A pickpocket with a conscience..?

Tags

Advertisements, Masquerade, Pickpockets, Property, Public Notices, Theft

A desperate appeal for a laptop thief to return the stolen property to its owner recently appeared at a bus stop on my road. ‘HELP A BROTHER OUT’ the sign screamed in tear-smudged ink, evidently written by a forlorn student whose entire degree was probably being wiped from the hard drive as he made his plea. The thief was offered £300 to bring it back, ‘no questions asked’.

In a testament to the fact that nothing really changes, this week I came across the following advert, placed in a newspaper in the late eighteenth century:

A MISTAKE.– Whereas a Gentleman, at the Pantheon Masquerade, last Thursday evening, put his hand into another’s pocket, and took out a small Pocket-book, with a Goldsmith’s Almanack, and put it into his own in the bustle: As there are some memorandums in it which will be of service to the owner, he requests the Gentleman send his servant with it, according to the address in the book, and he shall receive Five Shillings reward for his trouble.

I wonder whether either of these public notices were rewarded?

I doubt it, somehow.

How to deal with a wayward wife, 1799

Tags

Adultery, Advertisements, Debts, Elopement, Husband, Marriage, Money, Newspapers, Wives

… Tell the world what a scrounging trollop she is, and publicly proclaim in a national newspaper that you have washed your hands of her.

Eloped from her Husband about four years ago, with a sailor, the Wife of John Ball. She has been a great expence for two years and a half past; has been in company with an old pensioner who goes by the name of Old Thomas; has always been relieved by me, or by my orders, and has been a great deal of trouble to many gentlemen near Odiham, Hants, to whom I return my sincere and humble thanks for their not giving me any trouble about her. And on the 25th of May, 1799, she was relieved by my friend Mr. Knight, Ironmonger, of Odiham, Hants; by my desire.– This is to give notice, that I will not pay any such debt that she may contract after the date of the 10th of June, 1799.

Signed by me,

JOHN BALL.

An objectionable job offer, 1792

Tags

Advertisements, Maids, Newspapers, Seduction, Trades

In the Georgian era, newspapers presented themselves as a convenient way of advertising for staff, custom, or a new spouse. They brought the latest plays, books and quack medicines to public attention, and even offered a means of conveying coded messages between illicit lovers. This advert printed in March 1792, however, has something of the seduction-in-waiting about it.

“…her attention must be taken up with what belongs to her master only..” What an offer! I do wonder if anyone took him up on it.