Uncovering Culprits of London in 1600

So that I will not fall a victim to cozenage during my trip to London during the year 1600, Jacqueline Bellows, librarian at the Francis Bacon Library in Claremont, has sent me some helpful material. (You too may trip to 1600 London any day Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. through Dec. 6. Phone: (714) 624-6305.)

Drawing from Thomas Harmon’s 1566 book, “A Caveat for Common Cursitors, Vulgarly Called Vagabonds,” she has listed various cozeners so that I may identify them before they try to deceive me. Here goes:

AN ABRAHAM MAN is he that walketh bare-armed and bare-legged, and feigneth himself mad, and carryeth a pack of wool, or a stick with bacon on it, or suchlike toy, and nameth Poor Tom.

A RUFFLER goeth with a weapon to seek service, saying he hath been a servitor in the ware, and beggeth for his relief. But his chiefest trade is to rob wayfaring men and market women.

A PRIGMAN goeth with a stick in his hand like an idle person. His property is to steal clothes off the hedge, which they call “storing of the pogueman,” or else to filch poultry, carrying them to the alehouse, which they call the “Bousing Inn,” and there sit playing cards and dice, till that is spent which they have filched.

A WHIPJACK is one that by color of a counterfeit license, which they call a “Gibe,” and the seals they call “Jarks,” doth use to beg like a mariner. But his chiefest trade is to rob booths in a fair, or to pilfer a ware from stalls, which they call “Heaving off the Booth.”

A FRATER goeth with a like license to beg for some spitalhouse (or hospital). Their prey is commonly upon poor women as they go and come to the markets.

A QUEERBIRD is one that came lately out of prison, and goeth to seek service. He is commonly a stealer of horses, which they term a “Prigger of Palfreys.”

AN UPRIGHT MAN is one that goeth with the truncheion of a staff, which staff they call a “Filtchman.” This man is of so much authority that meeting with any of his profession he may call them to account, and command a share or “snap” unto himself of all that they have gained by their trade in one month. And if he do them wrong, they have no remedy against him, no, though he beat them, as he useth commonly to do. He may command any of their women, which they call “Doxies,” to serve his turn. He hath the chief place at any market walk and other assemblies, and is not of any to be controlled.

A CURTAL is much like to the Upright Man, but his authority is not fully so great. He useth commonly to go with a short cloak, like to Greyfriars, and his woman with him in like livery, which he calleth his “Altham” if she be his wife, and if she be his harlot, she is called his “Doxy.”

A PALLIARD is he that goeth in a patched cloak, and his doxy goeth in like apparel.

AN IRISH TOOL is he that carreth his ware in his wallet, as laces, pins, points and suchlike. He useth to shew no wares until he have his alms. And if the goodman and wife be not in the way, he procureth of the children or servants a fleece of wool, or the worth of twelvepence of some other thing, for a pennyworth of his wares.

A JARKMAN is he that can write and read, and sometimes speak Latin. He useth to make counterfeit licenses which they call “Gibes,” and sets to seals, in their language called “Jarks.”

A SWIGMAN goeth with a peddler’s pack.

A WASHMAN is called a palliard, but not of the right making. He useth to lie in the highway with lame or sore legs or arms to beg. These men the right palliards will oftentimes spoil, but they dare not complain. They be bitten with spearworts and sometimes with ratsbane.

A TINKARD leaveth his gab a-sweating at the alehouse, which they term this “Bousing Inn,” and in the mean season goeth abroad a-begging.

A WILD ROGUE is he that hath no abiding place but by his color of going abroad to beg is commonly to seek some kinsman of his, and all that be of his corporation to properly called rogues.

Thirty-two years later, John Stow in his 1598 “A Survey of London” warned of other urban problems affecting London. High-rise buildings not only block light and air, but may bring disaster--the first man who built a wood tower overtopping his neighbors went blind, he tells us, and the first man to build a stone tower in his house lost the use of his legs and could no longer climb to enjoy the view.

Traffic, too, was a problem: “The number of cars, frays, carts and coaches more than hath been accustomed, the streets and lanes being straitened, must needs be dangerous, as daily experience proveth.”

And then there was pollution: “Besides all which, they had in every street and lane of the city divers fair wells and fresh springs, and after this manner was this city then served with sweet and fresh waters, which being since decayed, other means have been sought to supply the want. The channel of this brook shoulds be scoured into the river of Thames; but much money being therein spent, the effect failed, so that the brook, by means of continual encroachments upon the banks getting over the water and casting of soilage into the streams, is now become worse cloyed and choken than ever it was before.”

And listen to Stow’s comment on urban sprawl: “But this common field I say, being sometime the beauty of this city on that part, is so encroached upon by building of filthy cottages, and with other purpressors, enclosures, and laystalls (notwithstanding all proclamation and acts of parliament made to the contrary), that in some places it scarce remainth a sufficient highway for the meeting of carriages and droves of cattle. Much less is there any fair, pleasant, or wholesome way for people to walk on foot; which is no small blemish to so famous a city to have so unsavory and unseemly an entrance or passage thereunto.”

Sounds familiar? Sounds like they were thinking more of the environment in 1598 than we are today in Los Angeles.