text: jack sheppard jack sheppard ( 4 march 1702 – 16 november 1724 ) was a notorious english thief and gaol - breaker of early 18th - century london . born into a poor family , he was apprenticed as a carpenter but took to theft and burglary in 1723 , with little more than a year of his training to complete . he was arrested and imprisoned five times in 1724 but escaped four times from prison , making him a notorious public figure , and wildly popular with the poorer classes . ultimately , he was caught , convicted , and hanged at tyburn , ending his brief criminal career after less than two years . the inability of the notorious " thief - taker general " jonathan wild to control sheppard , and injuries suffered by wild at the hands of sheppard 's colleague , joseph " blueskin " blake , led to wild 's downfall . sheppard was as renowned for his attempts to escape from prison as he was for his crimes . an autobiographical " narrative " , thought to have been ghostwritten by daniel defoe , was sold at his execution , quickly followed by popular plays . the character of macheath in john gay 's the beggar 's opera ( 1728 ) was based on sheppard , keeping him in the limelight for over 100 years . he returned to the public consciousness around 1840 , when william harrison ainsworth wrote a novel entitled jack sheppard , with illustrations by george cruikshank . the popularity of his tale , and the fear that others would be drawn to emulate his behaviour , led the authorities to refuse to license any plays in london with " jack sheppard " in the title for forty years . early life sheppard was born in white 's row , in london 's spitalfields . he was baptised on 5 march , the day after he was born , at st dunstan 's , stepney , suggesting a fear of infant mortality by his parents , perhaps because the newborn was weak or sickly . his parents named him after an older brother , john , who had died before his birth . in life , he was better known as jack , or even " gentleman jack " or " jack the lad " . he had a second brother , thomas , and a younger sister , mary . their father , a carpenter , died while sheppard was young , and his sister died two years later . unable to support her family without her husband 's income , jack 's mother sent him to mr garrett 's school , a workhouse near st helen 's bishopsgate , when he was six years old . sheppard was sent out as a parish apprentice to a cane - chair maker , taking a settlement of 20 shillings , but his new master soon died . he was sent out to a second cane - chair maker , but sheppard was treated badly . finally , when sheppard was 10 , he went to work as a shop - boy for william kneebone , a wool draper with a shop on the strand . sheppard 's mother had been working for kneebone since her husband 's death . kneebone taught sheppard to read and write and apprenticed him to a carpenter , owen wood , in wych street , off drury lane in covent garden . sheppard signed his seven - year indenture on 2 april 1717 . by 1722 , sheppard was showing great promise as a carpenter . aged 20 , he was a small man , only 5 ' 4 " ( 1 . 63 m ) and lightly built , but deceptively strong . he had a pale face with large , dark eyes , a wide mouth and a quick smile . despite a slight stutter , his wit made him popular in the taverns of drury lane . he served five unblemished years of his apprenticeship but then began to be led into crime . joseph hayne , a button - moulder who owned a shop nearby , also ran a tavern named the black lion off drury lane , which he encouraged the local apprentices to frequent . the black lion was visited by criminals such as joseph " blueskin " blake , sheppard 's future partner in crime , and self - proclaimed " thief - taker general " jonathan wild , secretly the linchpin of a criminal empire across london and later sheppard 's implacable enemy . according to sheppard 's autobiography , he had been an innocent until going to hayne 's tavern , but there began an attachment to strong drink and the affections of elizabeth lyon , a prostitute also known as edgworth bess ( or edgeworth bess ) from her place of birth at edgeworth in middlesex . in his history , defoe records that bess was " a main lodestone in attracting of him up to this eminence of guilt . " such , sheppard claimed , was the source of his later ruin . peter offers a different view : that sheppard 's sudden transformation was a liberation from the dull drudgery of indentured labour and that he progressed from pious servitude to self - confident rebellion and . criminal career sheppard threw himself into a hedonistic whirl of drinking and whoring . inevitably , his carpentry suffered , and he became disobedient to his master . with lyon 's encouragement , sheppard took to crime in order to complement his legitimate wages . his first recorded theft was in spring 1723 , when he engaged in petty shoplifting , stealing two silver spoons while on an errand for his master to rummer tavern in charing cross . sheppard 's misdeeds went undetected , and he moved on to larger crimes , often stealing goods from the houses where he was working . finally , he quit the employ of his master on 2 august 1723 , with less than two years of his apprenticeship left , although he continued to work as a journeyman carpenter . he was not suspected of the crimes , and progressed to burglary , falling in with criminals in jonathan wild 's gang . he moved to fulham , living as man and wife with lyon at parsons green , before moving to piccadilly . when lyon was arrested and imprisoned at st giles 's roundhouse , the beadle , a mr brown , refused to let sheppard visit , so he broke in and took her away . arrested and escaped twice sheppard was first arrested after a burglary he committed with his brother , tom , and his mistress , lyon , in clare market on 5 february 1724 . tom , also a carpenter , had already been convicted once for stealing tools from his master the previous autumn and burned in the hand . tom was arrested again on 24 april 1724 . afraid that he would be hanged this time , tom informed on jack , and a warrant was issued for jack 's arrest . jonathan wild was aware of sheppard 's thefts , as sheppard had fenced some stolen goods through one of wild 's men , william field . wild asked another of his men , james sykes ( known as " hell and fury " ) to challenge sheppard to a game of skittles at redgate 's public house near seven dials . sykes betrayed sheppard to a mr price , a constable from the parish of st giles , to gather the usual £ 40 reward for giving information leading to the conviction of a felon . the magistrate , justice parry , had sheppard imprisoned overnight on the top floor of st giles 's roundhouse pending further questioning , but sheppard escaped within three hours by breaking through the timber ceiling and lowering himself to the ground with a rope fashioned from bedclothes . still wearing irons , sheppard coolly joined the crowd that had been attracted by the sounds of him breaking out . he distracted their attention by pointing to the shadows on the roof and shouting that he could see the escapee , and then swiftly departed . on 19 may 1724 , sheppard was arrested for a second time , caught in the act of picking a pocket in leicester fields ( near present - day leicester square ) . he was detained overnight in st ann 's roundhouse in soho and visited there the next day by lyon ; she was recognised as his wife and locked in a cell with him . they appeared before justice walters , who sent them to the new prison in clerkenwell , but they escaped from their cell , known as the newgate ward , within a matter of days . by 25 may , whitsun monday , sheppard and lyon had filed through their manacles ; they removed a bar from the window and used their knotted bed - clothes to descend to ground level . finding themselves in the yard of the neighbouring bridewell , they clambered over the 22 - foot - high ( 6 . 7 m ) prison gate to freedom . this feat was widely publicised , not least because sheppard was only a small man , and lyon was a large , buxom woman . third arrest , trial , and third escape sheppard 's thieving abilities were admired by jonathan wild . wild demanded that sheppard surrender his stolen goods for wild to fence , and so take the greater profits , but sheppard refused . he began to work with joseph " blueskin " blake , and they burgled sheppard 's former master , william kneebone , on sunday 12 july 1724 . wild could not permit sheppard to continue outside his control and began to seek sheppard 's arrest . unfortunately for sheppard , his fence , william field , was one of wild 's men . after sheppard had a brief foray with blueskin as highwaymen on the hampstead road on sunday 19 july and monday 20 july , field informed on sheppard to wild . wild believed lyon would know sheppard 's whereabouts , so he plied her with drinks at a brandy shop near temple bar until she betrayed him . sheppard was arrested a third time at blueskin 's mother 's brandy shop in rosemary lane , east of the tower of london ( later renamed royal mint street ) , on 23 july by wild 's henchman , quilt arnold . sheppard was imprisoned in newgate prison pending his trial at the next assize of oyer and terminer . he was prosecuted on three charges of theft at the old bailey , but was acquitted on the first two due to lack of evidence . kneebone , wild and field gave evidence against him on the third charge , the burglary of kneebone 's house . he was convicted on 12 august , the case " being plainly prov 'd " , and sentenced to death . on monday 31 august , the very day when the death warrant arrived from the court in windsor setting friday 4 september as the date for his execution , sheppard escaped . having loosened an iron bar in a window used when talking to visitors , he was visited by lyon and poll , who distracted the guards while he removed the bar . his slight build enabled him to climb through the resulting gap in the grille , and he was smuggled out of newgate in women 's clothing that his visitors had brought him . he took a coach to blackfriars stairs , a boat up the river thames to the horse ferry in westminster , near the warehouse where he hid his stolen goods , and made good his escape . fourth arrest and final escape by this point , sheppard was a working class hero ( being a cockney , non - violent , and handsome , and seemingly able to escape punishment for his crimes at will ) . he spent a few days out of london , visiting a friend 's family in chipping warden in northamptonshire , but was soon back in town . he evaded capture by wild and his men but was arrested again on 9 september by a posse from newgate as he hid out on finchley common , and returned to the condemned cell at newgate . his fame had increased with each escape , and he was visited in prison by the great , the good and the curious . his plans to escape in september were thwarted twice when the guards found files and other tools in his cell , and he was transferred to a strong - room in newgate known as the " castle " , clapped in leg irons , and chained to two metal staples in the floor to prevent further escape attempts . after demonstrating to his gaolers that these measures were insufficient , by showing them how he could use a small nail to unlock the horse padlock at will , he was bound more tightly and handcuffed . in his history , defoe reports that sheppard made light of his predicament , joking that " i am the sheppard , and all the in the town are my flock , and i cannot stir into the country , but they are all at my heels after me " . meanwhile , " blueskin " blake was arrested by wild and his men on friday 9 october , and tom , jack 's brother , was transported for robbery on saturday 10 october 1724 . new court sessions began on wednesday 14 october , and blueskin was tried on thursday 15 october , with field and wild again giving evidence . their accounts were not consistent with the evidence that they gave at sheppard 's trial , but blueskin was convicted anyway . enraged , blueskin attacked wild in the courtroom , slashing his throat with a pocket - knife and causing an uproar . wild was lucky to survive , and his grip over his criminal empire started to slip while he recuperated . taking advantage of the disturbance , which spread to newgate prison next door and continued into the night , sheppard escaped for the fourth time . he unlocked his handcuffs and removed the chains . still encumbered by his leg irons , he attempted to climb up the chimney , but his path was blocked by an iron bar set into the brickwork . he removed the bar and used it to break through the ceiling into the " red room " above the " castle " , a room which had last been used some seven years before to confine aristocratic jacobite prisoners after the battle of preston . still wearing his leg irons as night fell , he then broke through six barred doors into the prison chapel , then to the roof of newgate , 60 feet ( 20 m ) above the ground . he went back down to his cell to get a blanket , then back to the roof of the prison , and used the blanket to reach the roof of an adjacent house , owned by william bird , a turner . he broke into bird 's house , and went down the stairs and out into the street at around midnight without disturbing the occupants . escaping through the streets to the north and west , sheppard hid in a cowshed in tottenham ( near modern tottenham court road ) . spotted by the barn 's owner , sheppard told him that he had escaped from bridewell prison , having been imprisoned there for failing to support a ( nonexistent ) bastard son . his leg irons remained in place for several days until he persuaded a passing shoemaker to accept the considerable sum of 20 shillings to bring a blacksmith 's tools and help him remove them , telling him the same tale . his manacles and leg irons were later recovered in the rooms of kate cook , one of sheppard 's mistresses . this escape astonished everyone . daniel defoe , working as a journalist , wrote an account for john applebee , the history of the remarkable life of john sheppard . in his history , defoe reports the belief in newgate that the devil came in person to assist sheppard 's escape . final capture sheppard 's final period of liberty lasted just two weeks . he disguised himself as a beggar and returned to the city . he broke into the rawlins brothers ' pawnbroker 's shop in drury lane on the night of 29 october 1724 , taking a black silk suit , a silver sword , rings , watches , a wig , and other items . he dressed himself as a dandy gentleman and used the proceeds to spend a day and the following evening on the tiles with two mistresses . he was arrested a final time in the early morning on 1 november , blind drunk , " in a handsome suit of black , with a diamond ring and a cornelian ring on his finger , and a fine light tye " . this time , sheppard was placed in the middle stone room , in the centre of newgate next to the " castle " , where he could be observed at all times . he was also loaded with 300 pounds of iron weights . he was so celebrated that the gaolers charged high society visitors four shillings to see him , and the king 's painter james thornhill painted his portrait . several prominent people sent a petition to king george i , begging for his sentence of death to be commuted to transportation . " the concourse of people of tolerable fashion to see him was exceeding great , he was always and pleasant to a degree , as turning almost everything as was said onto a jest and . " to a reverend who visited him , he said , according to defoe , " one file 's worth all the bibles in the world " . sheppard came before mr justice powis in the court of king 's bench at westminster hall on 10 november . he was offered the chance to have his sentence reduced by informing on his associates , but he scorned the offer , and the death sentence was confirmed . the next day , blueskin was hanged , and sheppard was moved to the condemned cell . execution the following monday , 16 november , sheppard was taken to the gallows at tyburn to be hanged . he planned one more escape , but his pen - knife , intended to cut the ropes binding him on the way to the gallows , was found by a prison warder shortly before he left newgate for the last time . a joyous procession passed through the streets of london , with sheppard 's cart drawn along holborn and oxford street accompanied by a mounted city marshal and liveried javelin men . the occasion was as much as anything a celebration of sheppard 's life , attended by crowds of up to 200 , 000 ( one third of london 's population ) . the procession halted at the city of oxford tavern on oxford street , where sheppard drank a pint of sack . a carnival atmosphere pervaded tyburn , where his " official " autobiography , published by applebee and probably ghostwritten by defoe , was on sale . sheppard handed " a paper to someone as he mounted the scaffold " , perhaps as a symbolic endorsement of the account in the " narrative " . his slight build had aided his previous prison escapes , but it condemned him to a slow death by strangulation by the hangman 's noose . after hanging for the prescribed 15 minutes , his body was cut down . the crowd pressed forward to stop his body from being removed , fearing dissection ; their actions inadvertently prevented sheppard 's friends from implementing a plan to take his body to a doctor in an attempt to revive him . his badly mauled remains were recovered later and buried in the churchyard of st martin 's - in - the - fields that evening . legacy there was a spectacular public reaction to sheppard 's deeds . he was even cited ( favourably ) as an example in newspapers , pamphlets , broadsheets , and ballads were all devoted to his amazing exploits , and his story was adapted for the stage almost immediately . harlequin sheppard , a pantomime by one john thurmond ( subtitled " a night scene in grotesque characters " ) , opened at the theatre royal , drury lane on saturday 28 november , only two weeks after sheppard 's hanging . in a famous contemporary sermon , a london preacher drew on sheppard 's popular escapes as a way of holding his congregation 's attention : the account of his life remained well - known through the newgate calendar , and a three - act farce was published but never produced , but , mixed with songs , it became the quaker 's opera , later performed at bartholomew fair . an imagined dialogue between jack sheppard and julius caesar was published in the british journal on 4 december 1724 , in which sheppard favourably compares his virtues and exploits to those of caesar . perhaps the most prominent play based on sheppard 's life is john gay 's the beggar 's opera ( 1728 ) . sheppard was the inspiration for the figure of macheath ; his nemesis , , is based on jonathan wild . the play was spectacularly popular , restoring the fortune that gay had lost in the south sea bubble , and was produced regularly for over 100 years . an unperformed but published play the prison - breaker was turned into the quaker 's opera ( in imitation of the beggar 's opera ) and performed at bartholomew fair in 1725 and 1728 . two centuries later the beggar 's opera was the basis for the threepenny opera of bertolt brecht and kurt weill ( 1928 ) . sheppard 's tale may have been an inspiration for william hogarth 's 1747 series of 12 engravings , industry and idleness , which shows the parallel descent of an apprentice , tom idle , into crime and eventually to the gallows , beside the rise of his fellow apprentice , francis goodchild , who marries his master 's daughter and takes over his business , becoming wealthy as a result , eventually emulating dick whittington to become lord mayor of london . sheppard 's tale was revived in the first half of the 19th century . a melodrama , jack sheppard , the , or london in 1724 , by w.t. moncrieff was published in 1825 . more successful was william harrison ainsworth 's third novel , entitled jack sheppard , which was originally published in bentley 's miscellany from january 1839 with illustrations by george cruikshank , overlapping with the final episodes of charles dickens ' oliver twist . an archetypal newgate novel , it generally remains close to the facts of sheppard 's life , but portrays him as a swashbuckling hero . like hogarth 's prints , the novel pairs the descent of the " idle " apprentice into crime with the rise of a typical melodramatic character , thames darrell , a foundling of aristocratic birth who defeats his evil uncle to recover his fortune . cruikshank 's images perfectly complemented ainsworth 's tale — thackeray wrote that " ... mr cruickshank really created the tale , and that mr ainsworth , as it were , only put words to it . " the novel quickly became very popular : it was published in book form later that year , before the serialised version was completed , and even outsold early editions of oliver twist . ainsworth 's novel was adapted into a successful play by john buckstone in october 1839 at the adelphi theatre starring ( strangely enough ) mary anne keeley ; indeed , it seems likely that cruikshank 's illustrations were deliberately created in a form that were informed by , and would be easy to repeat as , tableaux on stage . it has been described as the " exemplary climax " of " the pictorial novel dramatized pictorially " . the story generated a form of cultural mania , embellished by pamphlets , prints , cartoons , plays and souvenirs , not repeated until george du maurier 's trilby in 1895 . by early 1840 , a cant song from buckstone 's play , " nix my dolly , pals , fake away " was reported to be " deafening us in the streets " . public alarm at the possibility that young people would emulate sheppard 's behaviour led the lord chamberlain to ban , at least in london , the licensing of any plays with " jack sheppard " in the title for forty years . the fear may not have been entirely unfounded : , the valet of lord william russell , claimed in one of his several confessions that the book had inspired him to murder his master . frank and jesse james wrote letters to the kansas city star signed " jack sheppard " . nevertheless , a number of burlesques of the story were written after the ban was lifted , including a popular gaiety theatre , london piece called little jack sheppard ( 1885 – 86 ) by henry pottinger stephens and w. yardley , with music by meyer lutz and others . the sheppard story has been revived several times in the 20th century , including three silent movies , the escape of jack sheppard ( 1900 ) , robbery of the mail coach ( 1903 ) and jack sheppard ( 1923 ) ; a book , the road to tyburn , by christopher hibbert ( 1957 ) ; a british costume drama , where 's jack ? , directed by james clavell , with tommy steele in the title role ( 1969 ) ; an unrealised film project of productions in 2000 , jack sheppard and jonathan wild , for which benjamin ross , who would have been director , co - wrote the screenplay with john preston , with tobey maguire and harvey keitel slated for the main parts ; a 2002 television drama , invitation to a hanging ; and a series of novels by neal stephenson collectively known as , the baroque cycle ( 2003 , 2004 ) , in which the character jack shaftoe was partly inspired by events from the life of jack sheppard . the reasons for the lasting legacy of jack sheppard 's exploits in the popular imagination have been addressed by peter , who suggests that sheppard 's legend was rooted in the prospect of , of escape from what michel foucault in folie et called the grand ( great confinement ) , in which " unreasonable " members of the population were locked away and institutionalised . the laws levelled at sheppard and similar working class criminals were a means of disciplining a potentially rebellious multitude into accepting increasingly harsh property laws . a nineteenth - century view on the jack sheppard phenomenon was offered by charles mackay in memoirs of extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds :