Mohocks

The Mohocks were allegedly a gang of violent, well-born criminals that terrorized London during the early 18th century, attacking men and women alike, and taking their name from the Mohawks.

(Wentworth Papers, 277) Historians have found little evidence of any organized gang,[2][3] though in spring 1712 there was a flurry of print accounts of the Mohocks, their lawlessness, impunity and luridly violent acts.

William Hickey recalled "In the winter of 1771, a set of wild young men made their appearance, who, from the profligacy of their manners and their outrageous conduct in the theatres, taverns, and coffee houses in the vicinity of Covent Garden, created general indignation and alarm....

"[6] Hickey identified their boss as Rhoan Hamilton, "a man of fortune" and later an Irish rebel, and Messrs Hayter, son of a bank director, Osborne, an American, and "Capt."

Various other gangs of street bullies are alleged to have terrorized London at different periods, beginning during the 1590s with the Damned Crew and continuing after the Restoration with the Muns, the Tityré Tūs, the Hectors, the Scourers, the Nickers, and the Hawkubites.

Narratives of Control and Resistance in the Press in Early Eighteenth-Century London University of Saskatchewan 2011, (Thesis) Jonathan Swift "Journal to Stella", 1712, March 9