Project about crime and punishment in Tudor, Stuart and Georgian England, featuring highwaymen, pirates, smugglers, poachers and much more...

2. Pickpockets were popular in the 1700-1800s
because not a lot of people had money to
buy things so they had to steal money from
people to stay alive.
Pickpocket
would steal
anything they
could as you
see in the
picture above.
To have an open ear, a quick eyed and a nimble
hand is necessary for a cut-purse. The pouch or
purse was often worn hung from a belt.
JOHN EYRE was convicted at the Old Bailey for
stealing paper out of the Guildhall. On the 1st of
September, 1771, this unfortunate gentleman, who
was possessed of stolen property, surrendered
himself to take his trial for that offence, to which he
pleaded guilty, and was immediately put into the
bail-dock with other prisoners.

4. My masters, and friends, and good people, draw near,
And look to your purses for that I do say;
And though little mony in them you do bear,
It costs more to get than to lose in a day;
You often have been told, both the young and the old,
And bidden beware of the Cut-purse so bold;
Then, if you take heed not, free me from the curse,
Who both give you warning for and the cut-purse.
Hanging purses led to
the rise of a new
profession, the cut-
purse, who could snip
the strings or even the
bottom of the pouch
and be gone before
the victim noticed his
loss
If u were stealing from someone or
somewhere and then you got caught
then the punishment was that you
would be hanged to till you die or you
would have your head chopped of.
The people who beheaded the thieves
they were not that popular either
because if you chopped of someone's
head then the publicity would think that
is a bit to extreme, even though this
was the public’s entertainment.
People committed this
crime for the same obvious
reason they pick-pocketed.
You would get hang if
found cutpursing this would
lead to big crowds as
people found it amusing.
People thought being hung
was a shameful way to die
as people would be
crowded around you and
cheering and shouting.

6. Though highway robbery has always been a threat to the
travelers in the period from the mid-seventeenth to the
eighteenth century because of the highwaymen that would
rob you on the highway.
Highwaymen would steal money of the people who came
riding on there horse even of the women but if they did not
have any money on them then they would take something
that would be expensive or they would take your horse or
whatever you were riding.
The type of people who would try to rob you on a highway
would the poor or the people who would do anything to get
money and to make sure that you would give them the
thing they want they would always carry a knife in there
pocket or in there shoe so if the police would try to search
them then they wouldn’t find anything.

8. In the 17th
century pirates lived by their own
rules outside the law. In the times of the Royal
Navy's press gangs, people "going pirate"
were considered people who had nothing
more to loose, it meant jumping ship naval or
merchant. Pirates weren't lawless - pirate
crews had pirates’ rules and ship’s
agreements just as buccaneers did. The rule
was one for all and all for one.
If pirates were captured they often faced two
charges: piracy and murder. Trials lasted no longer
than two days. Even though they were tried in
English court their fate was usually a definite
conclusion.
The pirate flags were
used to intimidate the
enemy or victim, and
the flag was designed
to conjure up fear and
dread. Pirates would try
to not damage the other
pirate ships a lot so
they could take them as
there own and take the
other pirates as
servants or they would
make them walk the
plank.

11. Before the great pirates in the early 18th century,
there was an even more bloodthirsty attacks in
the Caribbean known as the 'Buccaneering. For
over 50 years, English, French and Dutch
buccaneers launched a series of devastating and
dangerous attacks on Spanish towns, ports and
shipping. Well-known buccaneers such as
Captain Henry Morgan.
They carried out their raids
under the protection of the
English crown, and in 1692,
the French even used
buccaneers to help its army
capture the great Spanish
city of Cartagena!
Not only the law had punishments for
buccaneers, there were punishments among
themselves. An example, if a cabin boy was
accused of stealing he would be whipped and
legs being extended at full length.

13. They would smuggle illegal things. In the 1700 to
the 1800 the smugglers used to build up tents or
they would use a house and use it to sell it or they
would use it to trade it for more guns and useful
thing to them.
If you would do a trade with these people and you would
receive a box that had 3 skulls like the picture then that
would mean " NO QUARTER GIVEN “ stamps of
approval. These are merchants & smugglers with whom
we have trafficked, and whose merchandise we can
heartily recommend. If a merchant doesn't have the
three skulls rating, it doesn't necessarily mean they
aren't to be trusted, or sell inferior goods. It just means
we don't have first hand knowledge of them.

14. Poachers are brutal killers in a way because they like seeing animals dying.
Poachers are people who have no home because of what they do there
families might leave them or they might leave there families.
Poacher are hunters that illegally hunt animals
in the wild and that are in the reserve parks.
They don’t obey the law by killing animals.
Poachers kill animals for the fun of it but for the
animals family its not fun seeing your family die
while the humans laugh it all out.
In some cases the poachers do get them selves like
when they are shooting then another animal might be
creeping up behind them and then you get killed but
in some cases poachers get killed like when they try
to shoot a animal and they miss the animal comes
after them and sometime you might get away but
sometimes they are just to fast.

15. Murderers are people who kill someone with a
weapon like knife guns daggers and all those other
weapons. you can be murdered by someone
creeping up behind and braking your neck.
The type of people who
murder other people are
either mad or they are drunk
or the person who they are
going to murder has
something on them like
seeing them sell drugs or
murdering someone else.
Murders normally happen at night like when
someone is in bed asleep or if someone is
walking down a road where there are no cars.
You cant see killers at night because they are
normally wearing black or something dark.
Murders can also happen in daylight like if
someone is walking in the alleyway or if they
knock on your doorbell and say they are the gas
man and when you shut the door your dead.
when it is like the doorbell case people are
normally hired. Murderers don’t chose there
victims they already chosen.

16. Rebels are normally done when a law comes out and the public that live in
the area don’t like it so they get all the public together. Then they fight
against them they throw rocks at the police and throw bombs at them but
most people cover there faces so they don’t get caught doing that all.
Rebels are gangs of outlaws
who stand against the
government and they start
rebellions all around the area
they live.
Back in the 1700-1800 if a man in a village or a
town stood up to the government then the whole
town or village would be inspired and they to
would stand up to them.
Rebels are started by people who disagree with
the government. They start up wars with the
government and then they back out of it when
the police going round arresting everybody. The
crime was common at this time because it was
when they did not ask the public to vote for what
they wanted and back in those days the
government did what they thought what was
Wright for the publicity.

17. Hangmen are people who hang the people who are being punished for
what they have don e that is wrong in there life. The hangmen where
something over there heads so the people don’t recognise them when
they pull the lever so the platform under the person who is being hanged
opens.
Hangmen where masks like the executioners so they
don’t get recognised because people like them are not
very popular. Those people are killers in a way.
Hangmen in the 1700-1800 and even know would put
masks on the person who is going to be hanged before
they would get hanged. In those days people would get
hanged in front of everyone in the town or village. It was
common in those days to be hanged because in those
days there used to be more stealing going on.

18. Executioners were not
popular they were just like
the hangmen. They were a
bit different instead of puling
the lever they would cut your
head off in front of the whole
town or village. If there was
a royals head getting
chopped off then there would
be a very big crowd. The
people that were at the front
of the crowd would consider
themselves lucky because
people say that if you get a
bit of the blood of the royals
head then you would get
luck in your life.
Executioners
were masks so
the public don’t
see them while
cutting some
persons head
off just like the
hangmen so
god doesn't
recognise them.
To chop off a
persons head is
not a good thing
to do that’s why
they cover there
faces as well.

19. In my own opinion I think that it is worse back in the 1700-1800 rather
than after that like the 1900-2006. The reason is because back then
there where not that many rules that people followed and because the
people back then used to do there own thing instead of doing what's
right. So that’s why I think that it is worse then than now.