A predatory social structure: Informers in Westminster, 1737-1741

Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Volumn 30, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 617-634

  Warner, Jessica ^a   Ivis, Frank ^b   Demers, Andrée ^c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

^b CENTRE FOR ADDICTION AND MENTAL HEALTH   (Canada)

^c UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0039047846     PISSN: 00221953     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1162/002219500552081     Document Type: Review

References (59)

1. John M. Beattie, "Violence and Society in Early-modern England," in Anthony Doob and Edward L. Greenspan (eds.), Perspectives in Criminal Law: Essays in Honour of John LL. J. Edwards (Aurora, Ontario, 1985), 40;
2. Maurice W. Beresford, "The Common Informer, the Penal Statutes and Economic Regulation," Economic History Review, X (1958), 221-222;
3. T. C. Curtis and William A. Speck, "The Societies for the Reformation of Manners: A Case Study in the Theory and Practice of Moral Reform," Literature and History, III (1976), 53;
4. Robert D. Shoemaker, Prosecution and Punishment: Petty Crime and the Law in London and Rural Middlesex, c. 1660-1725 (Cambridge, 1991), 241.
5. Reay Sabourn, A Perfect View of the Gin Act, with its Unhappy Consequences; Containing not Only an Inquiry into, but also a Full Account of the Power of the Justices of the Peace, as Limited by that Law. The Whole Illustrated with Well-attested Cases of Some Unhappy Sufferers from the Villanies of Perfidious Informers (London, 1738), 36-38;
6. The Old Whig: or, the Consistent Protestant, 9 Mar. 1738, 4;
7. Read's Weekly Journal, or, British-Gazetteer, 1 Apr. 1738, 2;
8. The London Daily Post, and General Advertiser, 9 May 1738, 2;
9. A Short History of the Gin Act: or, an Impartial Account of the Conduct of Some of those who Have Been Intrusted with the Execution of it. To which Is Annex'd a Relation of the Hardships and Sufferings of Several Persons who Have Been Convicted by the Unjustifiable Artifices, as Well as by the Perjuries and Villanies of Infomers (London, 1738), 64.
10. The London Evening-Post, 6-9 Nov. 1736, 2;
11. Danby Pickering (ed.), The Statutes at Large (Cambridge, 1765), XVII, 10 Geo.2.c.17, sect. 8; 11 Geo.2.c.26.
12. Repertories, 1737-1738, Corporation of London Records Office, 267; Read's Weekly Journal, 1 Apr. 1738, 2;
13. The Dailey Gazetteer, 4 Apr. 1738, 2; 5 April 1738, 1-2;
14. The London Daily Post, 7 Apr. 1738, 1;
15. The London Evening-Post, 16-18 Mar. 1738, 2.
16. Warner and Ivis, "'Damn you, you informing Bitch'": Vox populi and the Unmaking of the Gin Act of 1736," Journal of Social History, XXXIII (1999), 299-330;
17. The London Evening-Past, 16-18 Mar. 1738, 2. The amount of the salary suggests that the officer was in fact a collector.
18. See John Brewer, The Sinews of Power: War, Money, and the English State, 1688-1783 (London, 1989), 108.
19. The London Evening-Post, 5-7 Jan. 1738, 2; 22-24 Mar. 1739.
20. Calendar of Commitments to the Westminster House of Correction, Corporation of London Metropolitan Archives: WJ/CC/B 146, June 24, 1738; WJ/CC/B 147, October 7, 1738; WJ/CC/B 148, January 6, 1738; WJ/CC/B 149, April 28, 1739; WJ/CC/B 151, January 5, 1739; WJ/CC/B 152, April 12, 1740; WJ/CC/B 154, 1740; WJ/CC/R 7, April 5, 1738; WJ/CC/R 8, June 22, 1738; WJ/CC/R 9, October 4, 1738; WJ/CC/R 10, April 1, 1739; WJ/CC/R 11, April 25, 1739; WJ/CC/R 12, July 12, 1739; WJ/CC/R 6, October 5, 1737; WJ/CC/R 13, January 3, 1739; WJ/CC/R 14, April 1, 1741. PC 1/15/5, part 1 and part 2, 1738, Public Record Office.
21. The London Evening-Post, 8-11 Sept. 1739, 3;
22. The London Daily Post, 27 July 1738, 1;
23. Richard Hooker, The Weekly Miscellany, 28 July 1738, 2-3;
24. Read's Weekly Journal, 29 July 1738, 4;
25. The Gentleman's Magazine; or, Monthly Intelligencer, July 1738, 379;
26. The London Magazine; or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer, August 1738, 411.
27. The number of individuals reported to have been convicted by the commissioners of Excise cannot be reconciled with the much smaller number recorded by the commissioners themselves; it is probably inflated. See Lee Davison, "Experiments in the Social Regulation of Industry: Gin Legislation, 1729-1751," in idem et al. (eds.), Stilling the Grumbling Hive: The Response to Social and Economic Problems in England, 1689-1750 (New York, 1992), 36-37. According to CUST, 48/13, 1733-1745, 397. Public Record Office, and T 1/309, October-December 1742, entry 128, Treasury Papers, the commissioners convicted about 900 retailers during the same period of time, and convicted 1,642 retailers during the lifetime of the Act.
28. J. Suitor and S. Keeton, "Once a Friend, Always a Friend? Effects of Homophily on Women's Support Networks across a Decade," Social Networks, XIX (1997). 1-7;
29. D. Ruan et al., "On the Changing Structure of Social Networks in Urban China," Social Networks, ibid., 75-90;
30. Barry Wellman et al., "A Decade of Network Change: Turnover, Persistence and Stability in Personal Communities," Social Networks, ibid., 27-50;
31. Wesley Shrum and Neil H. Cheek, "Social Structure during the School Years: Onset of the Degrouping Process," American Sociological Review, LII (1987), 218-223; UCINET Ver. V, Analytic Technologies, Natick, Mass.
32. The London Evening-Post, 16-18 Mar. 1738, 2.
33. The London Daily Post, 9 May 1738, 2; 16 May 1738, 2.
34. M. Dorothy George, London Life in the Eighteenth Century (New York, 1964; 2d ed.), 68-69;
35. Jeremy Boulton, "Neighbourhood Migration in Early Modem London," in Peter Clark and David Souden (eds.), Migration and Society in Early Modern England (London, 1987), 134;
36. The Old Whig: or, the Consistent Protestant, 16 June 1737, 2;
37. Brewer, Sinews of Power, 105-108.
38. PC 1/15/5, part 3, April 3-June 7, 1738, Public Record Office, Tower Division, Middlesex.
39. Public Record Office: Excise Board's Minutes, July 13, 1773-January 13, 1737, CUST 47/167, 1737, 48; Excise Boards Minutes, January 14, 1737-June 1738, CUST 47/168, 1737-1738, 150; Excise Board's Minutes, June 6, 1738-November 3, 1738, CUST 47/169, 1738, 23 and 109; Excise Boards Minutes, November 7, 1738-April 16, 1739, CUST 47/170, 1738-1739, 13. Hardwicke Papers, Additional MS. 35600, 1733-1741, folio 95 recto, British Library (reference courtesy of Nomia Landau). Court of King's Bench Crown Side, Indictment Files for London and Middlesex, KB 10/23, part 2, Hilary, 11 Geo. 2, 1737, Public Record Office; Sessions Rolls, Middlesex Quarter Sessions, MJ/SR 2701, September 1738, Corporation of London Metropolitan Archives; The Proceedings at the Sessions of Peace, Oyer and Terminer, for the City of London and County of Middlesex, on Wednesday the 11th, Thursday the 12th, and Friday the 13th of October (London, 1738), 155-157;
40. Short History, 64;
41. Saboum, Perfect View, 40;
42. Read's Weekly Journal, 6 Jan. 1739, 2;
43. The London Daily Post, 7 Apr. 1738, 1.
44. Sessions Rolls, Middlesex Quarter Sessions, MJ/SR 2684, October 1737, Corporation of London Metropolitan Archives; Sessions Rolls, City of London Quarter Sessions, SF 758, October 1738, Corporation of London Records Office; Read's Weekly Journal, 14 Oct. 1738, 3; 21 Oct. 1738, 2; Quarter Sessions Minutes, City of London, SM 106, 1738-1739, Corporation of London Records Office.
45. Public Record Office: Excise Board's Minutes, January 14, 1737-June 1738, CUST 47/168, 1737-1738, 111; Excise Board's Minutes, November 7, 1738-April 16, 1739, CUST 47/170, 1738-1739, 94.
46. Warner and Ivis, "'Damn you,'" 311-313;
47. idem, "Gin and Gender in Eighteenth-century London," unpub. paper (Toronto, 1999).
48. PC 1/15/5, part 2, 1738, Public Record Office; Sessions Rolls, Middlesex Quarter Sessions, MJ/SR 2701, September 1738, Corporation of London Metropolitan Archives; Sabourn, Perfect View, 35-36.
49. Calendar of Prisoners, Middlesex, MJ/CP/P 58, September 7, 1738, Corporation of London Metropolitan Archives; The London Daily Post, 7 Apr. 1738, 1.
50. Warner and Ivis, "'Damn you,'" 304; Middlesex Sessions, Process Register of Indictments, MJ/SBP/14, 1734-1741, Corporation of London Metropolitan Archives; KB 1/6, Michaelmas, 13 Geo. 2, bundle 3, November 22, 1739, Public Record Office.
51. Wayne E. Baker and Robert R. Faulkner, "The Social Organization of Conspiracy: Illegal Networks in the Heavy Electrical Equipment Industry," American Sociological Review, LVIII (1993), 837-860.
52. Sessions Rolls, City of London Quarter Sessions, SF 758, October 1738, Corporation of London Records Office; Read's Weekly Journal, 14 Oct. 1738, 3.
53. The London Evening-Post, 29 June-1 July 1738, 1.
54. KB 1/6, Michaelmas, 13 Geo. 2, bundle 3, November 22, 1739, Public Record Office; Short History, 15; PC 1/15/5, part 2, 1738, Public Record Office.
55. The London Evening-Post, 29 June-1 July 1738, 1; KB 1/6, Michaelmas, 13 Geo. 2, bundle 3, November 22, 1739, Public Record Office. Earlier in the century, the Societies for the Reformation of Manners recommended that informers working on their behalf operate in neighborhoods where they were as yet unknown.
56. See Shoemaker, Prosecution and Punishment, 244.
57. Read's Weekly Journal, 5 Aug. 1738, 3;
58. The London Evening-Post, 29 June-1 July 1738, 1;
59. The Country Journal: or, the Craftsman, 4 Nov. 1738, 2.