The Blackguard Boys Tales from the Old Bailey

I am the court reporter.

Since 1674, every trial has been played out

between these walls in London's Old Bailey Court,

every single one of them

has been faithfully recorded by a reporter like me.

I sat just here.

I wrote down what was said by whom,

and now you, some while later, can listen in.

You can put your ear against the wall

and hear once again these voices from the past.

Now, here's a case that, on the face of it,

seems much the same as many played out in this court.

So many, in fact,

that you might say these are the most ordinary of crimes.

But it's what it tells you about the place in which we live,

what it shows you when you lift the lid,

that beneath the surface are forgotten children,

forced into a life of crime.

The year is 1731.

Parts of this great city are very poor indeed

and life out there is perilous and often prematurely snuffed out.

Roaming the streets in a shabby sort of family

are gangs of orphan boys,

forced together by circumstance and making crime their way of life.

These gangs depend on what is known as petty larceny,

the thieving of goods of little value

and often from those just marginally better off than themselves.

But just because these are petty crimes

doesn't mean they come with a petty price.

Thomas Coleman is indicted for feloniously stealing

two dowlers' shirts from Battersea Common,

being the property of one Molly Dobson, to the value of

two shillings, on November 4th last.

Dowlers' shirts, you see,

are the sort of shirts worn by most of London's working poor.

Made of a coarse material worth a few shillings,

and laundry is often put out to dry on common land.

Thomas Coleman, how old are you?

I think I'm 11, sir.

-Or 12.

-Do you know what you've come here for, child?

Yes, sir. About the shirts.

Do you know the difference between what is true and what is false?

No.

You know when you say your prayers,

-you ask God to take care of you and protect you?

-Yeah.

He will be good to you if you speak the truth.

And if not, you must expect to be punished.

Yeah.

Mr Prosecutor.

Gentlemen, I shall show without question that this Thomas Coleman

did steal the said shirts and was apprehended attempting to flee.

I should like to call a witness, Mrs Molly Dobson.

I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I shall give

shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Mrs Dobson, do you recognise the prisoner?

Oh, yes. That, I do.

I was just going out back onto the common to fetch my laundry in

when two boys - that one there and another taller one -

grabbed the shirts and made off with them.

That one was caught up with by my neighbour's husband, Mr Pike,

and brought to me, together with the laundry

that had been ruined in the mud.

We fetched him straight to the Magistrate.

Thank you, Mrs Dobson. I should now like to call Mr Pike.

-Mr Pike, do you know this boy?

-I have seen him, yes.

I was crossing the common on my way home

and I saw two boys making off with some clothes, or such.

One of them dropped what he had and was away quickly.

The other fell.

And as he tried to gain his feet again, I got hold of him.

I took him back towards the houses where my neighbour, Mrs Dobson,

was fretting about and said this was the boy took off with her washing.

Thank you, Mr Pike.

Gentlemen, the evidence is fast and clear against the prisoner.

No further questions.

Thomas Coleman, do you have anything to say?

Sir, I had to, sir.

-Had to what, Coleman?

-The shirts, sir. Take the shirts.

What do you mean, Coleman? Did someone put you up to it?

-Yeah. She wouldn't let us in, else.

-Who is "she", Coleman?

I can't say, sir.

Thomas Coleman, please approach the bench.

Now, there's a lad that knows his life is on the line.

He could be pleased to help the court and save his neck,

but offering himself up as King's Evidence,

by which that means he'll make himself a witness to the crime

in which he played his part, and point the finger at his accomplices.

Thomas Coleman, please will you describe to the court

the place at which you reside and how yourself came to reside there.

I lived with my family before, at Cheapside.

But then my father and mother being dead,

I went to live with my aunt, called Elizabeth Coleman.

And my aunt said she couldn't keep me, and put me out.

-Katherine Collins took me in.

-And did you do work for her?

Me and all the boys that lodge with her.

She orders us to go out at night and steal anything we can meet with.

And if we come home without anything,

she'll send us out of doors and then we'll go to the glasshouse nearby

and lay there together.

How many boys were there, such as yourself?

There's some that come and go.

But there's some dozen of us that stays there most days.

Who are these boys, Coleman?

We need to hear their names, Coleman.

Names, Coleman.

By all the twists of fate and fortune,

young Thomas Coleman comes to this.

Will he give away his brotherhood of boys?

Aside from me, there's...Andrew Knowland, Daniel Smith,

George Scott, Edward Perkins,

Joseph Paternoster, Joseph Darville,

Nice Noddy, Little Tom,

Dick Woods, Half Thumb,

Abey Gibson, Robert Shelton and George the Sailor.

Before the shirts, this Thursday last,

what else did you take for Mrs Collins?

I'm not sure I remember, sir.

I think you do remember, Coleman.

Last Wednesday morning, I went out with Robert Shelton.

We brought home some cheese and sold it for two pence a pound.

Likewise butter, bread,

and other things which Katherine Collins bought off us.

Last Monday night, I went out with Andrew Knowland and George Scott

and we stole a pair of man's shoes and a pair of woman's shoes

out of a shoemaker's shop window on Leadenhall Street,

which we sold to Mrs Collins for two shillings.

And with Yarmouth, the week before last,

we stole out of a yard up Hackney two aprons and a dowler's shirt,

and sold the same to Mrs Collins for eighteen pence.

Last Thursday, me and Edward Perkins

went out to the Bartholomew Fair,

where we knew there would be crowds and we picked us

some handkerchiefs, maybe ten or twelve of them...

..and took them to Mrs Collins for a few pence each.

-Is that all, Thomas Coleman?

-I'm not sure I remember, sir.

There's more, but I can't remember it.

Thomas Coleman, you have assisted us and, taking that into account,

you are hereby acquitted of the charge against you.

But let us be clear, if we see your face on that stand again,

we shall not look so kindly on it.

He may be relieved his neck is spared,

but I don't suppose he'll be heading back to Katherine Collins' house.

That Thomas Coleman really shook things up.

Now the prosecutor has solid ground on which to sweep aside

a whole bevy of boys.

And so, Coleman's bedfellows are sure to feel

the full consequence of his confession.

Edward Perkins and Andrew Knowland are indicted for

the theft of two gold rings worth 23 shillings,

together with one Thomas Coleman,

from the unconscious body of Dismore Brown.

Mr Brown, please tell the court

how you came to know your rings had been stolen.

I was on my way home and I took a fall in the Minories.

And being stunned in the fall,

I felt somebody pulling at my hand,

but I could not say who it was.

Well, er, sometime after, I found my rings were gone.

Er...

Whereupon the next morning, I said notice of their loss

to Mr Hardy, the goldsmith,

to stop them if offered to be sold.

And an hour or two after,

they were brought to him by the boy there present, and another.

Thank you, Mr Brown.

I should like to call my second witness.

Thomas Coleman, do you see here your accomplice in this crime,

he who pulled the rings off the unfortunate finger of Mr Brown?

It was him there. Edward Perkins.

He did it, and I took the rings to be sold.

Gentlemen, have you reached a verdict?

Guilty.

I hereby sentence you to seven years' transportation.

George Scott and Robert Shelton are indicted that

with one Thomas Coleman, they did steal one hat, value ten shillings,

and a hat band, value one shilling. The goods of Brian Ambler.

Mr Ambler,

please could you tell the court what occurred on the night in question?

On Saturday night, at about nine o'clock,

as I was in the back room of my shop, I heard a noise.

And coming forward, I saw my boy struggling with Scott,

the least of the prisoners,

and he told me that Scott held him, as another ran away with the hat.

Thomas Coleman, do you see your accomplices here?

That's them, sir. There.

Gentlemen, have you reached your verdict?

We find the defendants guilty.

George Scott and Robert Shelton,

I hereby sentence you to seven years' transportation.

Daniel Smith and Abey Gibson are indicted for that they did steal

a piece of lace from a shop on August 7th last.

That's them, there.

-Guilty.

-I hereby sentence you to seven years' transportation.

Dick Woods is indicted for the theft of a handkerchief

from the person of a Mr Paul Fellows.

It was him, there.

We find the defendant guilty.

Seven years' transportation.

Well, Thomas Coleman really did his work.

He's given up his entire family, it seems.

Sealed their fate and sent them all off to the Colonies.

To be transported would make any man much afraid, yet alone a boy.

Aboard a boat, to endure a treacherous voyage,

only to arrive in a far-off land,

where who knows what awaits?

Coleman saved his own skin, but at quite a price.

He should fear for himself back out there on the streets,

for he will be much despised.

And I don't mind telling you, in two years' time

he'll be back here again on the charge of thieving and...

Well, you can imagine how that will end.

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