got employment as a helper in the stables at Brooke's Mews, in which station he bore a good character. He then became the driver of a postchaise, after which he was servant to an officer, and in both these stations he was well spoken of. About four years before his execution he was coachman to a gentleman of fortune near Portman Square, and it was at this period that he dressed in the manner which gave rise to the appellation of Sixteenstring Jack, by wearing breech's with eight strings at each knee. After living in the service of several noblemen he lost his character, and turned pickpocket, in company with three fellows, named Jones, Clayton, and Colledge, the latter of whom, a mere boy, obtained the name of Eight-stringed Jack. At the sessions held at the Old Bailey in April, 1774, Rann, Clayton, and one Shepherd, were tried for robbing Mr. William Somers on the highway, and acquitted for want of evidence. They were again tried for robbing Mr. Langford, but acquitted for the same reason. For some time past Rann had kept company with a young woman named Roche, who, having been apprenticed to a milliner, and being seduced by an officer of the guards, was reduced to obtain bread by the casual wages of prostitution; and, at length associating with highwaymen, received such valuable effects as they took on the road. 'A woman's honour is a woman's all, You give like atoms to the whistling wind; On the 30th of May Rann was taken into custody, and, being brought to Bow Street on the following Wednesday, was charged with robbing John Devall, Esq. near the nine-mile stone on the Hounslow road, of his watch and money. This watch he had given to Miss Roche, who had delivered it to Catharine Smith, by whom it was offered in pledge to Mr. Hallam, a pawnbroker, who, suspecting that it was not honestly obtained, caused all the parties to be taken into custody. Miss Roche was now charged with receiving the watch, knowing it to have been stolen; and Miss Smith, being sworn, deposed that, on the day Mr. Devall was robbed, Roche told her that she expected Rann to bring her some money in the evening;' that he accordingly came about ten at night, and, having retired some time with Miss Roche, she, on her return, owned that she had received a watch and five guineas from him, which he said he had taken from a gentleman on the highway; and that she, Miss Smith, carried the watch to pawn to Mr. Hallam, at the request of Miss Roche. Sir John Fielding asked Rann if he would offer any thing in his defence; on which the latter said, 'I know no more of the matter than you do, nor half so much neither.' On this occasion Rann was dressed in a manner above his style of life and his circumstances. He had a bundle of flowers in the breast of his coat almost as large as a broom; and his irous were tied up with a number of blue ribands.' For this offence Rann was tried at the sessions held at the Old Bailey, in July, 1774, and acquitted. Two or three days after this acwith a quittal Rann engaged to sup girl at her lodgings in Bow Street; but, not being punctual to his ap pointment, the girl went to bed, and Rann, not being able to obtain admittance at the door, attempted to get in at the window on the first floor, and had nearly accomplished his purpose, when he was taken into custody by the watchman. For this burglarious attempt he was examined at Bow Street on the 27th of July, when the girl, whose apartments he had attempted to break open, declared that he could not have had any felonious intention, as he knew that he would have been a welcome guest, and have been readily admitted, if she had not fallen asleep. On this he was dismissed, after Sir John Fielding had cautioned him to leave his dangerous profession, and seek for some more honest means of support. On the Sunday following Rann appeared at Bagnigge Wells, dressed in a scarlet coat, tambour waistcoat, white silk stockings, laced hat, &c. and publicly declared himself to be a highwayman. Having indulged pretty freely, he became extremely quarrelsome, and several scuffles ensued, in one of which he lost a ring from his finger, and, when he discovered his loss, he said it was but a hundred guineas gone, which one evening's work would replace. He became at length so troublesome that part of the company agreed to turn him out of the house: but they met with so obstinate a resistance that they were obliged to give up their design; when a number of young fellows, possessed of more spirit than discretion, attacked this magnanimous hero, and actually forced him through the window into the road. Rann was not much injured by this severe treatment; but he complained bitterly against those who could so affrout a gentleman of his character. Rann, being arrested for a debt of fifty pounds, which he was unable to pay, was confined in the Marshalse prison, where he was visited by number of men and women of baà character, some of whom paid his debt, and procured his discharge. At another time, Raun being with two companions at an alehouse in Tottenham Court Road, two sheriff's officers arrested Rann, who, not having money to pay the debt, deposited his watch in the hands of the bailiffs, and his associates advanced three guineas, which together made more than the amount of the debt; and, as a balance was to be returned to Rann when the watch should be redeemed, he told the bailiffs that, if they would lend him five shillings, he would treat them with a crown bowl of punch. This they readily did; and, while they were drinking, Rann said to the officers, You have not treated me like a gentleman. When Sir John Fielding's people come after me they use me genteelly; they only hold up a finger, beckon me, and I follow them as quietly as a lamb,' When the bailiffs were gone, Rann and his companions rode off; but our hero, soon returning, stopped at the turnpike, and asked if he had been wanted. No,' said the tollman. Why,' replied the other, ‘I am Sixteen-string Jack, the famous highwayman-have any of Sir John Fielding's people been this way?" Yes,' said the man, some of them are but just gone through.' Rann replied, If you see them again, tell them I am gone towards London;' and then rode off with the utmost unconcern. Soon afterwards Rann appeared at Barnet races, dressed in a most elegant sporting style, his waistcoat being blue satin, trimmed with silver; and he was followed by hundreds of people, who were eager to gratify their curiosity by the sight of a man who had been so much the subject of public conversation. A very short time before Rann was capitally convicted he attended a public execution at Tyburn, and, getting within the ring formed by he constables round the gallows, lesired that he might be permitted to stand there, 'for,' said he, 'perhaps it is very proper that I should be a spectator on this occasion.' On the 26th of September, 1774, Rann and William Collier went on the Uxbridge road, with a view to commit robberies on the highway; and on the Wednesday following they were examined at the public office in Bow Street, when Dr. William Bell, chaplain to the Princess Amelia, deposed that, between three and four o'clock in the afternoon of Monday, the 26th of September, as he was riding near Ealing, he observed two men of rather mean appearance, who rode past him; and that he remarked they had suspicious looks; yet neither at that time, nor for some little time afterwards, had he any idea of being robbed that soon afterwards one of them, which he believed was Rann, crossed the head of his horse, and, demanding his money, said Give it to me, and take no notice, or I'll blow your brains out.' On this the doctor gave him one shilling and sixpence, which was all the silver he had, and likewise a common watch in a tortoise-shell case. On the evening of the day on which the robbery was committed Eleanor Roche, who was kept by Rann, and her maid-servant, carried a watch to pledge with Mr. Cordy, pawnbroker, in Oxford Road, who, suspecting that it had not been honestly acquired, stopped it, and applied to Mr. Grignion, watchmaker, in Russell Street, Covent Garden, who had made the watch for Dr Bell. Mr. Clarke swore that, on going to Miss Roche's lodgings on the Monday night, he found two pair of boots wet and dirty, which had evidently been worn that day; and Mr. Haliburton swore that he waited at Miss Roche's lodgings till Rann and Collier came thither; in consequence of which they were taken into custody. On the 5th of October, John Rann, William Collier, Eleanor Roche, and Christian Stewart (servant to Roche), were brought to Bow Street; when Dr. Bell deposed in substance as he had done the preceding week: and William Hills, servant to the Princess Amelia, swore that he saw Rann, whom he well knew, ascend the hill at Acton about twenty minutes before the robbery was committed-a circumstance which perfectly agreed with Dr. Bell's account of the time that he was robbed. John Raun and William Collier were therefore committed to New. gate, to take their trials for the highway robbery; Miss Roche was sent to Clerkenwell Bridewell, and Christian Stewart, her servant, to Tothill Fields' Bridewell, to be tried as accessories after the fact. The evidence given on this trial was, in substance, the same as that which had been given at Bow Street; but, some favorable circumstances appearing in behalf of Collier, he was recommended to mercy, and afterwards respited during the king's pleasure. Miss Roche was sentenced to be transported for fourteen years; her servant was acquitted; and Rann was left for execution. When Rann was brought down to take his trial he was dressed in a new suit of pea-green clothes; his hat was bound round with silver strings; he wore a ruffled shirt; and his behaviour evinced the utmost unconcern. Raun was so confident of being acquitted that he had ordered a genteel supper to be provided for the entertainment of his particular friends and associates on the joyful occasion; but their intended mirth was turned into mourning, and the madness of guilty joy gave way to the sullen melancholy of equally guilty grief. When Rann received his sentence he attempted to force a smile, but it was evident that his mind was racked with pains that no language can express. After conviction the behaviour of this malefactor was, for some time, very improper for one in his unhappy circumstances. On Sunday, the 23d of October, he had seven girls to dine with him. The company were remarkably cheerful; nor was Rann less joyous than his companions. His conduct was expressive of great unconcern till the time that the warrant for his execution arrived; after which he began to be somewhat serious in his preparation for a future state. On the morning of execution he received the sacrament in the chapel of the prison, and at the fatal tree behaved with great decency, but did not appear so much affected by his approaching fate as some printed accounts have represented him. When he came near the gallows he turned round, and looked at it as an object which he had long expected to see, but not as one that he dreaded, as might reasonably have been expected. He was turned off November the 30th, 1774, and, having hung the usual time, his body was delivered to his friends for interment. ROBERT AND DANIEL PERREAU, ON the 10th of March, 1775, discovery was made of a series of forgeries, said to have been carried on for a length of time by Robert and Daniel Perreau, twin brothers; the one an apothecary of great practice, and the other living in the style of a gentleman. The above parties, together with Mrs. Margaret Caroline Rudd, who lived with Daniel Perreau as his wife, and who was deemed to have been a principal agent in the forgeries, were taken into custody, and carried before the bench of magistrates in Bow Street, where the crowd attending to hear their examination was so great, that it became necessary to adjourn to the Guildhall, Westminster. The evidence there adduced tended to prove that the parties had raised cousiderable sums by bonds forged in the name of the well-known agent, William Adair, Esq. which they imposed on several gentlemen of fortune, as collateral securities with their own notes, for the payment of the said sums. This transaction was discovered by the following means:-Robert Perreau, whose character had been hitherto unimpeachable, applied to Mr. Drummond, the banker, to lend him five thousand pounds, and offered a bond for seven thousand five hundred pounds, which he said Mr. Adair hail given to his brother as a security for the payment. It will now be proper to remark that, in order to give colour to the validity of these bonds, it had been artfully suggested that Mrs. Rudd had near connexions with Mr. Adair; and it was even insinu. led that she was his natural daughter: but Mr. Drummond, to whom Mr. Adair's writing was familiar, had no sooner looked at the signature than he doubted its authenticity, and very politely asked Robert Perreau if he had seen Mr. Adair sign it. The latter said he had not, but had no doubt but that it was authentic, from the nature of the connexion that subsisted. To this Mr. Drummond replied that he could not advance such a sum without consulting his brother, and desired Perreau to leave the bond, promising to return it the next morning, or advance on it the sum required. Mr. Perrcau made no scruple to leave the bond, and call in the morning. In the interim Mr. Drummond examined the bond with greater attention; and Mr. Stephens, secretary of the Admiralty, happening to call, his opinion was demanded; when, comparing the signature of the bond with letters he had lately received from Mr. Adair, he was firmly convinced that it was forged. When Perreau came Mr. Drummond spoke more freely than he had doue before, and told him that he imagined he had been imposed on; but begged that, to remove all doubt, he would go with him to Mr. Adair, and get that gentleman to acknowledge the validity of the bond; on which the money should be advanced. Perreau made not the least objection. They went together, and Mr. Adair was asked if the bond was his. He declared it was not; but Perreau smiled, and said he jested. Mr. Adair told him that it was no jesting matter, and that it was his duty to clear up the affair. Perreau said, if that was the case, he had been sent on a fine errand? He desired to have the bond, and said he would make the necessary inquiries; but this was refused, and it was thought a point of prudence to watch the motions of Robert Perreau till Daniel and his pretended wife were produced. Soon after he returned home the three parties went into a coach; and, if Mrs. Rudd's testimony may he credited, she took with her what money and valuables she could conveniently carry; and said that the brothers had taken her money, gold watch, and jewels, into their possession; but no reason was assigned for their doing so. The Their escape, however, if such was intended, was prevented; for, on information being laid against them, they were apprehended, carried before Sir John Fielding, and examined at the Guildhall, Westminster, as above related. facts already mentioned were attested by Mr. Adair, Mr. Drummond, and other persons; and Sir Thomas Frankland charged them with obtaining from him four thousand pounds on the first application, which they honestly repaid before the money became due; afterwards five thousand pounds, and then four thousand pounds, on similar bonds, all signed with the name of Mr. Adair. Mr. Watson, a money-scrivener, said that he had drawn eight bonds, all of them ordered by one or other of the brothers; but he hesitated to fix on either, on account of their great personal resemblance; and, being pressed to make a positive declaration, be fixed on Daniel as his employer. Dr. Brooke charged the brothers with obtaining from him fifteen bonds of the bank of Air, each of the value of one hundred pounds, upon the security of a forged hond |