artful dodger
– someone who avoids lodging in the same place twice out of fear of arrest.
Fagan, the Artful Dodger, and Oliver Twist. Image via Wikipedia
In England, the term also meant either a lodger or an expert thief. The Artful Dodger was, of course, the name of Fagan’s top child-pickpocket in Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist.
Sources
Farmer, [...]
amuse
– 1. to fling dust into someone’s eyes in order to distract them; 2. to tell a false tale in order to distract and then rob an unsuspecting victim; to “entertain” deceptively.
Amusers threw dust or pepper, which they kept in their pockets, into the eyes of someone they wanted to rob. As the amuser [...]
Adam
– a henchman, an accomplice.
The word is also used in combination, as in Adam tiler (or tyler), a pickpocket’s accomplice. This latter term refers to the person to whom the pickpocket quickly passes off his or her gains for safekeeping and to avoid suspicion.
Sources:
Matsell, George W. Vocabulum: Or, the Rogue’s Lexicon.. New York: George [...]
Cant, or flash as it is sometimes called, is a specialized language used by criminals to keep communication about their intentions and actions from being understood by their victims or the authorities. Because any language requires a distinct group of users who can speak and understand it, cant indicates the presence of at least a [...]
Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies.
While the American press criticized the practice of British convict transportation, Daniel Defoe enthusiastically supported it in his novel The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders. Moll Flanders is the most well-known character in literature to have been [...]
In order to settle a debate with her boss, Rebecca, a self-described “curious technical writer,” asked Early American Crime, “Were American pickpockets executed in the 1700’s and 1800’s? I know Britain was big on this, but how about America?”
As far as I can tell, pickpockets were not executed in America as they were in [...]
Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies.
When dealing with bureaucratic institutions in the eighteenth century, money artfully placed in the right hands could often buy special privileges, and convict transportation was no exception. The sale of convicts once they arrived in America helped convict merchants and [...]
Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies.
Mary Standford was convicted of privately stealing a shagreen pocket book, a silk handkerchief, and 4 guineas from William Smith on July 11, 1726. After her conviction, she strongly rejected transportation to the American colonies as an alternative to execution.
Early [...]
Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies.
Richard Wood
On February 11, 1718, Richard Wood wandered the Newgate Market at 10 o’clock at night, carefully studying the people around him. The often crowded market was located between the notorious Newgate Prison and St. Paul’s Cathedral, and it served [...]
