Jonathan Wild is hanged at Tyburn

Historical Context Essay

Robert Clark (The Literary Encyclopedia)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Domains

Trials and major cases

Dates

Date of occurrence 1725-05-24

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Jonathan Wild was the most prominent of the notorious criminals who figured as popular heroes and material for ballads and news-papers in early eighteenth-century London. Wild was a criminal with considerable managerial flair; he ran a network of thieves but himself posed in civil society as an agent who could obtain the return of stolen goods, for an appropriate fee. He made use of the growing medium of news-papers, encouraging those who had lost goods to advertise a request that they be returned by the criminal to Mr Wild who would pay them a reward. For example:

Lost, the 1st October, a black shagreen pocket-book edged with silver, with some notes of hand. The said book was lost in the Strand near the Fountain tavern, about seven or eight o'clock at night. If any person will bring

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

684 words

Citation: Clark, Robert. "Jonathan Wild is hanged at Tyburn". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 February 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1705, accessed 24 April 2024.]

Save this article