Defoe on Sheppard and Wild: The True and Genuine Account of the Life and Actions of the Late Jonathan Wild by Daniel Defoe. Richard Holmes
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is gone once more upon his wicked range in the world. Restless vengeance is pursuing; and, gentlemen, ‘t is to be hoped that she will be assisted by your endeavours to bring to justice this notorious offender.
THE LIFE OF JOHN SHEPPARD, &c.
This John Sheppard, a youth both in age and person, though an old man in sin, was born in the parish of Stepney, near London, in the year 1702, a son, grandson, and great-grandson of a carpenter. His father died when he was so very young that he could not recollect that ever he saw him. Thus the burden of his maintenance, together with his brother’s and sister’s, lay upon the shoulders of the widow mother, who soon procured an admittance of her son John into the workhouse in Bishopsgate Street, where he continued for the space of a year and a half, and in that time received an education sufficient to qualify him for the trade his mother designed him, viz., a carpenter. Accordingly, she was recommended to Mr Wood, in Wych Street, near Drury Lane, as a master capable of entertaining and instructing her son. They agreed, and bound he was for the space of seven years. The lad proved an early proficient, had a ready and ingenious hand, and soon became master of his business, and gave entire satisfaction to his master’s customers, and had the character of a very sober and orderly boy. But, alas, unhappy youth! before he had completed six years of his apprenticeship he commenced a fatal acquaintance with one Elizabeth Lyon, otherwise called Edgworth Bess, from a town of that name in Middlesex, where she was born, the reputed wife of a foot-soldier, and who lived a wicked and debauched life; and our young carpenter became enamoured of her, and they must cohabit together as man and wile.
Now was laid the foundation of his ruin. Sheppard grows weary of the yoke of servitude, and began to dispute with his master, telling him that his way of jobbing from house to house was not sufficient to furnish him with a due experience in his trade, and that if he would not set out to undertake some buildings, he would step into the world for better information. Mr Wood, a mild, sober, honest man, indulged him; and Mrs Wood with tears exhorted him against the company of this lewd prostitute. But her man, prompted and hardened by his harlot, d—n’d her blood, and threw a stick at his mistress, and beat her to the ground. And being with his master at work at Mr Britt’s, the Sun Ale-house, near Islington, upon a very trivial occasion fell upon his master, and beat and bruised him in a most barbarous and shameful manner. Such a sudden and deplorable change was there in the behaviour of this promising young man. Next ensued a neglect of duty, both to God and his master, lying out of nights, perpetual jarrings, and animosities; these and such like were the consequences of his intimacy with this she-lion, who by the sequel will appear to have been a main loadstone in attracting him up to this eminence of guilt.
Mr Wood having reason to suspect that Sheppard had robbed a neighbour, began to be in great fear and terror for himself, and when his man came not home in due season at nights, barred him out; but he made a mere jest of the locks and bolts, and entered in and out at pleasure; and when Mr Wood and his wife have had all the reason in the world to believe him locked out, they have found him very quiet in his bed the next morning, such was the power of his early magic.
Edgworth Bess having stolen a gold ring from a gentleman whom she had picked up in the streets, was sent to St Giles’s round-house. Sheppard went immediately to his consort, and after a short discourse with Mr Brown, the beadle, and his wife, who had the care of the place, he fell upon the poor old couple, took the keys from them, and let his lady out at the door, in spite of all the outcries and opposition they were capable of making.
About July 1723, he was, by his master, sent to perform a repair at the house of Mr Bains, a piece-broker in Whitehorse Yard; he from thence stole a roll of fustian, containing twenty-four yards, which was afterwards found in his trunk. This is supposed to be the first robbery he ever committed; and it was not long ere he repeated another upon this same Mr Bains by breaking into his house in the night time, and taking out of the till seven pounds in money, and goods to the value of fourteen pounds more. How he entered this house was a secret till his being last committed to Newgate, when he confessed that he took up the iron bars at the cellar window, and after he had done his business he nailed them down again, so that Mr Bains never believed his house had been broke; and an innocent woman, a lodger in the house, lay all the while under the weight of a suspicion of committing the robbery.
Sheppard and his master had now parted, ten months before the expiration of his apprenticeship - a woeful parting to the former. He was gone from a good and careful patronage, and lay exposed to, and complied with, the temptations of the most wicked wretches this town could afford, as Joseph Blake, alias Blueskin, William Field, Doleing, James Sykes, alias Hell and Fury, which last was the first that betrayed and put him into the hands of justice, as will presently appear.
Having deserted his master’s service, he took shelter in the house of Mr Charles, in Mayfair, near Piccadilly, and his landlord having a necessity for some repairs in his house, engaged one Mr Panton, a carpenter, to undertake them, and Sheppard to assist him as a journeyman; but on the 23rd of October 1723, ere the work was complete, Sheppard took occasion to rob the people of the effects following - viz., seven pounds ten shillings in specie, five large silver spoons, six plain forks ditto, four tea-spoons, six plain gold rings and a cipher ring, four suits of wearing apparel, besides linen to a considerable value. This fact he confessed to the Rev. Mr Wagstaff before his escape from the condemned hold of Newgate.
Sheppard had a brother named Thomas, a carpenter by profession, though a notorious thief and house-breaker by practice. This Thomas being committed to Newgate for breaking the house of Mrs Mary Cook, a linen-draper in Clare Market, on the 5th of February last, and stealing goods to the value of between fifty and sixty pounds, he impeached his brother, John Sheppard, and Edgworth Bess as being concerned with him in the fact; and these three were also charged with being concerned together in breaking the house of Mr William Phillips, in Drury Lane, and stealing divers goods, the property of Mrs Kendrick, a lodger in the house, on the 14th of the said February. All possible endeavours were used by Mrs Cook and Mr Phillips to get John Sheppard and Edgworth Bess apprehended, but to no purpose till the following accident.
Sheppard was now upon his wicked range in London, committing robberies everywhere at discretion; but one day meeting with his acquaintance, James Sykes, alias Hell and Fury, sometimes a chairman, and at others a running footman, this Sykes invited him to go to one Redgate’s, a victualling house near the Seven Dials, to play at skittles. Sheppard complied, and Sykes secretly sent for Mr Price, a constable in St Giles’s parish, and charged him with his friend Sheppard, for the robbing of Mrs Cook, &c. Sheppard was carried before Justice Parry, who ordered him to St Giles’s round-house till the next morning for further examination. He was confined in the upper part of the place, being two storeys from the ground, but ere two hours came about, by only the help of a razor and the stretcher of a chair, he broke open the top of the round-house, and tying together a sheet and a blanket, by them descended into the churchyard and escaped, leaving the parish to repair the damage, and repent of the affront put upon his skill and capacity.
On the 19th of May last, in the evening, Sheppard, with another robber named Benson, were passing through Leicester Fields, where a gentleman stood accusing a woman with an attempt to steal his watch. A mob was gathered round the disputants, and Sheppard’s companion, being a master, got in amongst them and picked the gentleman’s pocket in good earnest of the watch. The scene was surprisingly changed from an imaginary robbery to a real one, and in a moment ensued an outcry of ‘Stop thief.’ Sheppard and Benson took to their heels, and Sheppard was seized by a sergeant of the guard at Leicester House, crying out ‘Stop thief’ with much earnestness. He was conveyed to St Ann’s round-house in Soho, and kept secure till the next morning, when Edgworth Bess came to visit him, who was seized also. They were carried before Justice Walters, when the people in Drury Lane and Clare Market appeared and charged them with the robberies afore mentioned. But Sheppard pretending to impeach several of his accomplices, the Justice committed them to New Prison, with intent to have them soon removed to Newgate, unless there came from them some useful discoveries. Sheppard was now a second time in the hands of justice, but how long he intended to keep in them the reader will soon be able to judge.
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