Jonathan Wild in the condemned cell at Newgate Prison

Jonathan Wild (baptised 6 May 1683–24 May 1725) was perhaps the most famous criminal of London — and possibly Great Britain — during the 18th century, both because of his own actions and the uses novelists, playwrights, and political satirists made of them. He invented a scheme which allowed him to run one of the most successful gangs of thieves of the era, all the while appearing to be the nation's leading policeman. He manipulated the press and the nation's fears to become the most loved public figure of the 1720s; this love turned to hatred when his villainy was exposed. After his death, he became a symbol of corruption and hypocrisy. Jonathan Wild from 1725. ... May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (127th in leap years). ... Events June 6 - The Ashmolean Museum opens as the worlds first university museum. ... May 24 is the 144th day of the year (145th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events February 8 - Catherine I became empress of Russia February 20 - The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans takes place in New Hampshire colony. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. ... 1867 edition of the satirical magazine Punch, a British satirical magazine, ground-breaking on popular literature satire. ... This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... Everyday instance of theft: the bike which fits on this wheel has disappeared. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A selection of newspapers A newspaper is a publication containing news, information and advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint. ... One popular concept of the villain, meant to mimic the purposely distinctive visage of villains, initially from the stage plays of the 1880s. ... Hypocrisy is the act of condemning another person, where the stated basis for the criticism is the breach of a rule which also applies to the critic. ...

Life

Wild was born in Wolverhampton in 1683 as the first of five children in a poor family.^[1] He was baptised in the local St Peter's church. His father, John Wild, was a carpenter, and his wife sold herbs and fruits in the local market. At that time, Wolverhampton was the second-largest city in Staffordshire, with a population of around 6,000, many involved in iron-working and related trades. Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. ... Carpenter at work in Tennessee, June 1942. ... Staffordshire (abbreviated Staffs) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. ...

Wild attended the Free School in St John's Lane, and was apprenticed to a local buckle-maker.^[2] He married and had a son, but came to London in 1704 as a servant. After being dismissed by his master, he returned to Wolverhampton, before coming back to London in 1708.^[3] London was by far the largest city in England, with a population of around 600,000, of whom around 70,000 lived within the ancient city walls of the City of London.^[4] Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of skilled crafts practitioners, which is still popular in some countries. ... Archeological bronze buckles from southern Sweden A buckle (from Latin buccula) is a clasp used for fastening two things together, such as the ends of a belt, or for retaining the end of a strap. ... It has been suggested that servant (domestic) be merged into this article or section. ... The defensive wall of Braşov, Romania. ... The City of London is a geographically-small city within Greater London, England. ...

Little is known of Wild's first two years in London, but he was arrested for debt in March 1710, and sent to Wood Street Counter, one of the debtor's prisons in the City of London. The prisons were notoriously corrupt, with gaolors demanding a bribe, or "garnish", for any minor comfort. Wild became popular, running errands for the gaolers and eventually earning enough to repay his original debts and the cost of being imprisoned, and even lend money to other prisoners. He received "the liberty of the gate", meaning that he was allowed out at night to aid in the arrest of thieves.^[5] There, he met one Mary Milliner (or Mary Mollineaux), a prostitute who began to teach Wild criminal ways and, according to Daniel Defoe, "brought him into her own gang, whether of thieves or whores, or of both, is not much material." He was also introduced to a wide range of London's criminal underclass. With his new skills and contacts, Wild was released in 1712 under an Act of Parliament passed earlier that year for the relief of insolvent debtors.^[6][7] For other uses, see Debt (disambiguation). ... The Wood Street Counter (or Compter) was a small prison in the City of London, England, destroyed in 1666. ... A debtors prison is a prison for people unable to pay a debt to another creditor. ... The City of London is a geographically-small city within Greater London, England. ... Whore redirects here. ... Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (1660 [?] â€“ April 1731) was an English writer, journalist and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. ... An Act of Parliament or Act is law enacted by the parliament (see legislation). ...

Upon release, Wild began to live with Mary Milliner as her husband in Lewkenor's Land (now Macklin Street) in Covent Garden,^[7] despite both of them having prior marriages. Wild apparently served as Milliner's tough when she went night-walking. Soon Wild was thoroughly acquainted with the underworld, both with its methods and its inhabitants. At some point during this period, Milliner had begun to act as something of a madam to other prostitutes, and Wild as a fence, or receiver of stolen goods. He later parted with Milliner, cutting off her ear to mark her as a whore.^[8] Covent Garden is a district in central London and within the easterly bounds of the City of Westminster. ... Organized crime or criminal organizations are groups or operations run by criminals, most commonly for the purpose of generating a monetary profit. ... In law enforcement, a fence is an individual who knowingly buys stolen property for later resale in a (usually) legitimate market. ...

Wild began, slowly at first, to dispose of stolen goods and to pay bribes to get thieves out of jail.

Wild's public career

Crime had risen dramatically in London between 1680 and 1720, and in 1712 Charles Hitchen, Wild's forerunner and future rival as thief-taker, said that he personally knew 2,000 people in London who made their living solely by theft. Hitchen had obtained public office as the City's Under Marshal, effectively its top policeman, in 1711 by paying £700, but was suspended in 1712 on account of his extravagant extortion.^[9] Charles Hitchen ( 1675 - 1727) was a thief-taker (policeman) and infamous criminal in 18th century London who was also infamously tried for homosexuality. ...

In around 1713, Wild was approached by Hitchen to become one of his assistants in thief-taking, a profitable activity on account of the £40 reward paid by the government for catching a felon. Wild may have become known to Hitchen's associates, known as his "Mathematicians", during his lengthy stay in Wood Street Compter; certainly one, William Field, later worked for Wild.^[9] Hitchen would himself end at the pillory, as it appeared later that he accepted bribes to let thieves out of jail and to selectively arrest criminals and coerce sexual services from molly houses; his testimony was in connection with his criminal conspiracy investigation by the London Board of Aldermen. (Hitchen's downfall would occur when he was convicted of attempted sodomy, rather than corruption.) Thief takers should not be confused with bounty hunters. ... William Field may refer to: William Ventris Field, 1st Baron Field (1813–1907), English judge William J. Field (1909–2002), British Labour Party Member of Parliament for Paddington North 1946–1953 William Field (Irish politician) (1848–1935), Nationalist (Parnellite) Member of Parliament for Dublin St Patricks, 1892–1918 Category... It has been suggested that Pranger be merged into this article or section. ... In the eighteenth century, homosexuality in England was illegal, punishable by execution. ... In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. ... In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between natural persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement. ... An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly in a town or city with many jurisdictions. ... François Elluin, Sodomites provoking the wrath of God, from Le pot pourri de Loth (1781). ...

The advent of daily newspapers had led to a rising interest in crime and criminals. As the papers reported notable crimes and ingenious attacks, the public worried more and more about property crime and grew more and more interested in the issues of criminals and policing. London depended entirely upon localized policing and had no city-wide police force. Unease with crime was at a feverish high. The public was eager to embrace both colourful criminals (e.g. Jack Sheppard and the entirely upper-class gang called the "Mohocks" in 1712) and valiant crime-fighters. The city's population had more than doubled, and there was no effective means of controlling crime. London saw a rise not only in thievery, but in organized crime during the period. Jack Sheppard in Newgate Prison Jack Sheppard (December 1702 – 16 November 1724) was a notorious English robber, burglar and thief of early 18th century London. ... The Mohocks were a gang that terrorized London in the early eighteenth century, attacking men and women alike. ... Organized crime or criminal organizations are groups or operations run by criminals, most commonly for the purpose of generating a monetary profit. ...

By 1714, when Hitchen was restored to his office, Wild went his own way, and he opened a small office in the Blue Boar tavern, run by Mrs Seagoe in Little Old Bailey.^[8] He continued to call himself Hitchen's "Deputy", entirely without any official standing, and took to carrying a sword as a mark of his supposed authority, also alluding to pretensions of gentility.^[8]

"Thief-Taker General"

Wild's method of illegally amassing riches while appearing to be on the side of the law was ingenious. He ran a gang of thieves, kept the stolen goods, and waited for the crime and theft to be announced in the newspapers. At this point, he would claim that his "thief taking agents" (police) had "found" the stolen merchandise, and he would return it to its rightful owners for a reward (to cover the expenses of running his agents). In some cases, if the stolen items or circumstances allowed for blackmail, he did not wait for the theft to be announced. As well as "recovering" these stolen goods, he would offer the police aid in finding the thieves. The thieves that Wild would help to "discover", however, were rivals or members of his own gang who had refused to cooperate with his taking the majority of the money. For other uses, see Blackmail (disambiguation). ...

Wild would be recognizable today as the prototype of a "media don", courting the public while simultaneously ruthlessly administering a crime empire like John Gotti. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Wild's ability to hold his gang together, and indeed the majority of his scheme, relied upon the fear of theft and the nation's reaction to theft. The crime of selling stolen goods became increasingly dangerous in the period from 1700 to 1720. Low-level thieves ran a great risk in fencing their goods. Wild avoided this danger and exploited it simultaneously by having his gang steal, either through pick-pocketing or, more often, mugging, and then by "recovering" the goods. He never sold the goods back, explicitly, nor ever pretended that they were not stolen. He claimed at all times that he found the goods by policing and avowed hatred of thieves. That very penalty for selling stolen goods, however, allowed Wild to control his gang very effectively, for he could turn in any of his thieves to the authorities at any time. By giving the goods to him for a cut of the profits, Wild's thieves were selling stolen goods. If they did not give their take to him, Wild would simply apprehend them as thieves. However, what Wild chiefly did was use his thieves and ruffians to "apprehend" rival gangs. Picking pockets is a crime, a form of larceny which involves the stealing of money and valuables from the person of a victim without their noticing the theft at the time. ... For the 1967 film, see Robbery (film). ...

Jonathan Wild was not the first thief-taker who was actually a thief himself. Charles Hitchen had used his position as Under-Marshal to practice extortion. He had pressured brothels and pickpockets to pay him off or give him the stolen goods for return to their owners since purchasing the position in 1712. When Hitchen was suspended from his duties for corruption in that year, he engaged Jonathan Wild to keep his business of extortion going in his absence. Hitchen was re-instated in 1714 and found that Wild was now a rival, and one of Wild's first bits of gang warfare was to eliminate as many of the thieves in Hitchen's control as he could. In 1718, Hitchen attempted to expose Wild with his A True Discovery of the Conduct of Receivers and Thief-Takers in and about the City of London. There he named Wild as a manager and source of crime. Wild replied with An Answer to a Late Insolent Libel and there explained that Hitchen was a homosexual who visited "molly houses." Hitchen attempted to further combat Wild with a pamphlet entitled The Regulator, which was his characterization of Wild, but Hitchen's prior suspensions from duties and the shocking charge of homosexuality virtually eliminated him as a threat to Wild. Charles Hitchen ( 1675 - 1727) was a thief-taker (policeman) and infamous criminal in 18th century London who was also infamously tried for homosexuality. ... Extortion is a criminal offense, which occurs when a person either obtains money, property or services from another through coercion or intimidation or threatens one with physical harm unless they are paid money or property. ... Since its coinage, the word homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings. ... In the eighteenth century, homosexuality in England was illegal, punishable by execution. ...

Wild held a virtual monopoly on crime in London. He kept records of all thieves in his employ, and when they had outlived their usefulness, Wild sold them to the gallows for the £40 reward. Wild's system inspired a fake or folk etymology of the phrase "double cross". He kept the names of the thieves in his employ in a ledger. It is alleged that, when a thief vexed Wild in some way, he put a cross by the thief's name; a second cross condemned the man to be sold to the Crown for hanging. Note that the noun "double cross" did not enter English usage until 1834. A fake etymology, is an invented explanation (etymology) for the origin of a word. ... Folk etymology or popular etymology is a linguistic term for a category of false etymology which has grown up in popular lore, as opposed to one which arose in scholarly usage. ... Double Cross is the first produced, but the second aired, episode for the third season of the science fiction television show Sliders. ... Hanging is the suspension of a person by a ligature, usually a cord wrapped around the neck, causing death. ...

In public, Wild presented a heroic face. He was the man who returned stolen goods. He was the man who caught criminals. In 1718, Wild called himself "Thief Taker General of Great Britain and Ireland". By his testimony, over sixty thieves were sent to the gallows. His "finding" of lost merchandise was private, but his efforts at finding thieves were public. Wild's office in the Old Bailey was a busy spot. Victims of crime would come by, even before announcing their losses, and discover that Wild's agents had "found" the missing items, and Wild would offer to help find the criminals for an extra fee. However, while fictional treatments made use of the device, it is not known whether or not Wild ever actually turned in one of his own gang for a private fee. The Old Bailey An Old Bailey trial circa 1808. ...

In 1720, Wild's fame was such that the Privy Council consulted with him on methods of controlling crime. Wild's recommendation was, unsurprisingly, that the rewards for evidence against thieves be raised. Indeed, the reward for capturing a thief went from forty pounds to one hundred and forty pounds within the year. This amounted to a significant pay increase for Wild. A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, especially in a monarchy. ... ISO 4217 Code GBP User(s) United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies Inflation 2. ...

There is some evidence that Wild was favoured, or at least ignored, by the Whig politicians and opposed by the Tory politicians. In 1718, a Tory group had succeeded in having the laws against receiving stolen property tightened, primarily with Wild's activities in mind. Ironically, this strengthened Wild's hand, rather than weakening it, for it made it more difficult for thieves to fence their goods except through Wild. The Whigs (with the Tories) are often described as one of two political parties in England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to the mid 19th centuries. ... For other uses, see Tory (disambiguation). ...

Wild's battles with thieves made excellent press. Wild himself would approach the papers with accounts of his derring-do, and the papers passed these on to a concerned public. Thus, in July to August of 1724, the papers carried accounts of Wild's heroic efforts in collecting twenty-one members of the Carrick Gang (with an £800 reward - approximately £25,000 in the year 2000). When one of the members of the gang was released, Wild pursued him and had him arrested on "further information". To the public, this seemed like a relentless defense of order. In reality, it was a gang warfare disguised as national service.

When Wild solicited for a finder's fee, he usually held all the power in the transaction. For example, David Nokes quotes (based on Howson) the following advertisement from the Daily Post in 1724 in his edition of Henry Fielding's Jonathan Wild: Henry Fielding (April 22, 1707 – October 8, 1754) was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humor and satirical prowess and as the author of the novel Tom Jones. ...

"Lost, the 1st of October, a black shagreen Pocket-Book, edged with

Silver, with some Notes of Hand. The said Book was lost in the

Strand, near Fountain Tavern, about 7 or 8 o'clock at Night. If

any Person will bring aforementioned Book to Mr Jonathan Wild,

in the Old Bailey, he shall have a Guinea reward."

The advert is extortion. The "notes of hand" (agreements of debt) mean signatures, so Wild already knows the name of the book's owner. Furthermore, Wild tells the owner through the ad that he knows what its owner was doing at the time, since the Fountain Tavern was a brothel. The real purpose of the ad is to threaten the notebook's owner with announcing his visit to a bordello, either to the debtors or the public, and it even names a price for silence (a guinea, or one pound and one shilling). A brothel, also known as a bordello or whorehouse, is an establishment specifically dedicated to prostitution, providing the prostitutes a place to meet and to have sex with the clients. ...

The Jack Sheppard struggle and downfall

By 1724, London political life was experiencing a crisis of public confidence. In 1720, the South Sea Bubble had burst, and the public was growing restive about corruption. Authority figures were beginning to be viewed with scepticism. Hogarthian image of the South Sea Bubble by Edward Matthew Ward, Tate Gallery More well known than The South Sea Company is perhaps the South Sea Bubble (1711 - September 1720) which is the name given to the economic bubble that occurred through overheated speculation in the company shares during 1720. ...

A gallows ticket to view the hanging of Jonathan Wild.

In February 1724, the most famous housebreaker of the era, Jack Sheppard, was apprehended by Wild. Sheppard had worked with Wild in the past, though he had struck out on his own. Consequently, as with other arrests, Wild's interests in saving the public from Sheppard were personal. Download high resolution version (1000x1569, 223 KB)Gallows ticket for the hanging of Jonathan Wild. ... Download high resolution version (1000x1569, 223 KB)Gallows ticket for the hanging of Jonathan Wild. ... Jack Sheppard in Newgate Prison Jack Sheppard (December 1702 – 16 November 1724) was a notorious English robber, burglar and thief of early 18th century London. ...

Sheppard was imprisoned in St Giles's Roundhouse and immediately escaped. In May, Wild again had Sheppard arrested, and this time he was put in the New Prison. Sheppard escaped in less than a week. In July, Wild had Sheppard arrested for a third time. He was tried, convicted, and put in the condemned hold of Newgate Prison. On the night that the death warrant arrived, August 30, Sheppard escaped. By this point, Sheppard was a working class hero (being a cockney, non-violent, and handsome). On September 11, Wild's men caught him for a fourth time, and Sheppard was placed in the most secure room of Newgate. Further, Sheppard was put in shackles and chained to the floor. On September 16, Sheppard escaped yet again. Sheppard had broken the chains, padlocks, and six iron-barred doors. This escape astonished everyone, and Daniel Defoe, working as a journalist, wrote an account. In late October, Wild found Sheppard for a fifth and final time and had him arrested. This time, Sheppard was placed in the centre of Newgate, where he could be observed at all times, and loaded with three hundred pounds of iron weights. He was so celebrated that the gaolers charged high society visitors to see him, and James Thornhill painted his portrait. The St Giless Roundhouse was a small roundhouse or prison, mainly used to temporarily hold suspected criminals It was located in the St Giles area of present-day central London, which - during the 17th and 18th centuries - was a rookery notorious for its thieves and other criminals. ... The New Prison was a prison located in the Clerkenwell area of central London between c. ... Old Newgate Prison, which was replaced in the 18th century. ... August 30 is the 242nd day of the year (243rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... St Mary-le-Bow The term cockney refers to working-class inhabitants of London, particularly east London, and the slang used by these people. ... September 11 is the 254th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (255th in leap years). ... // 1400 - Owain Glyndŵr declared Prince of Wales by his followers. ... Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (1660 [?] â€“ April 1731) was an English writer, journalist and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. ... Journalism is a discipline of gathering, writing and reporting news, and more broadly it includes the process of editing and presenting the news articles. ... Sir James Thornhill (25 July 1675 or 1676 - May 4, 1734) was an English painter of historical subjects, in the Italian baroque tradition. ...

Sheppard was hanged at Tyburn on November 16, 1724. Tyburn was a former village in the county of Middlesex close to the current location of Marble Arch. ... November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 45 days remaining. ... Events January 14 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne February 20 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London June 23 - Treaty of Constantinople signed. ...

During the pursuit of Sheppard, Wild appeared as much to disadvantage in the press as Sheppard did to advantage. Wild was now despised. When, in February 1725, Wild used violence to perform a jail break for one of his gang members, he was arrested. He was placed in Newgate, where he continued to attempt to run his business. In the illustration from the True Effigy, above, Wild is pictured in Newgate, still with notebook in hand to account for goods coming in and going out of his office. Evidence was presented against Wild for the violent jailbreak and for having stolen jewels during the previous August's installation of Knights of the Garter. The insignia of a knight of the Order of the Garter. ...

The public's mood had shifted; they supported the average man and resented authority figures. Wild's trial occurred at the same time as that of the Lord Chancellor, Lord Thomas Parker, Earl of Macclesfield, for taking £100,000 in bribes. With the changing tide, it appeared at last to Wild's gang that their leader would not escape, and they began to come forward. Slowly, gang members began to turn evidence on him, until all of his activities, including his grand scheme of running and then hanging thieves, became known. Additionally, evidence was offered as to Wild's frequent bribery of public officers. The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor and prior to the Union the Chancellor of England and the Lord Chancellor of Scotland, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom, and its predecessor states. ... Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield (1666-1732) was an English politician. ... The title of Earl of Macclesfield has been created twice, first in the Peerage of England in 1679 (extinct 1702) and then in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1721. ...

When Wild went to the gallows at Tyburn on May 24, 1725, Daniel Defoe said that the crowd was far larger than any they had seen before and that, instead of any celebration or commiseration with the condemned,
Tyburn was a former village in the county of Middlesex close to the current location of Marble Arch. ... May 24 is the 144th day of the year (145th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events February 8 - Catherine I became empress of Russia February 20 - The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans takes place in New Hampshire colony. ...

"wherever he came, there was nothing but hollowing and huzzas,

as if it had been upon a triumph."

Wild's hanging was a great event, and tickets were sold in advance for the best vantage points (see the reproduction of the gallows ticket). Even in a year with a great many macabre spectacles, Wild drew an especially large and boisterous crowd. 18-year-old Henry Fielding was in attendance. In the 18th century, autopsies and dissections were performed on the most notorious criminals, and consequently Wild's body was sold to the Royal College of Surgeons for dissection. His skeleton remains on public display in the Royal College's Hunterian Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields. The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients. ... Dissected rat showing major organs. ... The University of Glasgows Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery is the oldest public museum in Scotland. ... Lincolns Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. ...

Literary treatments

Jonathan Wild is famous today not so much for setting the example for organized crime as for the uses satirists made of his story. 1867 edition of the satirical magazine Punch, a British satirical magazine, ground-breaking on popular literature satire. ...

When Wild was hanged, the papers were filled with accounts of his life, collections of his sayings, farewell speeches, and the like. Daniel Defoe wrote one narrative for Applebee's Journal in May and then had published True and Genuine Account of the Life and Actions of the Late Jonathan Wild in June 1725. This work competed with another that claimed to have excerpts from Wild's diaries. The illustration above is from the frontispiece to the "True Effigy of Mr. Jonathan Wild," a companion piece to one of the pamphlets purporting to offer the thief-taker's biography. Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (1660 [?] â€“ April 1731) was an English writer, journalist and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. ...

Criminal biography was already an existing genre. These works were popular then, as now, because they could offer a touching account of need, a fall from innocence, sex, violence, and then repentance or a tearful end. Public fascination with the dark side of human nature, and with the causes of evil, has never waned, and the market for mass produced accounts was large.

By 1701 there had been a Lives of the Gamesters (often appended to Charles Cotton's The Compleat Gamester), about notorious gamblers. In 1714 Captain Alexander Smith had written the best-selling Complete Lives of the Most Notorious Highwaymen. Defoe himself was no stranger to this market: his Moll Flanders was published in 1722. Further, he had, by 1725, written both a History and a Narrative of the life of Jack Sheppard (see above). Moll Flanders may be based on the life of one Moll King, who lived with Mary Mollineaux/Milliner, Wild's first mistress. Charles Cotton (April 28, 1630 - February, 1687) was an English poet, best-known for translating the work of Michel de Montaigne from the French. ... The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders is a 1722 novel by Daniel Defoe. ... Jack Sheppard in Newgate Prison Jack Sheppard (December 1702 – 16 November 1724) was a notorious English robber, burglar and thief of early 18th century London. ... Elizabeth Adkins was a prominent figure in Londons underworld during the early 18th century as a prostitute, pickpocket and thief whose aliases included Mary or Maria Godson, although she is best known as Moll King. ...

What differs about the case of Jonathan Wild is that it was not simply a crime story. Parallels between Wild and Robert Walpole were instantly drawn, especially by the Tory authors of the day. Mist's Weekly Journal (one of the more rough-speaking Tory journals) drew a parallel between the figures in May 1725, when the hanging was still in the news. The Right Honourable Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745), usually known as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. ... For other uses, see Tory (disambiguation). ...

The parallel is most important for John Gay's The Beggar's Opera in 1728. The main story of the Beggar's Opera focuses on the episodes between Wild and Sheppard. In the opera, the character of Peachum stands in for Wild (who stands in for Walpole), while the figure of Macheath stands in for Sheppard (who stands in for Wild and/or the chief officers of the South Sea Company). Robert Walpole himself saw and enjoyed Beggar's Opera without realizing that he was its intended target. Once he did realize it, he banned the sequel opera, Polly, without staging. This prompted Gay to write to a friend, "For writing in the cause of virtue and against the fashionable vices, I have become the most hated man in England almost." John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 - 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist. ... Painting based on The Beggars Opera, Scene V, William Hogarth, c. ... The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. ... Hogarthian image of the South Sea Bubble by Edward Matthew Ward, Tate Gallery More well known than The South Sea Company is perhaps the South Sea Bubble (1711 - September 1720) which is the name given to the economic bubble that occurred through overheated speculation in the company shares during 1720. ...

In 1742, Robert Walpole lost his position of power in the House of Commons. He was created a peer and moved to the House of Lords, from where he still directed the Whig majority in Commons for years. In 1743, Henry Fielding's The History of the Life of the Late Mr Jonathan Wild the Great appeared in the third volume of Miscellanies. The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... For other uses, see Peerage (disambiguation). ... The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as the Lords. The Sovereign, the House of Commons (which is the lower house of Parliament and referred to as the Commons), and the Lords together comprise the Parliament. ... The Whigs (with the Tories) are often described as one of two political parties in England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to the mid 19th centuries. ... Henry Fielding (April 22, 1707 – October 8, 1754) was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humor and satirical prowess and as the author of the novel Tom Jones. ...

Fielding is merciless in his attack on Walpole. In his work, Wild stands in for Walpole directly, and, in particular, he invokes the Walpolean language of the "Great Man". Walpole had come to be described by both the Whig and then, satirically, by the Tory political writers as the "Great Man", and Fielding has his Wild constantly striving, with stupid violence, to be "Great". "Greatness," according to Fielding, is only attained by mounting to the top stair (of the gallows). Fielding's satire also consistently attacks the Whig party by having Wild choose, among all the thieves cant terms (several lexicons of which were printed with the Lives of Wild in 1725), "prig" to refer to the profession of burglary. Fielding suggests that Wild becoming a Great Prig was the same as Walpole becoming a Great Whig: theft and the Whig party were never so directly linked. Cant is an example of a cryptolect, a characteristic or secret language used only by members of a group, often used to conceal the meaning from those outside the group. ... Look up lexicon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The figures of Peachum and Macheath were picked up by Bertolt Brecht for his updating of Gay's opera as The Threepenny Opera. The Sheppard character, Macheath, is the "hero" of the song Mack the Knife. Bertolt Brecht Brecht redirects here. ... Die Dreigroschenoper, original German poster from Berlin, 1928. ... Mack the Knife, originally Die Moritat von Mackie Messer, is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. ...

More recently, Jonathan Wild appeared as a character in the David Liss novel A Conspiracy of Paper, ISBN 0-8041-1912-0. Jonathan Wild is also the title character in the 2005–2006 Phantom stories "Jonathan Wild: King of Thieves" and "Jonathan Wild: Double Cross". David Liss (b. ... A Conspiracy of Paper is a novel by David Liss set in 18th century London. ... The Phantom is an American adventure comic strip created by Lee Falk, also creator of Mandrake the Magician. ...

See also

• The Mint for more background on debtor's prisons and "anomalous districts" of lawlessness.

The Mint was a district in Southwark in London named for King Henry VIII having set up his mint there. ...

Notes

1. ^ Moore, p.18.
2. ^ Moore, p.19.
3. ^ Moore, p.20.
4. ^ Moore, p.3.
5. ^ Moore, p.25.
6. ^ 10 Anne C.29.
7. ^ ^{a b} Moore, p.43.
8. ^ ^{a b c} Moore, p.65.
9. ^ ^{a b} Moore, p.63.

Bibliography

There are a few treatments of Wild that attempt to dramatize his life, but there remains only one full length non-fiction biography on Wild:

• Howson, Gerald. Thief-Taker General: Jonathan Wild and the Emergence of Crime and Corruption as a Way of Life in Eighteenth-Century England. New Brunswick, NJ and Oxford, UK: 1970. ISBN 0-88738-032-8

Other 20th century sources

• Brief discussions of Jonathan Wild may be found in editions of the Beggar's Opera, the Works of John Gay, the Works of Henry Fielding, editions of Fielding's Jonathan Wild, the Works of Daniel Defoe, and biographies of Defoe, such as the one by Paula Backschieder. All of these are prefatory and explanatory material. Most of these derive either from the Dictionary of National Biography or from Gerald Howson.
• Lyons, Frederick J. Jonathan Wild, Prince of Robbers. 1936.
• Moore, Lucy. The Thieves' Opera. 2000.
• Woodhall, Edwin T. Jonathan Wild, Old Time Ace Receiver. 1937.
• Hendrickson, Robert Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins. 1997.

18th century sources

• An Authentic Narrative of the Parentage, Birth, Education and Practices of Jonathan Wild, Citizen and Thief Taker of London, broadsheet, 1725.
• Jonathan Wild's Last Farewell to the World. Anonymous ballad.
• "H.D., Clerk of Justice." The Life of Jonathan Wild, from his Birth to his Death. 1725. (Possibly by Daniel Defoe.)
• Defoe, Daniel ? A True & Genuine Account of the Life and Actions of the late Jonathan Wild, Not made up of Fictions and Fable, but taken from his Own Mouth and collected from PAPERS of his Own Writing. June, 1725.
• Defoe, Daniel. A True & Genuine Account of the Life and Death of the Late Jonathan Wild. 1725. (Reprinted in various editions of Defoe's works and some editions of Henry Fielding's Jonathan Wild.)
• Smith, Captain Alexander. The Memoirs of the Life & Times of the famous Jonathan Wild, together with the History & Lives of Modern Rogues. 1726.

External links

• Account of Wild's trial from The Complete Newgate Calendar via U. Texas
• Project Gutenberg edition of Fielding's Life of Jonathan Wild the Great
• Cambridge Literary History discussion of Fielding's treatment of Wild
• Wild's skeleton (BBC, 11 February 2005)

The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion. ... February 11 is the 42nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...