Charles Hitchen

Alongside his former assistant and then a major rival Jonathan Wild, against whom he later published a pamphlet (The Regulator) and contributed to his sentencing to death, Hitchen blackmailed and bribed people and establishments irrespective of their reputation, suspicious or respectable.

Widely known for his homosexual activities and considerably nicknamed as Madam or Your Ladyship,[citation needed] Hitchen publicly condemned this crime and even raided so called Molly houses being a member of Societies for the Reformation of Manners.

However, largely due to his inaccuracy[clarification needed] and growing contempt of people he himself appeared the subject of the Justice and was fined, pilloried and imprisoned, dying very soon after leaving Newgate.

In the 17th century, they acquired a regular salaried status, with duties very much like of those of constables, beadles and watchmen, and later also executed warrants of arrest later throughout England and in America.

At the Blue Boar, Barbican, he made plans with them, and at the Clerkenwell Workhouse, his tricorn adorned with gold braid glittered over 12-year-old pickpockets, in whose company he very often visited Moorfields and its infamous "Sodomites' Walk".

[17] Hitchen regarded these matters so commonplace, so confident was he of his inviolability in the sense of having official immunity, that he began to boast of controlling dozens of thieves.

Since the post was usually sold as mentioned above, Hitchen's utter discharge would clearly cause its devaluation, i.e., it would not be easy, if possible at all, to sell the office knowing in advance one could lose it before receiving the value for it.

[19] Thomas Rogers, a Blackwell Hall factor, for example, complained of losing his letter case and pocket book at the Royal Exchange.

Another Blackwell Hall factor and a Quaker, Nathaniel Smith, having lost his pocket book to a whore,[21] told about being taken to Temple Bar surrounding in western part of the city by the under-marshal to meet the gang of thirty to forty young pickpockets, whom he referred to by their names.

He also remembered having arrested six pickpockets in one of the taverns above and causing marshal's rage, who upon showing a notice declared the county within his jurisdiction and took the thieves with him to the City letting them free.

[20][22] At the end of September, there were two pickpockets Christopher Plummer and William Field, notably from Hitchen's entourage, brought to the Guildhall and after testifying against their master granted freedom by Sir Charles Peters on 8 or 9 October 1712.

As for their decision on marshal's suspension, it came over five months late, that was 24 June 1713 and "forbade him attendance on the Lord Mayor" while retaining his power as a constable to obtain warrant when needed and apprehend.

[27] Wild, an under-keeper, while in the Compter, to the prisoners waiting for appearing before the magistrate, was well-acquainted with the prototypes of the personae of his further real life drama full of prostitutes and thieves (one of them, Marry Milliner, mentioned above).

[28] In his account of 1713–14, written as an answer to Hitchen's "Regulator", Wild describes how the marshal approached him: I am very sensible that you are let into the knowledge of the intrigues of the compter, particularly with relation to the securing of pocket books.

[35][36] Meanwhile, Hitchen's petition in September 1713, and a proposed plan, to fight against the crime raised due to the ending of the War of the Spanish Succession, considerably bringing home more disfunctioned soldiers and sailors, resubmitted again in December 1713, were reconsidered by the Aldermen and on 6 April he was reinstated provided "better demeanour therein for the future".

[28] On 26 May 1714 Wild put one of his first advertisements in The Daily Courant thus marking the beginning of his unique method employed for the next ten years and very soon alarmed his former master with his fame and wealth.

The tract shows Hitchen disguised as a social reformer and moralist giving his recommendations for rooting out the iniquities by imprisoning all the thief-takers and receivers.

The under-marshal chose the word for his second pamphlet written as a counterattack to Wild's answer and named it "The Regulator: or a Discovery of the Thieves, Thief-takers, and Locks, alias Receivers of Stolen Goods in and about the City of London.

[40] At the beginning of "the Regulator" Hitchen expresses his grievance for "such abominable practices" carried out by "such as have assumed the title of thief-takers" that "if these should hold their peace, the stones in the city would cry out" and thereupon adds that he hopes "effectual care will be taken to have the same strictly examined into."

Wild for fear of losing these profitable criminals, met the three and arranged for one of them to be an evidence in the court, which meant him giving the names of "a numerous train of offenders" and convicting them.

but at the same time he should not have mentioned the stealing of a dozen of handkerchiefs and other robberies involving Wild directly as a receiver, otherwise they would lose their "factor" by "bringing his own neck into the noose and put it into power of every little prig".

As a result, the three offenders escaped the justice and the thief-taker received a reward of £40 for arresting and hanging "shim-sham thieves", Hugh Oakley and Henry Chickley.

[43] Through a fictional character's eyes, that is some countryman, Hitchen tries to give a panoramic view of the "Goat" with old thieves, spies, suspicious women, Lemon himself sitting in the corner filling remorse for betrayal.

Here, Wild proclaimed as "His Skittish and Baboonish Majesty", assures the thieves of himself to be better equipped for subverting the course of justice and offers his legal protection and higher financial terms compared to those of their older "locks, fences and flash pawnbrokers".

102-104, Howson)Wild's Answer was written anonymously, he refers mostly to the years 1713-1714 for he had personal experience of marshals adventures and could not resist the temptation to describe them, including the scene "in a Sodomitish Academy".

[49] As other dealings are mentioned while reviewing their partnership, it is more interesting to describe the event when the under-marshal took his assistant, a buckle-maker as Wild refers to himself in his pamphlet, to a house near Old Bailey one night.

Next morning detainees stood before the Lord Mayor and were committed to workhouse, but before were ordered to walk through the streets on the way in their bizarre look:"Some were completely rigg'd in gowns, petticoats, head cloths, fine lac'd shoes, furbelow scarves, and masks.

Newspaper reports or scores of satires of the eighteenth century provide substantial amount of information on thriving extensive gay subculture in the City of London of that period.

Williamson reported going to his relative, Joseph Cockrost, who took him back to the tavern and asked to be informed as soon as the prisoner appeared, which happened the following Saturday.

The torrent of filth and stones tore the clothes of the pilloried and the Under-Sheriff removed Hitchen from the stocks long before the hour was out in order to save his life.