Jenny Diver, née Mary Young (c.1700 – 18 March 1741) was an Irish

pickpocket Pickpocketing is a form of larceny that involves the stealing of money or other valuables from the person or a victim's pocket without them noticing the theft at the time. It may involve considerable dexterity and a knack for Misdirection (magic ...

, one of the most famous of her day.

Background and migration to England

Born around 1700 in Ireland, Diver was the illegitimate daughter of an unknown father and the

lady's maid A lady's maid is a female personal attendant who waits on her female employer. The role of a lady's maid is similar to that of a gentleman's valet. Description Traditionally, the lady's maid was not as high-ranking as a lady's companion, who wa ...

Harriet Jones. After her mother deserted her, Diver grew up in various foster homes. She was a skilled

seamstress A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician. Notable d ...

, and eventually emigrated to London, where she became an apprentice of Anne Murphy, who was the leader of a gang of pickpockets. She soon became so skilled as a thief that she became the leader of Murphy's gang and nicknamed Jenny Diver.

Appearance, personality and criminal technique

Jenny Diver was described as attractive, educated and well dressed, and was able to mix among wealthy people without attracting suspicion. Perhaps the best known of her methods was to feign illness, during which she robbed people and handed over the objects to her accomplices. She would also use false arms which made it possible for her to rob people with her arms seemingly visible in her lap.

Arrests and execution

On two occasions, in 1733 and 1738, Diver was arrested, gave the court a false name with no criminal record, and was convicted to

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or is under sen ...

as a first-time criminal. On both occasions, she bribed the captain on the prison ship to allow her a comfortable travel with her property, bribed the governor in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

to relieve her of her sentence, and bribed the captain to take her back to London again. On 10 January 1741, she was arrested for the third time, but this time she was correctly identified and could not give a false name. She was apprehended with one accomplice, Elizabeth Davies, while trying to steal the purse from the pocket of a woman whom a male accomplice offered to help over a pool of water (the man managed to escape). Jenny Diver defended both herself and Davies by character witnesses. She was accused not only of theft but also of having returned after deportation, which was a capital crime. Both were sentenced to death, and claimed without success to be pregnant, but while Davies was deported, Diver's sentence was not commuted. Due to her notoriety as a famous criminal, she was taken to her execution in a mourning carriage. She was executed with 19 other condemned, but she was the only one taken there separately. She was dressed in a black dress and hat with veil, and reportedly behaved with composure.

Legacy

*Diver was the inspiration for the role of the same name in

John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for ''The Beggar's Opera'' (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peach ...

's 1728 ''

The Beggar's Opera ''The Beggar's Opera'' is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of sati ...

'' and then for

Pirate Jenny "Pirate Jenny" (German: "") is a song from ''The Threepenny Opera'' by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. The English lyrics are by Marc Blitzstein. It is one of the best known songs in the opera, along with "Mack the Knife". Content and c ...

in the 1928 ''

The Threepenny Opera ''The Threepenny Opera'' ( ) is a 1928 German "play with music" by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, '' The Beggar's Opera'', and four ballads by François V ...

'' by

Hauptmann () is an officer rank in the armies of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It is usually translated as ''captain''. Background While in contemporary German means 'main', it also has, and originally had, the meaning of 'head', i.e. ' literall ...

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a ...

/ Weill."''Polly II – Plan for a Revolution in Docklands'' – Reader"

Anja Kirschner
(2006) *The first chapter of

Alan Moore Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including ''Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', ''The Ballad of Halo Jones'', Swamp Thing (comic book), ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman: The Killing Joke' ...

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

'' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century'', "What Keeps Mankind Alive?" (a reference to the song of the same name in ''The Threepenny Opera''), features a character named Janni Dakkar, the daughter of

Captain Nemo Captain Nemo (; also known as Prince Dakkar) is a character created by the French novelist Jules Verne (1828–1905). Nemo appears in two of Verne's science-fiction books, ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (1870) and '' The Mysterious Is ...

, who abandons her father's island base and makes her way to England, adopting the alias "Jenny Diver" (the first word being an

Anglicization Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English languag ...

of her Indian name, and the second referring to her aptitude for swimming and

free diving Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving, is a mode of underwater diving that relies on apnea, breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba set, scuba gear. Besides the ...

). In the climax of the chapter, two characters sing "Pirate Jenny" as the crew of the ''Nautilus'' pillage London's docks under Janni/Jenny's direction.

References

External links

* ''Lives of twelve bad women; illustrations and reviews of feminine turpitude set forth by impartial hands'' by Arthur Vincent (1879)
"1741: Jenny Diver, a Bobby Darin lyric?"
18 March 2009, executedtoday.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Diver, Jenny 1700s births 1741 deaths 1741 crimes in Europe Executed Irish people People executed by the Kingdom of Great Britain Irish female criminals Executed Irish women People executed for theft People executed by England and Wales by hanging Pickpockets 18th-century Irish women 18th-century Irish criminals Place of birth missing