SHEPPARD, JOHN 1 r ( , ,1702-1724), English crim inal, was born at Stepney, near London, in December 1702, and was brought up in the Bishopsgate workhouse. He was apprenticed to a carpenter, and at the end of 1723 he was arrested as a runa way apprentice, and thenceforward, he says, "I fell to robbing almost every one that stood in my way," Joseph Blake, known as "Blueskin," being a frequent confederate. In the first six months of 1724 he twice escaped from gaol, and towards the end of that period he was responsible for an almost daily robbery in or near London. Eventually, however, his independent attitude provoked the bitter enmity of Jonathan Wild, who procured his capture at the end of July. Sheppard was tried at the Old Bailey and con demned to death, but, largely thanks to his accomplice, "Edge worth Bess," he escaped from the condemned cell, and was soon back in his old haunts. In September he was rearrested and im prisoned in the strongest part of Newgate, being actually chained to the floor of his cell, but he escaped through the chimney to the roof of the prison, whence he lowered himself into the adjoining house. After a few days, concealment he was rash enough to
reappear in the Drury Lane quarter. He was captured, hopelessly drunk, in a Clare Market tavern and reimprisoned, his cell being now watched night and day. On Nov. 16, 1724 he was hanged at Tyburn. He was then not quite twenty-two.
Sheppard has been a hero of romance, notably in Harrison Ainsworth's novel, Jack Sheppard (1839).