Nathaniel Jackson is a man who seems incapable of standing still. Born to a family of some means in Doncaster, orphaned young, apprenticed to a silk-weaver in Norwich, he runs from every structure placed around him and lurches toward whatever is reckless and ruinous.
After a violent duel costs him his place in a regiment of dragoons in Ireland, Jackson drifts back to England with nothing but old habits and worse company. London swallows him whole, and a chance reunion with former comrades pulls him toward a road he cannot walk back from.
Follow Nathaniel Jackson down that road, from the army that cast him out to the robbery that seals his fate.
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FROM THE 1735 TEXT
He seemed to have swept all impurities with a drag net, and to have habituated himself to nothing but wickedness from his cradle.
Dark Lexicon: Old words. Dark meaning.
The past speaks its own dialect; here is what to listen for in this episode.
Broke him: nothing to do with money. When a soldier was 'broke,' his officers stripped him of his rank and expelled him from the regiment; a public humiliation that left him without pay, status or purpose.
Drag net: today we picture a police dragnet closing in on a suspect. In the 1700s the image was literal: a heavy fishing net dragged along the bottom of a river, scooping up everything in its path. To say Jackson swept all impurities with a drag net means he gathered every available vice into his life, missing none.
Sutler: a civilian merchant who set up shop near a military camp, selling food, drink and sundries to soldiers. Think of a camp follower with a licence to profit; the sutler's tent was part marketplace, part tavern, and often part den of scheming.
Conversation of women: in old England, 'conversation' could mean far more than talk. Here it is a polite veil over sexual liaisons; 'criminal conversation' was in fact the legal term for adultery.
Hair: among the items stolen from the victim Dennet was 'some hair,' almost certainly referring to a wig or hairpiece. Wigs were valuable personal property in the early 18th century, and stealing one was no small matter.
Commitment: not a promise or a pledge. In legal language of the time, a commitment was the formal order sending a person to gaol to await trial; to hear of someone's commitment was to know they had been locked up.
Interest: when Jackson's friends tried to make 'interest' on his behalf, they were pulling strings: lobbying powerful people, calling in favours, petitioning for mercy. The word carried the weight of patronage and connection, the unofficial currency of justice in old England.
About This Series
Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals (1735) is one of the earliest works of true crime in the English language. Each week this podcast retells one of its stories for today's listener, keeping the old book's most striking lines.
