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A footpad is an archaic term for a robber or thief specialising in pedestrian victims. The term was used widely from the 16th century until the 19th century,[1] but gradually fell out of common use. A footpad was considered a low criminal, as opposed to the mounted highwayman who in certain cases might gain fame as well as notoriety. Footpads operated during the Elisabethan age until the beginning of the 19th century. This kind of theft was very common in that period and often related to the crimes perpetrated by the so called highwaymen. Both used robbing on the king's highway, the major street where commercial exchanges took place.

Robbing

Footpads always moved on foot and robbed people putting them in fear. Social and economic conditions, the impossibility of buying a horse and their precarious state led them to commit robberies in the streets. Their actions were always accompanied by brutal modes through which it was possible to gain time and take the lead in case of reaction from the victim. Criminals found more safe and advantageous moving in darkness so as to put the victim in fear, escape and diminish the possibilities to be recognised by witnesses. Violence was perpetrated as a mean to ensure a rapid escape from the crime scene, this was the reason why a footpad assoult was accompanied, by threat, offences and in the worst case by death.

Life on the road - or, Claude, Turpin, and Jack, being a complete account of the most daring adventures of the notorious highwaymen, Claude Duval, Dick Turpin, and Sixteen-string Jack (1800) (14763476751)

Criminal system

Not all such criminals were indespensable usual practitioners, but they could have an occupation as assistant or apprentice of some master who testified in favour of their good character. Making the crime theyre own business, generally those offenders were organised in groups lend on the support of others. Much of them operated by necessity and joined already formed gangs. New affiliate was often accepted within the members. According to J. M. Beattie, in the 1720s London was dominated by several large gangs, some of which counted even a dozen footpads reorganised then in smaller groups of few members. A gang consisted of an association of different sub-groups of members who committed robberies together, acting alone was less fruitful than operate with the support of companions. This organized criminal system was at the bases of a sense of cohesion at the lowest step of society.

The proceed of an assault was equally divided by the whole gang and every member had an active part in the criminal operation. It was supposed that who was part of a group of footpads had to protect cover up for companions if necessary.

Doctor Syntax and Highwaymen, 1813 - Engraving by Thomas Rowlandson.
Doctor Syntax – a popular literary character of the early nineteenth century – on horseback, stopped by three robbers armed with pistols.

The Problem of the Night

Since the majority of crimes happened during night hours, when criminals could act undisturbed reassured by the darkness, in the late 17th century most accurated control begun being exercised. Guarding the streets to prevent crime was considered a good means to make assaults diminish. Night watchmen (law enforcement) guarding the streets, between 9 or 10 pm until sunrise, become of great importance. Notwithstanding this new strategy of control, the operation of footpads continued till the end of the century. The members of the gangs effectively found more safe and advantageous moving in darkness so as to put the victim in fear, escape and diminish the possibilities to be recognised by witnesses. The problem concerning the introduction of an efficient system of surveillance in the streets was also subject to the reflection of scholars and intellectuals as even writers as Daniel Defoe who, in his pamphlet Augusta Triumphans , deals with the question of street robbery prevention. In the pamphlet the necessity of law enforcement is underlined and the presence of men active in catching criminals not only during the daylight, an activity reserved to thief-takers , but also by night. Several changes were made to the urban environment and street lighting begun to develop.

The political world payed serious attention to the crime question and, during the 18th century, the institutions reinforced the legislative system. Violent offences were punished without mercy and eminent political figures did not hesitate to express their severe opinion about the difficulty. The magistrate John Fielding was among those who were interested in changing the social condition of the time. In a letter of June 1764, addressed to the Secretary to the Treasury Charles Jenkinson, he wrote about a footpad assault near Tyburn and Tottenham Court Road to the detriment of four officers.

Most Noted Criminals

Robbing was a usual strategy used by criminals to profit from attacking passengers walking in the streets. As known most of the men who committed thefth were not necessary violent, this crime in some cases was considered the only expedient perpetrated because of need. Obviously between the 'gentle criminals' there were also the brute and aggressive one whose aim was that of living in a felonious reality. This was the case of the noted Mattew Clark who was known because of his numerous crimes and condemned to hanging with chains. The one for which he is noted was that of murder to the detriment of a young woman, a maid working in the house object of the theft. Here the murder is a consequence of a predetermined robbing, in fact the aim of the footpad was that of acting undisturbed without any witness.

Punishments

Criminals convicted were taken to trial at the Old Bailey , the Central criminal Court of Engand and Wales, and if sentenced guilty they were punished. From the late 17th century to the early 20th felonies could be subjected to different types of punishments depending on the case. Hanging was the most common penalty for the majority of crimes but during the 18th century it was restricted and new punishments were practiced. Theft operated by footpads was often put under the category of violent felony and, for this reason, perpetrators were generally tried with inflexibility. The penalty for robbery with violence was hanging on the gallows , but judges occasionally condemned egregious crimes to hanging in chain near the scene of the offence. Executions were public as a discouragement to crime till the 1783 when the procession to Tyburn (the place in which hangings took place) was abolished. Different factors determined if the prisoner would have been condemned to the Death Penalty or 'minor punishments'. Evidences, the nature of the offence and the offender conduct contributed to his or her punishment. Penal transportation and imprisonment were instituted as alternative punishments which were often percieved as a condition of pardon and mercy granted by the king.

Tyburn tree

Literature and Culture

Crime and justice constitute the main ingredients of the substratum of English culture. In literature one of the most remarkable exemple of the presence of illicit in culture is Defoe's Colonel Jack (1722), a novel which has the shades of crime fiction. Following the theme of Moll Flanders , it shares many crucial elements necessary to understand how crime and justice were perceived at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th Century. Through his protagonist Defoe underlines how criminals (in particular street robbers) acted, living in a condition of permanent uncertanty. They, as Colonel Jack, were led to a murky path because of necessity and only few of them perpetrated violence.

Thanks to the journals and the proceeding that were of public domain, is known that the number of cases of violent theft was very small compared to the majority of prosecutions. Newspapers and proceeding publicised coercive actions and gave prominence to violence in order to attract the audience attention. Facilited by the rise of printed literature, proceedings could easely present a distorted view of events with uncertainties in the reported facts. Even if the principal aim of the printer was to promote an image of ' public justice', the clear intention was to procure entertainment. Great attention was given to thefts, murders and robberies in order to make the proceedings appear charming to a wide audience.

Daniel Defoe. Line engraving by M. van der Gucht, 1706, afte Wellcome V0001507

Gangs

A brief historical account of the lives of the six notorious street-robbers, executed at Kingston is an anonymous text (1726), first attributed to Daniel Defoe by James Crossley, constitutes a testimony of how street robbery and its actors became the subject of cultural texture. According to the pamphlet this group was a small detachment from a large gang which in a first time was made up of about 32 members among which the noted Joseph Blake, alias "Blueskin", and Jack Sheppard. Acting in different parts of the town they did not had a precise way of behaving and were often surprised, this was the reason why the numbers of the components diminished rapidly. According to the writer the outlaws committed the most efferate crimes after an escalation of minor ones. Through steps it was usual to begin first with pickpocketing then street robbery, burglaryup to turn into a highwayman and murderer.