Cutpurses, Highwaymen, Burglars: The Professional Thief 1558 – 1

Description

Author:

Spraggs, Dr Gillian.

Summary:

The Professional Thief 1558-1660.

This is an account of the activities of the ‘professional’ robbers and thieves of Elizabethan and early Stuart England. These were the men and women who deliberately set out to make themselves a living from property crime.This pamphlet deals only with the first group, thieves and robbers, and with the fences, their indispensable accomplices. It sets out to describe their professional techniques, and any distinctive features of their attitudes and lifestyles.”

Further details:

Softcover: 27 pages.
Language: English
Illustrations: B/W
ISBN-13: 9781858041063
Product Dimensions: 21.0 x 15.0 x 0.5 cm

Staff Comments:

Contents; Introduction; Canting; City thieves and Country thieves; The social origin of Professional Thieves; Victims of Crime; The Thief and the Law; Highway Robbers; The Career of John Clavell; The techniques of highway robbery; The Ethos of the Robber; Female highway Robbers; Padders; Burglars and housebreakers; cutpurses and pickpockets; Pickpockets; cutpurses; Training and Organisation; Other sneak-thieves; Lifts or Lifters; Glimmerers; some additional shop-lifting-techniques; Horse stealing; Other livestock thefts; Poaching; Receivers; Appendix A on Sources; References.