many-headed monster, and yet by
the exertion of a little address the Magistrates contrived to prevail
on them to entrust the petition to a deputation of six; and the rest
dispersed.
Although the Coal-heavers and Sailors appear to have acted under the
influence of the same cause, an attempt to obtain an increase of wages,
they had become inveterate enemies before the middle of June, and
actually fought with such rancour as to use swords and fire-arms; the
consequence of which was many wounds, and several deaths, inflicted by
each party; and the newspapers even assert that seven soldiers and a
serjeant lost their lives in attempting to quell a riot in Wapping,
when twenty of the aggressors were killed.
That the reader may form a just estimate of the wicked proceedings of
some of those infatuated wretches the Coal-heavers, I shall introduce
an abstract of the trial of seven of them for shooting at John Green on
the 21st of April, 1768.
"Abstract of the Trial of John Grainger, Daniel Clark,
Richard Cornwall, Patrick Lynch, Thomas Murray, Peter
Flaharty, and Nicholas M'Cabe, for shooting at John Green
contrary to the Statute on the 21st of April last.
"John Green, living at the bottom of New Gravel-lane,
Shadwell, deposed, that he was employed as Deputy Agent
under Mr. William Russel, who, as agent appointed by Mr.
Alderman Beckford, was concerned in the execution of the
Act of Parliament for regulating Coal-heavers; that before
this they were under the direction of Justice Hodgson, and
revolted from the coal-undertakers, insisting first upon
sixteen-pence a score, and then eighteen-pence, but at last
would have nothing to do with the undertakers, and would have
their price under the Act of Parliament; that Mr. Russel and
the deponent had fixed upon an office at Billingsgate for
registering the Coal-heavers, but none of them came there;
alledging they were under the direction of Justice Hodgson,
to whom only they would apply; that the deponent was sent
with a complaint to the Justice by Mr. Russel, desiring a
meeting with him, which he excused, but would send his clerk,
and further told him, that if Mr. Russel did not desist,
he would meet with trouble, and he would give him a pretty
dance to Westminster-hall, for the Act of Parliament was in
so vague a manner that any body might keep an office, and
that as they had the best men at their office, they did not
fear to have the business; that, however, in a few days after
Mr. Russel advertised for men to come, but none came; and
then he advertised for their coming at such a time, or he
would employ such able-bodied men as chose to come, whereupon
many came, and they were put in the gangs; that Dunster,
Justice Hodgson's clerk, having seen the deponent do this at
Billingsgate, he brought to his door no less than three or
four hundred of these men, a great many of whom threatened
they would pull down his house, or they would do for him;
that the Deponent went to the Mansion-house to acquaint
the Lord Mayor of the danger he was in, and received for
answer, that he must be directed by some Magistrate in his
neighbourhood; that on Saturday morning, the 16th of April,
the Coal-heavers having put up some bills, a neighbour's
servant went and pulled one down, upon which the Coal-heavers
cried out, that Green's maid had pulled down their bills,
and then they directly came running from different parts
to his door to the amount of one hundred and upwards. The
purport, the Deponent said, of these bills was a libel on Mr.
Alderman Beckford, and what was done was Mr. Russel's own
doing.----The acts of violence committed by the Coal-heavers
against this Deponent, best appear from his own words.
"I asked them, said he, what they wanted with me; they cried,
'by Jesus they would have my life if I offered to meddle with
any of their bills;' I said I had not meddled with any, nor
none had that belonged to me; one of them cried, 'By Jesus
he shall have a bill put up at his own window;' he took up
a handful of dirt, and put it upon the window, and put the
bill upon it; another of them laid hold of my collar, and
dragged me off the step of my door; another said, 'Haul him
into the river;' said another, 'By Jesus, we will drown him.'
I got from them, and retreated back into my house. After that
I went to Billingsgate, and met several of them there; they
threatened they would have my life. When I came home, I saw
a great many of these people running from their different
habitations, some with bludgeons, or broomsticks, and weapons
of that sort; they did not collect themselves in a body, but
were running to the head of New Gravel-lane; I believe about
four or five hundred of them came within two hundred yards of
my house; they went to Mr. Metcalf, a neighbour of mine, and
threatened him; there was one of them that was a pretended
friend of mine, that had promised, when he knew of any thing
against me, he would let me know; I sat up to guard my house,
and I sent my wife and children out of the house; after that
I prevailed upon my wife to stay in the house upon this man's
intelligence; he came about twelve, and told me nothing was
intended against me, that they had done their business they
were about; I went to bed, and was asleep; I was awaked by
my sister-in-law, calling, 'Mr. Green, Mr. Green, for God's
sake, we shall be murdered;' this was about one o'clock on
the Sunday morning; I jumped out of bed, and ran into the
next room where my arms were; I took and levelled one, and
said, 'You rascals, if you do not be gone, I will shoot you;'
they were then driving at my doors and shutters, the noise
was terrible, like a parcel of men working upon a ship's
bottom; I could compare it to nothing else; I fired among
them; I believed I fired about fourteen times; and, when I
had not any thing ready to fire, I threw glass bottles upon
them; they were at this about a quarter of an hour, when
they all dispersed. On the Monday I went to Billingsgate
about eleven; I saw several of them there who threatened me;
Dunster was there also; they told me they would do for me if
I did not desist in my proceedings, which was to register
such people as applied; there were always some of the
Coal-heavers about Dunster, he talked of the advertisements
that had been in the paper, and said they were mine; for he
said Mr. Russel had told him he totally declined having any
thing to say in it, and it was my doing only; I said, 'Do not
deceive these men, that is very wrong of you;' I asked him,
if Mr. Russel did not tell him he would advertise to this
effect; I began to be afraid, and, as many of them came about
me, I left them.
"Nothing happened after till Wednesday night, that was the
20th, about seven in the evening; then I saw a great many of
these Coal-heavers assembling together, about three or four
hundred yards from my house, going up Gravel-lane. I shut
up as fast as I could, and told my wife to get out of the
house as fast as she could with her children; accordingly
she went away with the child that was asleep in the cradle;
Gilberthorp was in the house drinking a pint of beer (I did
not know his name then); said I, 'Brother tarpawling (he is a
seafaring man), I am afraid I shall have a desperate attack
to-night from what I have heard; will you stand by me, and
give me all the assistance you can?' 'Yes,' said he, 'that I
will.' When the house was secured backwards and forwards, I
went up stairs; some stones had broke some windows there; I
believe some of them had thrown stones and run away; I heard
them call out _Wilkes and Liberty_; I saw the neighbours
lighting up candles, for these people shall have no occasion
at all to use me ill. I went to the window and begged of them
to desist, and said, if they knew any thing particular of
me, I was willing to resolve any thing they wanted to know:
seeing I could not defend myself, I disguised myself, and put
on an old watch-coat and a Dutch cap, and went down stairs
in order to get a Magistrate to come and prevent my house
from being pulled down; I had one Dunderdale, a shoemaker,
that lodged in my house, he went down with me; when I came
down to the back-door, I heard them threaten they would have
me and my life; I then found it impossible to get out of
the house; I ran up stairs then, fully determined to defend
myself as long as I was able: I spoke to them again in the
street from the window, and desired them to tell me what I
had done; they called out in the street 'they would have me
and hang me over my sign-post;' others said 'they would broil
and roast me,' and words to that effect; stones came up very
fast. I then took a brace of pistols from the table, and
fired among them, loaded with powder only; after that I kept
firing away among them what arms I had loaded with bird and
swan shot; they dispersed in the front then; I immediately
ran backwards, they were heaving stones into the back chamber
windows; I fired from the back chamber windows; after I had
fired some few rounds backwards, they desisted from heaving
stones into the back part of the house, but I did not find
they had left the place. I was again attacked both in front
and back part of the house; I fired among them sometimes
from the front of my house, and sometimes from the rear; I
imagined they would have broke into the house presently, if
I had not kept a warm fire upon them; I heard them call out
several times, I am shot, I am wounded; still they said 'they
would have me, and do for me.' I had various attacks in the
night; I saw no fire-arms they had till eleven or twelve in
the night: they were driving at the door about ten, but I
cannot tell with what; I looked through the door, and saw
their hands moving, driving something hard against it. About
twelve they fired into the house, both in the front and the
rear; the balls struck the cieling in the room where I was,
sometimes close over my head; as they were in the street, and
I in the one-pair of stairs, the balls went into the cieling,
and dropped down on the floor; I could not walk about the
room with any safety, I was forced to place myself by the
wall between the windows, and sometimes I would crawl under
the window to the next, and sometimes I stood behind the
brackets; then I would stand up and drive among them like
dung; I have seen their balls strike the cieling as I have
stood under the cover of the wall, and as I have been going
to fire, they have come over my head, and some lodged in the
cieling.
"This firing continued all the night and all the morning at
different periods.
"When I attacked them backwards, I used to crawl out of the
window on my belly, and lie upon the wash-house leads with my
arms; I have heard them say, "You that have arms are to fire
upon him, and you that have stones are to heave, and so many
to break the door, and so many to climb the wall." If they
got up there, they could get in at the window from the leads.
I had Gilberthorp below to guard the door, for part of the
front door was broke. I got off, I believe, about nine in the
morning, when I had no more ammunition left, only the charge
that I had in my blunderbuss, except what was in the musket,
that would not go off; so I said to the men that were in the
house, 'You see they are firing from every quarter, there is
no help for me, they will come in, and I can make no return
upon them to check their insolence; the best way to make them
desist, is for me to get out of the house, you will all be
very safe whether I make my escape or not.' Mr. Gilberthorp
said, 'Do what you think best.' I said, 'They only want
me, if they get me it is all over, or if they know I am
gone, they will desist.' I took my blunderbuss over my arm,
and my drawn hanger in my hand, and went out of the back
window upon the leads; I saw several of them in the alley, I
levelled the blunderbuss at them, and said, 'You rascals, be
gone, or I'll blow your brains out, especially you (that was
to one under me); but I scorn to take your life.' He said,
'God bless you, Mr. Green, you are a brave man;' he clapped
his hand on his head, and ran away. I went over into Mr.
Mereton's ship-yard, one of the shipwrights met me; just as
I jumped, he said, 'Mr. Green, follow me;' he took me to a
saw-pit, and shewed me a hole at the end where the sawyers
used to put their things; he said, 'Go into that hole, you
will be safe enough;' said I, 'Don't drop a word but that I
am gone over the wall;' I got in, he left me; there I lay
till the guards came. I heard the mob search for me; some
said he is gone one way, some another; they were got into the
yard, I heard one of the shipwrights say he is gone over the
wall, and gone away by water.
"When the guards came, one of the shipwrights came to me,
and desired to know what I should do; I said, 'Go and tell
the officer to draw his men up and come into the yard, and
I will surrender myself to him.' The soldiers came, and I
came out of the saw-pit; I had nothing but my handkerchief
about my head; I had been wounded between ten and eleven at
night; I surrendered myself to the officer; Justice Hodgson
said, 'Mr. Green, you are one of the bravest fellows that
ever was; who do you intend to go before, me, or Sir John
Fielding?' I said, 'I do not care who it is;' then said he,
'you will go before me;' accordingly we went, and when I
came there he committed me to Newgate.--In the course of
this evidence it does not appear, that the deponent swore to
the identity of any of the prisoners, as engaged in the act
of firing against, or otherwise assailing his house, though
he did to some few of them threatening him at Billingsgate;
but this identity was sworn to by the next evidence, George
Crabtree, in the persons of Cornwall, David Clark or Clarey,
Lynch, Flaharty, and Grainger. The first he saw fire several
times towards Green's windows; Clark he also saw fire after
Green had shot his brother; Grainger he saw heaving a stone,
or brickbat, at Green's windows, and Lynch with a musket in
his hand, but did not see him fire. Robert Anderson swore
to Clark's and Cornwall's firing several times, as did also
Andrew Evenerus to Clark's firing. Thomas Cummings swore to
the same as committed by Flaharty, Clark, Lynch, Cornwall,
and Murray, and he particularly accused Flaharty of getting
into his own house and firing out at his garret windows.
Philip Oram and William Burgess corroborated the same as to
Cornwall; and the latter saw M'Cabe and John Grainger firing,
knowing their persons but not their names. M'Cabe asked him
for his sleeve-buttons to load a piece with to fire at
Green, and moreover examined his coat, and wanted to feel in
his pocket for something to load: M'Cabe also inquired in the
house, where he the deponent lodged, for the pewter spoons
and pots to cut them in pieces for shot, saying he would pay
for them. There were several other evidences to prove the
identity of the prisoners as concerned in this riot. Some of
the prisoners declared their innocence of the charge; others
said they were there with the design of keeping the peace,
and preventing the escape of Green, who had been guilty
of murder by firing out of his windows. Several appeared
to their character, but all seven were brought in guilty,
_Death_, and were executed the 26th of July pursuant to their
sentence."
The last disgraceful act of this turbulent æra was marked with
additional depravity: a set of Spital-fields weavers had constituted
themselves a deliberative body, and decreed that all possessors of
looms should send them a tax of four shillings each. Their place of
rendezvous was the Dolphin in Cock-lane, and their denomination the
"Cutters;" and, justly dreading the consequences of their conduct,
they were provided with swords and fire-arms, to defend themselves,
and intimidate those to whom they wrote. A Mr. Hill exhibited the
following order to the Magistrates of Bow-street in October 1769: "Mr.
Hill, you are desired to send the full donation of all your looms to
the Dolphin in Cock-lane. This from the conquering and bold Defiance
to be levied four shillings _per_ loom"--and obtained a summons for the
keeper of the Dolphin, which that person disobeyed. Officers were then
dispatched to ascertain whether the Cutters had really assembled; and
oath having been made that they were sitting, a warrant to search the
house was issued, and a Magistrate, several officers of the Police,
and a party of Soldiers, went to execute it between eight and nine
o'clock in the evening. They found this diabolical assembly in full
progress, receiving the contributions of terrified manufacturers; and
almost at the same instant received the fire of the whole number. A
soldier fell dead, and the miscreants fled over the house tops; but
four were apprehended. A detachment of the guards afterwards did duty
in the neighbourhood, and had their quarters in the Parish-church. This
precaution terminated the operations of the Cutters.
From 1776 till 1780, the inhabitants of London enjoyed a degree of
tranquillity they must have long panted for. Temporary disturbances
of the peace through sudden resentment, and the riots arising from
inebriation, are too common for recital, and are seldom heard of
beyond the parish in which they occur; but the effervescence of June
1780 spread like a torrent through every avenue of the Metropolis, and
convulsed every quarter of the Kingdom. That one man should accomplish
such an effect, and that his weapon should have been _intolerance
only_, where tolerance is one of the gems which distinguish England
from all Europe, is most astonishing. Our Legislature, acting upon the
long-approved system of religious benevolence, would have erased from
the Statute-books those restrictions which were calculated to repress
a _powerful_ enemy, and which had become useless through the lapse of
time and the cessation of hostility; yet, _Protestants_ objected, and
acted the part of tyrants and bigots marshalled by a _madman_.
When an incendiary seizes upon a real grievance, or upon the presumed
violation of any favourite point with the publick, let the peaceable
Citizen beware how he listens to his _interested_ declamations; let
him remember that his _passions may be excited_ by inflammatory
insinuations; in short, let him remember the sophistry of Lord George
Gordon; the errors of his predecessors, the cries of No Popery, the
burning of part of London, the triumph of thieves, the exaction of
money--realized in the horrors of 1780!
Had the multitude collected by the harangues of the miserable man
alluded to possessed individually a grain of sense or reflection,
they must have disbelieved his monstrous charge, that the Legislature
intended to encourage or introduce the Roman Catholic religion, or, as
he termed it, Popery. The very idea is so ridiculous that I should be
ashamed to attempt to disprove it.
Under every disadvantage which might reasonably have been supposed to
exist against the probability of raising so extensive a whirlwind of
civil commotion, the adventurous chief commenced his operations by
legally opposing the projected measures; but, fired by the homage paid
to him, Lord George Gordon conceived the vast design of leading the
whole community to the doors of Parliament with a Petition in their van
unexampled in the number of its signatures. This he accomplished; but,
observe the result: the _petitioners_ became _dictators_; the friends
of _toleration_ were insulted, and barely escaped with their lives from
a lawless mob (for to such had the petitioners degenerated); the voice
of the _leader_ was drowned in yells of _No Popery_; and the deluded
Citizen fled to his home, resigning his country to its fate, and
trembling with apprehension lest his late friends should involve _him_
in the ruin he contributed to promote.
Let us now turn a hasty glance towards those dreadful harpies who
spread through London, compelling the passenger to join in the general
exclamation or watch-word of destruction, and to wear blue cockades,
or hang badges at their doors, indicative of their detestation of
Popery; and see them employed, unmolested, burning Roman-catholick
chapels, the dwellings of members of that faith, _and the mansions of
some of our most revered Judges and Legislators_! Even the admired and
venerated Mansfield, the modern father of British law, lost his house,
his valuable papers, and barely escaped with life. Invigorated by these
scenes of horror, the ruffian emerged from his den, and filled the
place of the appalled _petitioner_: flames spread on every side, the
prisons were stormed and burnt, the convicts freed, and the metropolis
was resigned to theft and destruction by the light of the various
conflagrations.
After the intoxicated and wicked plunderers had rioted in excess till
almost exhausted by exertion and debauchery, the hitherto nerveless
arm of Government was raised, troops were poured into London, and the
civil power became less terrified; the wretches still employed in works
of horrible depravity were fired upon, many were killed and wounded,
and numbers were apprehended and committed for trial. Thus London once
more tasted the sweets of that repose, which would never have been
interrupted, had not Bigotry and Passion triumphed in breasts where
more gentle guests ought to have presided. Many vagabonds expiated
their crimes with their lives after the subsequent trial; but a far
greater number were victims to their own brutal acts, when plundering
and drinking, surrounded by fire and falling walls.
It is strange that I should be compelled to record such scenes, without
one cheering instance of manly exertion on the side of order, to
relieve the odious picture. Why did not every thing in the shape of an
honest _man_, arm in the defence of their families? Why was it that
every muscle relaxed, that every nerve trembled, in the hour of danger?
This fact cannot be satisfactorily explained.
The Riots of 1780 should close the article of popular tumult; an
occurrence so important ought to be the last scene of the Drama:
indeed it has not yet been even faintly copied, though much turbulence
prevailed in consequence of the trial of Sir Hugh Palliser, the
meetings of the Corresponding Society, the trial of Hardy, Tooke, &c.
the destruction of Crimping-houses; and, to complete the catalogue,
certain inflamed partizans dragged the Monarch from his coach when
returning from exercising one of the most important functions of his
great office: these and some other lesser acts of violence, are well
known to have originated with the frantic votaries of the French
revolution, the Republicans of England who have lived to see the
great _Republick_ of France governed by an _Emperor_, and the Empire
surrounded by Kings created by that Emperor!
FOOTNOTES:
[15:A] The liberality of sentiment which I ever have and ever shall
entertain towards Christians of every denomination, has induced me
to reprobate all acts of violence committed by them under the mask
of Religion. Passages of my former publications similar to the above
have induced certain narrow-minded men to assert that I am a _Roman
Catholic_. Were that the fact, I fancy some other articles written
by me might be pointed out, which would obtain for me pretty severe
penance from my Confessor. Good criticks, be assured I was baptized,
and have ever been, an unworthy member of the Church of England, and am
actually a descendant of Cranmer, who died to establish that faith.
[16:A] This subject may be allowed to be familiar to me, and I have
perhaps had more than common means of judging; and I now declare it to
be my full and decided opinion that London was burnt by Government,
to _annihilate the plague_, which was grafted in every crevice of the
hateful old houses composing it.
[51:A] Addressed to a Society at Jonah's Coffee-house.
[54:A] Since writing the above Mr. Nichols pointed out to me the
following article from the Gentleman's Magazine for 1757, p. 386, which
is a sufficient explanation of the outrage:
"Aug. 10, 1757. Early this morning Mr. Hartley, a seafaring
gentleman, was found dead in the area of a house of ill fame in
Southampton-street, Covent-garden. He had been drinking with some
sailors at their house of rendezvous near Westminster Bridge, and in
his way home wanted to stop at the house above mentioned, but was
denied admittance; on which he attempted to break the windows with
his cane, but that dropping into the area, he jumped down after it,
fractured his skull, and died without speaking a word. Since this
accident happened great numbers of people have assembled with a design
to pull the house down (_the Craven Arms_), many of whom have been
wounded, and 14 sent to the round-house in one night. The people had a
notion that the house was Justice Fielding's, and that he protected it;
and it was found necessary to undeceive them, by advertising that it
belongs to a charity in Southwark."
CHAP. VII.
AMUSEMENT--DETAIL OF ITS PRINCIPAL VARIETIES SINCE 1700.
Many pursuits called amusements will be found in this section which the
Moralist must term _Crimes_.
When the reader has traced the endeavours of the last century in the
art of killing time, as related in this volume, he cannot but agree
with me that a laughing is better than a sullen and ferocious age.
Concerts of vocal and instrumental musick were held as at present
at the commencement of the century, and patronised by Ladies of
distinction.
"_The great room_" in York-buildings was used for this purpose; and
benefits were appointed for Mrs. Hudson and Mr. Williams, March 20,
1700.
A Concerto was held at the Theatre in Dorset-gardens April 24, 1700,
with a most curious accompaniment, in order to amuse the auditors
optically as well as auricularly. Joseph Thomas, master of the noble
science of defence, had challenged or been challenged by a Mr. Jones,
who came from North Wales, in order to decide whose skill was superior;
after a trial before many of the nobility and gentry the palm was
assigned to Mr. Jones.
While the superior ranks were thus employing their leisure hours, the
_canaille_ had their amusements, perhaps not _quite_ so refined, but
equally palatable to them. The following advertisement will explain
one description of those, probably entirely forgotten by the oldest
inhabitant now living: April 27, 1700. "In Brookfield Market-place,
at the East corner of Hyde-park, is a fair to be kept for the space
of _sixteen_ days, beginning the first of May. The first three days
for live Cattle and Leather, _with the same entertainments as at
Bartholomew-fair_; where there is shops to be let ready built for all
manner of tradesmen that usually keep fairs; and so to continue yearly
at the same time and place."
The present Tunbridge-wells, or Islington Spa, was in full favour
with the publick, and opened for the Summer on the 5th of May. The
proprietors admitted dances during the whole of the day on Mondays and
Thursdays, provided they did not appear in Masks, for whom musick was
provided. In this instance, it may be worthy of remark, we have no
parallel at present; and happily none for the Bear-garden at Hockley in
the Hole, where the infamous part of the community were _entertained_
with battles between eminent professors of the art of fencing, and
sometimes with five pair of young men exhibiting together proofs of
skill and strength.
"_At his Majesty's_ Bear-garden in Hockley in the Hole: a trial of
skill to be performed to-morrow, being the 10th instant (July 1700), at
three in the afternoon, between John Bowler of the City of Norwich, and
Champion of Norfolk, Master of the noble science of defence, and Will
of the West, from the City of Salisbury, Master of the said science of
defence."
The trumpet, always a favourite instrument with the publick, was then
used only by persons licensed by the Serjeant Trumpeter, who received
upon conviction one shilling _per_ day from those who performed without
a licence, which William Shore, Serjeant, assured the publick should
be given to the poor, as the fines had been by his father, whom he
succeeded in the office. These instruments are now used by persons
who wish to attract notice at Puppet-shews, Bartholomew-fair, &c.;
the amusements peculiar to which can only be caught by an attentive
examination of the periodical publications of the day. An article
in one of those, dated August 6, 1700, mentions: "The lessees of
West-Smithfield having on Friday last represented to a Court of
Aldermen at Guildhall, that it would be highly injurious to them to
have the erection of all booths there _totally prohibited_, the right
honourable Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen have, on consideration
of the premises, _granted licence to erect some_ booths during the
time of Bartholomew-fair now approaching; _but none_ are permitted for
_Music booths_, or any that may be a means to promote debauchery." On
the 23d of the same month the Lord Mayor went on horseback to proclaim
the Fair, when he ordered two booths erected for the performance of
Musick to be taken down immediately.
An anniversary celebration of Musick was held on St. Cecilia's day at
Stationers'-hall in 1700 by a Society of Gentlemen; but whether those
amateurs performed themselves, or hired performers, does not appear.
Certain persons felt great displeasure at the public amusements of
the day; and at length that displeasure found vent in the presentment
of the Grand Jury of Middlesex: "We the Grand Jury of the County
of Middlesex do present, that the Plays which are frequently acted
in the play-houses in Drury-lane and Lincoln's-Inn-fields in this
County are full of prophane, irreverent, lewd, indecent, and immoral
expressions, and tend to the great displeasure of Almighty God, and
to the corruption of the auditory both in their principles and their
practices. We also present, that the common acting of plays in the
said play-houses very much tend to the debauching and ruining the
youth resorting thereto, and to the breach of the peace, and are the
occasions of many riots, routs, and disorderly assemblies, whereby
many murders and other misdemeanors have been frequently done, and
particularly the barbarous murder of Sir Andrew Slanning, which was
very lately committed as he came out of one of the said play-houses;
and further that the common acting of plays at the said play-houses
is a public nuisance. As also the Bear-garden in Hockley in the Hole,
in the parish of St. John's Clerkenwell, in the said County, to be of
the like nuisance. We hope this honourable Court will use the most
effectual and speedy means for the suppressing thereof."
The minor offenders were noticed as follows, in "The presentment of
the Grand Jury sworn for the City of London at Justice-hall in the Old
Bailey the 4th day of June 1701, and in the 13th year of the reign of
our Sovereign Lord King William III. of England, &c.
"This honourable Court, having taken notice in the admirable Charge
given to us of the great advantages which this City hath received
from the zeal and industry of those gentlemen and citizens, who in
and about this City are concerned in Societies for the promoting
more effectually the execution of the Laws against profaneness and
debauchery, in pursuance to his Majesty's proclamations, and who have
received the public approbation of many persons in high stations in
Church and State: we the Grand Jury of this City do think it becomes
us to return our hearty thanks to those worthy persons who are thus
engaged in Societies for the promoting a reformation of manners, so
absolutely necessary to our welfare; and we hope their engaging so
heartily in this noble design will be an encouragement to others to
join with them for the effecting a more general reformation.
"We having observed the late boldness of a sort of men that stile
themselves masters of the noble science of defence, passing through
this City, with beat of drums, colours displayed, swords drawn, with
a numerous company of people following them, dispersing their printed
bills, thereby inviting persons to be spectators of those inhuman
sights, which are directly contrary to the practice and profession of
the Christian Religion, whereby barbarous principles are instilled in
the minds of men: we think ourselves obliged to represent this matter
to this honourable Court, that some effectual method may be speedily
taken to prevent their free passage through the City, in such a
tumultuous manner, on so unwarrantable a design."
"Whereas we have seen a printed order of the Lord Mayor and Court of
Aldermen the 25th June, 1700, to prevent the great profaneness, vice,
and debauchery, so frequently used and practised in Bartholomew Fair,
by strictly charging and commanding all persons concerned in the said
Fair, and in the sheds and booths to be erected and built therein, or
places adjacent, that they do not let, set, hire, or use, any booth,
shed, stall, or other erection whatsoever, to be used or employed for
interludes, stage-plays, comedies, gaming-places, lotteries, or music
meetings[113:A]: and as we are informed the present Lord Mayor and
Court of Aldermen have passed another order to the same effect on the
3d instant, we take this occasion to return our most hearty thanks for
their religious care and great zeal in this matter; we esteeming a
renewing their former practices at the Fair a continuing one of the
chiefest nurseries of vice next to the play-houses; therefore earnestly
desire that the said orders may be most vigorously prosecuted, and
that this honourable Court would endeavour that the said Fair may be
employed to those good ends and purposes it was at first designed."
These Juries omitted noticing a most barbarous _amusement_ which
prevailed to great excess, as will appear by the ensuing advertisements
issued in the same year: "At the Royal Cockpit on the South side of St.
James's-park, on Tuesday the 11th of this instant February, will begin
a very great Cock-match; and will continue all the week; wherein most
of the considerablest Cockers of England are concerned. There will be a
battle down upon the Pit every day precisely at three o'clock, in order
to have done by day-light. Monday the 9th instant March will begin
a great match of Cock-fighting betwixt the Gentlemen of the City of
Westminster and the Gentlemen of the City of London for six guineas a
battle, and one hundred guineas the odd battle, and the match continues
all the week, in Red-Lion-fields."
In the following April another match commenced, to continue for a week,
at four guineas a battle, and forty guineas the odd battle, between the
Gentlemen of London, and those of Warwickshire, at the new Cockpit
behind Gray's-Inn-walks.
The presentments were, however, of some service, as the proprietors
of the Bear-garden advertised subsequently "_without beat of drum_."
Wrestling was exhibited by them, and the prizes were gloves at two
shillings and sixpence _per_ pair. Lambeth-wells opened on Easter
Mondays, and had public days on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, with
musick from seven in the morning till sunset; on other days till two.
The price of admission was three pence; the water one penny _per_ quart
to the affluent, and _gratis_ to the poor.
The good people at Bartholomew Fair were entertained in 1701 by a
Tiger, who had been taught to pick a fowl's feathers from the body.
This feat seems to have roused the proprietors of the Theatre in
Lincoln's-Inn-fields; and they immediately, "at the desire of several
persons of quality," exhibited "that delightful exercise of vaulting on
the managed horse according to the Italian manner," after the play of
the Country Wife.
Amongst the variety of amusements with which London has abounded,
public exhibitions may be fairly included. The first upon record
within the century appears to have been certain models representing
William the Third's palaces at Loo, Keswick, and Hunslaerdike: those
were shown in 1701 from ten in the morning till one, and from two
till eight at night, "at the White head near Pall-Mall facing the
Haymarket, _within two doors of the glass lamps_." The proprietors
elegantly observe in their advertisement, that they were "brought over
lately by _outlandish_ men;" and that, "to render those diversions
altogether more delightful and acceptable, there will be a collection
of several curiosities to be sold and raffled for at the opening, and
likewise every Monday and Friday following, those days being appointed
the public raffling-days, besides a great variety of rarities: and to
entertain the nobility and gentry (who, the undertakers hope, will
countenance them with the honour of their company) there shall be on
Wednesday the 14th instant (January) a _concert_ of musick by the best
performers; and if all these diversions please such for whom they are
intended, there shall be from time to time great additions made."
However pleasing and moral the Stage may be at present, we are in great
measure indebted to our Ancestors for the improvements which have taken
place. In the reign of Charles II. the licence permitted to Dramatic
Authors was indecent and infamous in the extreme, and the profane and
immoral expressions inserted in many plays really rendered the use of
masks necessary for those ladies who possessed the least delicacy of
sentiment.
In 1701-2 another and effectual effort was made to reform this evil,
by a prosecution instituted in the Court of King's-bench, and tried
before Lord Chief Justice Holt. The Jury on this occasion found the
players of Lincoln's-Inn-fields play-house guilty of uttering impious,
lewd, and immoral expressions.
In April 1702, an advertisement appeared in the papers, inviting the
publick to see the skeleton of a Whale then lately caught in the
Thames, which the proprietors had carefully scraped and put together in
the field near King-street, Bloomsbury. They asserted that one bone of
his head weighed 40 cwt. The price of admission was threepence.
This stupendous exhibition accompanied another of the model of
Amsterdam, which almost vied with it in size: the length was between
twenty and thirty feet, the breadth twenty; and the artist or artists
were occupied twelve years in completing it. The place of exhibition
was Bell-yard, Fleet-street.
May Fair opened this year with the usual _splendid_ entertainments,
and, if the managers of these elegant diversions were to be credited,
with more than common _eclat_. There was Mr. Miller's booth "over
against" Mr. Barnes the rope-dancer's, where was "presented an
excellent droll called Crispin and Crispianus, or a Shoemaker a Prince,
with the best machines, singing, and dancing _ever yet in the Fair_."
This and other excellent performances attracted the lasses and lads
of London, whose spirits, exhilarated by the season from which the
Fair was named, met in vast numbers, and with them the thief and the
prostitute, who, as usual, did not permit the attractions of _drolls_
to _divert_ them from business: indeed they were so extremely active
in their vocations, that the Magistrates thought proper to thin the
number of the latter by commitments; but in the execution of this plan
the Constables were resisted by a set of Soldiers, who determined to
protect the _Fair_, which they did in such serious earnest, that Mr.
John Cooper, one of the peace-officers, lost his life, and in due time
was buried at St. James's Church Westminster, where a Funeral Sermon
was preached by Josiah Woodward, D. D. Minister of Poplar Chapel,
before the Justices, High Constable, &c. and which he published at
their request. The Observator, a paper published twice a week at that
period, says ironically of May Fair; "Oh the piety of some people about
the Queen; who can suffer things of this nature to go undiscovered to
her Majesty, and consequently unpunished! Can any rational man imagine
that her Majesty would permit so much lewdness as is committed at May
Fair for so many days together so near her Royal Palace, if she knew
any thing of the matter? I do not believe the patent for that Fair
allows the Patentees the liberty of setting up the _Devil's shops_,
and exposing his merchandise to sale; _nor was there ever one Fair
or Market in England constituted for this purpose_. But this Fair is
kept contrary to Law, and in defiance of Justice; for the last Fair,
when the Civil Magistrate came to keep the Queen's peace there, one
Constable was killed, and three others wounded." The man who committed
the above murder escaped, and a butcher of Gloucester was hanged for
the crime; but the real culprit finally suffered: and thus tragically
ended the Fair of May 1702.
Mr. Pawlet had a great dancing-room near Dowgate, Thames-street; hither
the gay were invited to a "_Consort_" produced by violins, hautboys,
flutes, and _a trumpet_, with singing. The admission 1_s._ 6_d._
The following quotation from the first number of "The Secret Mercury,"
published September 9, 1702, gives a better idea of one of the
Drolls or Interludes of the day than any I have previously met with:
"Wednesday September 2, having _padlocked my pockets_, and trimmed
myself with Hudibras from head to foot, I set out about six for
Bartholomew Fair; and, having thrown away _substantial silver_ for
visionary Theatrical entertainment, I made myself ready for the Farce;
but I had scarce composed myself when bolts me _into the Pit_ a bully
beau," &c. &c. "The curtain drew, and discovered a nation of beauish
machines; their motions were so starched, that I began to question
whether I had mistaken myself and Dogget's booth for a Puppet-shew. As
I was debating the matter, they advanced toward the front of the stage,
and making a halt began a singing so miserably, that I was forced to
tune my own whistle in romance ere my brains were set strait again.
All the _secret_ I could for my life discover in the whole grotesque
was the consistency or drift of the piece, which I could never
demonstrate to this hour. At last all the childish parade shrunk off
the stage by matter and motion, and enter a _hobletehoy_ of a dance,
and Dogget in old woman's petticoats and red waistcoat, as like Progue
Cock as ever man saw; it would have made a Stoick split his lungs, if
he had seen the temporary harlot sing and weep both at once; a true
emblem of a woman's tears. When these Christmas carols were over,
enter a _wooden_ horse; now I concluded we should have the ballad of
Troy-town, but I was disappointed in the scene, for a dancing-master
comes in, begins a complimenting the horse, and fetching me three or
four run-bars with his arm (as if he would have mortified the ox at
one blow) takes a frolick upon the back of it, and translates himself
into cavalry at one bound: all I could clap was the _patience_ of
the beast. However, having played upon him about half a quarter, the
conqueror was pursued with such a clangor from the crusted clutches of
the mob in the _sixpenny place_, that for five minutes together I was
tossed on this dilemma, that either a man had not five senses, or I
was no man. The stage was now overrun with nothing but Merry Andrews
and Pickle-herrings. This Mountebank scene was removed at last, and I
was full of expectation the successor would be Pills, Pots of Balsam,
and Orvietan; but, alas, they were but half Empiricks, and therefore
_Exeunt omnes_."
From several circumstances it appears that, notwithstanding the
proclamation and feeble exertions of the Corporation of London, these
interludes were openly performed in Smithfield: and that the Governors
of St. Bartholomew's Hospital actually permitted prostitutes to walk
the Cloisters. One of the "Secret Mercuries" has this expression:
"Well, I shall catch you _in the Cloysters_;" but the Observator of
August 21, 1703, sets the matter beyond doubt: "Does this Market of
lewdness tend to any thing else but the ruin of the bodies, souls,
and estates, of the young men and women of the City of London, who
here meet with all the temptations to destruction? The lotteries to
ruin their estates; the drolls, comedies, interludes, and farces, to
poison their minds with motions of lust; _and in the Cloisters_ (those
conscious scenes of polluted amours) in the evening they strike the
bargain to finish their ruin. What strange medley of lewdness has that
place not long since afforded! Lords and ladies, aldermen and their
wives, squires and fidlers, citizens and rope-dancers, jack-puddings
and lawyers, mistresses and maids, masters and prentices! This is not
an ark, like Noah's, which received the clean and unclean; only the
_unclean_ beasts enter this ark, and such as have the Devil's livery on
their backs." And in another paper he says, "they'll raffle with the
punks in the Cloysters."
The reader will pardon the introduction of the substance of an
advertisement inserted in the Postman, August 19, 1703, by Barnes and
Finley, who, after the usual exordium of _their_ superior excellence,
mention that the spectator will "see my _Lady Mary_ perform such
curious steps on the _dancing rope_, &c. &c." This lady Mary is
subsequently noticed in Heraclitus Ridens, No. 7, by Earnest, who
says, "Look upon the old gentleman; his eyes are fixed upon my lady
Mary: Cupid has shot him as dead as a Robin. Poor Heraclitus! he has
cried away all his moisture, and is such a dotard to entertain himself
with a prospect of what is meat for his betters; wake him out of his
lethargy, and tell him the young noblemen and senators will take it
amiss, if a man of his years makes pretensions to what is more than a
match for their youth. Those, &c. &c. and roguish eyes have brought her
more admirers than ever Jenny Bolton had; it is a pity, say I, she has
no more manners, and less ill-nature." Chetwood, in his History of the
Stage, mentions a Lady _Isabella_, which name, writing from memory, he
has evidently mistaken for Mary, who was the daughter of noble parents
inhabitants of Florence, where they immured her in a Nunnery; but, most
fruitlessly careful of their beautiful offspring, she accidentally saw
a Merry Andrew, who unfortunately saw her; in consequence of which a
clandestine intercourse took place, an elopement followed, and finally
this villain taught her his infamous tricks, which she exhibited for
his profit till vice had made her his own; as Heraclitus proves. The
catastrophe of the Lady Mary was dreadful; her _husband_, impatient of
delays or impediments to profit, either permitted or commanded her to
exhibit on the rope when eight months had elapsed in her pregnancy:
encumbered by her weight, she fell, never more to rise; her infant was
born on the stage, and died a victim with its Mother.
Mr. Abel advertised a concert and dancing at Covent Garden Theatre for
Tuesday December 29, 1702: the performers, himself, Monsieur l'Abbé,
Mr. Isaac's _scholar_, and others. The galleries were let for the
benefit of the proprietors of the Playhouse.
Hitherto we have had to notice amusements which involved the performers
in little corporeal injury, unless from accidents, or sudden quarrels.
I shall now introduce an _entertainment_ the very zest of which
consisted in a great number of broken pates. "At the White Horse at
_Bristol_ Causeway (now denominated Brixton) in Surrey, three miles
from London in the road to Croydon, will be a Hat played for at
Cudgels, on the 23d of April, 1703; the Country against the Londoners.
_He that breaks most heads_ to have the hat; he that plays puts in
sixpence." Smock-races were run at this elegant place of resort "by
young women and maids," to the utter disgrace of the neighbouring
Magistracy.
The year 1703 produced a new source of amusement, which is noticed by
_Tutchin_ in the Observator: "But I have some Play-house news to tell
you: the great Play-house has calved a young one in Goodman's fields,
in the passage by the Ship Tavern betwixt Prescot and Chambers-street.
_Observator_--It is in a very good place in Rosemary-lane precinct; I
know no reason why the quality at both ends of the town should not have
the same diversions. This will be a great ease to the Ladies of Rag
Fair, who are now forced to trudge as far as Lincoln's-inn-fields to
mix themselves with quality. The mumpers of Knockvargis will now have
the Playhouse come to them, who were not able to stump it to the other
end of the town on their wooden legs: the Does in Tower-hill Park and
Rosemary-lane purlieu will be foddered nearer home this winter; and
the sailors will have better entertainment for their loose coins than
formerly."
The Grand Jury of Middlesex presented May Fair in November 1703. And
early in the ensuing year, the public mind had been so influenced by
the dreadful storm of November, the effects of which were felt in
every direction, that prelates, the clergy, authors, and in short all
men of virtue, joined in one grand exclamation against the obscenity,
the immorality, and the blasphemy of the stage, which its most ardent
admirers must admit to have arrived at such a height as fully warranted
an order from the Queen to restrain it. At the same period the Lord
Mayor and Aldermen issued a proclamation, forbidding the cruel practice
of throwing at Cocks on Shrove Tuesday; and the Tatler of April 18,
1709, mentions the total abolition of May Fair as far as related to the
exhibition of puppets, and similar contemptible traps for the vulgar.
The Theatre in the Haymarket was opened in 1705, when these strange and
almost impious lines were pronounced as part of the Prologue:
"Such was our Builder's art, that, soon as nam'd,
This fabrick, like the infant World, was fram'd:
The Architect must on dull order wait,
But 'tis the Poet only can create.
In the good age of ghostly ignorance,
How did Cathedrals rise, and zeal advance;
But now that pious pageantry no more,
And Stages thrive as Churches did before."
By Dr. GARTH.
The Theatre in Dorset Garden was taken down about 1709, and the site
immediately afterwards converted into a wood-yard and saw-pit.
Firing at marks formed part of the amusement of a certain class of
people in 1709; and prizes were offered of various descriptions,
particularly one at Islington of a pair of doe-skin breeches worth
3_l._ The terms for the privilege of firing were a subscription of one
shilling each by sixty men.
A most tragical occurrence happened in September 1709, at that polite
place of resort the Bear-garden at Hockley in the Hole. Christopher
Preston, keeper of the Garden, had taught his Bears every thing but
forgiveness of injuries; and this he experienced, at an unguarded
moment, by an attack from one, who not only killed, but almost devoured
him, before his friends were aware of the fact.
In 1710 the publick were offered an exhibition something similar to
the modern moving picture at Vauxhall; it was shown for sixpence and
a shilling opposite Cecil-street in the Strand, and represented ships
sailing out of port, a coach passing over a bridge leading to a city, a
cart drawn by two horses with a woman in it, and many other things.
Matches at Cricket were played for many years on Tuesdays, Thursdays,
and Saturdays, at the Duke of Ormond's head near Lamb's Conduit-fields.
The Tatler of April 25, 1710, advertises a Pastoral Mask to be
performed at York-buildings on the 27th, composed by Mr. Clayton, and
for his benefit, who is there said to have introduced the Italian Opera
into England.
Mr. Winstanley had a "_Water Theatre_," distinguished by a _Windmill_
on the summit in Piccadilly near Hyde-park, "wherein was shewn the
greatest curiosities in water-works, the like being never performed
by any." The hours of exhibition were from five to six o'clock every
evening in June and July 1710, for his widow's benefit. This gentleman
had a house at Littlebury, Essex, where some experiments in Hydraulicks
were exhibited for money.
The following notice was issued in August, "that a Gold Ring is to be
danced for on the 31st instant, and a Hat to be played for at skittles
the next day following, at the Green-gate in Gray's walks, near
Lambeth-wells."
The Bowling-green and Cockpit behind Gray's-Inn garden were advertised
for sale or to be let in 1710; but, though the publick seem thus to
have lost one place of resort, Punch's Opera, under the direction of
Powell, was opened at the same time at the _end_ of Lichfield-street,
where the prices of admission were, boxes 2_s._ pit 1_s._ gallery 6_d._
This exhibition must have been something like the modern Fantoccini;
the figures were dressed in character; and one of the performances was
"The History of chaste Susannah."
A new Cockpit and Bowling-green were opened in March 1711 behind
Gray's-Inn gardens; the Gentlemen of Essex against all Britain, at ten
guineas a battle, and 500 the odd battle.
That the reader may not be bewildered by my conjectures as to the real
nature of the entertainment described in the following advertisement,
I shall transcribe it _verbatim_ from the original Spectator, No. 46:
"Mr. Penkethman's (I suppose the actor of that time, 1711) wonderful
invention called The Pantheon, or the Temple of the Heathen Gods, the
work of several years and great expence, is now perfected; being a most
surprising and magnificent machine, consisting of five several curious
pictures, the painting and contrivance whereof is beyond expression
admirable: the figures, which are above an hundred, and move their
heads, legs, arms, and fingers so exactly to what they perform, and
setting one foot before another like living creatures, that it justly
deserves to be esteemed the greatest wonder of the age. To be seen
from ten in the morning till ten at night, in the Little Piazzas,
Covent-garden, in the same house where Punch's Opera is, price 1_s._
6_d._, 1_s._, and the lowest 6_d._"
The room in Spring-garden now used as a Toy-shop, and for various
exhibitions, was a Masquerade-room in 1711; which amusement was
afforded for half a guinea _per_ ticket, and a concert included. No
person admitted unmasked or armed.
St. George's-fields abounded with gardens, where the lower classes met
to drink and smoke tobacco; but those were not their only amusements.
Mr. Shanks near Lambeth-marsh contrived to assemble his customers
in 1711 with a grinning match. The prize was a gold-laced hat, and
the competitors were exhilarated by musick and dancing: the hour of
exhibition twelve at noon, and the admission 6_d._ At six o'clock
the same. And every evening another portion of the same class were
delighted with contortions of a different description, which had
however the sanction of antiquity; posture-masters are represented in
the illuminations of very antient MSS. and in attitudes described in
the following advertisement: "At the Duke of Marlborough's-head in
Fleet-street, in the great room is to be seen the famous Posture-master
of Europe, who far exceeds the deceased posture-masters Clarke and
Higgins; he extends his body into all deformed shapes, makes his hip
and shoulder-bones meet together, lays his head upon the ground, and
turns his body round twice or thrice without stirring his face from the
place; stands upon one leg, and extends the other in a perpendicular
line half a yard above his head, and extends his body from a table with
his head a foot below his heels, having nothing to balance his body
but his feet; with several other postures too tedious to mention."
Queen Anne was prevailed upon in 1711 to issue her proclamation to
the ensuing purport: "Whereas we are informed that the orders we have
already given for the reformation of the Stage, by not permitting any
thing to be acted contrary to Religion or good manners, have in great
measure had the good effect we proposed; and being further desirous
to reform all other indecencies and disorders of the Stage: Our will
and pleasure therefore is, and we do hereby strictly command, that no
person, of what quality soever, presume to stand behind the scenes, or
come upon the Stage, either before or during the acting of any Opera or
Play; and that no person come into either of our houses for Opera or
Comedy without paying first the established prices for their respective
places. All which orders we strictly command the managers of both
our Opera and Comedy to see exactly observed and obeyed; and if any
persons whatsoever shall disobey this our known pleasure and command,
we shall proceed against them as contemners of our Royal authority, and
disturbers of the public peace." _Gazette, Nov. 15, 1711._
It was in the latter part of the above year that the Spectator first
noticed the _Trunk-maker_, a person who appears to have possessed great
critical knowledge in theatrical affairs, which he evinced by violent
blows aimed at the benches and wainscot of the upper-gallery; in short,
according to the accounts of that valuable paper, his judicious manner
of bestowing approbation with his stick soon made him a popular leader
in criticism, and the arbitrator of applause.
The tradesmen who furnished the several materials necessary for
the performance of the Opera in the Haymarket 1710, supported by
a subscription from the Nobility, &c. were not paid their several
demands by December 1711; in consequence of which they advertised
an intended general meeting to concert measures for petitioning the
Lord Chamberlain, or commencing law-suits against the Manager, who
peremptorily refused payment, although the articles obtained were in
constant use.
The following advertisement appeared at the same time: "Mr. Rich and
others having petitioned her Majesty against an order for silencing of
acting Plays, Operas, &c. under the patents granted by King Charles
II. and touching a forcible entry made by Mr. Collier into the Theatre
Royal; the matters of which having been referred to her Majesty's
Attorney and Solicitor-general to examine; it is said they have made
their report of the facts, and of the right of Mr. Rich and other
petitioners under the Patents being a franchise in fee; and that
speedy application will be made to her Majesty in Council to determine
the same. The Town seems very desirous to have two companies, to
emulate one the other, and create more variety of theatrical diversions
without raising the price."
Almost immediately after Messrs. Clayton, Haym, and Dieupart, prevailed
upon the Authors of the Spectator to insert the ensuing notice, from
which it may be inferred that they had in some degree baffled their
own designs in introducing the Italian Opera: "Mr. Spectator, You will
forgive us professors of musick, if we make a second application to
you, in order to promote our design of exhibiting entertainments of
musick in York-buildings. It is industriously insinuated, that our
intention is to destroy Operas in general; but we beg of you to insert
this plain explanation of ourselves in your paper. Our purpose is only
to improve our circumstances by improving the art which we profess; we
see it utterly destroyed at present, and as we were the persons who
introduced Operas, we think it a groundless imputation that we should
set up against the Opera in itself: what we pretend to assert is,
that the songs of different authors injudiciously put together, and a
foreign tone and manner which are expected in every thing now performed
amongst us, has put musick itself to a stand; insomuch that the ears
of the people cannot now be entertained with any thing but what has
an impertinent gaiety without any just spirit, or a languishment of
notes without any passion or common sense. We hope those persons of
sense and quality who have done us the honour to subscribe will not be
ashamed of their patronage towards us; and not receive impressions that
patronising us is being for or against the Opera, but truly promoting
their own diversions in a more just and elegant manner than has been
hitherto performed."
There was an established Cockpit in Prescot-street, Goodman's-fields,
1712: there the Gentlemen of the East entertained themselves, while
the Nobles and others of the West were entertained by the edifying
exhibition of the agility of their running footmen. His Grace of
Grafton declared _his_ man was unrivaled in speed; and the Lord
Cholmondeley betted him 500 guineas that _his_ excelled even the
unrivaled: accordingly the ground was prepared for a two-mile heat in
Hyde-park; the race was run, _and one of the parties was victor_, but
_which_ my informant does not say.
In the same month a curious Brass Gun was advertised to be shot for at
Hoxton: it was in the shape of a walking-cane, and might be used as gun
or pistol, contained a telescope, a dial on the head, and a perpetual
almanack.
The Spectator, No. 436, enables us to form a correct idea of the brutal
sports of the Bear-garden--the Theatre for the double exhibition of
natural brutes and the degeneracy of human nature. The ridiculous
movements of the bear appear to have been too innocent an amusement
for the populace; they therefore gave place to pugilism and fighting
with swords: the latter _diversions_ were certainly countenanced by the
customs of the Antients; but the tyranny of their government and the
ferocious nature of their people were palliatives that Englishmen could
not plead. Their emperors and senates erected stupendous amphitheatres
for public games; youths were tutored from infancy for gladiators, and
slaves fought for the entertainment of their masters; the populace
were used to see gashes, blood, and death, nay to see criminals rot in
their streets; and the males hardened female feelings by their military
plunder of and cruelty to the surrounding nations. But the British
populace knew not of those horrible proceedings; and most probably
Miller and Buck were ignorant that a Roman state ever existed. We
therefore cannot but be surprised, that so many years were suffered to
elapse before the vigilance of the Magistracy was roused to suppress
the hateful wickedness of a few miscreants who had it in their power to
attract men around a stage to view their fellow-citizens endeavouring
to maim each other; but, however disgusting the recollection that such
things have been, we must rejoice that no Serjeant _now_ dare offer, or
Human Butcher receive, a challenge similar to the following:
"I James Miller, serjeant (lately come from the frontiers of Portugal),
master of the noble science of defence, hearing in most places where I
have been of the great fame of Timothy Buck of London, master of the
said science, do invite him to meet me, and exercise at the several
weapons following: back-sword, sword and dagger, sword and buckler,
single falchon, case of falchons, quarter-staff."
The author of the above paper declares he witnessed the combat the
challenge occasioned; and I shall endeavour to shew it to the reader
in its true colours, divested of that romantic and chivalric air with
which it is glossed in the paper alluded to. Two drummers, whose bodies
were disfigured by the wounds they had received in battle, preceded the
challenger, a stout athletic man with a blue ribband tied round his
right arm, accompanied by a fell dæmon, a _second_ or friend, one who
is described as bearing in his breast that malice which darted amongst
the crowd through his organs of sight, the _crowd_ whose eagerness had
arisen to frenzy; keen expectation marked their features and convulsed
their limbs, motion impelled motion, the stout overwhelmed the weak,
the tallest the short, impatience and anger prompted removals, and
instantly a grand transfer of places ensued: the spectators rushed
from the gallery into the area, and from the area into the gallery;
and confusion reigned triumphant till Buck appeared, when all was
hushed. Now observe the picture: the combatants, stripped to their
shirts, _shake hands_ to show that they kill each other in _good will_,
and prepare to injure and defend. Turn to the spectators, examine their
breasts, what is the result?--Humanity? Pity? Fear? Horror? No: those
passions would have rendered the Bear-garden desolate. The painter
finds but one dreadful chaos, a compound of features expressive of
eagerness, partiality, and hope; not that Miller or Buck may escape
injury, but that Buck may conquer Miller, or Miller Buck. Mark the
issue: Miller has received a dreadful cut in the forehead, and his eyes
stream with blood. Who leaps upon the stage to staunch it, or part the
fiends?--no one. What then succeeds?--a _yell of satisfaction, a huzza
from the crowd_. But, not to dwell on this horrible scene, a gash on
Miller's left leg terminated the combat. "The wound was exposed to the
view of all who could delight in it, _and sewed up on the stage_." One
solitary female shed tears for Miller, and hid her face; but, my author
seems to hint, her humanity was selfish.
A far more innocent amusement was announced directly after the
battle, in No. 533. Mr. Clinch of Barnet entertained the publick at
the Queen's-arms tavern, Ludgate-hill, for one shilling each, by
imitations with his voice of the Flute, double Curtel, the Organ with
three voices, the Horn, Huntsman, and Pack of Hounds, the Bells, &c. &c.
Dawks's News-letter of April 2, 1713, has the following article:
"Yesterday a trial of skill was fought at the Bear-garden between
Henry Clements and Parks of Coventry, _where there was good sport,
hacking and hewing_. It is thought they got 50_l._ apiece, the French
ambassador being there, _and giving them money very liberally_." Soon
after three bouts "at threshing flail" were announced; and a flourish
of "no cut, no bout."
A Renter's share in Drury-lane Theatre was advertised for sale June
1714 (a 36th) the terms 170_l._ for 23 years: 2_s. per_ night for
acting days, and free admission.
The Weekly Packet of Nov. 6 says, "Christopher Rich, Esq. the patentee
of the Playhouse, and a great encourager of poetical performances, died
two days since without seeing his new Theatre in Lincoln's-inn-fields
perfected, which is left to the care, with other legacies, of his
eldest son Mr. John Rich." The same paper adds, Nov. 13, that Mr. Rich,
driven from the Theatre of Drury lane by his rebellious subjects, was
buried at St. Andrew's Holborn from his house adjoining the King's
Theatre, accompanied by several of those who had resisted his authority
when living.
And in the publication of December 18, is the following paragraph:
"This day the new Playhouse in Lincoln's-inn-fields is to be opened,
and a comedy acted there called _The Recruiting Officer_ by the company
that act under the patent, though it is said that some of the gentlemen
who have left the house in Drury-lane for that service are ordered
to return to their colours, upon pain of not exercising their lungs
elsewhere; which may in time prove of ill service to the patentee, that
has been at vast expence to make his Theatre as convenient for the
reception of an audience as any one can possibly be."
The King and his Family were either really or _politically_ partial to
Drury-lane, in preference to the Italian Opera; and visited the former
frequently.
The King's licence under the great seal was granted, in January 1715,
to Richard Steele, Esq. to form and keep a company of Comedians, to be
styled "The Royal Company of Comedians."
The Evening Post of March 19, 1715, announced, "On Monday next the 21st
of March the Bowling-green at Mary-le-bon will be opened, by order of
the Nobility and Gentry."
The Weekly Packet of June 25, 1715, shews in few words the extravagant
patronage bestowed on the Italian actors at that time: "Seignior
Nicolini's quail pipe continues to _lug_ the nobility and gentry by
the ears, who have gone very far on his last benefit night towards
equipping him for another purchase at Venice, he having already built
a stately edifice there near the Rialto, upon which is written, in
characters of gold, _Villa Britannica_, as a testimony that Scaliger's
saying that we are _hospitibus feri_ is a downright untruth, and
falsely imputed to our Nation."
George I. seems to have been partial to aquatic excursions. On the
22d of August, 1715, the King, Prince, and Princess of Wales, and a
numerous party of Nobility, went with musick on board their barges from
Whitehall to Limehouse. When they returned in the evening, the captains
of the shipping suspended lanterns in their rigging, and the houses
on both sides of the river were illuminated; an incredible number of
boats filled with spectators attended the Royal party, and cannon
were continually fired during the day and evening. This amusement is
repeatedly noticed in the papers.
Several years elapsed without the least notice of Bartholomew Fair;
but Dawks's News-letter of August 27, 1715, mentions, "On Wednesday
Bartholomew Fair began, to which we hear the greatest number of black
cattle was brought that ever was known. It seems there is not a public
licence for booths and plays as formerly; but there is one great
play-house erected in the middle of Smithfield for the King's players
(as they are called). The booth is the largest that ever was built,
and abundance of puppet-shews and other shews are set out in the houses
round Smithfield, and public raffling and gaming in the Cloisters
(of St. Bartholomew's Hospital), so that the Fair is almost as much
resorted to as formerly."
I have hitherto described the amusements of the Londoners on _terra
firma_; the frost of 1715-16 enables me to shew how they gamboled on
the Thames when frozen. The following advertisement leads the way:
"This is to give notice to gentlemen and others that pass upon the
Thames during this frost, that over against Whitehall-stairs, they may
have their names printed, fit to paste in any book to hand down the
memory of the season to posterity.
You that walk there, and do design to tell
Your Children's children what this year befel,
Go print your names, and take _a dram_ within;
For such a year as this has seldom been."
Dawks's News-letter of Jan. 14 says, "The Thames seems now a solid
rock of ice; and booths for the sale of brandy, wine, ale, and other
exhilarating liquors, have been fixed there for some time. But now it
is in a manner like a town: thousands of people cross it, and with
wonder view the mountainous heaps of water that now lie congealed
into ice. On Thursday a great Cook's-shop was erected there, and
gentlemen went as frequently to dine as at any ordinary. Over against
Westminster, Whitehall, and Whitefriars, printing-presses are kept upon
th
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