Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-1913. Ongar on Trial

Old Bailey Proceedings from 1674 to 1913 can now be accessed on-line. The proceedings of criminal trials between November 1834 and April 1913 have recently been added to provide a total of 197,745 trials. The proceedings are fully and easily searchable. They provide a rich source not only for any investigation of the justice system of the period but also for tales of local villainy, wrongdoers and just troublemakers. Trials related to a particular locality can often provide details incidentally about local inhabitants, either in their role as witnesses or from the other side of the dock as the accused.

Also included in these proceedings are the Ordinary® of Newgate's Accounts from the period between 1690 and 1772. These detailed narratives of the lives and deaths of convicts executed at Tyburn are linked to the relevant trials. So where does Chipping Ongar appear?

Robert Glascow was one of those subjects who unfortunately needed to receive the ordinary's attention, being one of Ongar's infamous sons. The twenty-eight years of Robert's life are dispassionately described. He was born in Ongar into the family of a butcher of "good circumstances". In conflict with his father, it was found to be "a difficult task to correct the Malignity of his Spirit", and he was sent to work for another butcher where it was hoped new surroundings would provide some cure. This did little to improve Robert's attitude; frequent complaints were delivered back to the father. On completion of his time with the butcher, Robert was set up by his father in a butchery, "a handsome Beginning" comments the ordinary. The opportunity to prosper from such a fortunate start was squandered through, and it is described more exactly in the account, the "Company of lewd Women".

When he had dissipated the fruits of his comfortable introduction to the trade, Robert fell into crime, in the first instance robbing a stagecoach. The robbery necessitated some violence against a gentleman who attempted to draw his sword. The robbery aroused local consternation and Robert took to the country until the "Noise in the Neighbourhood" had quietened. In the country he seemed to exist through rustling of lambs and sheep, which he sold in local villages. When he felt safe enough he returned to London and was employed in London markets but this existence, apparently lawful, did not last long.

With three accomplices, and after some planning, a mercer was waylaid and robbed of a quantity of expensive cloth. Beginning now to fear for his eventual fate should he continue in his lawless way of life, he joined a guard-ship7 but after falling out with the rest of the crew, he was forced to join a second ship. On both, he was severally disciplined, eventually his conduct justifying his transfer to the Invincible, a man-of-war, where presumably the discipline might have been cnsiderably tougher. His behaviour appeared to improve, but he left the ship at Portsmouth some months before his trial.

He had not fully forsaken wrongdoing and the final act in his criminal career was to rob a Mr Weeden and his wife of a ring, a pair of silver shoe buckles, a nice silver tobacco stopper, which included a corkscrew, and money on 22 May 1751. Weeden advertised the robbery with a description of the thief. Perhaps remarkably, within days Weeden was led to a two-penny lodging house near to Whitechapel church. Robert Glascow was identified in the vicinity but after some questioning he panicked and ran away only to be caught by someone who luckily turned out to be a headborough or peace officer *.

The trial of Robert Glascow was straightforward. Why did he run? What was he doing on the day of the robbery? In answer to the latter his alibi was provided by a Mary Phillips with whom he had tea on the day. Poor Mary's defence was ill-considered and faltering since it was concluded in court that Mary had little knowledge of time and date. She was a poorly prepared witness and there was an inevitability in the guilty verdict. Robert Glascow was sentenced to death in court on 3 July 1751.

Between 8 am and 9 am on 29 July, Robert Glascow was taken by cart from Newgate Prison to the place of execution. He was one of a group of eight prisoners carried in three carts. The usual crowds, "great Numbers of Spectators", turned out to watch the convoy. The prisoners, it was noted, "all behaved as became their circumstances". Hanged together, they were cut down in rotation thus preventing "a good deal of Hurry and Disturbance".

The trials often illustrate harsh sentences but Mary Thomas appears to have been fortunate. John Hailstone lived at Chipping Ongar. He was an hostler or stableman usually attached to an inn. On 26 September 1820, he believed that he met Mary Thomas at a house in Whitechapel. Suddenly, she left the room (and please do not ask what he was up to at the time), leaving John Hailstone missing 14 shillings, a considerable sum of money then." An officer was summoned and Mary was held in Rose Lane, at which time she attempted to pass 3s. 6d. to her sister, dropping it on the ground. Some more money was found on her, but the full 14s. was not to be recovered. Mary claimed that she was not the person anyway. The jury acquitted her on 28 October. She might have been lucky!

In contrast, Charles Hodges was indicted for stealing 11b. (0.45Kg) of butter. On 11 April 1826, William Woolmer, a carman or carter from Stanford Rivers, was delivering 8lbs. of butter to a gentleman's house. In Sun-street, William, while stabling his horse, was told that his cart was being robbed and 11b. was found to be missing. A Mrs White saw the prisoner put the butter under his arm and into his pocket, and notified Henry Casborn, who gave chase. The prisoner was caught after two hundred yards or so and the parts of the butter were found. Charles Hodges was found guilty and was sentenced to transportation for seven years. He was just fourteen.

Cornelius Osborne Dodd farmed land in Chipping Ongar. On 1 January 1810, he was returning from London in a gig with his wife. On the way through Epping Forest, Joseph and James Pearce were seen behind the Eagle in Snaresbrook on the road that leads to Woodford and Chigwell. Joseph approached, took hold of the horse's head and halted the gig. "Your life or your money"; said Joseph, and promptly fired a pistol. A second pistol appeared and a further, and recognisably conventional, warning issued; "If you don't deliver your money, I will blow your brains out". Dodd protested that he had no money, but seeing a woman in the vicinity he called out. Somewhat alarmed, the Pearces told the Dodds to drive on, and again threatened them in much the same language. They drove on towards the woman, reported the incident to her and called the police. Mary, his wife, supported the testimony of Cornelius.

Joseph and James Pearce came from Stepney, living "Anywhere, nowhere, where you like". Thomas Twinn gave evidence on the proximity of the Pearces to the incident at the time. Two policemen handled the arrest of Joseph and James Pearce on 4 January. At the time of the arrest, Joseph was found to be carrying a life-preserver, or cosh, together with a pawnbroker's ticket dated 2 January for one of a pair of pistols. He was caught with a gunpowder flask, percussion caps and six pistol bullets as well. Harold Wingfield from Waterloo Terrace, Commercial Road, Stepney, provided evidence from the pawnbrokers.

Although, the first count on which they were charged was intent to murder, they were found guilty only on the third count of felonious assault with intent to rob. The likely punishments would probably have been known. What commenced as drunken recklessness, led by the older bother, was nevertheless extremely foolhardy. Joseph was transported for fifteen years, James for ten.

James Saville, and James and John Webster came before the Old Bailey on 27 November 1837, charged with stealing two pigs of value £6. The pigs belonged to Thomas Gray Fellows, who, too ill to appear in court, was represented by his brother Bennett. Bennett testified that although he had seen the pigs at his brother's premises on 20 October, he had later seen them in Chipping Ongar; "I am sure they are the same that belonged to him." The landlord of the Red Lion called a resident of Chipping Ongar, Thomas Reynolds, to the pub where James Saville attempted to sell the pigs to him. Suspicions were aroused, and the pigs were driven to the market in the White Horse yard where it was maintained that James Saville had acknowledged that the pigs had been stolen from Captain Fellows. In his hasty confession, he also tried to implicate his co-defendents. However, on trial, the Websters were found not guilty, unlike James Saville who, being of previously good character, was nevertheless ordered to be confined for six weeks, aided no doubt by being "Recommended to mercy by the Jury and Prosecutor". He was 17 years old.

Ongar does not appear frequently, perhaps a compliment to the civil obedience of the populace. However wrongdoing was often punished severely, so much so that it is surprising that the sentencing appears to carry little deterrence with it. In the absence of regular policing. arrest and conviction must have been unexpected and maybe even arbitrary. Social conditions at the time make it difficult to form any conclusion from the perspective of today, especially through using just a small selection of cases. However, this huge source of information from the Old Bailey is able to provide some tantalising insights into social history.