158 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



and were hung at two o'clock. On May 8, 1784, 

 James Till, a lad of about seventeen years of age, 

 was hung at Oxford for robbing his master of 

 seventy guineas. He had been twice reprieved, but 

 could not obtain a pardon. And on the 27th of 

 the same month John Thompson was executed at 

 Maidstone. He was a young man, and had committed 

 a highway robbery on a Mr. Phillips, near Seven 

 Oaks ; he had had two reprieves and had great 

 hopes of mercy until the Sunday before, when his 

 death-warrant came down. He bore his disappoint- 

 ment with great patience and resignation, and had 

 his coffin placed in the cart, and was attended by 

 the chaplain. He owned he deserved death, and 

 desired all young men to take warning by his 

 untimely fate. He was destitute of work as a 

 water-gilder, and fell into the hands of a fellow who 

 persuaded him to go on the road, where they com- 

 mitted several robberies. After a dispute, they 

 parted, and-lie, Thompson, was taken. He was of 

 poor parents, but of genteel appearance, and used 

 to say that his pride and vanity in dressing beyond 

 his means added greatly to his ruin. 



On April 17, 1758, John and Walter White, who 

 were respectively twenty-three and twenty-five years 

 of age, were hung on Kensington Common for 

 breaking into the house of a farmer, Vincent, of 

 Crawley. They laid their ruin to an accomplice 

 who decoyed them from labouring work, telling 

 them how easily money was got by thieving. The 

 following incident, showing the superstitions of the 



