Quilt Arnold, 1687-c.1726

Jonathan Wild's Partner in Crime

Early Life and Marriage

A Quilt Arnell was christened on 15 January 1687 in the parish of St Dunstan, Stepney, London. His parents were Sarah and Charles Arnell. A Quilt Arnoll married Christian Webb on 18 April 1724 in London.1 Quilt is an unusual name even in the eighteenth century, and these records almost certainly refer to the same person as Quilt Arnold.

Thief-Taker

Between December 1721 and June 1722 Arnold received £42 in reward money for his part in bringing about the convictions of five highway robbers. Jonathan Wild, the famous thief-taker, also received rewards for the same convictions.2 In October 1723 Arnold was described as having assisted Wild in apprehending 150 people, many of whom were subsequently prosecuted. He was a prosecution witness in the trial of Joseph Blake, alias Blueskin in October 1724. He was also involved in the arrest of petty criminals. At a meeting of the Bridewell Court of Governors on Friday 28 June 1723, Wild and Arnold charged Edward Boysten, John Vantreer and William Davis "for being Sturdy Idle disorderly persons and suspected pick pockets taken with several handkerchiefs in their Custody they having no Visible means of a Livelyhood".

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Domestic Trouble, Downfall and Escape?

On the 21st of December 1724 Arnold was bound over by Justice John Mercer for assaulting, beating and bruising Christian Webb, who was not described as his wife, despite their marriage earlier that year. Arnold was charged to appear at the January Middlesex sessions, but failed to attend.3

On Monday 15 February 1725 Arnold was arrested with Wild, at the latter's house in the Old Bailey, examined before Sir John Fryer and Sir Gerard Conyers, two of the Aldermen of the City of London, and committed to Newgate Prison for felony. In the newspaper reports, Arnold was described as Wild's "Secretary, and Groom of the Chambers", "his Edycon" [education], and his "Journeyman". On this occasion the two were charged with "Rescuing, feloniously Contriving and Faciliating the Escape of Roger Johnson, a most notorious Thief, House-Breaker, Pick-pocket, and Highwayman, out of this Kingdom towards Holland".4

For some reason neither Wild nor Arnold were tried for this offence at the Old Bailey. The authorities had other evidence against Wild, however, and he was tried, convicted and sentenced to death in May 1725 for arranging the return of stolen goods without attempting to prosecute the thieves. On Monday, May 17, 1725 it was reported that Arnold was to remain in Newgate until the next Assizes for Essex. He would then be moved there to be tried for a separate capital crime committed in that county.5 Although he was still in Newgate a month later,6 he was at liberty shortly thereafter, since his name is mentioned in a trial as having assisted a woman in June by securing the return of her stolen goods. His name then vanishes from the records. Perhaps Wild's execution, and the popular hostility to Wild demonstrated on that occasion, led Arnold to decide to keep a low profile.

However, his wife Christian was convicted at the Old Bailey on 11 July 1726 of privately stealing money from Ynur Lloyd during a sexual encounter. She was sentenced to transportation, and in October was sent to America on the Forward.7

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External Sources

  • Family Search (www.familysearch.org), consulted 15 April 2010.
  • The National Archives, E 407/30, Blood Money Certificates.
  • London Metropolitan Archives, CLA/047/LJ/01/0651, Calendar of prisoners held in Newgate, June 1725.
  • Daily Journal, Wednesday, February 17, 1725, Issue 1276; Wednesday, May 26, 1725, Issue 1360; Monday, May 17, 1725, Issue 1352.
  • Parker's London News or the Impartial Intelligencer, Monday, February 22, 1725, Issue 978.
  • Select Trials at the Sessions-House in the Old-Bailey, for Murder, Robberies, Rapes, Sodomy, Coining. 1742, vol. 2.

Footnotes

1 Family Search (www.familysearch.org), consulted 15 April 2010.

2 The National Archives, Blood Money Certificates, E 407/30 .

3 London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), MJ/SR/2436 (January 1725), recog. 94.

4 Daily Journal, Wednesday, February 17, 1725, Issue 1276; Parker's London News or the Impartial Intelligencer, Monday, February 22, 1725, Issue 978; Daily Journal, Wednesday, May 26, 1725, Issue 1360; Select Trials at the Sessions-House in the Old-Bailey, for Murder,Robberies, Rapes, Sodomy, Coining (1742), vol. 2.

5 Daily Journal, Monday, May 17, 1725, Issue 1352.

6 LMA, CLA/047/LJ/01/0651, Calendar of prisoners held in Newgate, June 1725.

7 Peter Wilson Coldham, The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage, 1614-1775 (Baltimore, 1988), p. 19.

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About this Biography

Created by

Mary Clayton 

Further contributions by

Sharon Howard and Robert Shoemaker