injury done her master, and that he had no other than an
acquaintance with her, without either having, or attempting any criminal
conversation with her. Having done this justice, he seemed to die with
much composure, in the twenty-second year of his age, on the 23rd of
December, 1730.

LIVES OF THE CRIMINALS

VOLUME THREE

The Life of JOHN TURNER, _alias_ CIVIL JOHN, a Highwayman

One of the most dangerous passions which can enter the breasts of young
people, though at the same time it be one of the most common, is the
love of finery and a mean and foolish ambition to appear better dressed
than becomes their station, in hopes of imposing upon the world as
persons of much higher rank than they really are. This inconsiderate,
ridiculous pride brings along with it such a numerous train of bad
consequences that of necessity it makes the person inflamed by it
unhappy and often miserable for life. In the case now before us a was
still more fatal by adding a violent and ignominious death.

John Turner was the son of a person in tolerable circumstances, in the
county of Cornwall, where he received an education proper for that
condition of life in which he was likely to pass through the world. His
father was a man of good sense, and of a behaviour much more courteous
and genteel than is usual among persons of ordinary condition in a
county so remote from London. He was extremely desirous that his son
should be like him in this respect, and therefore he continually
cautioned him against falling into that rough boorish manner of behaving
which is natural to uneducated clowns, and makes them shocking to
everybody but themselves. In this respect John was very compliant with
his father's temper, and being put out apprentice to a peruke-maker, his
obliging carriage endeared him so much, not only to his master and the
family but also to the gentlemen on whom, as customers to the shop, he
sometimes waited, that they took a peculiar liking to the boy and were
continually giving him money as a reward for his diligence and
assiduity.

But John's obliging temper took a turn very fatal to himself, as well as
very little suspected by his friends and relations. For having been made
use of by some young sparks at Exeter (the place where he served his
time) to carry messages to their mistresses, he from thence conceived so
strong an inclination to become a beau and a gallant that, in order to
it, he broke open his master's