THE SUPRISING ADVENTURES OF BAMPFYLDE-MOORE CAREW King of the Beggars Published by the Ex-classics Project, 2016 http://www.exclassics.com King of the Beggars Public Domain -2- Frontispiece Portrait of Carew -3- King of the Beggars CONTENTS Frontispiece....................................................................................................................3 Title Page .......................................................................................................................5 PREFACE......................................................................................................................6 Chapter I His Early Life; Joining the Gypsies ...............................................................7 Chapter II His First Ventures as an Imposter..............................................................12 Chapter III His Trip to Newfoundland; Impersonating a Shipwrecked Fisherman.....16 Chapter IV He Falls Victim to the Tender Passion .....................................................19 Chapter V He Impersonates a Clergyman...................................................................22 Chapter VI Further impostures....................................................................................24 Chapter VII. He is Crowned King of the Beggars .......................................................30 Chapter VIII Not resting on His Authority, He Continues his Career.........................37 Chapter IX He is Imprisoned and Transported to Maryland, but Escapes .................40 Chapter X He is Captured again and Suffers Grievously for his Sense of Honour.....45 Chapter XI. A Digression on the History of the Colony of Maryland .........................48 Chapter XII He Escapes Again and is Taken in by the Indians...................................55 Chapter XIII In Pennsylvania He Makes a Fine Quaker.............................................59 Chapter XIV His Further Adventures in America .......................................................63 Chapter XV. He Returns Home and Avoids the Press-gang by Feigning Smallpox ...66 Chapter XVI He Revisits Some Old Friends................................................................69 Chapter XVII He Returns to his Impostures................................................................72 Chapter XVIII He Joins Forces with a Fellow-beggar who is not what he Seems .....74 Chapter XIX He meets with the Captains who Helped him Escape; He Sleeps in a Haunted House; His Revenge on the Bellman.............................................................77 Chapter XX More Adventures in Beggary and Imposture...........................................80 Chapter XXI His Journey to Ireland. ..........................................................................82 Chapter XXII He Returns to England and Resumes his Old Ways .............................85 Chapter XXIII He Bilks the Customs' Men..................................................................87 Chapter XXIV His Voyage to the Baltic......................................................................92 Chapter XXV His Benevolence towards an Unfortunate Child; He Travels to France and Meets the Charitable Mrs. Horner........................................................................95 Chapter XXVI He is Seized and Transported again ...................................................97 Chapter XXVII A Description of the City and Harbour of Boston ...........................103 Chapter XXVIII He Returns to England and is Reunited with his Family................105 Chapter XXIX He Deceives the Queen, and Fools Squire Morrice for a Bet; Going to Oxford, he Poses as a Deranged Scholar ..................................................................107 Chapter XXX He Bilks Several Parsons ...................................................................110 Chapter XXXI He Goes to Scotland to Observe the Rebellion .................................113 Chapter XXXII He Feigns Madness, to his Great Profit ..........................................114 Chapter XXXIII The Miracles of Bridgewater, and the Irish Mountebank ..............118 Chapter XXXIV He turns Conjurer; and is Revenged on the Uncharitable.............121 Chapter XXXV Further Adventures, and the End of our Story ................................123 APPENDIX A Dictionary of the Cant Language. .....................................................126 -4- The Surprising Adventures of Bampfylde-Moore Carew Title Page THE SURPRISING ADVENTURES of BAMPFYLDE-MOORE CAREW, KING OF THE BEGGARS; ——containing his Life—— A Dictionary of the Cant Language and many entertaining particulars of that extraordinary man. A new edition corrected and much improved. Printed for W. Salter Tiverton and sold by Crosby & Co. London and the booksellers in Exeter, Taunton Sherborne, Frome, Salisbury, Plymouth and Dock. 1812 -5- King of the Beggars PREFACE. THE many incorrect and inelegant editions which have been obtruded on the public have induced the present Proprietors to undertake a more complete history of this celebrated man.—Various are the ways by which the human mind endeavours to mount the ladder of fame, and an equal ability is displayed by the monarch robed and his humble subject in tatters.—Peter Pindar says truly, Condition, circumstance, is not the thing— Bliss is the same in subject as in king,— And if we change but little the sentiment, we shall have a perfect picture of the conditions of mankind. Had fate ordained the present royal family to humble life, or to till the soil, they might have shone as honest farmers, and been as much celebrated for the acres they had tilled, as the revenues they have spent.—If parallels may be drawn between great and little characters, the monarchs of the universe are little more than so many Carews, who, under the idea of state necessity, beg of their subjects. Now, supposing the superior abilities of Mr. Carew had arisen to their proper elevation, he might have proved an able negotiator ; and, possessed of great diplomatic address, would doubtless have succeeded by stratagem and finesse in whatever he undertook ; but he chose to be a prince in the little world, and this was much superior to occupying a humble post in the great world.—If it be objected that his practice was mean and beggarly, this may particularly affect his superiors, who are looking up to places and pensions, and would sacrifice the interest of the country to batten upon the national loaves and fishes.—Mr. Carew can never be viewed in any other point than as an active solicitor, and in this respect he outstripped the most eminent lawyers, for he was always thankful for what he received. If charity be the readiest path to bliss, and of this there can be no doubt, Mr. Carew may claim much on this head, since he set a great deal of this amiable principle on foot, and often made his occupation the means of punishing the cold and flinty hearted.—Seriously, however, we hold him up as a character more remarkable for eccentricity than worthy of imitation. THE EDITOR. -6- The Surprising Adventures of Bampfylde-Moore Carew Chapter I His Early Life; Joining the Gypsies Mr. Bampfylde-Moore Carew was descended from the ancient family of the Carews, son of the Reverend Mr. Theodore Carew, of the parish of Brickley, near Tiverton, in the county of Devon; of which parish he was many years a rector, very much esteemed while living, and at his death universally lamented. Mr. Carew was born in the month of July 1693; and never was there known a more splendid attendance of ladies and gentlemen of the first rank and quality at any baptism in the west of England, than at his: the Hon. Hugh Bampfylde, Esq., who afterwards died of an unfortunate fall from his horse, and the Hon. Major Moore, were both his illustrious godfathers, both of whose names he bears; who sometime contending who should be the president, doubtless presaging the honour that should redound to them from the future actions of our hero, the affair was determined by throwing up a piece of money, which was won by Mr. Bampfylde; who upon this account presented a large piece of plate, whereon was engraved, in large letters, BAMPFYLDE-MOORE CAREW. The reverend Mr. Carew had several other children, both sons and daughters, besides Mr. Carew, all of whom he educated in a tender and pious manner; and Mr. Carew was at the age of twelve sent to Tiverton school, where he contracted an intimate acquaintance with some young gentlemen of the first rank in Somersetshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, and Dorsetshire. It has been remarked by great men, that there is a natural propensity in the mind of a reader to be inquisitive about the person of the hero whose actions they are reading; and authors in general have been so sensible of the power of this curiosity, that it has long been a custom for them to present their readers with their own pictures in the front of their works, with the design, doubtless, of pre possessing their readers in favour of them, by the marks of wisdom and ingenuity in their countenance ; thus, not to mention any other instances, those two great authors, Mr. Dilworth and Mr. Dyche, have both indulged the work with their pictures before their ingenious spelling books. We cannot but commend this custom as a very fair and candid one; for what reader would buy an author, if his countenance declared him a blockhead, did we not suspect the engraver is so kind to the author as to put greater marks of wisdom and ingenuity in his countenance, than nature ever bestowed upon him.