They now rode to Hampstead, and having rob bed some other people the same evening, hastened to Drury-Lane, where they divided the spoil.

They had also another scheme which was fre quently successful. When the company was com ing out of the theatres, one of them would accost a lady or gentleman, pretending to know the party, and in the interim the other seldom failed of making prize of a watch.

It was a common practice with Udall to go to the shops of goldsmiths, and under the pretence of buying gold rings, he would steal them, and leave brass rings in the shew-glass; he was so dextrous in this kind of robbery that he was scarce ever detected.

At one time he and two of his accomplices, Baker and Wager, stopped a coach on the road to Uxbridge. A guard being behind the coach with a blunderbuss, Baker threatened him with instant death if he did not throw it away; and the man obeyed. Wager and Udall guarded the coachman and postilion while Baker robbed the company; but this was no sooner done than the guard produced a horse pistol, with which he fired at Udall, and brought him to the ground; on which Baker shot the guard, so that he instantly expired.

Udall was conveyed to a farm-house near Uxbridge by his accomplices, and lay there six weeks before he recovered; but soon afterwards they kill ed the person who guarded another coach as it was going over Turnham-Green. After this Udall knocked down a young woman in Fenchurch-street, whom he robbed of a cloak, a handkerchief, and her pocket, which contained only a few halfpence. His father, now distressed at his proceedings, and wish

ing to save him from an ignominious fate, procured him to be arrested and lodged in the Compter, hoping that when his companions were disposed of by the operation of the law, he might be out of future danger: but it happened that Ramsey, one of his old associates, was confined in the same prison at the same time; which coming to the know. ledge of Udall's father, he got his son released.

Ramsey being enlarged soon afterwards, they met at an ale-house, and went to a livery stable at London-wall, where they hired horses; riding through the Stratford road they procured a considerable booty in money and watches, from the passengers in several coaches.

Udall having kept company with a woman named Margaret Young, who had likewise lived with several other men, and being one day distressed for cash, he robbed her of five gold rings, in consequence of which she had him apprehended by a judge's warrant, and he was lodged in the house of a tipstaff, Mrs. Young swearing that the rings were the property of another man with whom she had

cohabited.

During Udall's confinement the supposed owner of the rings offered to decline the prosecution, if he would enter into a bond never again to live with Mrs. Young but as he rejected this offer, an order was made for his commitment to the King's-Bench: in the mean time he and another prisoner effected their escape from the house of the tipstaff, by forcing the keys from the maid-servant.

Soon after he and his associates robbed a physician in the Strand, for which they were all of them apprehended; but Udall became an evidence against his accomplices, by which he escaped the fate which he had so frequently merited.

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Having

Having thus obtained his liberty, he casually met with Margaret Young, in company with the presumptive owner of the rings, who threatened to arrest Udall for the value of them, unless he would give him a note for four pounds. Complying with this demand, and being unable to pay the note when it became due, he was arrested, and standing trial, was cast, and ordered to discharge both debt

and costs.

His relations, who had been at great expence on his account, also refused to pay this debt, consequently he became a prisoner in the Marshalsea; but some of his acquaintance having furnished him with saws and ropes, he made his escape, in company with another prisoner, named Man.

Udall now went to see his relations, and promised them that he would go to Holland, if they would only supply him with money to pay for his passage. This they readily did, and promised to remit him a sum once a year towards his support, on the condition of his continuing abroad: but he had no sooner possessed himself of the present cash, than he went to a house of ill fame in Charter-House-Lane, where he spent the whole money.

Thus reduced, he and his late fellow-prisoner, Man, agreed to go on the highway; the woman of the house having furnished them with pistols, they rode beyond Edmonton, where they robbed four ladies in a coach, and returning to London, spent their ill-gotten gains in Charter-House-Lane.

On the following day they took three gold watches, five pounds, and some silver, from the passengers in a waggon on the western road, near Brentford; and soon afterwards they robbed two gentlemen on Epping Forest; but on their return Udall ell from his horse, and was so bruised as to be obliged to keep his bed for several days.

When his health was somewhat re-established, and his money expended, they went again on the road; and having supped at the castle at Holloway, they robbed three gentlemen near Islington, and returned to Charter-House-Lane.

About this time information was given to the keeper of the Marshalsea prison of the place of their resort; on which he sent a number of men to take him into custody; but just as they were entering at the door, Udall and his friend having notice of their approach, escaped over the roof of the house.

These accomplices now committed several robberies in the neighbourhood of Epping-Forest; and Udall having one night left his horse at a publichouse on the forest, went to Man's lodgings in an absolute state of intoxication. While he was in this situation Man went out, and locked the door, on the pretence of taking care that the men from the Marshalsea should not apprehend his companion but he immediately delivered himself into custody, and gave the key to the runners, who entering the house, seized Udall in bed, and conveyed them both to their former apartments.

Man now seriously reflected on his situation; and being apprehensive that he might be seen by some person who would charge him with a capital offence, begged to be conducted to a magistrate, before whom he was admitted an evidence against his companion, on a charge of his having committed several robberies on the highway.

Hereupon Udali was committed to Newgate, and being tried at the next sessions at the Old Bailey, was convicted, principally on the evidence of Man, and received sentence of death.

After conviction he seemed at once to give up all hopes of life: he acknowledged that, from the time when he was first apprenticed, he had been a total stranger to common honesty; and that his father had paid and expended above four hundred pounds in fruitless endeavours to save him from ruin. He suffered at Tyburn, March 14, 1738, aged 22.

We shall conclude our remarks upon this kind of offenders with an account of WILLIAM GRIFFITHS, another Highwayman, who was a native of Shropshire, and followed the business of husbandry till he had attained his 18th year, when he engaged in a naval life, and remained near three years in the East Indies. The ship was paid off on his return to England; Griffiths, receiving a considerable sum for wages, spent his money at public houses and in profligate company when his money was spent, he began to think of going to sea for a supply: but David Evans and Timothy Johnson, two of his newly acquired associates, and men of very abandoned character, advised him to be concerned with them in committing robberies on the highway; and this triple association of thieves did actually commit a variety of depredations on the public, treating those they attacked with great inhumanity, but never obtaining any thing considerable by their lawless pursuits.

Having strolled into the fields in the neighbourhood of London, they wandered about till near eight o'clock in the evening, when they stopped. a single horse-chaise, in which were a Mrs. Constable, the wife of a surgeon of Highgate, and her servant-maid. Mrs. Constable was driving the chaise ; and the robbers had no sooner ordered them

to