A Famous Rascal

Southland Times, Issue 19465, 19 November 1904, Page 3 (Supplement)

A Famous Rascal

•.-.*.'.•—. T l .' ..'•*• '" . .-' ■ -,- * :, John Ward, wham Pope pilloried, used to occupy an imposing mansion, built upon' _ * what; is still known 7 as Ward's Corner, /Hackney, NPrth .London. Ward was convicted of forgery, expelled . from Parliament, / and • condemned yto stand in the pillory. He was' mixed up in a bad swindle over the South Sea bubble; but though they managed to : imprison' him, he had- anticipated, by conveying his real estate to relatives and secreting his considerable'personal estate. In prison he seems to 'have had quite a happy time, poisoning cats and dogp, and gloating over their .expiring agonies. There were some notable/ relics * among the papers wliich he left at his. death. There . was, a prayer-, which the old-ruf-fian had written out— one prayer which would fitly have come from the lips of Louis XI. in his ibest bargaining mood *:— " O.Lord, 'J.hou knowest'. I have nine. estates in the City of London," it ran, " and likewise that I have lately purchased an estate in fee-simple in the county of Essex. I beseech Thee to preserve the two counties of Middlesex and Essex from fire and earthquake **' and; as I have a mortgage in Hertfordshire, I beg Thee -likewise to have an eye of compassion on that county PiaM, as for the rest of the counties. Thou may^est deal* with them as Thou art "pleased.'.' For the destruction of thieves he prated, and petitioned for the 'service of /honest :. minions. For the bank , he .prayed . and that his creditors might be good men and godly; while he craved the -death of a profligate young man whose reversion he had just bought, ■' '. as' Thou .hast said that the days . of the ; wicked are. but ' ,short." .' * ii '■--';'■*"■ A '■■.:■■ P ■■■;' Pj: : j