LIVES OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS CRIMINALS

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LIVES OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS CRIMINALS:
POPULAR LITERATURE OF CRIME IN ENGLAND, 1675- 1775
Andrea Katherine McKenzie
A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Graduate Depamnent of History
University of Toronto
Topyright by Andrea Katherine McKenzie, 1999
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Abstract
LIVES OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS CRIMINAS:
POPULAR LITERATURE OF CRIME IN ENGLAND, 1675-1775
by
Andrea Katherine McKenzie
Doctor of Philosophy, 1999
Department of History, University of Toronto
This dissertation provides the first comprehensive study of the vast body of criminai
literature-ranging from individual "liveswa nd "Last Dying Confessions" of the condemned,
to longer collections of trials and criminal biographies-which proliferated in England in the
late seventeenîh and early eighteendi cenmry. Traditionally considered to "fdl below the
dignified historian's horizon linew,s ignificant only insofar as it constituted an antecedent to
reaiist fiction the novel, this literature has only in the last decade or so attracted serious
academic interest. However, ment studies have tended to use this material selectively,
focusing on the extent to which it can be seen as a "fit" for the preoccupations and (largely
subconscious) emotionai requirernents of its audience, telling us less about the " r d " lives of
inminals than the Society which produced them. However, this thesis demonstrates not only
the importance of distinguishing between the different genres of criminal literature and the
way in which they changed over time, but of acknowledging the degree to which such texts
were invested with multiple meanings. Indeed, both the inherent arnbiguity of such literature
and the seemingly insatiable public interest in the lives of early eighteenth-century criminais
facilitated a certain freedom of expression on the part of the condemned--who were often able
to shape or even appropnate the medium of the "Last Dying Confession" for their own ends.
Abstract wnt,
This thesis argues that criminals themselves were willing to subscribe to a definition of
crime as an individual failure of a moral order and as a product of universal human
depravity-which, in the context of a world in which al1 people were rogues or simers but
where only a few were called upon to expiate their crimes, could be not only empowering but
even faintly subversive. This relatively open forum was to close over the course of the
eighteenth century as interest in the individual lives of "cornmon" criminals waned and
criminality was gradually redefined in environmentai terms: however, for a brief pend, the
highwayman or petty pilferer was cast, not on1 y as " Everyman" , but as a principal actor in
hisher own life.
.. .
I l l
Acknowledgements
In the course of researching and writing this thesis 1 have accumulated many debts,
some more difficult to discharge than others. 1 must first of al1 thank my farnily-my parents
and my sister-without whom this project, among other things, would have probably been
impossible. 1 cannot adequately express my gratitude towards my rnother and father for their
generosity and emotional support. 1 am also grateful to the University of Toronto, the
govemment of Ontario and the William Goodenough Foundation of Canada for providing
much-needed financiai assistance. 1 have been fortunate, a h , in the many generous
insmictors at the University of Toronto who have employed me as a research or teaching
assistant. For that matter, 1 am also thankhi1 to the many students who over the years proved
not only a joy to teach, but often provided me with insight into my own work, and-not least-
-helped remind me why I wanted to become a historian in the first place.
1 cannot give enough thanks to Jennifer Francisco, Jan Hazelton, Kim Donaldson,
Marion Harris and al1 the rest of the tmly outstanding and always cheerful and kindhearted
administrative staff at the Department of History. 1 am particularly gratefùl to the Centre of
Crirninology at the University of Toronto, which has provided sornething of a second home
for me while 1 was completing my degree: the friendship and support of the staff, faculty,
students and Junior Fellows at the Centre has rneant more to me than 1 can say. I must thank
in particular Monica Bristol, Rita Donelan, Tony Doob, Tom Findlay, Rosemary Gartner,
Clifford Shearing, Philip Ste~ingC, arolyn Strange and Mariana Valverde. 1 owe thanks
also to the staff and fellow residents of William Goodenough House, as well as to the
members of the Instinite of Historical Research, who helped make my stay in London such an
enjoyable one. 1 am also grateful to the staff at the British Library, the Bodleian Library, the
John Rylands Library, the Bishopsgate Reference Library, the Guildhall Library, the
Corporation of London Record Office and the City of Westminster Archives. 1 am also much
indebted to ail those involved in compiling and microfilming both the Wing Early English
Books and the Eighteenth-Century Short Title CaWogue: their work has helped make my
own more manageable. Last but certainly not least, I am grateful to both the resources and
the staff of the Fisher Rare Book Room and the John P. Robarts Library in Toronto. 1 would
like to thank in parhcular Joan Links and the rest of the wonderful staff in Robarts' Microtext
Division, whom 1 cannot praise too highly for their efficiency and perhaps especially, their
friendliness and good humour.
1 owe deep gratitude towards the many professors who have freely shared not only
their knowledge, but who have generously given both of their time and their encouragement.
1 must thank in particular Michael Finlayson, Richard Helmstadter, Susan Houston, Ann
Kussmaul and Michael Treadwell. 1 would aiso like to thank Randall McGowan, John
Money and Elaine Reynolds, who have kindly provided references. Donna Andrew has k en
particularly generous in matters both great and small-from teaching me how to use my e-
mail account, to offering valuable insight and advice. The members of my committee have
been especially helpfbl and supportive: Barbara Todd has offered constant encouragement
and useful criticism; 1 owe Nick Rogers, who supe~sedm y master's p a p a and who has
graciously continued to act as a mentor, a special debt of gratitude. While we have not
always agreed, 1 been inspired both by his work and by my own desire to prove to him that I
have learned something in eight years.
I am grateful to many people at the Centre of Criminology, the Deputment of History
at York and at the University of Toronto, to many people both inside and outside of
academe, whose support and friendship has helped sustain me during the last six years.
Some who have offered the most material assistance include Megan Armstrong, Penny
Bryden, Kelly BueIIer, Sophie Carter, Michele Cauch, Phi1 Coogan, Myma Dawson,
Margaret Derry, Faith Eiboff, Paul Griffiths, Kevin Haggerty, Matthew and Michelle
Hendley, Tim lenks, David Kimmel, Kim Kippen, Voula Marinos, Allison Kirk-
Montgomery, Michelle Leung , Renisa Mawani, Shelley McKellar, Denise Smith, Jane Sprott,
Sara Stratton, Kim Varma, Jessic. Wamer, Dan White and lennifer Wood. In particular 1
must thank my best friend and kindest critic, Elaine Naylor; Allyson May and Greg Smith,
colleagues who have become dear friends; and another colleague who has become so much
more, Simon Devereaux. His support and encouragement-and, not least, affection-has
brightened rny darkest moments.
My most heartfelt thanks of d l go out to John Beanie. Although I fear I have often
tried his patience, and have sometimes neglected (to my own detriment) his advice, he has
been, from beginning to end, a bottomless source of knowledge, gentle criticism, kindly
encouragement and amazing good humour; in short, an ideal supervisor and a rnost treasured
friend .
Table of Contents
Acknow Iedgements
Abbreviations
PART 1: FROM GRUB STREET TO ACADEME
1. Introduction: Popular Literature of Crime in England, 1675-1775
i. Introduction
ii. "The Sport and Ridicule of vain, idle Feilows in Coffee-Houses":
the Audience for the "Popuiar" Litermre of Crime
iii. Literacy in Engiand, c. 1675-1750
iv. "The Dignified Historian's Horizon Line": The Historiography of the
Literature of Crime
II. Malring Crime Pay: Marketing (and Justifying) the Literature of Crime
i . Introduction
ii . The Market: Conventions and Constraints
.a
111. " Entertainment Joined with Instmction"
iv. Confession is G d fo r the Soul (and for Sales)
v. Marketing the "Truth"
vi. Semng the Record Straight
vii. The value of a "€ree, full and ingenuous Confession"
PART II: SOURCES
III. The Rogue tradition: "Lives" of highwaymen.
i. Introduction
ii. Rogue Literature before 1714: Cony-Catching
and Beggar Pamphlets as Social Satire
iii. From Cony-Catcher to Highwayman: Sh ifnng Criminal Stereorypes
iv. Great Villains and Honest Rogues
v. The Highwayman as Social Avenger
vi. "Gross Obscenity, aukward cant, and dulI Profaneness":
The Uses of Pornography and Scatoiogy
vii. "Al1 are Fish that Corne to the Net": The Limits of Social Satire
viii. Rogue Stones as Orai Tradition
ix. The Deciine of the Highwayman Tradition
Table of Contents cont.
IV. The Confessional Tradition: The Ordinary of Newgate's Account 143
Part 1. The Ordinary of Newgate and his "ungratefui and melaacholy ~ffice"
i. Introduction 147
ii. For "gain and filthy lucre" 153
iii . The Ordinary as "Q uestion-monger" 159
iv. The Ordinary as " Plain-Dealer" 164
v. Changing Perceptions of the Ordinary:
from "B-p" to "Bishop of the Ceils" 173
vi. "1 much pitied him, but fear'd him not in the leastw 187
Part II. The Evolution of the Account
i. Introduction 193
ii. The Emergence of the Account as a "semi-official" publication 196
.*-
LU. "A Silly Paper.. .s tuff d with.. .incredible Stones and robbenes" :
Applebee and his "Appendix" 20 1
iv. "A Genuine Relation of Facts Oniy": the uses (and limits) of "the truth" 207
v. "A state paper, purely for the opportunity of setting the Public right" :
the Accoum under Mary Cooper 210
vi. An "attempt to describe low life in affliction" : the Decline of the A c c o ~ 227
V. The Legal Tradition: The Select Trials
i. Introduction
ii. The Sessions Papen
iii. The Select Trials
iv. Trial literature afier 1742
PART III: LIVING WICKEDLY, DYING WELL: THEMES IN CRIMINAL LITERATURE
VI. Wicked Hearts and Violent Temptations: Contemporary Expianations
for Criminality
i. Introduction 269
ii. "The Wages of Sin is Death": from Church-yard to Tybum Tree 272
..-
111. "Guiit is the Offspring of the Heart": Nature Versus Numire 286
iv. "Not Poverty, bur oniy her Wicked Hem Inclined ber to Commit
the Crime": the ConRict between Free Wiil and "Necessityw 296
VII. Strategies for Dying Weil: "Dying Game" andor
"at Peace with Al1 the World"
Generai Introduction
Part I. The value of a "free, full and ingenuous Confession"
i. Introduction
ii. Dying Penitent
iii.7 have been frai1 in common wiéh the rest of mankind"
iv. Exonerating "Fnends"
v. "Dying in Peace with all the World"
vii
Table of Contents cont-
Part II. Dying Game
i . 1n troduction
ii. "To die like a Man": The Rise of the "Game" Criminal
iii. Hanging Iike a "Hero"
iv. The Highwayman as "Knight of the Road"
v. " Expressions. .. B etter St ifled than Repeated"
VIII. Honest Molk and Masculine Fernales: Women in the Literature of Crime
i . Introduction
ii. Women in Rogue Literamre: Liberty-loving "Amazons" and other Curiosities
iii. SeMng Mars or Venus?: the Meaning of Crossdressing Heroines
iv. Wornen of "rough and masculine Temper": Deconstnicting the
Eighteenth-Century Femaie Criminai
v. Common Whores and Foriom Creatures: the Course of the "Failen Woman"
PART IV: EPiLûGUE AND CONCLUSION
IX. The Newgate Caiendars, c. 1764-1820: Changing Audiences,
Changing Attitudes?
i. Introduction
ii. Changing Audiences, Changing Sensibilities?
iii. Towards a "Criminai Class"?
iv. Shifung Paradigms, c. 1745- 1820
TABLES
Table 1: Criminais Condemned at the Old Bailey, Repneved and Executed from
1 November 1700 to 3 1 October 1718
Table 2: Male and Femaie Criminals Reprieved and Executed
in 34 Ordinary's Accounts, 1713-1730
Table 3: Male and Femaie Criminals Repneved and Executed
in 22 OrdinaryTsA ccounts, 1741-1746
APPENDTX
The Ordinaries and their Account c. 1675-1760
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Select Primary Bibliography
Select Secondary Bibliography of Works Published afier 1900
viii
Abbreviations
Works freqently cited in the notes have been identified by the following short titles. M e r s
have been cited in full at the first occurrence in each chapter. Many of the longer titles cited
in this work, but not inciuded in this list of abbreviations, have b e n shortened slightly.
Omissions are indicated by ellipses. Names of publishers of primas, sources are omined
after 1800; uniess otherwise noted, place of publication for primary sources is London.
A n ~ ohf N augate (1776) "The Rev. Mr. Villette, Ordinary of Newgate, and
othersw. The Annais of Naugate; or, Malefactor's
Register. Çontaining a Particular and circumstanhbl
Account of the Lives, Tramadom, and Trials of the
most notorious Maiefactors, who have saered an
ignomrmniouDse ah for their mences, viz, for Parricide,
Murder, Treason, Robbery, Burglary, Piracy, CoimIUng,
Forgery and Rapes.. .4 vols. ( J . Wenman, 17%).
Ekattie, Crime and the Courts J . M . Beattie, Crime and the Courts in England 166û-
1800 (Princeton, 1986).
Bbody Register ( 1 764) The Bloody Register. A Select und Judicious Collection
of the Most Remurkable Triak, for Murder, Treason,
Rape, Sodony, Highway, Robbery, Pyracy, Home-
Breaking, fequry, Forgery, and other high Crimes und
Misdemeanours. From the Year 1700, tu the Year 1764
inciusive.. . 4 vols. (E. and M. Viney, 1764).
CLRO Corporation of London Record Office
N. B., A Complem Cottection of Remarkable Tryalr of
the most Notonous Malefàctors, ut the Sessions-House in
the Old M y , f or near Fifrv Years past.. .T ogether with
A panicular Account of their BehaMour under Sentence
of ileuth, and Dying-Speeches. FcuCUtizfuCIIyo llected
from the Booh of Tryals, and Papen of Mr. Smith, Mr.
Allen, Mr. Wikes [sic], and Mr. Lomzin, Ordinan'es of
Navgde, fiom the fint Printing 4 them, down tu this
present The: A n d m o ther Arnhentick Narrarives. 4
vols. ( J . Philips, 17 18-1720).
The Eiizabethan Undenvorld=A collection of T d u r and
early S m n t racts and boiladr telling of the tives and
misdoings of vagatrondc, thieves, rogues and cozeners,
and giving some accuunt of the operation of the criminal
law, ed. A. V. Judges (1930).