James Booty is barely into his teens when he is apprenticed to a cabinet-maker in Holborn, a fatherless boy left to a mother doing her best in old England. What happens next is a chain of ignorance, disease and violence that will make him one of the youngest people ever to face a capital charge in London.
Infected by an older girl in his master's household, the boy acts on a piece of deadly folk wisdom passed along by workmen: that the cure for his condition is to lie with someone who is sound. The consequences of that belief are shattering.
Step into this grim true crime story and hear what became of the boy they called the ravisher.
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FROM THE 1735 TEXT
There he heard some of the foolish fellows say that lying with any person who was sound would cure those who were in such a condition.
Dark Lexicon: Old words. Dark meaning.
The past speaks its own dialect; here is what to listen for in this episode.
Foul distemper: in old England this was the common, half-whispered term for venereal disease; most likely syphilis or gonorrhoea. It carried shame as heavy as its symptoms.
Peruke-maker: a wigmaker. In old England, peruke-makers were skilled tradespeople who served everyone from judges to merchants; the word has vanished, but the powdered wigs live on in courtroom tradition.
Made a shift: today 'making a shift' might suggest changing clothes, but in old England it meant managing with difficulty, scraping together an answer or a plan when none was obvious.
Taken up: arrested. In old England, being 'taken up' meant you had been seized by the authorities; there was no polite knock at the door, just hands on your collar and a march to the nearest magistrate.
Committed to Newgate: sent to London's most notorious prison to await trial. Newgate was a disease-ridden fortress where accused and condemned alike were crammed together in filth.
Sessions: the regular sittings of the criminal court at the Old Bailey. In old England, trials were swift and grouped in batches; a prisoner might wait weeks in gaol only to be tried, convicted and sentenced in a single day.
Ignominious death: a death steeped in public shame. The word 'ignominious' still exists, but in old England it carried a specific legal and spiritual dread: a death that marked you as dishonoured before God and your neighbours alike.
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.
