[3] All efforts to bring Abershawe to justice for a time proved futile, but in January 1795 he shot dead one of the constables sent to arrest him in Southwark, and attempted to shoot another.

[4] The coolness with which Abershawe met his death prolonged his notoriety, and his name was commonly used as a synonym for a daring thief in the early years of the nineteenth century.

He received his sentence with extraordinary sangfroid, putting on his own hat at the same moment as the judge assumed the black cap, and "observing him with contemptuous looks" while pronouncing judgment.

While being driven to the gallows he "appeared entirely unconcerned, had a flower in his mouth... and he kept up an incessant conversation with the persons who rode beside the cart, frequently laughing and nodding to others of his acquaintances whom he perceived in the crowd, which was immense", according to an article in the Oracle and Public Advertiser.

In a pamphlet on his career, entitled Hardened Villany Displayed, which was published soon after his death, he is described as "a good-looking young man, only 22 years of age".