Captain Alexander Smith - Key writings on subcultures, 1535-1727 : classics from the underworld. A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts and Cheats of Both Sexes

Key writings on subcultures, 1535-1727 : classics from the underworld. A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts and Cheats of Both Sexes — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Key writings on subcultures, 1535-1727 : classics from the underworld. A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts and Cheats of Both Sexes" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...194

KEY WRITINGS ON SUBCULTURES
15351727

Classics from the Underworld

Key Writings on Subcultures 15351727
Classics from the Underworld

Volume I
The Elizabethan Underworld: A Collection of Tudor and Early
Stuart Tracts and Ballads
Edited by A. V. Judges

Volume II
The English Rogue, Described in the Life of Meriton Latroon,
A Witty Extravagant, Being a Complete History of the Most
Eminent Cheats of Both Sexes
By Richard Head and Francis Kirkman

Volume III
A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most
Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts & Cheats of
Both Sexes
By Captain Alexander Smith, Edited by Arthur L. Hayward

Volume IV
A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most
Notorious Pirates, From their First Rise and Settlement in the
Island of Providence to the Present Year
By Captain Charles Johnson, Edited by Arthur L. Hayward

Volume V
Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, who have been
Condemned and Executed for Murder, the Highway,
Housebreaking, Street Robberies, Coining and Other Offences
Edited by Arthur L. Hayward

KEY WRITINGS ON SUBCULTURES
15351727

Classics from the Underworld

Volume III

A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies
of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads,
Shoplifts, & Cheats of Both Sexes

By Captain Alexander Smith
Edited by Arthur L. Hayward

First published 1926 by Routledge

This edition reprinted 2002
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016

Transferred to Digital Printing 2008

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0415286751 (Set)
ISBN 0415286786 (Volume III)

Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of these reprints, but wishes to point out that certain characteristics of the original copies will, of necessity, be apparent in reprints thereof.

Although a few years later than the period of this book Hogarth's plate gives an excellent idea of the crowd that flocked to Tyburn Fair. The condemned felon is arriving in the cart, surrounded by the sheriff's officers. His coffin is with him, and he is being ministered to by a devout and compassionate friend, more solicitous than the apathetic ordinary who lolls out of his coach window. The executioner is resting on the gallows, complacently smoking a pipe, and from the spectators gallery a gaol-bred pigeon is being released, to fly back to Newgate to announce that another felon has been turned off.

.

(From Hogarth's Industry and Idleness, Plate XI.)

A COMPLETE

HISTORY

OF THE

LIVES AND ROBBERIES

OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS

HIGHWAYMEN

FOOTPADS, SHOPLIFTS, & CHEATS

OF BOTH SEXES

Wherein their most Secret and Barbarous Murders, Unparalleled
Robberies, Notorious Thefts, and Unheard-of Cheats are
set in a true Light and exposed to Public View,
for the Common Benefit of Mankind

BY

CAPTAIN ALEXANDER SMITH

EDITED BY

ARTHUR L. HAYWARD

LONDON

GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, LTD.
1926

O F the many rogues whose lives of villainy are recounted in this book by Captain Alexander Smith by far the majority were sent to Newgate and hanged at Tyburn. Both places have vanished; the former is commemorated only in the name of a busy street, and of the thousands who daily pass from Oxford Street into the Edgware Road few know that they are traversing the site of Tyburn Tree.

The path to Newgate and Tyburn was easily to be found in the early years of the eighteenth century. With the exception of petit larceny, which was the theft of an article under the value of twelve pence, all felonies were punishable with death; there was no scientific system for the detection of crime; the evidence of a perjured rogue, the spite of a jilted woman or the impatience of an irascible judge were often enough to ensure a suspected man lodging in the Condemned Hold and a place in the ill-omened cart that dragged its way with such wearisome regularity up the heavy hill of Holborn, to the fatal Triple Tree. True, the very severity of the Law often made juries mercifully bring in a verdict of Not Guilty in the face of damning evidence to the contrary, but the hangman's hands were seldom idle and Newgate was always full.

The old prison of Newgate, standing over and contiguous to the City gate, was a noisome den where men and women, criminals and debtors were herded together like beasts. In a foul, fetid atmosphere, so poisonous that scores were carried off annually by fever ere they could don the hempen collar, every disease of mind as well as of body had full play. Drunkennessnever before nor since has England been so drunken as she was during the first half of the eighteenth centuryharlotry, gambling, every rank weed of degeneration flourished in Newgate as nowhere else, and while the State held the bodies of its wretched victims between stone walls, the devil of vice bound them yet closer in the hideous shackles of corruption.

The rather smug author of A New View of London (1708), observes complacently of Newgate, It is very well governed, the criminals and debtors being kept separate, and are all called to prayers and sermon at least every Lord's Day; and for the better sort, who have the appearance of gentry, there are very good rooms and other accommodation in the Press Yard. How very far he was from the truth will be evident from the words of those who wrote from experience and not from hearsay. The gaol was ill-lighted, the very stones and mortar were encrusted with filth; the water was little, if any, better than sewage, being drawn from a stream which ran under the building and came charged with the overflow of every neighbouring cesspool; and the air was so laden with disease that one Spring, in the adjoining Sessions-House, two judges, the Lord Mayor, and 60 jurymen, witnesses and attendants died of typhus. The destruction of the old gaol in 1780 by the Gordon Rioters was the only happy event in that orgy of stupidity.

Apart from the callousness of the times and the general opinion that nothing was too bad for those who had offended against the Law, the great cause of misery and maladministration in Newgate and every other prison in England was the fact that the keepership was farmed out, and was such a lucrative post that it was eagerly sought after by unscrupulous speculators. In 1696 the office was sold for 3,500over 35,000 in present valueand

Next page

1234567...194

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Key writings on subcultures, 1535-1727 : classics from the underworld. A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts and Cheats of Both Sexes»

Look at similar books to Key writings on subcultures, 1535-1727 : classics from the underworld. A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts and Cheats of Both Sexes. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Alexander Smith

Lockdown

Karen Ordahl Kupperman

Captain John Smith: A Select Edition of His Writings

Natasha Smith

Britains Most Notorious Killers: A Raw Look at Over 70 of the Worst Killers in British History

Jason Scotts

Minecraft Cheats: 70 Top Essential Minecraft Cheats Guide Exposed!

Michael Martin

Captain Lightfoot: The Last of the New England Highwaymen

Moore

Con men and cutpurses: scenes from the Hogarthian underworld

Charles Captain Johnson

General History of the Robberies & Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates

Deitche

Cigar City mafia : a complete history of the Tampa underworld

Fraser Frankie

Mad Franks underworld history of Britain

Terry Smith

Blaggers Inc - Britains Biggest Armed Robberies. A Fascinating Insiders Insight Into Britains Most Infamous Organised Robberies

Paul Smith

Heist. The Inside Story of Scotlands Most Notorious Raids

David Joris

The Anabaptist writings of David Joris, 1535-1543

Discussion, reviews of the book Key writings on subcultures, 1535-1727 : classics from the underworld. A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts and Cheats of Both Sexes and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.