THOMAS WYNNE.
This notorious criminal was born at Ipswich, where he continued till he was between fifteen and sixteen, and then went to sea. Nine years after, coming to London, and associating with loose company, especially with women of the most infamous character, he left no villainy undone for the support of himself and them in their extravagances, till at last he became so expert in house-breaking and all sorts of theft, that he was esteemed the most remarkable villain of his time.
It was in the reign of queen Elizabeth that our artist flourished: accordingly, we find that he had the boldness to rob the royal lodgings at Whitehall palace of plate to the amount of 400l.for which he was taken and committed to Newgate. But fortunately for him, her majesty’s act of grace coming out, granting a freepardon for all offences except murder, treason, and other notorious crimes, he was allowed the benefit of that act, and thus obtained his liberty. But neither the royal clemency, nor the imminent danger to which he had been exposed, had any effect upon the obdurate heart of Wynne; for, pursuing his villanies, he was soon constrained to hire himself as under servant in the kitchen, to the earl of Salisbury, to avoid detection. While he was in this post, he had the audacity to make love to the countess’s woman, who, astonished at such insolence in a fellow of his rank, returned his addresses with the greatest contempt. This exasperated Wynne so much, that his pretended love turned to hatred, and he vowed revenge. He embraced an opportunity, and used her in a very brutal manner, until she was under the necessity of calling to the other servants for assistance. The poor woman took to her bed, and remained very unwell for some time. The master, informed of this shocking piece of cruelty, ordered Wynne to be whipped by the coachman, and the same to be repeated once a week during a month. Though Wynne was happy in having satiated his vengeance upon the woman who had contemptuously spurned his addresses, yet he was not very much in love with the reward assigned him by his master; therefore, robbing the coachman of nine pounds, borrowing fifteen pounds of the master-cook, carrying off a silver cup of the master’s, and all the best clothes of the woman whom he had so greatly injured, he went in quest of new adventures.
At that time innkeepers were not so active as now; Wynne therefore often dressed himself in the garb of a porter, and carried off parcels consigned to carriers, and continued undetected in this practice, until he had acquired about two hundred pounds, for which the different carriers had to pay through their neglect. Taught by experience, however, they began to look better after the goods entrusted to their care, so that Wynne had to turn to a new employment.
One day, hearing a man inform his wife, as he was going out, that it would be five or six hours beforehe would return, he followed him until he saw him go into a tavern; and, after getting acquainted with the name of the landlord, he went back to the man’s neighborhood, and discovered his name also. Having obtained this intelligence, he goes to the man’s wife, and informs her that her husband is taken suddenly ill, and wishes to see her before his death. Upon this the poor woman cried bitterly, and, after giving the maid orders to take care of the house, she ran off with this pretended messenger to the place where her husband was supposed to be in the jaws of death.
They had not proceeded far, when Wynne, upon pretence of business in a different part of the town, left her to prosecute her journey,—returned back to the house, and told the maid, that “her mistress had sent him to acquaint her, that if she did not come home by such an hour, she might go to bed, for she should not come home all night.” Wynne in the mean time seeming out of breath with haste, the maid civilly requested him to come in and rest himself. This according with his wishes, he immediately complied, and, when the maid was going to fetch him some meat, he suddenly knocked her down, bound her hand and foot, and robbed the house of every thing he could carry off, to the amount of 200l.
Wynne, having reigned eight years in his villanies, formed a strong desire to rob a linen-draper who had retired from business, and with his wife was living upon the fruits of his industry. He accordingly one evening broke into their house, and, to prevent discovery, cut both their throats while they were asleep, and rifled the house to the amount of 2500l.; and, to prevent detection, sailed to Virginia, with his wife and four children.
The two old people not appearing in the neighborhood next day as usual, and the doors remaining locked, the neighbors were alarmed, sent for a constable and burst open the doors, when they found them weltering in their blood, and their house pillaged. Diligent search was made, and a poor man, who beggedhis bread, was taken up on suspicion, because he had been seen about the doors, and sitting upon a bench belonging to the house the day before: and although nothing but circumstantial evidence appeared against him, he was tried, condemned, and executed before the door of the house, and his body hung in chains at Holloway.
Meanwhile Wynne, the murderer, was in safety in a foreign land. It also happened, that by the price of innocent blood he prospered, and his riches greatly increased. After he had resided twenty years in Virginia, where his family became numerous, and his riches great, he resolved to visit England before his death, and then to return to deposit his bones in a foreign grave. During his stay in London, he one day went into a goldsmith’s shop in Cheapside, to purchase some plate that he intended to take home with him. It happened, while the goldsmith was weighing the plate which Wynne had purchased, that an uproar took place in the street, occasioned by the circumstance of a gentleman running off from certain bailiffs who were conducting him to prison. Upon this Wynne ran also out into the street, and hearing somebody behind him crying out, “Stop him! stop him!” his conscience instantly awoke, so that he stopped, and exclaimed, “I am the man!” “You the man!” cried the people; “what man?” “The man,” replied Wynne, “that committed such a murder in Honey lane twenty years ago, for which a poor man was hanged wrongfully!”
Upon this confession he was carried before a magistrate, to whom he repeated the same acknowledgment, and was committed to Newgate, tried, condemned, and executed before the house where he perpetrated the horrid deed. In this manner the justice of Heaven pursued this guilty wretch long after he thought himself beyond the reach of punishment. Justice also overtook his family, who were privy to his guilt. Upon the intelligence of his shameful end, his wife immediately became deranged, and continued so to herdeath. Two of his sons were hanged in Virginia for robbery, and the whole family were soon reduced to beggary.