A Knight of the Road Performs

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 76, 21 June 1927, Page 14

A Knight of the Road Performs

Story of Col. Jack Round about Ratcliff Highway toward the end of the seventeenth century a number of glass works had sprung up, probably the only reputable trade carried on in that very unsavoury quarter. Under these glass works were “ash holes,” where the bricks were warm even on the coldest nights because of the furnaces on the other side, and in these arches homeless children huddled for shelter, not more trained or taught than the homeless cats and dogs that, to our disgrace, lurk in similar poor shelters to-day. Three such little lads were all named John, and they kept together because in their earliest years they had shared one home. The eldest was the son of a sailor whose wife had been a nurse in some good family. To her had been given the other two children . . . both nameless yet of gentle blood . . . and she had been paid handsomely for their charge. On her death someone took possession of the money that was left and the three boys were turned adrift, foreordained to the gallows while in the cradle. For the sake of distinction they gave themselves military titles. The eldest, the nurse’s son, called himself Captain John, the second, who is the hero of this story, became Colonel Jack, and the youngest was known as Major Jack, but soon they were called by their fellow outcasts the Three Jacks of Rag Fair. Their story is set down by Johnson, who declares he has reprinted the account actually written by Colonel Jack, and that may be the truth. If so it is one of the most amazing documents ever penned, and throws a cruel and vivid light on social conditions two hundred years ago. By the time Captain John was 13 he was in the clutches of the law for a particularly cowardly crime. The planters of Virginia wanted slaves; they were glad to get English children, and Captain John acted as a decoy to a gang of slave catchers. He made friends with other children in the street; on one pretence or another he lured them to a rendezvous near the highway, and after that all trace of the little ones was lost. Says Colonel Jack: — “It was usual to catch children in the evenings, stop their mouths, carry them to certain homes where there were rogues ready to receive them, who then put them on board ship bound for Virginia and sold them as slaves.” The gang were run to earth, the leaders were hanged at Tyburn—though that does not mean the crime was stopped—and Captain John sentenced to be three times whipped “the Recorder of Bridewell informing him it was to save him from the gallows.” A Great Impression Colonel Jack tells us that the fate of their comrade made a great impression on Major Jack and himself, but they were not kept to the path of honesty by the example. Major Jack fell into the company of expert pickpockets who paid him for his help in drawing the attention of the crowd from them while they carried on their business, and few more poignant human documents have been penned than Colonel Jack’s account of his chum’s return to the glass works arch with his first reward; “ . . . he wakened me early next morning *ind showed me his hand almost full of money ... he gave me a shilling and a sixpence which made me think myself a rich man. as I had never before had a shilling that I

could call my own. ... We went to Rag Fair and purchased each a pair of shoes and stockings, then to a cookshop in Rosemary Lane and dined like lords upon boiled beef pudding, a penny brick, and a pot of strong beer as we were disposed to be like gentlemen for once in our lives . . . sevenpence was the amount of our bill.” After that the two lads started a career of crime, and did so well that as he says: “We would no longer lodge in the glass house, nor walk naked and ragged. ... I purchased two shirts, a waistcoat, and a great coat.” The First Robbery At first they remained pickpockets, but later became highwaymen, their first robbery being in Hyde Park, where they stopped a coach containing a gentleman and “A Cyprian damsel” that he had met in Spring Gardens, then a pleasure resort, now the headquarters of the L.C.C. They took the gentleman’s watch, money and sil-ver-hilted sword, but . . . “when we demanded a contribution from the lady she scolded us, saying she had not a penny, and we had not left the gentleman one to give her.” Before long Colonel Jack fled northward, and reaching Newcastle “in the dusk of the evening went down to the water side.” At an inn he fell into conversation with the .landlady, presently telling her that he wanted to return t.o London. At that she exclaimed with pleasure, saying that a friend of hers was captain of a ship bound for London, and gladly would he accept the stranger as a passenger. The skipper came in while they were talking. Jack had no money, so offered his services on the ship, but the skipper retorted he would take him as a passenger for the landlady’s sake, and with wonderful generosity insisted on “standing treat” to the extent of a “sneaker of punch.” The punch was drunk, so was another “sneaker,” with the result that Colonel Jack fell asleep and did not wake until he found himself on board the ship, and knew she had passed out from the Tyne and was well out on the open sea. Sold to Slavery An awakening came in a double sense, for he learned the ship was not going to touch at London at all, as she was bound for Maryland, in America. Too well Colonel Jack knew what that meant. The slavery which had been the fate of the little London children was to be his. Once in America he became the slave of a Mr. Smith, a very rich planter, whom he served so well that presently he was told he was to have his freedom. The change from the London slum had been to the good, for if ever a man turned over a new leaf it was this ex-highwayman. Being set free he started on his own account and began to do well, keeping the esteem of his old master and winning respect from all around. Somehow he had learnt to read —how he does not say—and now a thirst for learning developed. “Fortunately I procured a quantity of books which belonged to a planter who was dead. Though I was then thirty years old I looked upon this period as my youth and would have gone to school to learn.” He purenased as a slave a man of many accomplishments, who had been transported from Bristol, and Jack gave him his freedom on condi - tion he acted as schoolmaster, which he did to the satisfaction of both. The Only Happy Ending Of all the knights of the road whose stories are told, this of Colonel Jack is the only one which has a happy ending. He had repented his crimes, he had made good, and presently received from England a list of the names of those criminals included in the Royal pardon. His name was among them, so he could return to his own country, ready to look the whole world in the face, proud of his unhappy past because he had flung off its shackles, and had risen to the brilliant present. He ends his story with: "Having arranged all my affairs and com-

mitting them to the care of my overseer, whose fidelity and skill were proved, I set sail for my native country, resolving to spend the evening of my days in such manner as now I ardently wish I had spent the morning.”