hundred pounds for Mrs. Sarah Harris; then suppressed the true letter, and put the false one into the post; which was delivered to Mr. Billers, at London, upon August the 11th, 1689.

The next morning came Mrs. Sarah Harris to Mr. Billers, and produced her forged bill. He could discover no deceit in the hand, owned he had received the letter of advice, and was just giving order for the payment; when, by good fortune, he recollected, that he had heard Mr. Shipton of Friday-street had, not long before, been defrauded after the same manner, by a woman coming, as this did, in the morning, and of the same sum of two hundred pounds.

The fresh remembrance of this gave him just grounds of being jealous of the like trick; so that, while the money was telling out, he thought it would not be amiss to send and desire Mr. Shipton to come and take a view of this Mrs. Harris, intimating the reason why he sent for him.

Mr. Shipton came accordingly, and, upon the first sight, declared her to be the same Mary Young, that had lately cheated him of his two hundred pounds.

She, being thus unexpectedly charged with this crime, confessed it upon the place; whereupon she was apprehended, and committed to the King's-bench, after she had received above five-hundred pounds, in a short space, by the like ways, whilst she was such a kind of agent at London for Robert Young as my reader will find she owned upon oath afterwards at Litchfield.

But in the King's-bench I must leave her for a short time, that I may look out after her dear friend, and inquire how he behaved himself, in this sad catastrophe of their affairs, after they had so long proceeded smoothly and prosperously.

It was high time for him now to intermit his correspondencies at St. Albans, and to remove to a greater distance from London; so that the next footsteps, I have traced of his rogueries, were at Litchfield; whither, I find also, he had made some excursions in the year 1688: but now, in the year 1689, it seems, he went thither, resolving to settle there for some time.

There he appeared in a genteel habit, with his man, James Young, alias Moreton, to wait upon him: there he personated again an Irish clergyman, of considerable preferments in that church, and a plentiful temporal estate. He kept two horses, rode often abroad in an equipage, rather fitting a highway-man, than a divine. He had plenty of gold and silver, and some plate; the product, no doubt, of his late cheats upon Mr. Clarke, and Mr. Mathew, and Mr. Olds, besides some remains, probably, of what was collected for Mr. Green, Mr. Jones, and Mr. Smith, whilst they, good men, perhaps, lay in prison for it, all the while.

During his abode at Litchfield, he professed himself to be a single man, and, upon that pretence, made love to divers women, in the way of marriage; believing, that his former Mary was lodged so safely in the King's-bench, that she could never get out to disturb his designs.

But there he was deceived: for, when the fire broke out in Southwark, she made her escape, and so had leisure to look out after him, and came time enough, to prevent his intended marriage.

For just then he was in close pursuit of a young woman at Tamworth, who had at least one thousand pounds to her portion, and he was in great probability of obtaining her. But Mary, having got loose by the above-mentioned accident, wrote him divers letters, that all her money was spent ; that she would be with him shortly, though she begged by the way. Which, at last, she made good, and arrived there, some few days before his new designed wedding, and challenged him for her husband. Or else, undoubtedly, he had served Mary Hutt the same trick, for the sake of a thousand pounds, as my reader will find, he really served Anne Yeabsly, for one hundred and fifty pounds.

But this had like to have cost Mary her life for Robert, being inraged at the disappointment, practised with his man, to meet her in her coming down; and either to cut her throat, or drown her. And, when he refused (which was a wonderful honesty in any one, that could submit to be his man) Robert's next attempt was to dispatch and kill his man, as he went abroad, one day, with him a shooting.

My reader, no doubt, will be amazed at this horrible story; yet I say no more than what his man himself declared upon oath, at Litchfield, and what all the country thereabout believes to be true.

But, the gun not going off, his man fled from him, first to Litchfield, and thence to Coventry; where he acquainted Mr. Olds, a mercer there, whom I have already so often mentioned, with the several cheats, that his master Robert Young had formerly acted upon him, by forging bills of exchange.

Mr. Olds, having never before, by all his search, been able to discover the contrivers of those forgeries, without delay, repaired to Litchfield, and lighted upon Robert Young, whilst he was yet in flush of money and plate; which he pretended to have brought out of Ireland, where he affirmed, he was a dean.

Mr. Robert, being thus unawares charged with all these cheats, freely confessed them all to Mr. Olds: and, that he might not lose his new-gotten reputation in the church there, and all his hopes at once, privately made up the business, and repaid to Mr. Olds all he could demand: that is to say, the fourteen pounds, ten shillings; the twenty pounds; and the ten pounds; and the value of the gold ring which unlucky blow to his fortune made him, for the future, be content to be served without plate.

But this was also the occasion of a worse mischief, that shortly after befel Robert Young and Mary; I say Mary also. For, before this, she arrived safe at Litchfield; and though, at first, he positively denied her to be his wife, and forswore her too, according to his custom; yet, in a short time, I know not how, they were pieced together again, as seeming indeed to be born for one another's society.

I have already told my reader, that Mr. Mathew of Daventry had used all possible industry, and written a vast number of letters, and made many fruitless journies, in quest of the author of his two-hundred pound forgery. But all in vain, till now the noise of it, spreading all over the country, came, at length, to Mr. Olds at Coventry. He presently gave intimation by letter to Mr. Mathew, how he himself had likewise been cheated of divers less sums, and recovered them again, by composition: and that his knave was still in a flourishing condition at Litchfield; and he might probably be the same man.

Mr. Mathew, upon this intelligence, quickly posted down to Litchfield beset the house, over night, where Robert and Mary lodged; the next morning Mary was soon taken, and Robert also, after above an hour's search, was pulled out from under a heap of furz, in a corner of the cellar.

They both immediately confessed the fact; and Robert would fain have stopped Mr. Mathew's mouth, as he had done Mr. Olds's, with the small relicks of his ill-gotten wealth.

But, that not sufficing for a sum so considerable, Robert stoutly denied all again, and defied him to do his worst: whereupon they were both clapped up in Litchfield gaol.

During this time, news was come to the secretaries' office at Whitehall, of the aforesaid violations on the post office, at St. Albans: and that the persons offending were in custody at Litchfield. Whereupon, the Right Honourable the Earl of Shrewsbury, then principal Secretary of State, granted a warrant to Mr. Legatt, the king's messenger, to bring them up to town, as being accused for dangerous practices against the government: the persons, abused by the former forgeries, giving their consent, that they should be so removed.

Mr. Legatt brought them up, and laid them first in the Gatehouse in Westminster; whence, by a warrant of the lord chief justice, they were removed into London, and lodged safely (one would have thought) in Newgate.

To Newgate, they had directly steered their courses the greatest. part of their lives; and thus, at last, wrought their way thither, per varios casus, per tot discrimina. There they were tried and condenined for those forgeries, and underwent again the punishment of the pillory; he being fined, for one fault, a hundred marks; for the other, a hundred marks; and she twenty marks.

If my reader shall ask, why Robert was found guilty of no more than two of these cheats? It was, because there was no other proof against him for the rest, but the confession of Mary, who plainly confessed him to be the author of all. But that, it seems, in law, is not evidence sufficient, because they supposed her to be his wife; it was a pity the judges and jury had not known how little she was his lawful wife.

However, in Newgate they continued above two years, for want of payment of these fines, till the 25th of May last, when his fines were paid: I suppose his wife's fine was discharged too. For

they both came forth in triumph, and new cloaths on, that day, with the association in their hands; after they had prevailed with Blackhead to steal it in, and steal it out of my chimney.

Thus, according to the fashion, I have given a true pourtraict of these precious evidences of a new plot. My next business will be to exemplify all this more largely, by authentick proofs: which, if I mistake not, I shall do so unquestionably, that none shall be able to disbelieve what I say against Young, but such as can believe what Young has said against me.

But first I will dispatch Blackhead: touching whem, I will only give a copy of the record of the sessions at the Old Bailey, where he was condemned for forgery.

London ss. Deliberat' Gaol' Dominor' Regis & Regin' de Newgate tent' pro Civitat' London, apud Justice-Hall in le Old Bayly, London, die Jovis (scil.) 15° die Januarii, Anno Regni Will' & Mar' nunc Regis & Regin' Angl' prim' &c. 'Felix Don Lewis, Thomas Patrick, Steph. Blackhead, Convict' pro fabricand' & publicand' falsum Script' Obligator' in Nomine cujusd' Thom' Faulkener pro summ' 601. ponantur & quilibet eor' ponatur supra Pillor' uno die in Cornhill prope Excamb' 'London ab hora undecima ante Merid' usq; ad hor' prim' post Merid' ejus diei: Et quilibet eor' habeant un' aur' ibid' absciss' & quod quilibet eor' habeat & sustineat imprisonament' in Gaol' de Newgate per spatium unius anni integri sine Bal' vel Manucaptur' 'juxta form' Statut' ejusd'. '

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6

By this it appears, Blackhead and his two companions were convicted of cheating one Mr. Faulkener of sixty pounds, by a false bill or bond; and were condemned to stand in the pillory in Cornhill near the Exchange, for two hours; to lose each of them an ear; and to continue prisoners, for twelve months, without bail or mainprize in Newgate: where, no doubt, that intimaey between Blackhead and Young was contracted, which had been so fatal to me, had not God marvellously defeated their conspiracy against me.

Having thus, for the present, rid my hands of Blackhead, I proceed next to Young. And, the first scene of his villainies, that have come to my knowledge, having been in Ireland, I will now give certain demonstration of the particulars, out of the original papers themselves which seem to me to describe the caitiff so plainly, that I need only set them down in their order, without any comment of mine upon them.

The principal crimes, I have already objected against him in Ireland, were his marrying a second wife, whilst his first was alive : his counterfeiting certificates for deacon's orders; his intirely forging of his priest's orders; and his feigning the knowledge of a dangerous plot, in that kingdom; wherein he would make out, that divers great persons were engaged.

There are, also, several others of his rogueries, such as his having a bastard by a kitchen-wench, at Castle-Reah, whilst he was, a short

time, curate there; his lewd life, and cheating divers people of money by counterfeit bills, at Tallogh, where he was also sometimes curate his running away with another man's horse, when he was forced to flee thence, for his other pranks, and the like. All these, and more such, will come in, as by the by; and it will be enough for me only to give my reader this notice, to mark them in the papers I am going to produce: the method of which shall be this:

First, He shall have Robert Young's general character, in a letter from the present Lord Archbishop of Dublin; and another from the Lord Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin : both written so long ago, as the year 1683: whilst he was only under suspicion at Lambeth; and before he had entered upon so many vile practices in England. In these letters, he is, even then, described to be as wicked a lyar, as the little Carmelite friar Moor, and to be as very a rogue as the Spanish wits have fancied their Gusman. Who the Carmelite friar was, I knew not; Gusman is sufficiently known. But, in the sequel, it will appear, that our rogue has far outdone the very Spanish romance of theirs.

Secondly, He shall have the Lord Bishop of Raphoe Hopkins's letter to the Lord Bishop of Kilmore, when R. Young was apprehended in that diocese, under the name of Robert Hopkins; for which name also he shewed his forged letters of priest's orders, upon his examination by the said bishop, which shall also follow.

Thirdly, Here are the copies of the original certificates confirming the truth of both his marriages.

Fourthly, Here are divers letters of Robert Young's own hand, when he was imprisoned at Cavan, and in danger of his life for having two wives.

1. A letter to one Justice Waldrum, to offer him a bribe, if he would take bail for him.

2. Another letter to the Lord Bishop of Kilmore, confessing some of his knaveries, but solemnly denying his having married two wives.

Next, here is a letter to Roger Yeabsly, brother to his first wife Ann Yeabsly, alias Apsly.

Then another to George Yeabsly, her father; then two letters to herfelf.

In all these he confesses his two marriages: however, proposes, to her and her brother, a way to save his life by forswearing themselves: that they should get a certificate at Cork, signed by a publick notary, that Ann Yeabsly was really married to one Robert Young, and that Roger her brother was present at the marriage, and that then they should both come to Cavan, and, upon his trial, deny that he was the man; and, if they did him this service, he promised, with horrible imprecations upon himself, that he would only stay to receive Mary Hutt his second wife's portion, and then run away with Ann Yeabsly, his first wife, into England.

Lastly, To compleat all, I will produce two of his letters to his