kept a gin-shop in Short's gardens, Drury-lane; and this house was frequented by company of the same kind as those he had formerly entertained, particularly parson Lindsey. Lindsey having prevailed on a gentleman to go to this house, made him drunk, and then robbed him of several valuable articles; but procuring himself to be admitted an evidence, charged Angier and his wife with the robbery: they had again the good fortune to escape, the character of Lindsey being at this time so infamous, that the court and jury paid no regard to any thing he said. Soon after, however, Mrs. Angier was transported for picking a gentleman's pocket, and her husband was convicted on two capital indictments; the one for robbing Mr. Lewin, the city marshall, near Hornsey, of ten guineas and some silver, and the other for robbing a waggoner near Knightsbridge. On both these trials, Dyer, who was concerned in the robberies, was admitted an evi. dence against Angier. After conviction, he was visited by numbers of persons, whose pockets had been picked of valuable articles, in the hope of getting some intelligence of the property they had lost; but he said, " he was never guilty of such mean practices as picking of pockets, and all his associates were above it, except one Hugh Kelly, who was transported for robbing a woman of a shroud, which she was carrying home to cover her deceased husband." He suffered at Tyburn, September 9,

1723.

ANSEL, JAMES. See WALTHAM BLACKS,

THE.

ARAM, EUGENE, (MURDERER,) a man of considerable erudition, which he acquired under great disadvantages, and who was also remarkable for his unhappy fate, and the singular circumstances

that

that occasioned and attended it, was born at Rams. gill, a little village, in Netherdale, Yorkshire, in the year 1704. He was descended from an ancient family, but his father was in no higher station than that of a gardener, though of great merit in that occupation. He was removed, when very young, together with his mother, to Skelson, near Newby; and, when he was five or six years old, his father making a little purchase in Bondgate, near Rippon, his family went thither. He was there sent to school, where he learned to read the New Testament in English, which was all he was ever taught, except that, some considerable time after, he was under the tuition of the Rev. Mr. Alcock, of Burnsal, for about a month. When he was about thirteen or fourteen years of age, he went to his father in Newby, and attended him in the family there, till the death of Sir Edward Blackett. It was in the house of this gentleman, to whom his father was gardener, that his propensity to literature first appeared. He was, indeed, always of a solitary disposition, and uncommonly fond of retirement and books; and here he enjoyed all the advantages of leisure and privacy. He applied himself at first chiefly to mathematical studies, in which he made a considerable proficiency. At about sixteen years of age, he was sent to London to the house of Mr. Christopher Blackett, whom he served for some time in the capacity of book-keeper. After continuing here a year, or more, he was taken with the small pox, and suffered severely under that distemper. He afterwards returned into Yorkshire, in consequence of an invitation from his father, and there continued to prosecute his studies, but found in polite literature much greater charms than in the mathematics; which occasioned him now chiefly to apply himself

to poetry, history, and antiquities. After this he was invited to Netherdale, where he engaged in a school, and married. But his marriage proved an unhappy connection; for to the misconduct of his wife he afterwards attributed the misfortunes that befel him. In the mean while, having perceived his deficiency in the learned languages, he applied himself to the grammatical study of the Latin and Greek tongues; after which he read, with great avidity and diligence, all the Latin classics, historians and poets. He then went through the Greek Testament; and lastly, ventured upon Hesiod, Homer, Theocritus, Herodotus, and Thucydides, together with all the Greek tragedians. In 1734, William Norton, Esq. a gentleman who had a friendship for him, invited him to Knaresborough. Here he acquired the knowledge of the Hebrew, and read the Pentateuch in that language. In 1744, he returned to London, and served the Rev. Mr. Painblanc, as usher in Latin and writing, in Piccadilly and, with this gentleman's assistance, he acquired the knowledge of the French language. He was afterwards employed, as an usher and tutor in several different parts of England; during which time he became acquainted with heraldry and botany. He also ventured upon Chaldee and Arabic, the former of which he found easy from its near connection with the Hebrew. He then investigated the Celtic, as far as possible, in all its dialects; and having begun to form collections, and made comparisons between the Celtic, the English, the Latin, the Greek, and the Hebrew, and found a great affinity between them, he resolved to proceed through all these lan- guages, and to form a comparative Lexicon. But, in the midst of these learned labours and enquiries, it appears, that Aram committed a crime, which could