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London Lives 1690 to 1800
Crime, Poverty and Social Policy in the Metropolis
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V.
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HENRY SIMMS
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was indicted for assaulting on the King's Highway, on the
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18th of October
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last, in the County of
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Middlesex
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, Mr.
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Fran. Sleep
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, putting him in Fear, and taking from him one Silver Watch, Value 3 l. and 6 s. in Money .
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HENRY SIMMS
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, alias Gentleman Harry , aged 30, was born in the Parish of
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St. Martin's in the Fields
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. His Parents dying when he was very young, he was brought up by a Grandmother; he serv'd no Apprenticeship to any Trade, only about a Month with a
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Breeches Maker
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. He lived in several Gentlemen's Service as a
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Postilion
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, and
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drove Hackney Coaches
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for several Masters; being always a gay and sprightly Youth, he soon became acquainted with a Number of the Ladies of the Town, who for a length of Time supported him. But by his keeping them Company he contracted such a Habit of Idleness, Extravagance and Debauchery, as well as an Acquaintance with a Number of noted Thieves and Pickpockets, that in order to support that Extravagance, committed abundance of Robberies, till he became as famous a Thief as ever yet adorn'd the Gallows. The Money he gain'd by Robbing he generally spent among the Whores about Covent-Garden, and as he generally wear very genteely dress'd, they gave him the Title of Gentleman Harry.
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While under Sentence of Death, his fertile Brain was continually contriving Schemes in hopes to save his Life. He wrote several Letters to the Secretaries of State, and even to his Majesty himself, offering to discover a most horrid Plot against his most Sacred Majesty's Life, and even went so far as to write down a Circumstantial Account of the Rise and Progress of a most wicked Design of assassinating his Majesty as he came from the Opera-House, which he was to have a large Sum of Money for, named several Persons as Aiders and Abettors thereof, and at length gained such Belief that a Gentleman was sent by Order of the Secretary of State to Newgate, to take down the Account from his own Mouth, and he told his Story with such a seeming Probability, that one Person was actually taken up and confined some Days on that Account, and Warrants issued against others; but on the Person's being examined who was taken up, and his making his Innocency fully appear he was discharged, and the Affair vanished in Smoke.
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The Robbery of Mr. Smith in the
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Borough
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having made much Noise in the World, and that Gentleman having, besides his very great Loss, suffered extremely in his Character on that account, Simms was particularly question'd in Relation to the Affair, and confessed that he really was one of the Persons who committed it, and gave the following Account thereof.
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That neither Swift, Cavenagh Gibbs , nor Black Sam, were concerned therein; but the whole was transacted by himself and
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William Bullimore
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,
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Thomas Casey
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, and
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John England
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; and tho' he Swore at first against the others out of Spite and Malice, yet on the Trial at
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Croydon
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his Conscience prick'd him, and in giving his Evidence he flatly
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