Jack Sheppard
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John Sheppard, nicknamed "Honest Jack", "Gentleman Jack" or "Jack the Lad", was an English criminal who became notorious in early 18th-century London.
Chalk and pencil sketch of Sheppard in Newgate Prison, attributed to Sir James Thornhill, c. 1723
An engraving of Wych Street, from about 1870
Jack used a rope of knotted bedclothes to lower Bess during their escape from the New Prison in Clerkenwell.
Poster for the play Jack Sheppard performed at the Royal Lyceum Theatre.
Joseph Blake (criminal)
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Joseph "Blueskin" Blake was an 18th-century English highwayman and prison escapee.
Jack Sheppard
…inability of the notorious "Thief-Taker General" Jonathan Wild to control Sheppard, and injuries suffered by Wild at the hands of Sheppard's colleague Joseph "Blueskin" Blake, resulted in Wild's demise as a criminal boss. Sheppard was as renowned for his attempts to escape from prison as he was for his crimes. An autobiographical…
There are no contemporary pictures of Blake but he is featured in the second image of "The Last Scene" engraved by George Cruikshank in 1839 to illustrate William Harrison Ainsworth's serialised novel, Jack Sheppard. The caption reads: "Blueskin cutting down Jack Sheppard". In reality Blueskin had himself already been executed by the time of Sheppard's execution.