Policing and Punishment in London, 1660-1750 - J.M. Beattie

of whom were condemned in 1690 and 1691 for stealing goods of over ten
shillings in value, for which (unlike men) they were still then unable to plead bene-
fit of clergy. That was to be changed in 1691 , when clergy was made available to
all defendants. The one woman condemned to death for simple larceny after
that, and the two men who suffered for similar offences, had been denied clergy
on the ground that they had already received its benefit once before.
The seriousness of the offence was a crucial consideration in the life-and-
death decisions being made in the cabinet council or by the lords justices in
William’s reign. But the perceived character of the offender was also influential.
A condemned man’s or woman’s best chance of being saved from the gallows
was to persuade the recorder and the council that they were not dealing with a
dangerous old offender who would return to crime if given another chance.
Some of this evidence would have come out in the trial and would have formed
part of the recorder’s report, as we saw in the December 1704 example. But an
additional source of evidence was provided by petitions to the monarch from
defendants themselves and from their relatives and friends—petitions that were
sent in both before and after the council made its decisions. Support from an in-
fluential patron or from someone whose rank demanded that their intervention
be taken seriously would be an advantage if only because such patronage would

The Revolution, Crime, and Punishment in London 357

Table7.6.Capital punishment in property offences,

City of London, 1690 – 1713

A. Pardons and executions

Convicted Pardoned Other/unknown Executed

Men 73 37 2 34

% 100.0 50.7 2.7 46.6

Women 61 45 a 3 13

% 100.0 73.8 4.9 21.3

B. Offences against property punished by hanging

Men Women

No. % No. %

Burglary 20 58.8 2 15.4

Housebreaking 6 17.7 2 15.4

Robbery 2 5.9 —

Horse-theft 2 5.9 —

Picking pockets 2 5.9 —

Shoplifting — 5 38.5

Simple grand larceny 2 5.9 4 30.8

Total 34 100.1 13 100.1

Note:

aAt least seven initially reprieved for pregnancy

Source: Sample