Gangland UK. Christopher Berry-Dee
they fall foul of the law. Do the parents care? Some do, but in many cases, not at all. And the same can be said of all the parents of the criminals featured in Gangland UK.
I would suggest that every mature, old-fashioned crook who is mentioned in this book might give the kids of today a little hard advice: ‘Sonny, you little shit, crime just don’t pay…’ but let’s hear it straight from the horse’s mouth – from the villains and gangsters themselves.
‘I am the porter that was barbarously slain in Fleet Street… by the Mohocks and Hawkubites was I slain, then they laid violent hands upon me. They put their hook into my mouth, they divided my nostrils asunder, they sent me, as they thought, to my long home, but now I am returned again to foretell their destruction.’
REVEREND DIVINE IN THE PAMPHLET CALLED THE SPIRIT (C1715)
Gangs have been a fairly consistent feature of the urban landscape of Britain. In the 17th century, British gangs routinely vandalised urban areas, were territorial, and were involved in violent conflict with other gangs. From time immemorial, wherever there have been large populations of people, there have always been groups of ill-doers who prey on the law-abiding and innocent. In the memorable words of historian Christopher Hill: ‘The 17th century lived in terror of the tramp.’
The Mohocks was such a gang that brought mayhem to the streets and alleyways of London during the early 18th century. Taking their name from the Mohawk native American Indian tribe, they attacked men and women, disfiguring their male victims and sexually assaulting the females.
The Mohawks (originally meaning ‘man-eaters’) were the native people of New York, but how a bunch of British thugs adopted their name in the 18th century is anyone’s guess. Today, the Mohawk, or Mohican, is a hairstyle which consists of shaving either side of one’s head, leaving a strip of long hair down the middle.
The gang was also known as the ‘young bloods’, which was later shortened to ‘bloods’. This name is possibly the origin of the British sense of the adjective ‘bloody’, which was not considered particularly impolite until that time. However, while they entertained themselves by cutting off noses, hands and inflicting all manner of pain and suffering on others, they were claimed by many to be ‘young gentlemen’ because they didn’t rob anyone. Matters came to a head in 1712, when a bounty of £100 – a huge sum in those days – was issued by the Royal Court for their capture.
On the Monday, 6 June 1712, Sir Mark Cole and three other gentlemen were tried at the Old Bailey for riot, assault and beating the watch (the forerunners of our police force). A paper of the day asserted that these were ‘Mohocks’, that they had attacked the watch in Devereux Street, slit two persons’ noses, cut a woman in the arm with a penknife so as to disable her for life, rolled a woman in a tub down Snow Hill, misused other women in a barbarous manner by setting them on their heads, and overset several coaches and chairs with short clubs, loaded with lead at both ends, expressly made for the purpose.
In their defence, the prisoners denied that they were Mohocks, alleging that they were ‘Scourers’ and had gone out, with a magistrate’s sanction, to scour the streets, arrest Mohocks and other offenders, and deliver them up to justice. On the night in question, they had attacked a notorious gambling-house, and taken 13 men out of it. While engaged in this meritorious activity, they learned that the Mohocks were in Devereux Street, and on proceeding there found three men desperately wounded, lying on the ground; they were then attacked by the watch, and felt bound to defend themselves. As an instance of the gross misconduct of the watch, it was further alleged that they, the watch, had on the same night actually presumed to arrest a peer of the realm, Lord Hitchinbroke, and had latterly adopted the practice of doing their rounds by night accompanied by savage dogs. The jury, however, in spite of this defence, returned a verdict of guilty. The judge fined the culprits the sum of three shillings and fourpence each.
Among other gangs – notably the Muns, the Tityré Tūs, the Hectors, the Scourers and the Nickers – were the Hawkubites, who actually preceeded the Mohocks by several years, beating up women, children, watchmen and old men in London’s streets after dark during the reign of Queen Anne. Reverend Divine’s pamphlet of around 1715 clearly expresses the threat from such a gang:
‘From Mohock and from Hawkubite,
Good Lord, deliver me!
Who wander through the streets at night,
Committing cruelty.
They slash our sons with bloody knives,
And on our daughters fall;
And if they murder not our wives,
We have good luck withal.
Coaches and chairs they overturn,
Nay, carts most easily;
Therefore from Gog and Magog,
Good Lord, deliver me!’
Kent has always proved to be a fertile breeding ground for gangsters, and was the home of a notorious gang who started out as soldiers, having returned home penniless after the Napoleonic Wars. They started smuggling around 1817, and perhaps well before that date. The route was across the English Channel between Boulogne and the beach at Sandgate. Similar landings were at Deal and St Margaret’s Bay, north of Dover.
Known as The Aldington Gang, they roamed the Romney Marshes, and their headquarters and drop-off for their contraband was The Walnut Tree Inn, which still stands today.
Built during the reign of Richard II (1377–99), the inn started life as no more than a timber-framed, wattle-and-daub hut with a thatched roof. In the mid-15th century, a small bedroom was added at a higher level – reached by ladder – and, by the turn of the 16th century, a number of improvements had been carried out and the main dwelling was enlarged. Ale was brewed there in the 17th century and a licence to sell ales and ciders was granted. High up on the southern side of the pub is a small window, through which the gang would shine a signal to their confederates on Aldington Knoll. The ghost of George Ransley, a bygone smuggler, is reputed to haunt the inn and many strange happenings have been reported.
The Aldington Gang was probably the last major gang to have existed in Kent. It is believed that they were also known as The Blues on account of the colour of the clothing they wore and the blue flares used for signalling.
In February 1821, 250 highly organised men took part in unloading a galley laden with spirits, tobacco and salt. Three groups of smugglers had gathered; one to unload and transport the cargo, and two groups of ‘batmen’. Batmen stood guard when a run was taking place to fight off anyone who tried to interfere, and they drew their name from the long clubs, or bats, they carried. They were spotted by a few local blockade men, as the main blockade force of Customs & Excise had been lured away by the smugglers.
The incident became known as the ‘Battle of Brookland’. It took place between Camber and Dungeness where the smuggling party was spotted by the Watch House at Camber and a fight took place over Walland Marsh. Although the gang were successful in unloading the goods, they were harried right across the marshes until they reached Brookland, where the smugglers turned and fought back. It was a bloody business. Five men were killed in the fighting, twenty or so more were wounded. In the confusion of the battle, the gang’s leader, Cephas Quested, turned to a man close by, handed him a musket and ordered him to ‘blow an officer’s brains out’.
Unfortunately for Quested, who was out of his mind on drink, he handed the weapon to a Customs & Excise midshipman