Jonathan Wild
| Jonathan Wild | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1682 or 1683 Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England |
| Died | 24 May 1725 Tyburn Tree Gallows, Middlesex, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | carpenter, buckle-maker, debtor, convict, fence, thief, thief-taker |
| Known for | He was a London underworld figure, notable, for operating on both sides of the law, posing as a public-spirited crimefighter, entitled the 'Thief-Taker General'. |
Jonathan Wild (1682 or 1683 – 24 May 1725) was a London underworld figure notable for operating on both sides of the law, posing as a public-spirited crimefighter entitled the 'Thief-Taker General'.
Wild was exploiting a strong public demand for action during a major London crime wave in the absence of any effective police force. As a powerful gang-leader himself, he became a master manipulator of legal systems, collecting the rewards offered for valuables which he had stolen himself, bribing prison-guards to release his colleagues, and blackmailing any who crossed him. He was responsible for the arrest and execution of Jack Sheppard, a petty thief and burglar who had won the public's affection as a lovable rogue. However, Wild's duplicity was becoming known, and his men began to give evidence against him. After a failed suicide attempt, he was hanged at Tyburn before a massive crowd.
He was featured in novels, poems, and plays, some of them noting parallels between Wild and the contemporaneous Prime Minister Walpole, known as The Great Corrupter.
Though his exact birth date is unknown, Wild was born in Wolverhampton in either 1682 or 1683 - although he was also alleged to have been born in the nearby Shropshire village of Boningale - as the first of five children in a poor family. He was baptised at St. Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton. His father, John Wild, was a carpenter, and his mother sold herbs and fruits in the local market. At that time, Wolverhampton was the second-largest town in Staffordshire, with a population of around 6,000, many involved in iron-working and related trades.
Wild attended the Free School in St John's Lane, and was apprenticed to a local buckle-maker. He married and had a son, but came to London in 1704 as a servant. After being dismissed by his master, he returned to Wolverhampton, before coming back to London in 1708. London was by far the largest city in England, with a population of around 600,000, of whom around 70,000 lived within the ancient city walls of the City of London.
Little is known of Wild's first two years in London, but he was arrested for debt in March 1710, and sent to Wood Street Counter, one of the debtor's prisons in the City of London. The prisons were notoriously corrupt, with gaolers demanding a bribe, or "garnish", for any minor comfort. Wild became popular, running errands for the gaolers and eventually earning enough to repay his original debts and the cost of being imprisoned, and even lend money to other prisoners. He received "the liberty of the gate", meaning that he was allowed out at night to aid in the arrest of thieves. There, he met one Mary Milliner (or Mary Mollineaux), a prostitute who began to teach Wild criminal ways and, according to Daniel Defoe, "brought him into her own gang, whether of thieves or whores, or of both, is not much material." He was also introduced to a wide range of London's criminal underclass. With his new skills and contacts, Wild was released in 1712 under an Act of Parliament passed earlier that year for the relief of insolvent debtors.
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