EEVES, Street-Robber and Thief

There are some persons so amazingly destitute of reason, so exceedingly
stupid, and of so sleepy a disposition of mind, that neither advice, nor
danger, nor punishment are capable of awaking them; they pass through
life in a continual lethargy of wickedness, nor can they be obliged to
open their eyes even when at the point of death.

How shocking, how horrid soever such a character may be, certain it is
that the criminal Neeves, of whom we are now speaking, deserved no
better. His parents, though mean, had not omitted the care of his
education so far but that he had learned to read and write, which they
thought qualification sufficient for the business in which they intended
to breed him, viz., a cane chair-maker, to which employment they put him
apprentice. He did not serve out his time with his master, for having
got into an acquaintance with some lewd, debauched persons, he, whose
inclination from his youth turned that way, went totally into all their
measures, and quitting all thoughts of an honest livelihood, thought of
nothing but picking and stealing.

He associated himself with a woman of the same calling, who probably
furthered him in all his attempts, in consideration of which he married
her, and they were both together in Newgate for their several offences.
In the former part of this volume[83] we have mentioned his becoming a
witness against several street-robbers, who were executed upon his
evidence; of whom George Gale, _alias_ Kiddy George, Thomas Crowder,
James Toon, and John Hornby, denied the commission of those particular
facts which he swore upon them, and Richard Nichols (who was a grave
sober man) went to death and took it upon his salvation, that he was
never concerned either in that act for which he died, or in any other of
the same kind during the course of his life.

As the town naturally abhors perjuries which affect men's lives, and are
not very well affected towards evidences even when they do not exceed
the truth, so the misfortune of Neeves being a second time apprehended,
instead of creating pity, gave the public a general satisfaction. At the
sessions following his confinement he was indicted for privately
stealing out of the shop of Charles Lawrence a corduroy coat value
thirteen shillings. In respect of this robbery, the prosecutor deposed
that Thomas Neeves, about seven in the evening, came into his shop, he
being a salesman, and enquired for a dim