On 11 November 1794, John Webb stood trial at the Old Bailey for stealing pewter pots from a London innkeeper. Convicted and sentenced to seven years’ transportation, his story reveals how small acts of tavern theft could send Georgian Londoners halfway across the world.
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This Day in History: 20 October — The Highwayman and the Flintlock (1779)
On 20 October 1779, highwayman John Staples robbed a traveller at pistol-point on a London road. Captured soon after and tried at the Old Bailey, he was sentenced to death for highway robbery. His case captures the fading days of England’s flintlock outlaws and the end of the highwayman era.
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