Page "Jerry Abershawe" Paragraph 1

Born in Kingston-Upon-Thames then in Surrey, Abershawe started his life of crime at the age of seventeen, leading a gang based at the Bald Faced Stag Inn, which was for many years the terror of the roads between London, Kingston, and Wimbledon.

When in hiding he frequented a house in Clerkenwell near Saffron Hill, known as the ‘ Old House in West Street ,’ which was noted for its dark closets, trap-doors, and sliding panels, and had often formed the asylum of Jonathan Wild and Jack Sheppard.

All efforts to bring Abershaw to justice for a time proved futile, but in January 1795 he shot dead one of the constables sent to arrest him in Southwark, and attempted to shoot another.

He was eventually arrested in London at a public house, The Three Brewers, in Southwark.

For his crimes he was brought to trial at the Surrey assizes in July of the same year.

Although a legal flaw in the indictment invalidated the case of murder against him, he was convicted and sentenced to death on the second charge of felonious shooting.