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Premieres 24 October 2026 at 9pm UK time
The Old Fox: Great Escapes · Episode 4
Jack Sheppard: The Man Newgate Couldn't Hold
In 1724, a young carpenter turned thief called Jack Sheppard escaped from custody four times, twice from Newgate Prison, and became the most talked-about man in London. The Old Fox tells how he did it, and why even his name ended up banned from the stage.
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What the fox said
A London carpenter with a gift for doors. Mostly for leaving through them. Let's see who slipped out.
London, 1724. Jack Sheppard, 22. Trained as a carpenter. Working as a thief.
That spring, he's locked in the St Giles roundhouse. He breaks through the roof, and he's gone.
Weeks later, the New Prison, Clerkenwell. He and his lover, Edgworth Bess, climb down knotted sheets.
In August, he's tried at the Old Bailey for burglary, and sentenced to hang.
In Newgate's condemned hold, he cuts through an iron bar. Friends bring women's clothes. He walks out the front gate.
Caught again in September. Now they chain him to the floor.
October the 15th. He slips the cuffs, picks the padlock with a nail, and goes up the chimney.
6 locked and barred doors. Then the roof. With a blanket, he gets down onto the house next door.
Weeks later, he's caught again. Drunk, in a fine black suit.
Now he's the most famous man in London. Visitors pay to see him. The King's own painter sketches him in his cell.
The 16th of November. Tyburn, near today's Marble Arch. A crowd put at 200,000.
Defoe is thought to have written his story. Later, plays with his name in the title were banned in London, for 40 years.
They hanged the man. They had to lock up his name. Escape closed. Keep your nose to the wind.
Sources
- Jack Sheppard (1702–1724) was a London carpenter's apprentice turned thief who escaped from custody four times in 1724 (Wikipedia, 'Jack Sheppard'; London Museum).
- He broke through the roof of St Giles's Roundhouse, and climbed down a rope of knotted sheets from the New Prison at Clerkenwell with Edgworth Bess (London Museum; Wikipedia).
- Sentenced to death at the Old Bailey in August 1724, he escaped from Newgate's condemned hold dressed in women's clothes (Wikipedia).
- Recaptured and chained to the floor, he escaped Newgate again on 15 October 1724, through a chimney, six barred doors and over the roofs (Historic UK; Wikipedia).
- He was caught again on 1 November and hanged at Tyburn on 16 November 1724, aged 22, before a crowd estimated at 200,000. The King's painter, James Thornhill, sketched him in his cell (London Museum; Wikipedia).
- His story was retold for more than a century, and plays with his name in the title were refused a licence in London for 40 years (Wikipedia; London Museum).
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