The London Mob: Violence and Disorder in Eighteenth-century England

Front Cover
A&C Black, Jan 1, 2004 - History - 393 pages
By 1700, London was the largest city in the world with over 500,000 inhabitants. Weakly policed, its streets saw regular outbreaks of rioting by a mob easily stirred by economic grievances, politics or religion. In this world, fisticuffs, duels, footpads, pickpockets and tricksters abounded. Detection and prosecution of crime was the business of the citizen, and punishment, whether by the pillory, whipping or hanging, was public and endorsed by the crowd. The London Mob draws a fascinating portrait of the public life of the modern world's first great city, its struggles and, throughout the century, its growth and development in values and policing leading to a less volatile society.
 

Contents

Street Life
1
Stop Thief
27
Public Insults
51
Shaming Punishments
79
Crowds and Riots
111
Violence
153
High Life at Midnight 1769
167
Duels and Boxing Matches
177
Print
241
Libel against Mainwearing Davis 1695
243
Henry Walton A Girl Buying a Ballad 1778
247
John June Lusus Naturae or Carracaturas of the Present Age 1752
250
A Night Scene at Ranelagh 1752
255
or Molly Exalted 1762
259
Renwick Williams Commonly Called the Monster 1790
274
The Monster
275

Duel between the Duke of Hamilton and Lord Mohun 1712
183
James Gillray The Explanation 1798
189
Thomas Rowlandson Miseries of London 1807
199
James Figg Master of the Noble Science of Defence
203
or The Knowing Ones Takenin 1750
207
Going to Law
215
A Pearly Shell for Him and Thee the Oyster is the Lawyers Fee 1770
227
View of the Public Office Bow Street with Sir John Fielding Presiding and a Prisoner under Examination 1779
239
or The Coward Turnd Bill Sticker 1790
287
Sources and Methods
301
Consistory Court Defamation Cases 65
305
Notes
306
307
334
Select Bibliography
365
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2004)

Robert Shoemaker is senior lecturer in history at the University of Sheffield. He is the author of Prosecution and Petty Crime in London and Rural Middlesex, c. 1660-1725 and co-director of The Old Bailey Proceeedings, an electronic database of all printed eighteenth-century accounts of felony trials.

Bibliographic information