Mister Wotton's School for Thieves

The first reliable information about a "School for the Instruction and Perfecting of Cutpurses and Pickpockets" comes from the year 1585. It was under the control of a certain Mister Wotton at Smarts Quay, London, in the back room of a tavern. Boys, primarily, were trained as virtuoso light-fingers with the help of a "dummy" outfitted with bell alarms. The object was to empty the belled pockets and purses of their contents without ringing any of the bells. Successful trainees were immediately tried out in the streets of London.

(On the picture called "Cutpurse". John Selman, famous cutpurse and pickpocket, a graduate of Wotton's Academy. Condemned to death, he was executed near Charing Cross.)

Fagin's Thieves' Kitchen

The fictional description of Fagin's school in Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist" had its real counterpart in a poor quarter of London. Charles Dickens carried out basic research and listened well in a neighbouring tavern. The ways of the street prevailing in these classrooms were revealed during the prosecution of a pickpocket. It was revealed that the boys were taught by drawing a string across the room and on it hung a coat and several handkerchiefs. The boys had to remove the kerchiefs without causing the string to move: if they failed they were immediately beaten without mercy... A boom in this type of education was recorded by Scotland Yard around the turn of the century. An official succeeded in uncovering 15 of them within 7 months. Similar establishments existed in almost every country: secret private schools dedicated to the training of thieves and the refinement of their handiwork.

Sanctuary for the light-fingered

The White Friars of the Cistercian monastery of Beaulieu in the Hampshire New Forest decided that there must also be a sanctuary for thieves, murderers and conspirators, where they could retreat from earthly justice into the arms of the Church. So it happened that until 1539, Beaulieu harboured a large nuber of rascals in its holy premises. They included a number of pickpockets without fear of judicial intervention. The only drawback for the poor pickpockets was that they could no longer practise their trade.