This was the foundation of his ruin. Sheppard grew weary of the yoke of servitude, and began to dispute with his master. Being one day at work at Mr. Britt’s, the Sun alehouse, near Islington, he on a trivial occasion, fell upon his master, and beat and bruised him in a barbarous and shameful manner. Such a sudden and deplorable change was there in the behaviour of this promising young man. Next ensued a neglect of duty both to God and his master, lying out of nights, perpetual jarring and animosities. These were the consequences of his intimacy with this harlot, who, by the sequel, will appear to have been the main loadstone in bringing him to the fatal tree.
Edgworth Bess having stolen a gold ring from a gentleman, to whom she had introduced herself in the street, was sent to St. Giles’s round-house. Sheppard went immediately to his consort; and, after a short discourse with Mr. Brown, the beadle, and his wife, who had the care of the place, he fell upon the poor old couple, took the keys from them, and let his lady out, in spite of all the outcries and opposition they were capable of making.
About July, 1723, he was, by his master, sent to perform a repair at the house of Mr Braines, a piece-broker, in White-horse-yard—From thence he stole a roll of fustian, containing twenty-four yards, which was afterwards found in his trunk.
This is supposed to be the first robbery he ever committed; and it was not long before he repeated another upon the same Mr. Braines, by breaking into his house in the night time, and taking out of the till £7 in money, and goods from the shop to the value of £14 more. How he entered this house was a secret, until upon being committed to Newgate he confessed that he took up the iron bars at the cellar window, and after he had done his business nailed them down again: so that Mr. Braines never believed that his house had been broken open; and a woman, a lodger in the house, lay all the while under suspicion of having committed the robbery.
Sheppard and his master parted ten months before the expiration of his apprenticeship: a woeful parting to the former. He lost a good, careful patron, and lay exposed to the temptations of the most wicked wretches the town could afford, such as Joseph Blake, alias
[Jack Sheppard and his Comrades encountering the Game-keepers.]
Blueskin; —— Dowling; James Sykes, alias Hell and Fury, by whom he was seduced into every kind of vice! After breaking into a house near Kennington, they were all nearly apprehended by some game-keepers, who happened to pass that way, and with whom they had a desperate battle. Soon after this, Sheppard being on horseback, met his late master near Finchly, whom he first robbed, and then tying him on his horse, with his face towards his tail, flogged him unmercifully with a whip.
Sheppard had a brother named Thomas, a carpenter by profession, but a notorious thief and housebreaker by practice. Thomas being committed to Newgate for breaking open the house of Mrs. M. Cook, a linen draper in Clare-market, on the 5th of February, and stealing goods to the amount of £50 or £60, impeached his brother, John Sheppard, and Edgworth Bess, as being concerned with him in this fact; and these three were charged with being concerned together in breaking into the house of Mr. William Phillips, in Drury-lane, and stealing divers goods, the property of Mrs. Frederick, a lodger in the house, on the 14th of the said month of February. All possible endeavours were used by Mrs. Cook and Mr. Phillips to get John Sheppard and Edgworth Bess apprehended, but to no purpose, till the following accident:—Sheppard being on his wicked range in London, committing robberies wherever he could, one day met with his old acquaintance, James Sykes, alias Hell and Fury, sometimes a chairman, and sometimes a running footman. He was invited by him to go to one Sedgate’s, a victualling house, near the Seven Dials, to play a game at skittles. Sheppard complied, and Sykes secretly sent for Mr. Price, a constable in St. Giles’s Parish, and charged him with his friend Sheppard for robbing Mrs. Cook, &c. Sheppard was carried before Justice Parry, who ordered him to St. Giles’s round-house, till the next morning, for further examination. He was confined in the upper part of the place, being two stories from the ground; but, before two hours, by only the help of a razor and the stretcher of a chair, he broke open the top of the round-house, and, tying together a sheet and blanket, by them descended into the church-yard, and escaped, leaving the parish to repair the damage, and repent the affront put upon his skill and capacity.
The night after this, Jack and Bess broke into a house in Chancery-lane, and finding an old gentleman up, put a rope round his neck, and threatened to murder him, while Bess plundered the rooms.