The IDLE ‘PRENTICE Executed at Tyburn. SOME DISTINGUISHED VICTIMS OF THE SCAFFOLD BY HORACE BLEACKLEY WITH TWENTY-ONE ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER, & CO., Ltd. DRYDEN HOUSE, GERRARD STREET, W. 1905 To JOSEPH GREGO WHOSE MEMORY IS STORED WITH PICTURES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY THESE MODERN IMPRESSIONS FROM OLD PLATES ARE OFFERED...

No apology is needed, save that which the consciousness of inadequate work may call forth, from him who writes a history of great criminals. Since the lives of so many whose crime is their only title to fame have been included in the Dictionary of National Biography , it is inevitable that some of these old stories shall be re-told. Already the books of Charles Whibley and J. B. Atlay, as well as the newspaper sketches of W. W. Hutchings, have advanced this portion of our bibliography to a large

1. An Authentic Narrative of that Most Horrid Parricide. (Printed in the year 1751. Name of publisher in second edition, M. Cooper.) 2. A Genuine and Full Account of the Parricide committed by Mary Blandy, Oxford; Printed for, and sold by C. Goddard in the High St, and sold by R. Walker in the little Old Bailey, and by all booksellers and pamphlet Shops. (Published November 9, 1751.) 3. A Letter from a Clergyman to Miss Mary Blandy with her Answer thereto .... As also Miss Blandy’s Own Narrative

1. The Female Forgery , Or Fatal Effects of Unlawful Love. J. Bew, No. 28 Paternoster Row. Price 1/6. “With a beautiful whole-length portrait of Mrs Rudd resolving whether to sign the Bond or forfeit her life. From the capital drawing of an eminent master.” (Published April 22, 1775.) 2. Forgery Unmasked , or Genuine Memoirs of the Two Unfortunate Brothers, Rob. and Daniel Perreau, and Mrs Rudd. A. Grant, Bridges Street, Covent Garden. Price 1/. “Illustrated with a New and Beautiful Engraving of

The Morning Post of Thursday, January 18, 1776, contains a long account of the execution of the Perreaus. There are full descriptions in the other newspapers. The report of the celebrated Mrs Rudd’s death in vol. lxx. is inaccurate, as reference to the parish register of Hardingstone, Northampton, shows that a Mrs William Rudd was buried on February 7, 1800. There is evidence that she died in 1779. The report of the celebrated Mrs Rudd’s death in vol. lxx. is inaccurate, as reference to the pari

V. Notes and Queries. Third Series, v. 404, 442, 500; vi. 35, 96, 176, 254. Fourth Series, viii. 548; ix. 99, 130, 197. Fifth Series, v. 20. Eighth Series, vii. 267; x. 196, 242, 426; xi. 32. Although both words and music may have been plagiarised from old Irish ballad and old Irish melody, it is probable that the story of Surgeon Robert Adair and Lady Caroline Keppel suggested the later version of John Braham, December 17, 1811. Note. —We are indebted to Sir Thomas Frankland for one of the most

1. Authentic Memoires of William Wynne Ryland. Printed for J. Ryall, No. 17 Lombard Street, 1784. Brit. Mus. As these Authentic Memoires do not present a very lucid account, it is necessary to place the principal events of Wynne Ryland’s career in chronological order:— Born November 2, 1733, in St John’s Street, Clerkenwell; the third son and fifth child of Edward and Mary Ryland. Baptized December 2, at St Martin’s Church, Ludgate, where his name appears in the register as William Wynn. Studied

Note. —The Morning Herald , May 5, and the Morning Post , August 28, 1783, state that Ryland left unfinished a plate of the Battle of Agincourt, after Mortimer. Angelica Kauffman , Ex. Academia Regali Artium Londini Published Sept r . 3; 1780 by John Boydell, London....

1. An Authentic Narrative of Joseph Wall Esqr. By a Military Gentleman. J. Roach, Britannia Printing Office. Russell Court, Drury Lane (1802). Brit. Mus. Except in the tract published by A. Young—a transparent plagiarism—there is no corroboration of the statement that Wall flogged to death a man named Paterson on the voyage out to Goree. As no reference is made in any contemporary newspapers, it seems probable that the ‘Military Gentleman’ has confused his materials. George Paterson, a soldier,

In the Morning Post of August 13, 1783, there appears the report of the court-martial held at the Horse Guards on July 7 and following days, which practically acquitted Wall of the charges brought against him by Captain Roberts. The Gazette of March 9, 1784, contains the King’s Proclamation, dated March 8, describing the personal appearance of the escaped prisoner, and offering a reward of £200 for his apprehension. To those who consult contemporary journals for a first time there will come a su

During the late autumn of 1792, a retired military man of amiable disposition and poetic temperament, who had made a recent tour through Cumberland and Westmoreland, published his impressions in a small volume which bore the title A Fortnight’s Ramble to the Lakes . The book displays the literary stamp of its period just as clearly as a coin indicates the reign in which it is moulded. Fashion had banished the rigour of the pedant in favour of idyllic simplicity. The well-groomed poet, who for so

1. Report of the Proceedings on the Trial of John Hatfield , London. Printed for A. H. Nairne and B. Mace. Sold by Crosby and Company price 6d. 1803. Brit. Mus. Although always spoken of as John Hatfield, the proper name of the ‘Keswick Impostor’ if the register of his baptism is an authority, was Hadfield. 2. The Life of Mary Robinson , the celebrated Beauty of Buttermere, Embellished with an elegant coloured Print. London. Printed by John Rhynd, 21 Ray Street, Cold Bath Fields. Sold by Crosby

Coleridge and the “Morning Post.” Three accounts from the pen of Coleridge, which appeared in the Morning Post of October 11, October 22, and November 5 respectively, under the titles “Romantic Marriage” and “The Fraudulent Marriage,” find a place in Coleridge’s “Essays on His Own Times,” edited by his daughter. The late Mr H. D. Traill, in his monograph in the “English Men of Letters” series, has pointed out (note, p. 80) that “it is impossible to believe that this collection, forming as it doe

In the year 1792—not one of the least disastrous in our annals of commerce—a small party of capitalists established a private bank under the name of Marsh, Sibbald & Company of Berners Street. The chief promoters—William Marsh, a naval agent, and James Sibbald of Sittwood Park, Berkshire, a retired official of Company John—were gentlemen of substance and position; while their managing partner, William Fauntleroy (previously employed at the famous house of Barclay), was a man of ability a

No complete balance-sheet of the Marsh-Stracey bankruptcy appears to exist. The books of the firm seem to have baffled both the Commissioners and the assignees; and so artfully had Fauntleroy concealed his frauds, that even skilled accountants did not succeed in unravelling the whole of their mysteries. Contemporary newspapers furnish many important clues, but their statements, when not conflicting, are neither lucid nor exhaustive. Yet, although many details must remain obscure, it is possible

1. The Morning Chronicle. Under the leadership of the famous John Black, this paper had become a somewhat fat and stodgy production, savouring of the ‘unco guid’ It is fierce in its attacks upon Fauntleroy’s partners for their indolence and carelessness, and pleads that mercy shall be shown to the offender. Special prominence is given to the pious conversations alleged to have taken place in Newgate between the prisoner and his spiritual advisers Messrs Springett and Baker. Since this paper is n

Note I. — Pierce Egan’s Account of the Trial of H. Fauntleroy. Knight and Lacey, 1824. No one excelled the historian of the Prize Ring in this style of literature, and his two other similar works, the Life of Samuel Denmore Hayward (1822), and the Account of the Trial of John Thurtell (1824), will remain text-books for all time. Pierce Egan makes a note (p. 21) that Mr. Fauntleroy has never used a ‘slang expression’ during his imprisonment. The surprise indicated by this comment is natural, for,