While he continued to work as a carpenter he often committed robberies in the houses where he was employed, stealing tankards, spoons, and other articles, which he carried to Edgworth Bess; but not being suspected of having committed these robberies, he at length resolved to conmence house-breaker.

Exclusive of Edgworth Bess he was acquainted with a Voman named Maggot, who persuaded him to rob the house f Mr. Bains, a piece-broker in White Horse Yard; and Jack having brought away a piece of fustian from thence, which he deposited in his trunk) went afterwards at midaight, and taking the bars out of the cellar-window, entered, and stole goods and money to the amount of twenty-two pounds, which he carried to Maggot.

As Sheppard did not go home that right, nor the following day, his master suspected that he had made bad connections, and searching his trunk, found the piece of fustian that had been stolen; but Sheppard, hearing of this, broke open his master's house in the night, and carried off the fustian, lest it should be brought in evidence against him.

Sheppard's master sending intelligence to Mr. Bains of what had happened, the latter looked over bis goods, and missing such a piece of fustian as had been described to him, suspected that Sheppard must have been the robber, and determined to have him taken into custody; but Jack, hearing of the affair, went to him, and threatened a prosecution for scandal, alledging that he had received the piece of fustian from his mother, who bought it for bim in Spitalfields. The mother, with a view to screen her son, declared that what he had asserted was true, though she could not point out the place where she had made the pur chase. Though this story was not credited, Mr. Bains did not take any farther steps in the affair.

Sheppard's master seemed willing to think well of him, and he continued some time longer in the family; but af ter associating himself with the worst of company, and frequently staying out the whole night, his master and he

quarrelled, and the headstrong youth totally absconded in the last year of his apprenticeship, and became connected with a set of villains of Jonathan Wild's

gang.

Jack now worked as a journeyman carpenter, with a view to the easier commission of robbery; and being employed to assist in repairing the house of a gentleman in May-Fair, he took an opportunity of carrying off a sum of money, a quantity of plate, some gold rings, and four suits of clothes.

Not long after this Edgworth Bess was apprehended, and lodged in the Round-house of the parish of St. Giles, where Sheppard went to visit her, and the beadle refusing to admit him, he knocked him down, broke open the door, and carried her off in triumph; an exploit which acquired him a high degree of credit with the women of abandoned character.

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In the month of August, 1723, Thomas Sheppard, the brother of Jack, was indicted at the Old Bailey, for two petty offences, and being convicted, was burnt in the hand. Soon after his discharge, he prevailed on Jack to lend him forty shillings, and take him as a partner in his robberies. The first fact they committed in concert was the robbing a public-house in Southwark, whence they carried off some money, and wearing apparel: but Jack permitted his brother to reap the whole advantage of this booty.

Not long after this, the brothers, in conjunction with Edgworth Bess, broke open the shop of Mrs. Cook, a linendraper in Clare-market, and carried off goods to the value of fifty-five pounds; and in less than a fortnight afterwards stole some articles from the house of Mr. Philips, in DruryLane.

Tom Sheppard going to sell some of the goods stolen at Mrs. Cook's, was apprehended and committed to Newgate, when, in the hope of being admitted an evidence, he impeached his brother and Edgworth Bess, but they were sought for in vain.

At length James Sikes, otherwise called Hell and Fury, one of Sheppard's companions, meeting with him in St. Giles's, enticed him into a public-house, in the hope of receiving a reward for apprehending him; and while they were drinking, Sikes sent for a constable, who took Jack into custody, and carried him before a magistrate, who, after a short examination, sent him to St. Giles's Roundhouse: but he broke through the roof of that place, and made his escape in the night.

Within a short time after this, as Sheppard and an associate, named Benson, were crossing Leicester-fields, the latter endeavoured to pick a gentleman's pocket of his watch, but failing in the attempt, the gentleman called out, "A pickpocket," on which Sheppard was taken, and lodged in St. Anne's Round-house, where he was visited by Edgworth Bess, who was detained on suspicion of being one of his accomplices.

On the following day they were carried before a magis trate, and some persons appearing who charged them with felonies, they were committed to New-Prison; and as they passed for husband and wife, they were permitted to lodge. together in a room known by the name of NewgateWard.

Sheppard being visited by several of his acquaintance, some of them furnished him with implements to make his escape, and early in the morning, a few days after his commitment, he filed off his fetters, and having made a hole in the wall, he took an iron bar and a wooden one out of the window; but as the height from which he was to descend was twenty-five feet, he tied a blanket and a sheet together, and making one of them fast to a bar in the window, Edgworth Bess first descended, and Jack followed her.

Having reached the yard, they had still a wall of twentytwo feet high to scale; but climbing up by the locks and bolts of the great gate, they got quite out of the prison, and effected a perfect escape.