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Page 4
It is the custom of all biographers, at their entrance into their
work, to step a little backwards (as far, indeed, generally as
they are able) and to trace up their hero, as the ancients did the
river Nile, till an incapacity of proceeding higher puts an end to
their search.
What first gave rise to this method is somewhat difficult to
determine. Sometimes I have thought that the hero's ancestors have
been introduced as foils to himself. Again, I have imagined it
might be to obviate a suspicion that such extraordinary personages
were not produced in the ordinary course of nature, and may have
proceeded from the author's fear that, if we were not told who
their fathers were, they might be in danger, like prince
Prettyman, of being supposed to have had none. Lastly, and perhaps
more truly, I have conjectured that the design of the biographer
hath been no more than to shew his great learning and knowledge of
antiquity. A design to which the world hath probably owed many
notable discoveries, and indeed most of the labours of our
antiquarians.
But whatever original this custom had, it is now too well
established to be disputed. I shall therefore conform to it in the
strictest manner.
Mr. Jonathan Wild, or Wyld, then (for he himself did not always
agree in one method of spelling his name), was descended from the
great Wolfstan Wild, who came over with Hengist, and distinguished
himself very eminently at that famous festival, where the Britons
were so treacherously murdered by the Saxons; for when the word
was given, i.e. Nemet eour Saxes, take out your swords, this
gentleman, being a little hard of hearing, mistook the sound for
Nemet her sacs, take out their purses; instead therefore of
applying to the throat, he immediately applied to the pocket of
his guest, and contented himself with taking all that he had,
without attempting his life.
The next ancestor of our hero who was remarkably eminent was Wild,
surnamed Langfanger, or Longfinger. He flourished in the reign of
Henry III., and was strictly attached to Hubert de Burgh, whose
friendship he was recommended to by his great excellence in an art
of which Hubert was himself the inventor; he could, without the
knowledge of the proprietor, with great ease and dexterity, draw
forth a man's purse from any part of his garment where it was
deposited, and hence he derived his surname. This gentleman was
the first of his family who had the honour to suffer for the good
of his country: on whom a wit of that time made the following
epitaph:--
O shame o' justice! Wild is hang'd, For thatten he a pocket
fang'd, While safe old Hubert, and his gang, Doth pocket o' the
nation fang.
Langfanger left a son named Edward, whom he had carefully
instructed in the art for which he himself was so famous. This
Edward had a grandson, who served as a volunteer under the famous
Sir John Falstaff, and by his gallant demeanour so recommended
himself to his captain, that he would have certainly been promoted
by him, had Harry the fifth kept his word with his old companion.
After the death of Edward the family remained in some obscurity
down to the reign of Charles the first, when James Wild
distinguished himself on both sides the question in the civil
wars, passing from one to t'other, as Heaven seemed to declare
itself in favour of either party. At the end of the war, James not
being rewarded according to his merits, as is usually the case of
such impartial persons, he associated himself with a brave man of
those times, whose name was Hind, and declared open war with both
parties. He was successful in several actions, and spoiled many of
the enemy: till at length, being overpowered and taken, he was,
contrary to the law of arms, put basely and cowardly to death by a
combination between twelve men of the enemy's party, who, after
some consultation, unanimously agreed on the said murder.
This Edward took to wife Rebecca, the daughter of the above-
mentioned John Hind, esq., by whom he had issue John, Edward,
Thomas, and Jonathan, and three daughters, namely, Grace, Charity,
and Honour. John followed the fortunes of his father, and,
suffering with him, left no issue. Edward was so remarkable for
his compassionate temper that he spent his life in soliciting the
causes of the distressed captives in Newgate, and is reported to
have held a strict friendship with an eminent divine who solicited
the spiritual causes of the said captives. He married Editha,
daughter and co-heiress of Geoffry Snap, gent., who long enjoyed
an office under the high sheriff of London and Middlesex, by
which, with great reputation, he acquired a handsome fortune: by
her he had no issue. Thomas went very young abroad to one of our
American colonies, and hath not been since heard of. As for the
daughters, Grace was married to a merchant of Yorkshire who dealt
in horses. Charity took to husband an eminent gentleman, whose
name I cannot learn, but who was famous for so friendly a
disposition that he was bail for above a hundred persons in one
year. He had likewise the remarkable humour of walking in
Westminster-hall with a straw in his shoe. Honour, the youngest,
died unmarried: she lived many years in this town, was a great
frequenter of plays, and used to be remarkable for distributing
oranges to all who would accept of them.
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