DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0461
ACCOUNT OF JAMES HOW.
415
damages. With this sum our couple sought a place in
a better situation, and took a very good public-house in
Limehouse-hole, where they lived many years as man and
wife, in good credit and esteem ; and by their industry
and frugality, they contrived to save a considerable sum
of money. Leaving the last mentioned situation, they
removed to the White horse at Poplar, which as well as
several other houses they afterwards purchased.
In this manner they had lived about eighteen years,
when a woman, who was acquainted with Mary East in
her youth, and was in the secret of her metamorphosis,
knowing in what creditable circumstances she now lived,
thought this a favourable opportunity to turn her know-
ledge to some advantage. She accordingly sent to
Mr. How for ten pounds, at the same time intimating
that in case of refusal, she would disclose all she knew
concerning the affair. Fearful of her executing this
threat, James, in compliance with her demand, sent her
the money.
For a considerable time they remained free from any
farther demands of a similar nature. James, with his
supposed wife, continued to live in good credit till the
year 1764 ; she had served all the parish offices in Poplar,
excepting that of constable and churchwarden from the
former of which she was excused by a lameness in her
hand, occasioned by the quarrel abovementioned, and
the functions of the latter she was to have performed the
following year. She had been several times foreman of
juries, though her effeminacy was frequently remarked.
At length, about Christmas 1764, the woman who had
practised the former piece of extortion, resolved again to
have recourse to the same expedient, and with the like
menaces obtained ten pounds more. Flushed with her
success, and emboldened to prosecute her system of de-
predation, it was only a fortnight before she repeated
her
415
damages. With this sum our couple sought a place in
a better situation, and took a very good public-house in
Limehouse-hole, where they lived many years as man and
wife, in good credit and esteem ; and by their industry
and frugality, they contrived to save a considerable sum
of money. Leaving the last mentioned situation, they
removed to the White horse at Poplar, which as well as
several other houses they afterwards purchased.
In this manner they had lived about eighteen years,
when a woman, who was acquainted with Mary East in
her youth, and was in the secret of her metamorphosis,
knowing in what creditable circumstances she now lived,
thought this a favourable opportunity to turn her know-
ledge to some advantage. She accordingly sent to
Mr. How for ten pounds, at the same time intimating
that in case of refusal, she would disclose all she knew
concerning the affair. Fearful of her executing this
threat, James, in compliance with her demand, sent her
the money.
For a considerable time they remained free from any
farther demands of a similar nature. James, with his
supposed wife, continued to live in good credit till the
year 1764 ; she had served all the parish offices in Poplar,
excepting that of constable and churchwarden from the
former of which she was excused by a lameness in her
hand, occasioned by the quarrel abovementioned, and
the functions of the latter she was to have performed the
following year. She had been several times foreman of
juries, though her effeminacy was frequently remarked.
At length, about Christmas 1764, the woman who had
practised the former piece of extortion, resolved again to
have recourse to the same expedient, and with the like
menaces obtained ten pounds more. Flushed with her
success, and emboldened to prosecute her system of de-
predation, it was only a fortnight before she repeated
her