james townsend saward

JAMES TOWNSEND SAWARD
CRIMINAL BARRISTER
The True Story of Jim the Penman
By
Jennifer Carnell

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Described as a 'real-life' Professor Moriarty and Napoleon of Crime, James Townsend Saward, a respectable barrister of the Inner Temple, was unmasked in 1857 as the criminal mastermind known in the underworld of Victorian London as Jim the Penman. For over thirty years Saward led a double life as the head of a cheque forgery ring, a fence of stolen goods and as a planner of robberies. He was sentenced to transportation for life in 1857.

James Townsend Saward, Criminal Barrister: The True Story of Jim the Penman relates his life of crime as a notorious cheque forger and his involvement in other crimes of the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s, including one of the largest bank robberies of the 1840s and the first great train robbery of 1855.

For the first time it is revealed what Saward did with the gold from the 1855 great gold robbery after it was given to him by Edward Agar, and what really happened to him after he was sentenced to transportation to Australia.

The biography also examines Saward's influence on Victorian and later literature, from Arthur Compeyson in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations to penny dreadfuls, the popular play Jim the Penman by Sir Charles Young and Shem the Penman in Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. Saward's family and his connections to Victorian and Edwardian theatre are also discussed.

The author, Jennifer Carnell, is a great-great-great-great granddaughter of James Townsend Saward. She received her Ph.D for her research on the Victorian novelist M.E. Braddon and is the author of The Literary Lives of Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Jennifer Carnell has edited several novels for the Sensation Press, is a contributor to the book Beyond Sensation (State University of New York Press), and is the author of a novel (Harper Collins). She was a speaker at the Victorian Crime Conference held by the University of London Centre for English Studies and two Braddon conferences organised by Dr. Chris Willis.

James Townsend Saward, Criminal Barrister: The True Story of Jim the Penman will be of value to those interested in the history of Victorian crime, law and trials and to those descended from Saward.

Paperback with 16 chapters, 3 appendices, 389 pages and 47 illustrations. Each copy is signed and numbered by the author. Publication date: 5 March 2011.

ISBN 9781902580197 PRICE £25

INTRODUCTION
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1 THE SAWARDS
CHAPTER II A RESPECTABLE BARRISTER
CHAPTER III SECURE BY CAUTION: SAWARD AND THE LONDON UNDERWORLD OF THE 1830S
CHAPTER IV IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY
CHAPTER V SAWARD AND EDWARD AGAR: THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY OF 1855
CHAPTER VI THE PROFESSOR OF FORGERY
CHAPTER VII THE YARMOUTH LETTER
CHAPTER VIII THE GREED OF WILLIAM PIERCE
CHAPTER IX CAPTURE
CHAPTER X PART ONE
CHAPTER XI PART TWO
CHAPTER XII PART THREE
CHAPTER XIII PART FOUR
CHAPTER XIV THE TRIAL
CHAPTER XV CONVICTION AND SAWARD'S LATER LIFE
CHAPTER XVI THE LEGACY OF JIM THE PENMAN
APPENDIX ONE SAWARD'S FAMILY
APPENDIX TWO THE CHILDREN OF JAMES TOWNSEND SAWARD
APPENDIX THREE JIM THE PENMAN
INDEX

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