Richard Plunkett (beadle)
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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,[1] 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.[2]
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.[3] 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).[4] Richard was christened in April 1788 as of George Yard in Gunthorpe Street.[5]
Not much is known about Richard's childhood, but in February 1808, at Christchurch Spitalfields, he married Ann Haffner,[6] the middle of three daughters of Thomas Haffner and his wife Elizabeth Hunt.[7] 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,[8] 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.[9] 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.[10]
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,[11] 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;[12] later children were christened at the newly-rebuilt St Dunstan-in-the-East, as from Mile End Old Town, or from Ratcliff.[13] 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.[14]
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.[15] 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.[16]
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.[17] 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.[18]
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.[19]
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.[20]