On
Thursday last there was a small Plate ran for at Acton, upon which Occasion a vast
concorse of People were assembled there, a Quarrel arose between the Townfolk and the
Strangers (MacThoi), which last being chiefly on Horseback, and the
Famous Jonathan Wild the Thieftaker being at their head, as General, obliged the Country
People to retire.--Daily Journal 19, August 1721
You
may see them accompanied by three or four Lewd Women, few
of them Sober, run roaring through the streets by broad
Daylight with a Fiddler before them. . .--Benard
Mandeville, 1722
[The MacThoys] laid a wager against a club of bell-ringers that their team could
ring better peals; then, when the rival team had taken off their coats and hats at the
country church to set to work, [the
MacThoi] made off with all their clothes, money (including
the L500 for their wager), horses and the food they had brought for lunch. -- Select
Trials at the Sessions House in the Old Bailey, January 1730.
