Hauing on a time occasion to ride to Dartforde, to speak with a priest there, who maketh all kinds of conserues very well, and vseth stilling of waters ; And repayringe to his house, I found a Dommerar at his doore, and the priest him selfe perusinge his lycence, vnder the seales and hands of certayne worshypfull men, had thought the same to be good and effectuall. I taking the same writing, and reading it ouer, and noting the seales, found one of the seales like vnto a seale that I had aboute me, which seale I bought besides Charing crosse, that I was out of doubte it was none of those Gentlemens seales that had subcribed. And hauing vnderstanding before of their peuish practices, made me to concaeue that all was forged and nought. I made the more hast home ; for well I wyst that he would and must of force passe through the parysh where I dwelt ; for there was no other waye for hymn. And comminge homewarde, I found them in the towne, accordinge to my expectation, where they were staid ; for there was a Pallyarde associate with the Dommerar and partaker of his gaynes, whyche Pallyarde I sawe not at Dartford. The stayers of them was a Gentlemen called Chayne, and a seruant of my Lord Kéepers, cald Wostestowe, which was the chiefe causer of the staying of them, being a Surgien, and cunning in his science, has séene the lyke practices, and, as he sayde, hadde caused one to speake afore that was dome. It was my chaunce to come at the begynning of the matter. "Syr," (quoth this Surgien) "I am bold here to vtter some part of my cunning. I trust" (quoth he) "you shall see a myracle wrought anon. For I once" (quoth he) "made a dumme man to speake." Quoth I, "you are wel met, and somwhat you haue preuented me ; for I had thought to haue done no lesse or they hadde passed this towne. For I well knowe their writing is fayned, and they depe dissemblers." The Surgien made hym gape, and we could sée but halfe a toung. I required the Surgien to put hys fynger in his mouth, and to pull out his toung, and so he dyd, not withstanding he held strongly a prety whyle ; at the length he pluckt out the same, to the great admiration of many that stode by. Yet when we sawe his tounge, hée would neither speake nor yet could heare. Quoth I to the Surgien, "knit the two of his fyngers to gether, and thrust a stycke betwene them, and rubbe the same vp and downe a lytle whyle, and for my lyfe hée speaketh by and by." "Sir," quoth this Surgien, "I praye you let me practise and other waye." I was well contented to sée the same. He had him into a house, and tyed a halter aboute the wrestes of his handes, and hoysed him vp ouser a beam, and there dyd let him hang a good while : at the length, for very paine he required for Gods sake to let him down. So he that was both deafe and dume coulde in short tyme both heare and speake. Then I took that money I could find in his pursse and distributed the same to the poore people dwelling there, whiche was xv. pence halfepeny, being all that we coulde finde. That done, and this merry myracle madly made, I sent them with my seruaunt to the next Iusticer, where they preached on the Pyllery for want of a Pulpet, and were well whypped, and none did bewayle them.

Issue 3 of No Quarter has recently been published. This issue contains…

• A reprint of Lost Utopias by Ron Sakolsky, "scholar of music, revolution and radio", from issue 3 of his self-published, anarchist-surrealist zine, Oystercatcher.
• An interview with a member of the Bristol Radical History Group, an independent collective exploring history from below. They have staged some remarkable events, all without any funding from universities, political parties, business or local government.
• The trial statement of nineteenth-century French anarchist Émile Henry (1872 - May 21, 1894). He attempted to dynamite a mining company which was in dispute with its striking workers, only to have the bomb discovered before it was detonated and retrieved to the police office, where it did detonate, killing several policemen present. Later he would mis-throw a bomb into a bourgeois café, slightly injuring a few bourgeois, wounding three persons with gunshot whilst making his escape. He was executed at 22 years old.
• Many reviews of related books and films.

For details on how to obtain a copy of No Quarter #3, see the No Quarter blog.

This is a fascinating study of Elizabethan rogues and vagabonds which draws much of its material from the actual pamphlets of the time, in particular the Conny-catching series of Robert Greene and the Caveat for Common Cursetors of Thomas Harman. Central and local records have also provided the author with relics of the age, such as Proctor's Licenses, forged passports, the London orders of 1517 for restraining beggars and vagabonds, and licenses for Jacobean gaming houses, from which he has been able to paint a vivid picture of an elaborately organized profession of roguery with a language of its own and a large number of well-defined methods and traditions.

Mr Aydelotte describes the Art of Begging employed by the vagrants and masterless men who roamed through the countryside at this time with a wealth of picturesque detail. He distinguishes between the 'Upright Men' who were strong enough to act as chiefs among their fellow vagabonds and the ordinary rogues; and deals with all the many vagabond types, the 'Abraham men', 'hookers', 'palliards' and 'counterfeit cranks', and their companions, the 'doxies' and 'bawdy baskets'. In another chapter he studies the art of conny-catching, and the endless devices of the London sharpers, dice-swindlers and cut-purses to swindle simple people of their money. Finally there is an account of the laws against vagabonds and their enforcement which includes an especially interesting discussion of the whipping campaign which began in 1569.

Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I : ORIGINS

Size of the vagabond class

Enclosures and sheep-farming

The change from the mediaeval to the modern system of land tenure

The sixteenth-century literature of economic protest

The breaking up of the bands of feudal retainers

The dissolution of the monasteries

The question of gipsy origin

CHAPTER II : THE ART OF BEGGING

Traditional methods

Prevalence of indiscriminate charity

Licences to beg

Harman's twenty-four orders of vagabonds

Rufflers and upright men

Hookers or anglers

Rogues

Counterfeit cranks

Dommerers, palliards, and Abraham Men

Priggers of prancers

Counterfeiters of licences

Pedlars and tinkers

Minstrels

Jugglers

Movers of sedition and speakers of false rumours

Popish spies

CHAPTER III : LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS

Summary of legislative tendencies

1530-47 : Legislation

1530-47 : Enforcement of the laws

1547-72 : Legislation

1547-72 : Enforcement of the laws

1572-97 : Legislation

1572-97 : Enforcement of the laws

The poor laws of 1597 and 1601

Conditions at the end of the century

CHAPTER IV : THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING

The trustworthiness of the conny-catching pamphlets

The tribe of gulls

The haunts of the conny-catchers

The conny-catcher's busy season

The conny-catching 'laws'

Conny-catching proper

Cheating law

Vincent's law

The nips and foists

Crossbiting law

Petty thieves and brokers

High law

The spirit of Elizabethan roguery

CHAPTER V : LAWS AGAINST CONNY-CATCHING

Royal protection of 'unlawful games'

The patents of Thomas Cornwallis

Efforts to restrain the manufacture and sale of false dice

Patents for playing cards

Laws against pickpockets

Cozening versus stealing in law

CHAPTER VI : THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS

Influence of foreign rogue literature

Early trustworthy English rogue pamphlets

The Manifest Defection

Harman's Caueat

Greene's Conny-catching pamphlets

The fashion of exposing rogue life

The Groundworks of Conny-catching

The Defence of Conny-catching

Mihil Mumchance

Dekker's rogue pamphlets

Greenes Ghost and Martin Mark-all

Rid's Art of Iugling

Roguish lore in other books

The literary value of the rogue pamphlets

APPENDIX

A. DOCUMENTS

1. London orders of 1517 for restraining vagabonds and beggars (Journal, xi. 337)

2. Proclamation of Henry VIII against rogues and vagabonds, June 1530 (Bod. press-mark, Arch. F.C. 10,2)

3. John Bayker's letter to Henry VIII accounting for the multitude of vagabonds in the realm (S.P. Henry VIII, 141 : 134-5)

4. Proclamation of Henry VIII against the stews, April 13, 1546 (S.A. Proclamations, ii. 164)

5. Rogues in Harman's list whose names are found in official records, 1571-89

6. Letter from the Privy Council to the London Aldermen ordering searches for vagabonds, June 20, 1569 (Journal, xix. 171^b ff.)

7. Articles agreed upon by justices in Devon for supressing rogues and vagabonds, November 5, 1569 (Bod. MS. Rawl. B. 285, II verso–12)

8. Letter from the Privy Council to Shrewsbury ordering watches and searches for rogues and masterless men, July 30, 1571 (Shrewsbury Corporation Muniments, Petitions to the Bailiffs, No. 2,621)

9. Characteristic certificates of the punishment of vagabonds :
A. Ewellme, Oxon., August 251571 (D.S.P. Eliz., lxxx. 45)
B. Eccleshall, Stafford, August and September, 1571 (D.S.P. Eliz., lxxxi, 25, I)
C. Several hundreds in Cambridgeshire, August and September, 1571 (D.S.P. Eliz. lxxxiii. 36, v)

10. Table of searches, 1571-2

11. Order for search for false dice in London, 1598 (Repertory 24, fo, 349 ff.)

12. Letter about corrupt brokers in London, December 1, 1601 (Remembrancia, ii, 213)

13. A licence to keep a gaming-house in the time of James I (Petty Bag, Cert. Var., Bundle i)

14. Hext's letter, 1596 (British Museum, MS. Lansdowne, 81, Nos. 62 and 64)

B. PLAGIARISM IN ELIZABETHAN PAMPHLETS

Manifest Detection, sig. B₈ verso–C₁ verso

Mihil Mumchance, sig. B₄ verso, ff.

Dekker, Belman of London, 1608, sig E₃ verso

Rid, Art of Iugling, 1612, sig. C₄

INDEX

Villains of All Nations is a people's history of piracy — a history that emphasizes how common seamen who turned pirate built for themselves, beneath the Jolly Roger, a multicultural, democratic, and egalitarian society. This social history of Atlantic piracy focuses on its colourful "Golden Age," from 1716 to 1726. This infamous generation featured the dreaded black flag, the Jolly Roger, as well as swashbuckling figures such as Edward Teach, better known, of course, as "Blackbeard." These "outcasts of all nations" imagined — and succeeded in forging — a better world than they had found on the merchant and naval ships on which they had previously worked: for instance, they democratically elected their officers, they divided their booty in egalitarian ways, and also fought against the vicious abuse of sailors common to their day. Marcus Rediker argues that the historical truth about what pirates actually did proves more compelling than the romantic fiction that has grown up around them.

Contents

One: A Tale of Two Terrors

Two: The Political Arithmetic of Piracy

Three: Who Will Go "A Pyrating"?

Four: "The New Government of the Ship"

Five: "To Do Justice to Sailors"

Six: The Women Pirates: Anne Bonny and Mary Read

Seven: "To Extirpate Them out of the World"

Eight: "Defiance of Death Itself"

Conclusion: Blood and Gold

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index