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Thief-Takers, House-Breakers and Highwaymen: Jonathan
Wild and Organised Crime in Early Georgian London
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Stephen Basdeo
!
299
…
Info
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DOCX
77140072
Thief Takers, House-Breakers, and Highwaymen:
Jonathan Wild and Organised Crime in Early-Georgian London
Organised crime is generally considered to be a modern phenomenon, yet it appears that it has ex
further back in history than is generally assumed (Galeotti, 2009, p.1). London in the early-eighte
century was a period in which Thief Takers, house-breakers and highwaymen flourished. Jonathan W
(c.1682-1725) built one of Britain‟s first organised crime networks. An examination of the way th
operated indicates that organised crime …show more content…
did indeed exist in early-eighteenth century London, and that far from being a modern phenomenon.
Organised crime has proven to be difficult to define. There is no single definition upon w
policy-makers and academics agree.
This is because „this “thing”, this phenomenon known as organ
crime, cannot be defined by crimes alone…Any definition, must address and account for the elu
modifying term organised’ (Finckenaur, 2005, p.64). Many crimes are organised, in that they requ
degree of organisation to be carried out, but not all crimes count as „organised crime‟ (Finckenaur, 2
p.76). Galeotti defines the term as, „a continuing enterprise, apart from traditional legal and s
structures, within which a number of persons work together under their own hierarchy to gain power profit for their private gain through illegal activities‟ (Galeotti, 2009, p.6). Thus for a criminal gang
classed as an organised crime network there has to be a structure or hierarchy within which its mem acting under instructions, engage in illegal acts for the sake of profit.
Just as people today receive their understanding of organised crime through the media and films such
The Godfather (1972) it was no different in the early-eighteenth century. Indeed „crime has always be
a sure-fire topic for the entertainment of the public‟ (Cawelti, 1975, p.326). Plays such as The Beggar
Opera (1728) featured criminals as their heroes. Publications such as The Newgate Calendar …show more content…
supposed
gave contemporary readers „a true, fair and perfect narrative‟ of the lives and trials of condemn
criminals (Emsley, Hitchcock & Shoemaker, 2013). In addition, there was a thriving trade in „La
Dying Speeches‟ of criminals. These single-sheet pages containing short biographies and ballads we
often sold at public executions (HLSL, 2013). Novels and criminal biographies such as Smith‟s T
History of the Most Noted Highway-Men, House-Breakers, Shoplifts, and Cheats (1714) present
77140072
embellished accounts of the lives of criminals. Often their lives are presented as one in which, through
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) likely penned one pamphlet entitled The True and Genuine Account of t life of sin and vice, they eventually ended up at the gallows (Faller, 1987, p.126). The readership for th
Life and Actions of the Late Jonathan Wild (1725). Probably the most famous account of Wild‟s li literature came primarily from „men and women of small property‟ (Langford, 1989, p.157). B comes from the mid-eighteenth century novel The Life of Jonathan Wild, the Great (1743) by Hen depicting the story of how criminals eventually ended at Tyburn by becoming involved in crime, th
Fielding (1707-1754). Despite the fact that many such accounts were often embellished, th stories served a didactic purpose. By heeding the lessons in the biographies, readers could supposed nevertheless offer fascinating glimpses into the ways in which eighteenth-century criminals, in particu avoid the same fate (McKeon, 1987, p.98). Regarding Jonathan Wild himself there are several source
Wild himself, operated.
In what type of a society, then, does organised crime emerge and flourish? English society was
unequal in the eighteenth century. Most of the working population lived below the breadline, and the
1.2 per cent of the population controlled 14 per cent of the wealth of the nation (Porter, 1982, pp.14-
For the most part, „the poor were regarded as a class apart; to be ignored except when their hardships m
them boisterous‟ (Williams, 1960, p.129). Additionally, the laws were often seen as weighted in favo
the rich against the poor. The law, made by those at the top of society, „allowed the rulers of Englan
make the courts a selective instrument of class justice, yet simultaneously to proclaim the l
incorruptible impartiality and absolute determinacy‟ (Hay, 1975, p.48). In The Beggar’s Opera there
scene in which a group of highwaymen are gathered in a tavern. One hi ghwayman asks of the other, „
are the Laws levell‟d at us? are we more dishonest than the rest of Mankind?‟ (Gay, 1728, p.25). Moreo
London was not a pleasant place in the early-eighteenth century. In the literature of the time, the recu motifs of London were often „squalor, pestilence, ordure, [and] poverty‟ (Rogers, 1972, p.3). Pickard
s that, „the average poor family lived in one furnished room, paying a weekly rent of perhaps 2s, less
room in the cellar…the house itself might be old…or it might be new, run up out of nothing in back al
(Pickard, 2000, p.64). In this squalid environment, with its ever growing alleyways and rookeries, was virtually no organised system of law enforcement. In fact, London did not have a professional,
police force until 1829 with the passage of the Metropolitan Police Act. Organised crime usually eme
„out of the vacuum that is created by the absence of state [law] enforcement‟ (Skaperdas, 2001, p.1
That is to say, that the state is either unwilling or unable to enforce its own laws. Yet eighteenth-cen
contemporaries appeared quite contented with this state of affairs. Jealous as they were of their hard
liberties since the Glorious Revolution 1689, they were resistant to the idea of having a uniformed
77140072 professional police service. It seemed tyrannical, and more suited to despotic foreign states w
monarchs were absolutists (Porter, 1982, p.119). One of the most serious crimes during this period wa
The great Increase of Robbers within these few years…[will make] the Streets of this Town
Roads as leading it…impassable without thesacrosanct utmost Hazard, nor2000, are we threatened withrob se theft of the property, privatetoproperty was deemed to be
(Hoppit,
p.480).
By 1751 less dangerous Gangs of Rogues among us, than those which the Italians call the banditti (Fiel and theft were deemed to have reached such hellish proportions that Henry Fielding felt compelled to w
1751, p.1). aThus pamphlet entitled Enquirynumbers into the of
Causes
ofcriminal the Great
Increase
of Robbers,
&c. inLondon which he to Fielding the An increasing various gangs operating in and around wa that: issue which he felt deserved action.
Before Fielding established London‟s first law enforcement agency in 1749 called the Bow S
Runners, the prosecution of crime was left to the victim. The victim paid the court to bring a prosecu against an offender. Part-time and unpaid parish constables usually arrested criminals if they caught
„red-handed‟, or as the result of their capture through the „hue-and-cry‟ (Hitchcock & Shoemaker, 2
p.1). One result of this haphazard system of crime prevention was that many victims bypassed
expensive judicial system by going to see their local Thief Taker. An interview would be held with
victim of the crime, ascertaining what items were stolen. For a fee thief takers would then arrang miraculously recover the said stolen items (Hoppit, 2000, p.486). Thief Takers were individuals
appear to have occupied a hazy position on the borders of both the „upper -world‟ and the „underworld
Moore says, usually they were:
Receivers of stolen goods, or fences, whose knowledge of the criminal world provided them unique access to criminals…by the 1710s thief taking had become a complex trade invo
blackmail, informing, bribery, framing and organisation of theft (Moore, 1997, p.60).
Despite their often obviously corrupt ways of operating, however, it should be noted that these individ
did play an important part in early-modern law enforcement, for without them „too much crime woul unpunished‟ (Hitchcock & Shoemaker, 2006, p.3). Hence the inadequate system of law enforcement in early-eighteenth century gave figures such as Thief Takers a degree of legitimacy.
Jonathan Wild occupied a simultaneous position as both Thief Taker and underworld crime
He was born in Wolverhampton to honest and hard-working parents. He had a wife and bore a son
unable to make it in his chosen trade as a buckle maker, he abandoned his wife and child and we
London. In London he fell upon hard times and found himself in the Wood Street Compter for
(Defoe[?], 1725, pp.77-79). It was here that he first became acquainted with the criminal underworld. A
he was released from the Compter, he set up an establishment in the St. Giles area of London, a
quickly became a favourite haunt of thieves, prostitutes, and highwaymen. The St. Giles residence wa first time that Wild tried his fortunes as a receiver of stolen goods. He was originally in the emplo
another prominent Thief Taker, Charles Hitchin (c.1675-1727). However, Wild gradually moved to
Hitchin from the business altogether, and achieved this partly by penning a tract exposing Hitc
homosexuality (Moore, 1997, p.85). Hitchin was subsequently disgraced, and Wild proclaimed him
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Thief-Takers, House-Breakers and Highwaymen: Jonathan
Wild and Organised Crime in Early Georgian London
Uploaded by
Stephen Basdeo
!
299
…
Info
#
Download
DOCX
77140072
Thief Takers, House-Breakers, and Highwaymen:
Jonathan Wild and Organised Crime in Early-Georgian London
Organised crime is generally considered to be a modern phenomenon, yet it appears that it has ex
further back in history than is generally assumed (Galeotti, 2009, p.1). London in the early-eighte
century was a period in which Thief Takers, house-breakers and highwaymen flourished. Jonathan W
(c.1682-1725) built one of Britain‟s first organised crime networks. An examination of the way th
operated indicates that organised crime …show more content…
did indeed exist in early-eighteenth century London, and that far from being a modern phenomenon.
Organised crime has proven to be difficult to define. There is no single definition upon w
policy-makers and academics agree.
This is because „this “thing”, this phenomenon known as organ
crime, cannot be defined by crimes alone…Any definition, must address and account for the elu
modifying term organised’ (Finckenaur, 2005, p.64). Many crimes are organised, in that they requ
degree of organisation to be carried out, but not all crimes count as „organised crime‟ (Finckenaur, 2
p.76). Galeotti defines the term as, „a continuing enterprise, apart from traditional legal and s
structures, within which a number of persons work together under their own hierarchy to gain power profit for their private gain through illegal activities‟ (Galeotti, 2009, p.6). Thus for a criminal gang
classed as an organised crime network there has to be a structure or hierarchy within which its mem acting under instructions, engage in illegal acts for the sake of profit.
Just as people today receive their understanding of organised crime through the media and films such
The Godfather (1972) it was no different in the early-eighteenth century. Indeed „crime has always be
a sure-fire topic for the entertainment of the public‟ (Cawelti, 1975, p.326). Plays such as The Beggar
Opera (1728) featured criminals as their heroes. Publications such as The Newgate Calendar …show more content…
supposed
gave contemporary readers „a true, fair and perfect narrative‟ of the lives and trials of condemn
criminals (Emsley, Hitchcock & Shoemaker, 2013). In addition, there was a thriving trade in „La
Dying Speeches‟ of criminals. These single-sheet pages containing short biographies and ballads we
often sold at public executions (HLSL, 2013). Novels and criminal biographies such as Smith‟s T
History of the Most Noted Highway-Men, House-Breakers, Shoplifts, and Cheats (1714) present
77140072
embellished accounts of the lives of criminals. Often their lives are presented as one in which, through
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) likely penned one pamphlet entitled The True and Genuine Account of t life of sin and vice, they eventually ended up at the gallows (Faller, 1987, p.126). The readership for th
Life and Actions of the Late Jonathan Wild (1725). Probably the most famous account of Wild‟s li literature came primarily from „men and women of small property‟ (Langford, 1989, p.157). B comes from the mid-eighteenth century novel The Life of Jonathan Wild, the Great (1743) by Hen depicting the story of how criminals eventually ended at Tyburn by becoming involved in crime, th
Fielding (1707-1754). Despite the fact that many such accounts were often embellished, th stories served a didactic purpose. By heeding the lessons in the biographies, readers could supposed nevertheless offer fascinating glimpses into the ways in which eighteenth-century criminals, in particu avoid the same fate (McKeon, 1987, p.98). Regarding Jonathan Wild himself there are several source
Wild himself, operated.
In what type of a society, then, does organised crime emerge and flourish? English society was
unequal in the eighteenth century. Most of the working population lived below the breadline, and the
1.2 per cent of the population controlled 14 per cent of the wealth of the nation (Porter, 1982, pp.14-
For the most part, „the poor were regarded as a class apart; to be ignored except when their hardships m
them boisterous‟ (Williams, 1960, p.129). Additionally, the laws were often seen as weighted in favo
the rich against the poor. The law, made by those at the top of society, „allowed the rulers of Englan
make the courts a selective instrument of class justice, yet simultaneously to proclaim the l
incorruptible impartiality and absolute determinacy‟ (Hay, 1975, p.48). In The Beggar’s Opera there
scene in which a group of highwaymen are gathered in a tavern. One hi ghwayman asks of the other, „
are the Laws levell‟d at us? are we more dishonest than the rest of Mankind?‟ (Gay, 1728, p.25). Moreo
London was not a pleasant place in the early-eighteenth century. In the literature of the time, the recu motifs of London were often „squalor, pestilence, ordure, [and] poverty‟ (Rogers, 1972, p.3). Pickard
s that, „the average poor family lived in one furnished room, paying a weekly rent of perhaps 2s, less
room in the cellar…the house itself might be old…or it might be new, run up out of nothing in back al
(Pickard, 2000, p.64). In this squalid environment, with its ever growing alleyways and rookeries, was virtually no organised system of law enforcement. In fact, London did not have a professional,
police force until 1829 with the passage of the Metropolitan Police Act. Organised crime usually eme
„out of the vacuum that is created by the absence of state [law] enforcement‟ (Skaperdas, 2001, p.1
That is to say, that the state is either unwilling or unable to enforce its own laws. Yet eighteenth-cen
contemporaries appeared quite contented with this state of affairs. Jealous as they were of their hard
liberties since the Glorious Revolution 1689, they were resistant to the idea of having a uniformed
77140072 professional police service. It seemed tyrannical, and more suited to despotic foreign states w
monarchs were absolutists (Porter, 1982, p.119). One of the most serious crimes during this period wa
The great Increase of Robbers within these few years…[will make] the Streets of this Town
Roads as leading it…impassable without thesacrosanct utmost Hazard, nor2000, are we threatened withrob se theft of the property, privatetoproperty was deemed to be
(Hoppit,
p.480).
By 1751 less dangerous Gangs of Rogues among us, than those which the Italians call the banditti (Fiel and theft were deemed to have reached such hellish proportions that Henry Fielding felt compelled to w
1751, p.1). aThus pamphlet entitled Enquirynumbers into the of
Causes
ofcriminal the Great
Increase
of Robbers,
&c. inLondon which he to Fielding the An increasing various gangs operating in and around wa that: issue which he felt deserved action.
Before Fielding established London‟s first law enforcement agency in 1749 called the Bow S
Runners, the prosecution of crime was left to the victim. The victim paid the court to bring a prosecu against an offender. Part-time and unpaid parish constables usually arrested criminals if they caught
„red-handed‟, or as the result of their capture through the „hue-and-cry‟ (Hitchcock & Shoemaker, 2
p.1). One result of this haphazard system of crime prevention was that many victims bypassed
expensive judicial system by going to see their local Thief Taker. An interview would be held with
victim of the crime, ascertaining what items were stolen. For a fee thief takers would then arrang miraculously recover the said stolen items (Hoppit, 2000, p.486). Thief Takers were individuals
appear to have occupied a hazy position on the borders of both the „upper -world‟ and the „underworld
Moore says, usually they were:
Receivers of stolen goods, or fences, whose knowledge of the criminal world provided them unique access to criminals…by the 1710s thief taking had become a complex trade invo
blackmail, informing, bribery, framing and organisation of theft (Moore, 1997, p.60).
Despite their often obviously corrupt ways of operating, however, it should be noted that these individ
did play an important part in early-modern law enforcement, for without them „too much crime woul unpunished‟ (Hitchcock & Shoemaker, 2006, p.3). Hence the inadequate system of law enforcement in early-eighteenth century gave figures such as Thief Takers a degree of legitimacy.
Jonathan Wild occupied a simultaneous position as both Thief Taker and underworld crime
He was born in Wolverhampton to honest and hard-working parents. He had a wife and bore a son
unable to make it in his chosen trade as a buckle maker, he abandoned his wife and child and we
London. In London he fell upon hard times and found himself in the Wood Street Compter for
(Defoe[?], 1725, pp.77-79). It was here that he first became acquainted with the criminal underworld. A
he was released from the Compter, he set up an establishment in the St. Giles area of London, a
quickly became a favourite haunt of thieves, prostitutes, and highwaymen. The St. Giles residence wa first time that Wild tried his fortunes as a receiver of stolen goods. He was originally in the emplo
another prominent Thief Taker, Charles Hitchin (c.1675-1727). However, Wild gradually moved to
Hitchin from the business altogether, and achieved this partly by penning a tract exposing Hitc
homosexuality (Moore, 1997, p.85). Hitchin was subsequently disgraced, and Wild proclaimed him
Job Board
About
Press
Blog
Stories
Terms
Privacy
Academia © 2015
Copyright
% We're Hiring!
? Help Center