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Jonathan Wild
Previous page: Jack Sheppard
If Jack Sheppard is the unquestioned hero of Newgate, Jonathan Wild, who captured him in Rosemary lane, has some claims to be considered the hero of the Old Bailey, for it was there that he lived, "at No. 68, the second house south of Ship Court," and no man has presumably sent more people to that "deadly inn yard, from which pale travellers set out continually in carts and coaches."
Fielding called him Jonathan Wild the Great, and he must have had some of the qualities of a great man, for he contrived to live for 43 years, and during a considerable part of that time he ruled undisputed over the criminal kingdom.
"Receiver of stolen goods and informer" is the too prosaic description of him in the "Dictionary of National Biography," but he called himself the "Thief taker General," and in token of this office walked abroad in a laced coat, bearing a silver staff. He came to the scaffold at last on account of a sum of ten guineas which he had received as a reward for restoring some stolen lace a paltry ending to so great a career.
Next page: Fitzstephen's account of the river
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