Author:

Spraggs, Dr Gillian.

Summary:

Part of the "Living History Reference Books Series". "This is an account of the activities of the 'professional' robbers and thieves of Elizabethan and early Stuart England. These were the men and women who deliberately set out to make themselves a living from property crime. It must be stressed that such criminals - highwaymen, cutpurses, 'lifters' and other s- were statistically far from typical. Undoubtedly much property crime was carried out by people who had no connexion with the criminal gangs and networks. Nevertheless, by the mid-sixteenth century such networks were well established, especailly in London and its immediate neighbourhood. A number of linked criminal subcultures were continuing to develop, each characterised by the transmission and gradual refinement of a body of skills and knowledge, by the use of a jargon or argot (called 'canting"), and by adherence to a distinctive ethos. In short, we might speak loosely of an 'underworld', though the word was not used i this sense during the period under discussion. The members of this underworld were various: thieves and robbers, pumps and whores, confidence men and fraudulent beggars, besides those offering illegal services, such as fences and 'knights of the post' - professional bails and false witnesses. This pamphlet deals only with the first group, thieves and robbers, and with the fences, their indispensable accomplices. It sets out to describe their professional techniques, and any distinctive features of their attitudes and lifestyles."

Further details:

• Softcover: 27 pages.
• Language: English
• Illustrations: B/W
• ISBN-13: 9781858041063
• Product Dimensions: 21.0 x 15.0 x 0.5 cm

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