is that
for some time before his being apprehended he had been very busy in
committing such exploits and for his courage and dexterity was looked
upon as one of the chief of the gang.

Isaac Ashley, who was Rawlins's companion, and who went commonly amongst
them by the nickname of Black Isaac, was a fellow of a very different
cast. His parents were poor people, who had, indeed, taken as much care
as was in their power of his education and afterwards provided for him
as well as they were able, putting him out to a weaver in Spitalfields.
But he made them a very ill return for all their care and tenderness,
proving an obstinate, idle and illiterate fellow, willing to do nothing
that was either just or reputable, and who, except for his dexterity in
pocket-picking was one of the most stupid, incorrigible wretches that
ever lived. He followed the practice of petty thieving for a
considerable space, but though he got considerably thereby, he lost his
money continually at gaming, and so remained always in one state, viz.,
very poor and very wicked; which is no very uncommon case amongst such
sort of miserable people, who lavishly waste what they hazard their
souls and throw away their lives to obtain.

John Rouden, _alias_ Hulks, the latter being his true name, had the
advantage of a very tolerable education, the effects of which were not
obliterated by his having been many years addicted to the vilest and
most flagitious course of life that can possibly be imagined. The
principles with which he had been seasoned in his youth served to render
him more tractable and civilized when under his last misfortunes, unto
which he fell with the two afore-mentioned malefactors; they being all
indicted for assaulting one Mr. Francis Williams on the highway, and
taking from him a silver watch value three pounds, two guineas and a
moidore,[79] on the 28th of February, 1728. The prosecutor deposed that
going in a hackney coach, between Wading Street and St. Paul's School he
heard the coachman called on to stop; immediately after which a man came
up to the side of the coach, presented a pistol and demanded his money.
Four more presented themselves at the coach windows, offering their
pistols and saying they had no time to lose. One of them thereupon
thrust his hand into his fob and took out his money and his watch. Jones
next produced the watch to the Court and said he had it from Dalton, who
was the third witness called to support the ind