Jack Sheppard Hanged
The most celebrated criminal in Britain was hanged at Tyburn in front of the biggest crowd in living memory on 16 November 1724.
Jack Sheppard was an attractive 22-year-old, five foot four inches tall, of slender build, and spoke with a stammer. As ‘Jack-theLad’ he represented not a petty criminal who got his just deserts, but a skilful operator against the cruelty of the law at a time when more than 200 offences carried the death penalty.
Sheppard was born in Spitalfields in East London, the son of a carpenter, and became an apprentice in that trade. He said he was led astray at the Black Lion alehouse where he encountered “a train of vices as before I was altogether a stranger to”. He fell for Elizabeth Lyon, a prostitute who became his lover and partner in crime.
Sheppard’s crimes were common: theft, burglary and highway robbery. What really brought him fame were his daring escapes from captivity.
When he was first apprehended, he escaped from a parish lock-up through the ceiling. He was retaken, along with Lyon, and held in Newgate, from where they escaped by removing an iron bar from a window and descending 25 feet using a rope fashioned from bedclothes and Lyon’s gown and petticoat.
The next time Sheppard was imprisoned, he had been sentenced to death. Four days before his execution he sawed through one of the spikes of the cell, squeezed out and, helped by Lyon, escaped dressed as a woman. Imprisoned a fourth time, he was handcuffed and fettered with his fetters chained to the floor. He still broke free and went through six locked doors to secure his freedom.
He was a better escapologist than criminal, and after some more burglaries was again arrested, very drunk, in a brandy shop in Drury Lane. Back in Newgate, he was watched day and night
‘Four days before his execution Sheppard escaped dressed as a woman’
by warders who charged the public four shillings to see ‘Gentleman Jack’.
An estimated 200,000 people attended his hanging. Sheppard’s ingenuity, personal charm and loyalty to his colleagues had endeared him to the public, along with the romantic story of his “shapely mistress” Elizabeth Lyon. She continued committing crimes, and was transported to Maryland.