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An Authentic Account of the Trials etc, of the Five Malefactors,
(including George Allen, alias Powditch)
who were Executed at Kennington-Common, on Monday 23 April, 1770,
for the Robberies they had committed in the County of Surrey.
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in the Borough of Southwark. whose inability / to give him learning, and his own unruely dis-/
position. was the cause of his launching into / a wicked course of life, as soon as he was ca-/
pable of distinguishing good from bad. He / said, he had committed several robberies, not /
only in the County of Surrey, but in the / County of Middlesex, all which robberies he / confessed
to a person who attended him dur-/ ing the time of his condemnation.
He began this bad course of life, as he con-/ fessed, before he was sixteen years of age, in /
company with several others, much about his / own, and that their chief rendezvous was / in
and about the Mint. The first exploit, he said, / he and he companions ever did was picking /
of pockets, and having very good success, it / encouraged them to proceed in this course
of / life, till two of his accomplices were taken in / and about the Borough, and committed to
the / New Gaol, for robbing of several persons of / their handkerchiefs for which they were
tried / and convicted.
On this unlucky affair, he and his other / accomplices, were obliged to fly to St. Giles's, / where
they stayed till the other two were tran-/ sported, when they returned to their old ren-/ dezvous
again, and began to practise their / former trade of picking of pockets; but they / disagreeing
with one another, he said, they / parted company, and that he after that con-/ tinued in that
wicked way of life. secretly by / himself, till he was taken up for robbing Mr. / Horton, for which
he was sentenced to be tran-/ sported ; but his breaking the Goal, and being / found at large,
without having received his / Majesty's most gracious pardon, proved the / means of bringing
him to suffer the ignomini-/ ous death he did
When he was ordered to the bar, to / answer to the indictment that was against / him, he
refused to plead, unless the Judge / would promise, that in case he should be /// convicted,
his sentence should not be tran-/ sportation again: Mr. Baron Srnythe re-/ monstrated, and
explained to him the impos-/ sibility of his complying with his demand; and / also informed
him, that if he persisted in his / silence, he must be sentenced to the peine forte / & dure; that
he must be laid naked upon the / ground, with a considerable weight upon him, / which would
be gradually increased till his / death ; that he would be fed with a morsel of / bread, and one
draught of the next ditch water, / daily; that he remembered two instances of / men submitting
for a little time to that punish-/ ment, but that neither persevered in their re-/ solution. Upon
which the wretch cried out, / You may die and be d-----d yourself. The / Baron answered in the
true spirit of an upright judge, / I am shocked for you, and pity you ; / but God forbid that any
thing you say, should / make me deviate from my duty with regard / to you. However at last he
pleaded, and was / convicted ; and when he was carrying out of / court, knocked down the
hangman, fo har-/ dened was his resolution.
Whilst he was in the Stockhouse-prison, at / Kingston, after he was convicted, his beha-/
viour was very notorious, and he seemed not any / ways concerned about his unhappy
situation. / The other unhappy criminals seemed to be / much affected at their sentence,
especially / Scholas and Adams, who shed tears, which / Powditch took little or no notice of.
Powditch and Adams both broke the Goal / and escaped, in company with Richard Batt, /
Richard Odehams, John Harman, Acteon / Greenwell and Richard Broker, but were / all soon
retaken again, excepting Broker, who / has not yet been taken.
The morning they went out of the Goal, / in order to take their trials for their several / offences,
they behaved in a very undaunted / manner having blue ribbonds in their hats, / in which manner
they very imprudently en-
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You are here: home > AliasPowditch > An Authentic Account - Page 5
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An Authentic Account of the Trials etc, of the Five Malefactors,
(including George Allen, alias Powditch)
who were Executed at Kennington-Common, on Monday 23 April, 1770,
for the Robberies they had committed in the County of Surrey.
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