Richard Plunkett (1788–1832) was a Parish Officer of the Law, variously described as a headborough, beadle or night-constable, in Whitechapel, in the East End of London, between 1817 and 1826. His duties were centred upon the Whitechapel watch-house, from which he and his watchmen had to deal with nocturnal criminality in an area of rapidly increasing population, crowded conditions with poor sanitation, and much urban poverty and squalor. Plunkett's term of office just preceded the Metropolitan Police Act 1829, by which a new system of policing was introduced. Plunkett was often called upon to give evidence at the Old Bailey,The Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674–1913, Old Bailey online. the cases being scheduled for hearings two or three times a year. His testimony and that of his officers in these more serious cases show his relations with the population at large, his investigations, pursuits and arrests, often based on personal knowledge of the offenders. The majority of these cases resulted in convictions leading to penal transportation. His work illustrates the real activities of the parish police of Whitechapel just over a decade before the writing of Oliver Twist.Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress (first book edition, Richard Bentley, London 1838): the arrest in Clerkenwell (Chapters X-XI); Whitechapel and Bethnal Green (Chapters XVIII-XIX, XXI).
Background and family Richard Plunkett was born, lived and died in Whitechapel. He was a son of Luke Plunkett and Margaret Read, who were married at Christ Church, Spitalfields in January 1772.Christ Church, Spitalfields, Register of Marriages, P93/CTC1/014 (London Metropolitan Archives). From various different homes in the neighbourhood, Luke and Margaret christened their children at St Mary Matfelon, Whitechapel between 1776 (as of Bell Yard) and 1790 (as of Rosemary Lane, now Royal Mint Street).See an 1860 photograph of the old St Mary Matfelon at Middlesex Heraldry site. Richard was christened in April 1788 as of George Yard in Gunthorpe Street.St Mary, Whitechapel, Register of Baptisms, Oct 1774-May 1792, P93/MRY1/011 (London Metropolitan Archives).
Not much is known about Richard's childhood, but in February 1808, at Christchurch Spitalfields, he married Ann Haffner,Christ Church, Spitalfields, Register of Marriages, P93/CTC1/017 (London Metropolitan Archives). the middle of three daughters of Thomas Haffner and his wife Elizabeth Hunt.Married 10 April 1777: St Dunstan And All Saints, Register of Marriages, P93/DUN/044 (London Metropolitan Archives). Haffner lived at No. 2 Union Court, Fashion Street, and Richard Plunkett and his wife lived at No. 3 soon after their marriage. Fashion Street was just north of Keate Street and Thrawl Street, between Brick Lane and Commercial Street. Plunkett was at that time clerk of a benefit society based at the Black Dog Inn in Church Street, Bethnal Green,See 'Black Dog, Church Street, 101 Bethnal Green Road' pubshistory.com. under management of Mr Stokes: Haffner, a member of the society, made Plunkett sole executor of his will (dividing his property between his three daughters), proved in June 1811.Will of Thomas Haffner of Spitalfield, Middlesex (P.C.C. 1811). Richard and Ann had four children, Richard James (1810), William (1812), Ann (1815) and Caroline (1817), all of whom were christened at St Mary's and survived infancy. Between 1812 and 1817 they were resident in Fieldgate Street, south of the Whitechapel Road.St Mary, Whitechapel, Register of Baptisms, Jun 1792-Dec 1812, P93/MRY1/012 and (1813-), P93/MRY1/013 (London Metropolitan Archives).
In the same period his sister Mary had her own family. She married William Crowder, a stationer-bookbinder of Stepney, at Christ Church Spitalfields in May 1810,Christ Church, Spitalfields, Register of banns of marriage, P93/CTC1/041 (London Metropolitan Archives). and their first two daughters were christened from an address on London Wall. The next two, Elizabeth (1815) and Sarah (1817), were christened at St Mary Whitechapel as from Fieldgate Street;St Mary, Whitechapel, Register of Baptisms, P93/MRY1/013 (London Metropolitan Archives). later children were christened at the newly-rebuilt St Dunstan-in-the-East, as from Mile End Old Town, or from Ratcliff.St Dunstan and All Saints Stepney, Register of Baptisms (London Metropolitan Archives). All lived to be married.
Plunkett's early cases 1817 seems to mark the completion of Richard's family-making intentions for the time being, and his first appearance as 'constable of the night' at the Old Bailey relates to an incident just a month before his youngest daughter's christening. As he stood at the corner of Whitechapel church a 19-year-old man ran past an unemployed servant-girl and snatched the shawl (value 2 shillings) from her shoulders. Plunkett took him in charge, and the miscreant got 7 years' transportation.Old Bailey Online, Soloman Simpson, 17 September 1817.
As keeper of the watch-house Plunkett received whatever prisoners the watchmen brought in, and a charge of grand larceny, with the same sentence, was successfully laid against Robert Miles the following April, when apprehended by two watchmen with a quantity of linen stolen from a carrier's wagon.Old Bailey Online, Robert Miles, 6 May 1818. A month later Plunkett made his own arrest of a carpenter's lad carrying home a plank of wood from his workplace at 3.30 a.m. Searching the house, Plunkett found two doors which he had also taken. Here a verdict of Not Guilty was returned, the master having made no complaint.Old Bailey Online, Daniel Hurley, 17 June 1818.
But in September 1818, following the wholesale theft of provisions (casks of butter and honey and a sackful of hams) from a warehouse in Goodman's Fields (an area around Leman Street and Alie Street), Plunkett, having taken one of the thieves prisoner, got information and went to his residence, where he recovered the goods from the man's wife and mother.Old Bailey Online, Robert Wheelhouse, 9 September 1818. About the same time a 15-year-old boy who had stolen a tablecloth and 11 shillings in copper coins from his master, proprietor of an eating-house in Wentworth Street, was made by his father to give himself up to Plunkett. Both criminals were transported for 7 years.Old Bailey Online, Alexander Flemming, 9 September 1818.
In a classic sting two years later, a young woman invited a printer of Coleman Street, who frequented Whitechapel, back to her house. When he had got into bed and put his pocket watch under the pillow, she extinguished the light and ran off, and two people came in and ordered him out of the house. Missing his watch the man made Plunkett arrest the girl, but nothing was found. In court Plunkett said he thought the complainant was drunk, and remarked that the man had accused him of stealing a pound from him when held in charge two nights previously for drunkenness. The girl was found Not Guilty.Old Bailey Online, Margaret Wall, 18 September 1820.
By contrast, in November 1820, a man was invited in by a girl in George Yard, Wentworth Street: once he had paid her something to fetch gin, first the women and then the men of the house robbed his money and possessions and forcibly ejected him, padlocking the door. The man called an officer, who arrested one of the girls (aged 17). Further complaint was made to Plunkett, who (having been born in George Yard) knew the man responsible and arrested him. Both were transported for life.Old Bailey Online, Sarah Meyers and Emanuel Lyons, 6/15 December 1820.
A dangerous occupation Soon afterwards, on 16 January 1821, Plunkett faced a personal challenge. Now living at No. 5 Baker's Row (on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, just east of the Workhouse: now Vallance RoadSee map detail, Whitechapel, in The Workhouse, the story of an institution website.), his two sons usually closed the outer shutters of the windows on their return from school, but were delayed. Soon after 5 pm, while taking tea in his back room, he heard a noise and found that two men had broken into his house via the front window, and were moving about in the dark. Discovered, one jumped onto a table and out through the upper part of the sash. The other followed, his gaiter slipping from Plunkett's grasp. But Plunkett jumped after him, caught him, and gave him into charge of George Brock, who was standing by.Old Bailey Online, William Haynes and William Harrison, 14 February 1821.
He then chased the other, whom he recognised, up Baker's Row and round the corner into Church Street, where the man appeared nonchalantly in the doorway of a public house. A fight ensued, and Plunkett took him. The two were found guilty of burglary and sentenced to death, but a special verdict was returned pending a decision as to whether the window had been secured.Old Bailey Online, Supplementary material: Haynes & Harrison, 12 September 1821. (This case established that the pulling down of the sash of a window, though unfastened, constituted a breaking within the definition of "breaking and entering".'Rex v. William Haines and William Harrison', W.O. Russell and E. Ryan, Crown Cases Reserved for Consideration: and Decided by the Twelve Judges of England from the Year 1799 to the Year 1824 (Joseph Butterworth and Son, London 1825), pp. 451-52. (Google)) William Haynes and William Harrison were transported for life on the second convict voyage of the Asia on 1 April 1822.Transported convicts – 258, Old British News website.
Mary Crowder, Plunkett's sister, also found herself in the Old Bailey in the winter of 1820–21. She was still living at Greenfield Street, and in mid-February her lodger, who had been with her since mid-December, disappeared owing her 24 shillings. Some spoons and a pair of ear-rings went missing at the same time. She had not threatened to arrest him for the money owing: the apparent theft came to court, but was not proved against the defendant.Old Bailey Online, Hertzig Brandham, 11 April 1821.
In June 1821 Plunkett testified in two cases of pocket-picking, one of which had taken him back to George Yard.Old Bailey Online, 6 June 1821: Robert Lloyd; Henry Copas. In September two women who had accosted a man walking home at 2 a.m. and had taken 27 shillings from him were sentenced to transportation for life.Old Bailey Online, Catherine Sullivan and Catherine Bryan, 12 September 1821. A year later Plunkett and his colleague John Clark went after two women known to them who were accused of stealing a coat and 35 sovereigns from a retired excise-officer in the street, but although the coat was found the court had doubt of their guilt.Old Bailey Online, Hannah Stanton and Esther Cummins, 11 September 1822. On the same day he gave evidence in a case of street robbery (classed as highway robbery with violence, though the work of a footpad) which led to a death sentence.Old Bailey Online, Samuel Greenwood, 11 September 1822. Between December 1822 (when on one occasion he held an identification paradeOld Bailey Online, Edmund Law and Thomas Webb, 15 January 1823.) and February 1825 Plunkett testified in nine other serious cases, mostly resulting in transportation.Old Bailey Online, Philip Redman, 4 December 1822; John Archer and Ann Bradshaw, 4 December 1822; Daniel Griffiths, 19 February 1823; Mary Smith, 9 April 1823; Charles Wasen, 9 April 1823 (see also 12 September 1821); John Andrews, 15 July 1824; William Sparks, 16 September 1824; Thomas Scott, 17 February 1825.
His last cases, and retirement