Tags
Bow Street, Crime, Justice, London, Pickpockets, Prostitutes, Pubs, Women
I love this news story from 1807, which throws some surprising light on how a Georgian prostitute/pickpocket might have gone about her business in a London pub. I wonder how many saw fit to actually swallow their earnings in an attempt to avoid detection? It certainly wasn’t a particularly successful ruse for this woman…
“A prostitute was brought from St. Clement’s watch house, charged with robbing a gentleman on Sunday night in the Strand, the Prosecutor not appearing, she was discharged. She retired to the Green Man public house in Bow-street, with some friends, where a man respectably dressed was sitting in a box, adjoining that in which she sat down, and this person putting his hand upon the rail, she endeavoured to get a ring off his little finger; afterwards, when he was holding a guinea carelessly on his finger, she snatched it off, put it into a glass of gin and peppermint, put it to her mouth, and endeavoured to swallow it, but the guinea stuck in her throat, upon which she took up a pot of porter that was near, drank a draft, and swallowed the guinea, to the no small amusement of a room full of people. She was taken before Mr. Read again, who ordered her to remain in custody.”
- Morning Chronicle, Tuesday 13th October 1807
- Detail from a tavern scene, Rowlandson’s Dr Syntax series
Oh, dear! Loved the post.
Reblogged this on Ella Quinn ~ Author.
Not too impressive. I wonder what happened to her?
Funny, though.
How long was she ordered to remain in custody? I assume it would have been until such time as the coin passed through her system. At 24 mm (just under 1 inch) it probably wasn’t too difficult to swallow and pass.
In answer to rebelhand I suspect once they got their money back they packed her off to Botany Bay, where she became the matriarch of one of our more illustrious families