Panglossian Notes

Just publishing, after some time , John Creamers story as he told it:

Ordinary's Account, 14th October 1772.

John Creamer was indicted for returning from transportation before the expiration of his time, for which he was transported. The record of his conviction was read; by which it appears, that he was tried in May session, 1769, for stealing eight guineas one half guinea, a quarter guinea, the property or John Lothian, in the dwelling house ofWilliam Figg, for which he was capitally convicted, but afterwards received his Majesty's mercy upon condition of transportation for fourteen years.

John Creamer was born in the Western part of Ireland; and while he was young, his parents came over to England. When he grew up, he was put apprentice to a taylor in Holborn. His master dying, he was left to shift for himself; but as he had served some part of his time, he was able to get his bread, and supported himself. Soon after he married, and having a young family, and being at that time out of work, he was led to commit the robbery. Being desired to tell if he had committed any other, he said, “No, sir, nor did I ever keep company with, or knew any one that did go out a robbing, that was my first and last fact; nor have I done any thing of the kind since I came over, but have worked hard to maintain my family.Being told that he should have staid abroad his time, he answered, "That he had heard that his wife and children were in the parish work house, and he thought that if he came over, he could work in the country, and send for his wife and children, and nobody would find him out." He said that he came over last March, and did work in the country, and lived with his family. But, unfortunately for him, he came to London to see a friend on some business, and going to drink with him at a public house, a man came in that knew him, who immediately gave information of him, and he was taken up.

He thought it hard that he should suffer, as his intention was honest and good. Being a member of the church of Rome , he did not attend the chapel; but was ready and willing to receive my instructions, and behaved, while under sentence of death, with decency. He was 25 years of age.

I should be writing an essay

on neo-liberalism as I've sorted out a starting point, at least, for myself in the testing of the quality of my reading and thinking in regard to the slippery concept of liberalism and it's new bastard child. But, after getting roughly organized last night, I became restless or, maybe shy, about starting to actually put my jumbled thoughts on paper, so-to-speak, so I looked for a diversion before hitting the sack and avoiding making a start. Trials have been on my subconscious mind lately, having just finished a 3 week stint of jury duty at the local court house, thus I thought of continuing my watching of the series Garrow's Law online.

The series takes place in the 1780's, maybe 100 years after the glorious revolution and the enshrinement of, for some males, a bill of rights in the UK. But, as portrayed in the TV drama, the "justice" institution, at that time, is struggling to get marginally close to what we now might consider an appropriate structure. The program makes for reasonable drama, if nothing else, I think, and certainly amuses me, for awhile, when I watch an episode or two.

However I was distracted from even watching Garrow last night as I wandered off to search the files of cases from the Old Bailey via a link the BBC had put up on the website of their TV series. It was bizarrely fascinating to rummage around in the old case files and to trace one or two individuals through their various run ins with the courts, some to simply disappear from the files, after a point in time, and others to eventually run out of luck and get death.

An example of the latter would be John Creamer, by all accounts not a particularly bad person, and someone who today, as long as we can maintain some semblance of our modern humanism against the longing of conservatives and pretend elite progressives for the return of a form of feudalism, would likely be considered a credit to any nation of which he was a citizen.

Creamer was convicted of theft in 1769 and sentenced to death - death prior to the early 1800's was administered by short drop hanging, a bloody lovely way to go. However, he "received his Majesty's [George III] most gracious pardon" in 1770 on condition that he be transported for 14 years. Prior to 1776 - you must know the significance of this date - transportation was to the Americas i.e. the now USA [hmm Aussies celebrate that their nations' founders were the then riffraff of the UK but I've never seen it mentioned that the USA was a dumping ground for more than half a century for the UK's "criminals" prior to 1776; maybe it doesn't quite fit into a particular part of an elaborate national myth].

Poor John seems to have gotten word while in the Americas that his wife and little ones were in even more dire straits then the time he committed his first "crime" to care for them. So somehow John managed to get back to the UK and hide in the country side outside London being a family man - this feat of the poor soul is, I think, in itself a friggin adventure untold.

But John, though Irish, didn't seem to have our luck and someone recognized him while he was out for a drink - ah the bloody Irish, eh; the drink always does you in - and in September 1772 he is again before the beak at the Old Bailey and returning from transportation before time allotted was death.

John took the short drop on October 14, 1772 just across from one of the numerous Pret a Manger shops that dot modern UK. Actually you can go into the shop pick up a very good sandwich and head over to check out the massive horse head and look towards the Marble Arch and know that's where the convict John Creamer straggled at the end of a rope about 240 years ago.

After reading the Old Bailey files I'll not so easily have lunch by the Marble Arch.