Stephen Partridge, a shoplifter, was the servant to Mr and Mrs Whitehead. In so far as crime was organized at a broader level than individual gangs, it was organized by professional receivers such as Mrs Whitehead. She is mentioned in numerous trials, and we can document that she received stolen goods from at least fifty named thieves. Several thieves first met one another at her house, and later joined forces to rob together to supply her. She often went into hiding when an individual small gang was broken, and the Court often expressed regret that she could not be found to be prosecuted together with them.
She sometimes moved her house to a new neighbourhood and set up a front to avoid suspicion. She also managed at least two lodging houses for harbouring thieves, one in Fleet Lane and one in Brick Lane. In she was staying in George Alley, Fleet Ditch sometimes called Ditchside , where her husband Thomas Whitehead, a watchmaker, melted down all the silver plate brought to them.
She was active throughout the s. She was last prosecuted for receiving goods in January , but acquitted, even though she had been convicted of receiving stolen goods in February and was sentenced to transportation and had obviously returned from transportation before the term expired.
Footpads typically had no money, and even had to scrape something together to pay for their drinks for the evening, sometimes paying the reckoning by leaving behind some small item they stole such as a silver nutmeg grater. They usually went to one of their regular gin shops to have a drink immediately after a robbery.
Sometimes they spent the smaller change from the stolen money on a meal of roast mutton, bread and beer. Street robbers and burglars went for a meal so often after a robbery that some might think they robbed in order to eat.
They stole a silver dish, which they took to Mrs Walker, who hid it under her apron before it could be taken to a pawnbroker to sell. Mrs Walker paid for the carriage to the pawnbroker, who gave them one pound in advance, and six pounds later after he sold it. There we divided the money; we three had two guineas apiece, Howard had about 6s.
I had eight or nine and twenty shillings left after I had paid Mrs Walker. Cheaper goods such as buckles were sold in Chick Lane. Handkerchiefs and cheap goods such as a fan would often just be thrown away. The footpads also pawned their own clothing at pawn shops, and then used stolen money to get their coats out of pawn.
There was a lot of circulation and recycling via the pawn-shop economy. A man would pawn his coat to get money to buy a brace of pistols, which he would use to rob a man to get money to get the coat out of pawn, with something left over for a slap-up meal.
She would pay four shillings an ounce for silver, and fifty shillings for a gold chain, so for a good haul the share between five men could be two or three pounds apiece. However, footpads who robbed individuals in the street earned much less. None of the men in my group of forty-one footpads and burglars managed to build up any savings.
The pistols used by a group who regularly went out together would be regarded as a kind of communal property, even if they were bought by just one of the men. They sometimes visited their accomplices in prison, and gave them money for food. Most of the men were unmarried, and gangs of four or five men who regularly went out robbing together also lived together in cheap lodging houses or rooms above alehouses. I would judge that most of them were age 19 to 25, too young to get married in any event.
Footpads usually comprised an older age group than pickpockets; the Court rarely commented on their age, whereas it is often mentioned that pickpockets were only 13 or 14 years old. Watson was married. Sometimes Cotterell and Fidzar were harboured for the night at a brandy shop in Rag Fair. Their friends were limited to fellow-accomplices rather than any larger labour network or any larger network of family and children.
Hence the relative ease with which the overall network can be traced. Although we have to exercise some caution because of the possibility of false evidence from professional thief-takers, nevertheless many of the footpads admitted their own guilt, often for several robberies.
There were far more unjust acquittals than unsafe convictions. Despite the instability and the shaky social cohesion of the underworld, many of the men were supported by their parents and also by brothers and sisters , and some parents and siblings were themselves part of the underworld. Sometimes a small gang of four would go across the Thames to an alehouse in Southwark kept by a friend of the mother of one of the robbers, William Meads, where they would eat bread and butter and cucumbers, and drink bottled-ale, and share out the money.
John Casey was a convicted robber and his sister Jane was a convicted receiver of stolen goods. Richardson followed no occupation, but lived with his father, who had an estate to support the family. Watson and Richardson were acquainted for several years; they may have first met when they were in prison for three months in Clerkenwell Bridewell for a robbery. He was convicted for a robbery with his brother and Macdonald in December Celia Sutton testified that her brother John always behaved soberly and kept honest hours and lived with their parents in New Bond Street, their father being an officer in the Third Regiment.
George Sutton was sentenced to transportation in October , together with his accomplice in a robbery, Samuel Goodman. George Sutton soon returned from transportation, and was back in court in December , when he was sentenced to death for a violent robbery committed in company with Bob the Glazier. At this final trial, George Sutton did not bother to call any witnesses, not even his parents, to testify on his behalf.
After George Sutton was hanged, his wife Elizabeth married his accomplice Samuel Goodman, who had been involved in robberies going back to In February Goodman was tried for robbery and Elizabeth for receiving stolen goods, but they were both acquitted.
Some of the men had occupations, at least according to witnesses who appeared to testify in favour of their good character. Meeds was a plasterer. Michael Elston, who received stolen cloth from the major fence, Mrs Whitehead, pretended to be a tailor he pretended to be a watch-maker when dealing with stolen watches and his wife sold drams of brandy from their shop. Beesly was apprentice to a carver and gilder; but his master failing, he turned labourer.
Abraham Wild worked on a transporter ship, where he made the acquaintance of Will Isaacson, a prisoner being transported, and many years later they joined up together to commit burglary.
But most of these men had no occupations, other than a life of robbery and burglary. The tools of their profession were sometimes found on them when they were apprehended, such as a dark lanthorn or a chisel. Fidzar met Cotterell after he broke out of New Prison, and they worked together for three months before Cotterell was caught again. Macdonald knew Casey and Beesly for six months. Mascall had known one of his accomplices for seven years. CompareWords Compare. What's the difference between highwayman and pad?
Highwayman Definition: n. One who robs on the public road; a highway robber. Pad Definition: n. A footpath; a road. An easy-paced horse; a padnag. A robber that infests the road on foot; a highwayman; -- usually called a footpad.
The act of robbing on the highway. Highwaymen were usually armed with pistols and wore masks. They are famous for the phrase, Stand and deliver. They usually did not have to use force as asking for valuables at gunpoint was enough to make most people hand them over. Highwaymen are often glamorised in books, poems and films. Indeed, some were certainly courteous to their victims, and it was widely believed at the time that highwaymen tried to ensure that they did not rob from poor people.
However, highwaymen could also be bloodthirsty. One highwayman cut out the tongues of his victims so they could not describe him to the Justice of the Peace JPs. The most famous highwayman was Dick Turpin. Before turning to highway robbery, he was a butcher, who joined a gang of robbers. He stole cattle, burgled houses and stole money from people.
He later turned to highway robbery in Lincolnshire with his partner Tom King.
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