Fellows who pretended to calculate Nativities were to be met with in several parts of London at the same period: they sold ridiculous inventions which they termed Sigils; and the possessor of those had but to fancy they would protect themselves and property, and the object of the Conjurer was accomplished. Almanack John obtained great celebrity in this art. It appears that he was a Shoe-maker, and resided in the Strand. This fellow, and others of his fraternity, preyed upon fools or very silly people only; their losses were therefore of little moment, and the turpitude of Almanack John was not quite so great as
that of the villains who affected illness and deformity, thus to rob the charitable, whose gifts would otherwise have been directed to the relief of the real sufferer.
The reader will presently perceive that, in one instance, the depravity of the community of Beggars is but too stationary since 1702. "That people may not be imposed upon by Beggars who pretend to be lame, dumb, &c. which really are not so; this is to give notice, that the President and Governors for the poor of London, pitying the case of one Richard Alegil, a boy of 11 years of age, who pretended himself lame of both his legs, so that he used to go shoving himself along on his breech; they ordered him to be taken into their workhouse, intending to make him a taylor, upon which he confessed that his brother, a boy of 17 years of age, about four years ago, by the advice of other beggars, contracted his legs, and turned them backwards, so that he never used them from that time to this, but followed the trade of begging; that he usually got 5s. a day, sometimes 10s.; that he hath been all over the counties, especially the West of England, where his brother carried him on a horse, and pretended he was born so, and cut out of his mother's womb. He hath also given an account that he knows of other beggars that pretend to be dumb and lame, and of some that tie their arms in their breeches, and wear a wooden stump in
their sleeve. The said President and Governors have caused the legs of the said Alegil to be set straight; he now has the use of them, and walks upright; they have ordered him to be put to spinning, and his brother to be kept to hard labour. Several other able beggars are by their order taken up and set to work, and when brought into the Workhouse have from 10s. to 5l. in their pockets."
A person during the fair of 1703 had the audacity to advertise, that the spoils taken at Vigo were to be seen for sixpence at his booth; and he imposed upon the public curiosity by exhibiting fictitious representations of an Altar-piece of silver, with six Angels in full proportion, four Apostles supporting the four pillars, and four Angels attending them, with each a lamp for incense in their hands; also a Crown set with valuable stones, a Holy-water pot garnished with filligree-work, &c. &c. "all brought from Vigo, having been first lodged in the Tower, and never exposed before but in the Tower."
John Bonner, of Short's Gardens, had the barefaced effrontery, in 1703, to offer his assistance, by necromancy, to those who had lost any thing at Sturbridge Fair, at Churches or other assemblies, "he being paid for his labour and expences."
The Corporation of London aimed a severe blow, in the same year, at impostors and sturdy
beggars, by offering a reward of one shilling each for such as were apprehended, and sent to the Workhouse in Bishopsgate-street.
The Post-boy of July 21, 1711, contains the following paragraph: "It is thought proper to give notice of a common notorious cheat frequently practised by men who pretend to be soldiers, and others, in a game by them called Cups and Balls, particularly at the wall next the Mewsgate, within the Verge of the Court."
At a petty Sessions for Westminster held in April 1714, an account was returned from the proper officers of the receipt of 42l. in the preceding six months, as penalties for profanations of the Sabbath, swearing, and drunkenness.