WILLIAM PEARE 229 



doubtless, who durino; the same week robbed a Mrs. 

 Turner, of Upton Scudamore, of £45, in broad day- 

 light. He was a 'genteelly-dressed' stranger. Making 

 a low bow, he requested her money, and that within 

 sight of many people working in the fields, who 

 concluded, from his polite manners, that he was a 

 friend of the lady. 



William Peare was only twenty-three years of age 

 when he was executed, 19th August 1783. His 

 first important act was the robbing of the Chippen- 

 ham coach on the 2nd of February 1782. Captured, 

 and lodged in Gloucester Gaol, he escaped on the 

 19th of April, and began a series of the most daring 

 highway robberies. On the 8th of February 1783 he 

 stopped the Salisbury diligence just beyond St. 

 Thomas's Bridge, smashed the window, and fired a 

 shot into the coach, terrifying the lady and gentleman 

 who were the only two passengers, so that they at 

 once gave up their purses. He then w^ent on to 

 Stockbridge, where he stopped a diligence full of 

 military officers ; but finding the occupants prepared 

 to fight for the military chest they were escorting, 

 hurried off. After many other crimes in the West, 

 he was captured in the act of undermining a bank 

 at Stroud, in Gloucestershire. He was tried and 

 sentenced at Salisbury, and executed at Fisherton, 

 going to the gallows wdth the customary nosegay, 

 which remained tightly held in his hand w^hen his 

 body was cut down. A set of verses, purporting to 

 be by his sweetheart, was published that year, 

 lamenting his untimely end : — 



