Early Eighteenth-Century Newspaper Reports: A Sourcebook compiled by Rictor Norton  

Trials at the Old Bailey, Hangings at Tyburn, Famous Criminals, Mobs and the Pillory

Early Encounters with Highwaymen
Crime and Punishment (1701-1703)
Crime and Punishment (1718-1719)
Crime and Punishment (1730)
Arson and Extortion
Robbers and Footpads
Murder
Jail Breakers
Military Punishments
The Fight against Crime
A Hard Case
Sharpers
Crime Wave, 1728
Proposal to Prevent Robberies Barbarous Cruelties
Provincial Hangings
Scenes at the Gallows
Newgate Prison
Transportation and other Punishments
Shoplifting
Coining
Informers
Highwaymen
Housebreakers
Smugglers
Pickpockets

Rogues’ Gallery
Jonathan Wild
Viragos
Jack Sheppard, Jail-Breaker
Catherine Hayes (burned alive for murdering her husband)
Burnworth and his Gang
Captain Jane and his Cabin Boy
Moll Harvey
The Rape Master General
Moll Freeman
Half-hanged Harding
Dick Turpin
Lieutenant Edward Bird

Love and Marriage, Abandoned Children, Rape and Infanticide, Sodomites and the Drury Lane Ladies

The Dunmowe Flitch of Bacon
The Pleasures and Pains of Marriage
Rape
Women of Pleasure
Abandoned Children
Infanticide
Sodomites
Self-Abuse and Gleets
The Reformation of Manners
Mothers and Children
The Rape of Girls
Suppression of Night-Houses
Mother Needham
Sow-Gelder Tries to Spay His Wife
Remarkable Unions
Bawdy Houses
Incest

Popular Amusements from Bear-Baiting to Fashionable Assemblies, Races, Magicians, Music, Plays and Literature, and the Latest Fashions

Bear-Baiting and Cock-Fighting
Foot-Racing
Boxing and Prize-Fighting
Royal Ceremonies and Civic Celebrations
Theatrical Performances
Cherokee Indians visit London in 1730
Book Advertisements
Diversions and Assemblies
Waxworks and Models
Music and Opera
Magicians
At the Playhouse
Contortionists and other Performers
The Death of Mother Gin
Gambling
Bartholomew Fair & Southwark Fair
The Latest Fashions
Bawdy Literature
Masquerades
Football

Bills of Mortality, Suicides, Natural Catastrophes, Horrid Accidents and Funeral Customs

Bills of Mortality
Suicides
Accidental Deaths and Injuries                
Casualties
Natural Catastrophes
Funerals and Mourning Customs
Funeral of Earl Stanhope
Buried Alive
Old Age
Grave Robbery
Obituaries

Health and Beauty and Advertisements for Quack Medicines

Panaceas
A Cure for Gout
Cures for Venereal Disease
Haemorrhoides, Hernia, Bad Teeth and Other Ailments
Treatment of Lunatics
Cleanliness
An Ear Operation
Elixirs and Tinctures
Medical Experiments
Mrs Mapp the Bone-Setter
False Teeth
Smallpox

Daily Life, Work and Poverty, Runaway Apprentices and Slaves, Commerce, Trade and Bankruptcy

Getting Rid of Bed-Bugs
Runaway Apprentices and Lost Dogs
Negroes and Slaves
Work and Poverty
Vagrants and Beggars
Commerce and Trade
The Weavers
Accidents and Quarrels
Maunday Thursday Customs
Debtors
Dead Drunk
Gypsies
Rewards Offered
Charity
Wages

Religion, Witchcraft, Jews, French Protestants

Witchcraft
French Huguenot Refugees
The Jews
The Quakers
The Freemasons
The Hell Fire Club
Roman Catholics

Scientific Inventions, Wonders of Nature and Monstrous Births

Science and Learning                            
Wonders of Nature
Comets
The Rabbit Woman (1726)
Peter the Wild Boy
Monstrous Births

Politics and Public Order

May Fair Riots
The Jacobites
The Devil, the Pope and the Pretender
Definition of Whig and Tory
Tumult in Glasgow
Sedition and Libel
Press Gangs
Down with the Irish!
The Saucy Coachman
A Printer in the Pillory
Insolent Behaviour
Lewd and Disorderly
A Hue and Cry after the Pretender

Low-Life Literature

Bartholomew Fair is expired and gone
Epitaph on a Fortune Teller
An elderly lady, whose bulky, squat figure
Example of a Crambo
The Epistle of Robin the Butler to Kitty the Cook's Daughter
A Fight between a Gentleman and a Coachman
How to make a Tory
To that Sodomitical Villain, P——e
Two Kissing Girls of Spitalfields
A Verse on Jonathan Wild
An Highwayman's History of his own Time
Elegy upon Dobbin, a Coach-horse

Virtue in Danger
Epitaph for a Lap-Dog
A Quill-Boy's Prayer
God's in Gloc'ster
Silvia and Tom Turd-man
Epigram on a Bookseller
Epigram on Sally Salisbury
Preserving Old Age
Preaching near the Gallows
A True Tale of a Country Squire
A Ballad on the Ridotto al Fresco
A Letter from Transported Criminals to their Comrades in Newgate
An Eighteenth-Century Rapper
A Trial of Skill


(Texts have been modernized with regard to capitalization, italicization, and punctuation, but original spelling has been retained. This edition copyright Rictor Norton. All rights reserved. Reproduction for sale or profit prohibited. These extracts may not be archived, republished or redistributed without the permission of the compiler. However, short selections may be quoted in historical studies and reviews as long as acknowledgement is given to this site.)

CITATION: Rictor Norton, Early Eighteenth-Century Newspaper Reports: A Sourcebook, 18 November 2001; updated 26 September 2010 <http://grubstreet.rictornorton.co.uk/>