Townsend, was undoubtedly the sharpest of the three, but he was a pushing, boastful fellow, and never hid his light under a bushel. He was, however, courageous, and never heeded where he went, or what odds were opposed to him; so that the criminal classes began to respect him, and, at last, never thought of opposing him. He was extremely natty in his dress, and his flaxen wig was as well known, as his short stout figure, and his red face—
"Of all the wigs in Brighton Town,
The black, the gray, the red, the brown,
So firmly glued upon the crown,
There's none like Johnny Townsend's;
It's silken hair, and flaxen hue,
It is a scratch, and not a queue,
When e'er it pops upon the view,
Is known for Johnny Townsend's."
It was by his means, that the famous pickpocket, Barrington, was convicted, and transported, a fact which was very much to Barrington's advantage, for he helped to put down a mutiny on board, whilst on his passage out, for which he was well rewarded, and, by his good conduct, he rose from step to step, always in the Colonial police—until he died Chief of the Constabulary in New South Wales.
The laws were then frightfully severe in their punishments, but this severity did not act as a deterrent to crime. The punishment of death, (and hanging was the punishment for many trivial crimes) seems to have had no terror—for we read in the Morning Post, July 11th 1788, "The number of Capital Convicts at present in Newgate is eighty-one!" Of course, these were not all executed, some having their sentences commuted to transportation for life. Let us take a few cases from one Newspaper only, the Morning Post, September 11, 1788. It was the Sessions at the Old Bailey, 9th September:—
"John Dancer, was put to the bar, and tried before Judge Grose, for a burglary, and robbery, in the empty dwelling-house of Daniel Dancer,[15] a farmer, near Uxbridge. This offence is made capital by the 39th Elizabeth. The jury brought in a verdict, guilty, of the value of £5.—Death.
"John Crawford, for a burglary in the house of Francis Bias. The crime being fully proved.—Guilty—Death.
"William Johnson, for a burglary and robbery of poultry, in the dwelling house of Margaret Allen, at Hampstead.—Guilty—Death.
"Thomas Jones, for a highway robbery of a watch &c. He was taken in the manier—i.e. with the watch upon him.—Guilty—Death.
"Several other prisoners were tried and acquitted for various offences, particularly one for a rape—his crime was only Seduction!"
"Monday evening, as a lady was passing along Long-Acre, she was jostled into a Court by a number of those abandoned wretches, who to the disgrace of our police and magistrates, infest every corner of the Metropolis, where they stripped her of her cloak, bonnet, and of almost everything she had on, besides grossly insulting her. The Public Offices of Justice are every morning full of these women of the town, who have been taken up for their disorderly behaviour. But, while the connection between them and the Watchmen subsists, the evil must still remain. It is an evil of the most serious and alarming nature, and peculiarly calls for the interposition of the Legislature."—(Morning Post, Sept. 26, 1788.)