Theft it seems rears it’s head on virtually every street, alleyway and courtyard when you delve back through the archives. If you scrutinise the records hard enough you can even find trends of crimes for specific areas or even streets.
I found in one small area of the City a very prosperous (until they were caught) coining racket. Over the course of five years twenty two people were convicted of “clipping”, that is snipping the edges off legal coinage and melting it down to cast counterfeit ones. These miscreants all lived within two small courtyards that ran parallel to each other. This is one of the reasons that modern money has raised edges around the circumference, an idea put into place by Sir Isaac Newton
Although there’s no direct referral to it in the records, you have to assume that most crimes that involved theft were egocentric. I came across a story, which on the face of it fitted into this category, however, when I dug a little deeper I found that perhaps this judgment could have been a little harsh.
Today Frederick’s Row is a small stub of an alley off of Goswell Road in Islington, but back in the 1820s the lane ran along to a small house known as Frederick Cottage.
It was owned by John Houseman, a local but not particularly successful Draper. Houseman liked to appear as a gentleman, but started to live beyond his means. He kept a servant, Charles Walton and a series of Housekeeper. In 1826 the new incumbent was thirty four year old Mary Cockhead.
One day Houseman brought home some material from his Drapery shop which he gave to Mary to make towels, tablecloths and sheets from. Several weeks went by and he saw no sign of these new items and a search failed to turn up the material.
Biding his time Houseman gained access to her room, where he found over forty pawn tickets relating to household items. Questioning Mary she admitted pawning the items and she was dismissed from her position. Houseman must have brooded about the theft as several days later he had Mary arrested and charged with theft.
Mary was found guilty at the Old Bailey of stealing 6 shirts, 5 towels, 18 spoons, 2 pairs of trousers, 3 table-cloths, 3 waistcoats, 2 pairs of stockings, 2 pairs of sheets, 1 gown and 50 yards of sheeting. Several other Pawnbrokers testified to having received another twenty two items from Mary over a period of three months prior to her arrest.
In her defence she said, “My master is a single gentleman, and I do not think he knows much about housekeeping. He sometimes gave me a sovereign a-week, and I have gone sometimes twelve days without money. He kept a table like a gentleman for his friends and business and I was expected to supply it, and pawned these things to procure the necessary for the appearance.”
She was sentenced to transportation to Australia for fourteen years and set sail for New South Wales on the 12th May 1827. It appears she made a new life for herself and later married.
A LONDON MISCELLANY 