DECORATIVE HEADPIECE FROM PURENEY'S "LIFE AND CONFESSION OF JONATHAN WILD AND FOUR OTHER MALEFACTORS."
Hell's mouth, smoking like the exhaust of an over-lubricated motor-car, is occupied by a very convincing Devil, armed with an undeniably business-like trident, who has most certainly got his eye rather upon the unsuspecting Ordinary than on the weak-kneed group of five malefactors, one of whom appears by his attitude to prefer Hell to any more of the Ordinary's exhortation. And, if all accounts of Pureney's life and death be true, the Devil did get him, after all.
Such was the type of publication out of which Pureney earned an addition to his income; but the tale does not quite end here. The last page is largely occupied with an advertisement of the most flagrantly indecorous and reprehensible character, of which even an eighteenth-century clergyman of the Church of England might have been ashamed. But the clergy fell generally far short of the ideal ministers and vicars of God. Whether in town or in the country, where "Parson Trullibers" abounded, they were a disgrace to their office; and even when they were earnest, which was seldom, provoked criticism by their extravagance.
In 1724, when Jack Sheppard, pickpocket and housebreaker, was again lying in Newgate, after being re-captured, his doings appealed greatly to the imagination of all. He was the most famous person of that year, and great crowds thronged to see him. Sir James Thornhill, the Royal Academician, painted his portrait; chapbooks innumerable, badly written, and ill-printed, on vile paper, were issued before his execution and sold in thousands to eager purchasers; and clergymen took his career for their texts. One ingenious preacher, given to sensational discourse, outdid all his brethren in thus improving the occasion:
"Now, my beloved, what a melancholy consideration it is, that men should show so much regard for the preservation of a poor, perishing body, that can remain at most but a few years, and can at the same time be so unaccountably negligent of eternity. Oh! what care, what pains, what diligence, and what contrivances are made use of for, and laid out upon, these frail and tottering tabernacles of clay, when, alas! the nobler part of us is allowed so very small a share of our concern that we will scarce give ourselves the trouble of bestowing a thought upon it.
"We have, dear brethren, a remarkable instance of this, in a notorious malefactor, well known by name as Jack Sheppard. What amazing difficulties has he overcome! What astonishing things has he performed, for the sake of a stinking, miserable carcase, hardly worth hanging! How dexterously did he pick the padlock of his chain with a crooked nail! How manfully burst his fetters asunder, climb up the chimney, wrench out an iron bar, break his way through a stone wall, and make the strong door of a dark entry fly before him, till he got upon the leads of the prison! And then, fixing a blanket to the wall with a spike, how intrepidly did he descend to the roof of the turner's house, and how cautiously pass down the stairs and make his escape at the street door!
"Oh! that ye were all like Jack Sheppard! Mistake me not, my brothers, I mean not in a carnal, but in a spiritual sense; for I purpose to spiritualise these things. What a shame it would be, if we did not think it worth our while to take as much pains, and employ as many deep thoughts, to save our souls, as he has done to preserve his body! Let me exhort you, therefore, to open the locks of your hearts with the nail of repentance; burst asunder the fetters of your beloved lusts; mount the chimney of hope, take from thence the bar of good resolution, break through the stone wall of despair, and all the strongholds in the dark valley of the shadow of death. Raise yourselves to the leads of divine meditation; fix the blanket of faith with the spike of the Church; let yourselves down to the turner's house of resignation, and descend the stairs of humility. So shall you come to the door of deliverance from the prison of iniquity, and escape the clutches of that old executioner, the devil, who 'goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.'"
No doubt the preacher meant well, but his figurative style was too pronounced.
It is easy and proper to be severe on the subject of the Newgate chaplains, but perhaps some allowance should be made for them, on the score of the associations of prison life, always bad, but incredibly degrading in that age. If we except Pureney, who was himself an instinctive criminal, the Ordinaries could not, all at once, have become callous and depraved. They were not, of course, men distinguished for learning or piety, for it was the practice to give the chaplaincy to the dregs of the profession; but were doubtless, at the time of their appointment merely average men, eager to obtain a livelihood. They ran very grave risks, too, in those days when gaol-fever ravaged the prison, and even infected the sessions-house. It was highly dangerous to attend the prisoners, often indiscriminate in their revengeful violence, both in their cells and at the place of execution. A peculiar incident recorded of an execution at Hertford, on March 25th, 1723, shows that all manner of indignities were possible. On that day, when William Summers and another man named Tipping were turned off, the hangman was so intoxicated, that, supposing three had been ordered for execution, he insisted on putting a rope round the parson's neck as he stood in the cart, and was with difficulty prevented from stringing him up as well.