THOMAS BUTLOGE
Robber, hanged at Tyburn, for basely betraying his trust, in robbing his master, on the 18th of July, 1722
THOMAS BUTLOGE was a native of Ireland, where he received a good education, and was then apprenticed to a vintner in Dublin; but the house in which he lived not being of the most reputable kind, he became witness to such scenes as had a natural tendency to debauch his morals.
Butloge's master having got considerably in debt, came to England, and resided some time in Chester, whither the apprentice was frequently sent with such remittances as the wife could spare.
At length Butloge quitted his service, and came to England, with a view to settle there: but being unsuccessful in his endeavours to procure an establishment, he returned to Dublin, where he engaged in the service of a shopkeeper, whose daughter he soon afterwards married.
He had now a fair prospect of success before him, as his wife's father proposed to have resigned business in his favour; but being of an unsettled disposition, and having conceived an idea of making his fortune in England, he could not bring his mind to think of the regular pursuit of trade.
Unhappily for him, while he was amusing himself with the imagination of his future greatness, he received a letter from a relation in England. inviting him thither, and promising his interest to obtain him a place, on which he might live in a genteel manner. Butloge readily accepted this invitation, and immediately embarking for England, soon arrived in London.
He now took lodgings at the court end of the town, and living in a gay style, soon spent all the money he had brought with him from Ireland; and his relation not being able to obtain the place for him which he had expected, he was reduced to the necessity of going to service, on which he entered into that of Mr. Langlie, a French gentleman.
He had not been long in his new place, when Mr. Langlie, going to church on a Sunday, recollected that he had forgot to lock his bureau, in which he had deposited a sum of money; whereupon he went home, and found Butloge in the room where the money was left. When Mr. Langlie had counted his cash, the other asked him if he missed any thing, and the master answered, one guinea, which Butloge said he had found by the side of the bureau; whereupon his master gave him two shillings, in approbation of this instance of his honesty.
Mr. Langlie went to Chelsea in the afternoon; and during his absence Butloge broke open his bureau, robbed it of all the money, and several other valuable effects, and then took a horse, which he had hired for a gentleman to go to Chester, and set off on his way to Ireland.
When Mr. Langlie returned in the evening, he discovered the loss he had sustained; on which he applied to Lord Gage, who wrote to the postmaster of. Chester to stop the delinquent; in consequence of which he was apprehended with the stolen goods in his possession, and sent to London to take his trial, which happened soon afterwards at the Old Bailey, when he was capitally convicted.
After he had received sentence of death, he acknowledged that he was not tempted by want to the commission of the crime which had brought him into such deplorable circumstances; but that the vanity of appearing as a gentleman had been one principal instigation; and he was encouraged by the consideration that Mr. Langlie would soon return to France, so that there would be no person to prosecute him. He submitted to his unhappy lot with resignation, declaring that the thoughts of death did not so much terrify him, as the reflection on the disgrace that he had brought on his family.
He was executed at Tyburn, on the 18th of July, 1722, along with Nathaniel Jackson.