The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard / Containing a Particular Account of His Many Robberies and Escapes

The narrative traces a skilled young tradesman whose association with a corrupting companion leads him into escalating thefts and violent wrongdoing, including housebreakings, highway robberies, and accomplices' schemes. It records detailed accounts of his crimes, multiple arrests, repeated and ingenious escapes from local prisons, and the authorities' efforts to recapture him. Material is drawn from testimonies, magistrates' records, shopkeepers' complaints, prison officers' reports, and the offender's own confession to a prison chaplain. Interwoven with admonitions to citizens and magistrates, the account functions as both a chronicle of criminal enterprise and a moral warning about vice and the limits of urban justice.