The Untold Lives of Ordinary People in Georgian Britain

[00:00:00]We've all seen the pictures and read the stories in the history books about the kings and queens with their power and privilege and silks and furs.

[00:00:12]But in this series, I want to discover the other side of history. I'm already quite nervous. The side we don't often hear about. How ordinary British people lived their lives.

[00:00:26]From the Tudtor, you'll see why it did attract my attention. [laughter] >> Disgusting.

[00:00:33]>> To the Victorians.

[00:00:34]>> Throw a stone in Victorian London, you will hit a drunken catman. Is [music] there's that many of them?

[00:00:38]>> We are not amused.

[00:00:41]>> From the [music] Georgians, >> you take a saw.

[00:00:44]>> Oh my god, it's horrible just seeing you do that.

[00:00:48]>> To the people who really fought the Second World War. James could hear the ping of bullets and the platter of shratnel.

[00:00:58]>> One thing's for sure, these people knew the meaning of the word tough.

[00:01:03]>> I'll be finding the truth about their daily lives.

[00:01:07]What they ate. How long would that have lasted? Up to 3 years.

[00:01:13]>> How they made a living. There's even value in a rat when it's dead. And those vital necessities of life. What did you do if you wanted a pee?

[00:01:22]>> Go in the bucket. The bucket.

[00:01:25]>> This is British history from the [music] bottom up. You got to admit I am terrifying. [laughter] This time I'm going back over 200 years to Georgian Britain.

[00:01:45]Nowadays, it's seen as a period of great sophistication and elegance.

[00:01:50]>> Darling, where did you get that dress?

[00:01:53]May I have the next dance?

[00:01:55]>> But for ordinary people, it was far from that.

[00:02:00]>> For them, the Georgian period was particularly cruel and nasty.

[00:02:05]In everything from laws to living standards, there was a huge chasm between the poor and the wealthy.

[00:02:14]But >> some of those who came from the wrong side of the track weren't prepared to accept their dreary lot. Jack Ran, who was born in 1750, was one of them.

[00:02:27]>> Here's Jack right there.

[00:02:30]>> Like many ordinary families at the time, Jacks was dirt poor. They would most likely have lived altogether in just one room with no running water and just a bucket for a L.

[00:02:43]We think his dad was a peddler, a street seller earning maybe six or seven shillings a week.

[00:02:49]>> Just 35 quid in today's money, >> which meant that most of the family's money was spent on bread. Certainly not on fun.

[00:02:59]>> And yet, just to rub it all in, Jack lived in a city that was oozing with luxury and pleasure.

[00:03:07]Bath, the go-to tourist destination for Britain's rich and privileged.

[00:03:15]They came here to party, sample the spa waters, and generally pon around. All the heartache.

[00:03:23]But at least the toss provided a business opportunity for a certain canny young someone. Yep, no school for him.

[00:03:32]Instead, he'd be following in the footsteps of his dad.

[00:03:36]12-year-old Jack regularly used to pitch his peddler's cart in the city center in the square selling Georgian delicacies like pastries and oranges. His customers were the high society men and women strutting around like peacocks with their hair piled high on their heads like a glossy magazine center spread there right in front of him. And the more he saw of it, the more he wanted a piece of the action. And quite frankly, [music] he wanted to look cool enough to get some of the girls. Jack saw his chance in the Georgian lust for high-speed travel.

[00:04:29]For Jack, the growing numbers of wealthy travelers whizzing around the country in fancy carriages meant the chance of Jack going places, too.

[00:04:41]When he was just 18, he got the plum job in this new world of high-speed travel.

[00:04:48]He became a coachman and was soon running all the transport for a large household.

[00:05:00]Chris Thompson is an expert on the sort of life Jack would have had.

[00:05:06]>> That coat that you're wearing, that to me is traditional coachman's clobber. Am I right?

[00:05:11]>> Yeah. Great coat. Has many capes for keeping out the weather and it's very heavy and warm. So in inclement weather, it would be something of a savior. In warm weather, it wasn't too good. And Jack would have wore some like this.

[00:05:22]>> Yeah. What hours would he have worked?

[00:05:24]>> Long hours. long into the night. If his employer requested to travel overnight, then Jack had to be at the ready. On a daily basis, he would probably work from dawn till dusk.

[00:05:36]>> And Jack wasn't exactly raking it in.

[00:05:38]He'd get just 10 to5 a year, a couple of grand today. Although he did get meals and accommodation thrown in.

[00:05:52]Regular public stage coaches were uncomfortable and packed tight with smelly passengers. But Jax was in a different class.

[00:06:02]It's beautifully padded. It's like your sofa at home and you're just sitting there watching the telly.

[00:06:11]When Jack reached one of the new coaching ins to overnight, his passengers went inside to relax with a hot meal and a freshly madeup bed. But Jack's long day wasn't over until he'd washed, brushed, and fed the horses.

[00:06:26]Often his own bed was right beside them, along with any fleas and ticks that might happen to be crawling around. One thing was for certain, being a coachman was not giving Jack the [music] glamour that he craved.

[00:06:43]What he wanted was the fat cat lifestyle of his wealthy passengers.

[00:06:49]He'd seen them hand over wads of cash every time they stopped to pay for the fancy wine and the gorgeous meals while he had to bed down in the stable. It was time for a career move. Jack was about to become a highwayman.

[00:07:12]>> Stand and deliver. Even back then, highwaymen were romantic [music] figures.

[00:07:18]More daring and glamorous than bog standard robbers.

[00:07:23][music] The mid Georgian period was the heyday of the highwaymen. There were loads and loads of travelers around. Was no organized police force to catch them.

[00:07:33]And like most highway men and indeed highway women, Jack would ride up to the coach with the travelers in it. He would shout your money or your life and he would wave his pistol.

[00:07:45]>> But it was extremely dangerous.

[00:07:47]passengers could carry guns, too.

[00:07:53]So, Jack knew the risks, but he was determined that even if his career was going to be really short, at least it would be fun and exciting and just great. So, he dressed like a dandy. He had these silk britches and each one was tied with eight silver strings at the knee. So he got the nickname 16 string Jack, which is a pretty good nickname, isn't it? And there was one victim who remarked, "Jack behaved exceeding civil and rather begged for the money than used any violent means. He was so cool."

[00:08:33]>> As Jack notched up success after success, his pile of cash and his charisma rapidly grew.

[00:08:42]But the authorities were on to him.

[00:08:47]He was caught and tried not once but an incredible 17 times. And on each occasion, silver tonged Jack outwitted the judge and charmed the jury. But finally, in 1774, Jack was accused of stealing from the king's daughter's chaplain.

[00:09:08]What's wonderful is that you can hear Jack's brass cheek and his accent in the court transcript. He says, "Oh, he knows no more of it than a child does unborn.

[00:09:20]They have said false things to you." But Jack had made a fateful error. The court didn't take kindly to the princess's pastor being called a liar. He was found guilty. And this being the Georgian era, he was sentenced to death.

[00:09:42]But in true Jack style, he enjoyed a saucy last supper with the governor of New Gate Prison and seven delightful young ladies.

[00:09:53]The next day, a showman to the end, he danced a high jig on the scaffold before the noose tightened around his neck.

[00:10:09]In Georgian times, Britain began to rule the waves and ordinary men went off to sea, exploring, trading, and generally enjoying themselves far too much in ports across the globe.

[00:10:23]That's me wages gone. Oh, big boy.

[00:10:27]Another drink, anyone? One such man was a 24year-old Irish sailor called John Mara. He was minding his own business one day in 1770 just hanging out in a lively port on the Asian island of Java having a drink down by the harbor checking out the girls.

[00:10:46]>> You grab him. Come here.

[00:10:49]>> When suddenly John was surrounded by British marines. Are you employed? They were looking for crewmen. Who are you working? and had the right to force any seaman between 18 and 55 to join their ship >> pushing >> whether he wanted to or not.

[00:11:03]>> Right, get over there.

[00:11:04]>> John had no choice. He'd been press ganged.

[00:11:10]>> About a quarter of the Navy's sailors were recruited like this. So, who exactly was behind John's dastardly kidnap? None other than the famous explorer [music] Captain James Cook. John was now a sailor in Cook's crew on board HMS Endeavor.

[00:11:33]John Mara soon calmed [music] down. He admitted that one ship was pretty much as good as any other and that only a fool would want to stay in this disease-ridden port. So, he was welcomed on board.

[00:11:47]Mama told me [music] to look back.

[00:11:53]>> In Georgian times, there was no such thing as cabins for ordinary seaman. So when John first got on board, he would have been given a hammock and have gone below and found somewhere to put it and that would have been his living quarters for the rest of the voyage.

[00:12:10]But at least he traveled light, so storage of all his worldly goods wouldn't be a problem. These were called dy bags. This was where each sailor kept his spare change of clothes, his [music] momentos, his knife, his bible. That was the lot.

[00:12:27]>> And John wouldn't even have had a uniform to worry about because he wasn't an officer.

[00:12:32]>> Tight across your back, honey.

[00:12:35]>> So, this is where the men lived. And down here was the officer's quarters.

[00:12:40]And if any of the sailors just went beyond that line, they could be shot by a marine. If you just looked an officer in the eye, then you could be punished for dumb insulence. But look at the difference. This was how the officers lived.

[00:13:03]>> John became a gunner's mate.

[00:13:06]His job was to keep the cannons secure and the powder dry. He also made sure all the ship's ropes, pulley, and sails were in good order.

[00:13:19]He'd work 4 hours on, eight off with extra time off when they [music] reached port.

[00:13:27]Most days, John would be faced with just endless skies and endless seas. But it wasn't exactly peaceful.

[00:13:38]>> It's hard to imagine, but this deck would have been covered in goats, sheep, and chicken, even cows. And some of the men had clubbed together and brought a pig on board. And all those animals would have created a right old mess, one that John and the other seaman would have to clean up.

[00:14:03]Everyone knows that sailors used to scrub the decks. And I'd always assumed that that meant with a scrubbing brush, but it didn't. This is what they used.

[00:14:12]This is it's like a square of sandstone, and you stuck a peg in it like that, and you went back and forward and back and forward day after day. Essentially, it was a discipline thing. It just kept the lads from arguing and thumping each other. But it had a secondary effect which they weren't at all aware of is that it kept the germs down. So essentially ships were a pretty healthy place to live.

[00:14:38]Though after a few months at sea there'd be less mess to clean up because all the animals would have been eaten.

[00:14:46]Sophie Forgan, an expert on Georgian naval cuisine, knows what kind of food John would have been left with.

[00:14:54]That's a bit of really manky salt pork.

[00:14:57]>> Now that is as solid as a rock. How long would that have lasted?

[00:15:01]>> Well, they did last up to 3 years, but pretty awful by that time.

[00:15:10]>> It must have been incredibly salty.

[00:15:12]>> Very, very salty. But one way you got rid of the salt was to put the joints in a small net and tow them behind the ship to wash some of the excess salt off.

[00:15:26]>> Is it right that occasionally John would be treated to something weird like albatross?

[00:15:32]>> It is right. Everything they shot was eaten. The only one they turned their backs on was walrus.

[00:15:42]The sailors said, "No way."

[00:15:46]>> But there was one fate even worse than walrus for breakfast.

[00:15:51]Scurvy. On long voyages, it was the biggest threat to Jon's life. The disease was caused by a lack of vitamin C. And on some ships, it killed half the crew. Men like John were terrified of scurvy, and you can't blame them. It was absolutely horrible. Your skin started to go pale. Your eyes sunk in. Your gums went all swollen and bloody. Your teeth fell out. You got covered in bruises.

[00:16:20]Then your arms and legs started to go black. Death when it came was a blessed relief.

[00:16:29]Luckily, John never got scurvy. And traveling at a modest speed of just under 10 m an hour made it as far away as it's possible to be from Britain. the South Pacific.

[00:16:43]He must have thought he was in paradise.

[00:16:46]In Tahiti, he got friendly with the local chief who apparently offered him his own house, his own land, and the prettiest girl in the village to be his wife, chosen from among a dozen maidens.

[00:17:00]John was over the moon. What an offer.

[00:17:03]Let's get out of here. And being a strong swimmer, he knew when to make his move. He waited till the sails were being lifted and the anchor was being weighed and sprinted to the side, dived overboard and began swimming through the crystalclear waters towards paradise.

[00:17:23]Unfortunately, he was spotted. He was dragged back and brought dripping into the ship to be punished by the captain.

[00:17:34]This is what he would have got. The kata ninetails. Wham. But uh he wouldn't have been standing up. He would have to lie down like this. And this was known as kissing the gunner's daughter and get whacked on the back and on the bottom.

[00:17:50]Dozen lashes. That was the standard dose. Although quite honestly, for a bloke like Mara, I don't think it would have made any difference.

[00:18:01]After 5 years sailing around the world with Cook, John finally returned to Britain.

[00:18:07]He'd made a bit of money and he could have called it quits. Settled down in Ireland in a cottage by the sea, but he didn't. Grog got the better of him and he drank it all away.

[00:18:26]And the last time we ever hear of him is in a port on the coast of Australia looking for another birth, another ship and another adventure.

[00:18:45]One thing you definitely didn't want to be in Georgian times was ill. You might find yourself being bled for acne.

[00:18:54]>> Oh, cool. or get tobacco smoke blown up your bottom to cure a headache.

[00:19:00]And as for surgery, even if you could afford it, run a mile if you're able to.

[00:19:06]If you were poor, naturally you'd be stuffed either way, unless you happen to be in the right place at the right time, which surprisingly could be somewhere around here.

[00:19:20]It's just another day in London's most notorious district, Jacob's Island near London Bridge.

[00:19:27]Also known as the capital of Kolera or the Venice of slums.

[00:19:33]Houses rotted by dampness, windows covered in paper and rags. The whole place overcrowded with people and dirtyfaced kids swarming everywhere.

[00:19:44][crying] One of the residents, 60-year-old Elizabeth Rean, is woken up really early by the racket of people clattering past.

[00:19:56]When she's emptied the contents of her chamber pot out of the window, she pops out and joins the queue for the pump to get some water for her stew.

[00:20:07]In Georgian times, 60 was considered pretty ancient. So, Elizabeth was probably shacked up with her grown-up children, helping out with the cooking and the shopping. Nearby Burough Market was the perfect place for her to bag a bargain.

[00:20:26]This particular morning, she was rushing down Burough High Street, avoiding all the crowds of people and all the horsedrawn carts.

[00:20:37]>> [music] >> And as she's crossing the road, she trips over.

[00:20:47]A car runs over her leg, multiple compound fractures. And remember, in those days there were no ambulances, no NHS. But she's very lucky because the accident has happened just outside one of the most important hospitals in London that's been here since medieval times, St. Thomas's.

[00:21:12]There must have been a friendly bystander who helped her limp to the door. Then Elizabeth would have been carried up these stairs.

[00:21:22]52 ancient cranky wooden steps. [music] You really do feel like you're walking back into history.

[00:21:31]>> Next, bleeding, in pain, and on the edge of consciousness, Elizabeth wouldn't have been certain that the hospital would even admit her.

[00:21:41]>> Julie Matias knows all about the history of St. Thomas's. If I came here, I've had a road accident. My legs are all smashed up. My mates carry me here, dump me on the floor. What would be your response? Well, you would actually be quite fortunate in that case because the hospital provided one ward um to access cases of an emergency such as yours >> casualty actually come >> priority patients as you were. Yes, indeed.

[00:22:09]>> So things are sort of looking up.

[00:22:12]Despite being from the worst post code in London, Elizabeth had a worldleading surgeon on her case.

[00:22:20]I'm going to put myself in her place to get an idea of what Elizabeth went through in Europe's oldest operating theater.

[00:22:30]Karen Hal is my surgeon.

[00:22:33]>> Scary.

[00:22:34]>> Karen, presumably you're going to operate on me cuz you've got the pine for on.

[00:22:37]>> That's right. I'm the um operator for today. The surgeon is for you. So, I'm hoping to amputate your leash.

[00:22:44]Elizabeth must have been a tough cookie, but this experience would have terrified her.

[00:22:50]>> I must admit, I'm already quite nervous.

[00:22:52]Just below me here.

[00:22:53]>> Yeah, >> look at this. This sawdust presumably is for collecting my blood and bits and pieces.

[00:23:01]>> You got that right. That's actually for to stop the blood going through the floorboards. The uh the churches below us.

[00:23:07]>> There was a church under the I don't want to drip on the congregation.

[00:23:10]>> That's right. Yeah. But fear not, Elizabeth, you're getting high-tech treatment. The operating table was the latest design, featuring a pop out platform for Elizabeth's good leg, even a headrest. And the table was a handy height for holding her down. Thoughtful touch.

[00:23:30][music] Tonic is on to limit the damage.

[00:23:33]We're managing your blood so that when we cut, I don't lose much blood.

[00:23:39]But that wasn't all Elizabeth had to cope with. She suffered this indignity in front of [music] crowds of people who were making an incredible amount of noise, yelling at the assistants to keep their heads out of the way. There would be a few medical students naturally, but in some hospitals they actually issued tickets.

[00:23:59]There was no anesthetic, just a piece of leather to chew on and maybe a prayer before the chop came. In the 18th century Georgian method is circular action on one knee. Are you ready?

[00:24:12]>> Yeah.

[00:24:13]>> We have permission to amputate and um you're bracing yourself. There's [music] an old technique they call the titra master's round. Goes around like this and you can see what's going to happen.

[00:24:24]So we're ready and say and pull out like this.

[00:24:27]>> Wow. So that's just splitting me right open all the way around.

[00:24:30]>> And the idea was um then you take the saw.

[00:24:33]>> Oh my god. We know really it's about six to eight cuts through that one bone.

[00:24:37]Very fast saws they are.

[00:24:38]>> It's horrible just seeing you do that.

[00:24:40]>> But then that is the bone through.

[00:24:42]>> So my leg's gone now.

[00:24:44]>> Yeah, there's no leg there now.

[00:24:45]>> Yeah.

[00:24:50]>> Elizabeth began to faint, but got a hefty slap to keep her conscious.

[00:24:57]With blood everywhere, she must hang on in there.

[00:25:05]The arteries are now severed and we need to act quickly to uh close up the wound.

[00:25:10]Basically, we put a thread through there like this big thick thread and tie it like a drawstring bag.

[00:25:22]The operation was a success. Well, at least Elizabeth didn't die on the operating table. But then came the tricky bit, recovery.

[00:25:31]Thanks to the unsanitary conditions in the hospital, Elizabeth's chance of survival was just one in three.

[00:25:40]Despite her ordeal in the operating theater, Elizabeth didn't [music] make it. She never left the ward. Within a week, she died of infection.

[00:25:50]And yet within 50 years, the medical profession had started to become aware of bacteria and began cleaning their surgical instruments and their operating theaters. Although sadly for one brave Georgian, that came too late.

[00:26:11]One of the biggest problems for the poor in Georgian times was that they were powerless to change their lot.

[00:26:18]Ordinary people couldn't vote. So the laws were made by the rich and for the rich.

[00:26:24]>> Damn well hanged.

[00:26:25]>> And to keep the working class under control, the powerful voted in a long list of crimes you could be hanged for.

[00:26:33]>> Over 200 of them. In fact, [screaming] you could be strung up for anything from oh destroying a toll gate to impersonating a Chelsea pensioner.

[00:26:47]How dare you?

[00:26:48]>> But even more serious was pinching the toough's game.

[00:26:54]Local rumor down here in Hampshire at the time suggested that Charles Smith was a practitioner of the dark art of poaching, although no one had ever actually seen him do it. This looks like Charles in 1821, aged 28, with his son, standing at 6' tall when the average was just 5'5. He was thought a rather romantic figure.

[00:27:21]He even married above his station.

[00:27:23]Charles lived with his wife, who was the daughter of a wealthy farmer, and his kids and his little terrier in a cottage very much like this one.

[00:27:37]>> [music] >> So, you got a roof over his head, probably thatched like this one. This is actually quite gorgeous, isn't it?

[00:27:48]>> But to feed his family, Charles needed money. Some of it came from his day job as a casual laborer.

[00:27:55]>> He could get the occasional day digging ditches, lugging clay around at the brick kils, scraping the skins at the tanners.

[00:28:06]And back in the old days, that might have been enough to buy things like butter, cheese, and the occasional bit of meat for dinner.

[00:28:15]But getting food on the table was getting harder and harder.

[00:28:21]A run of terrible harvests, new food laws, and fat land owners jacking up their prices [music] changed everything. Now to avoid starvation, families like Charles's had to spend all their money just to buy the basics. This is how the food would have been cooked, although it would have been pretty rudimentary. Something like tatters and shake, which was potatoes with salt on it, or a flatbread like something that you get in the kebab shop. The difference being that there was no meat in it. In fact, they had virtually no protein at all.

[00:29:02]I want some protein.

[00:29:04]>> And in 1816, the government made it illegal for ordinary people to hunt and kill any sort of game, even wild rabbits.

[00:29:14]>> Oh, corettes and butter.

[00:29:16]>> So, while the rich had more fine food than they could fill their faces with, turbet, turbet, turbet, Charles and his family were starving. M halibot >> Charles's local land owner was an aristocrat called Henry Temple Vicount Lord Palmerston which is a bit of a mouthful and he was the future prime minister he loved having fancy parties for his hunting friends and his estates were jam-packed full of deer and pheasant and partridge and all sorts of yummy treats.

[00:29:53]So if a man's kids were hungry, what else was he supposed to do?

[00:29:58]Charles turned to poaching.

[00:30:03]Seb Littlewood is an expert on poaching in Georgian times.

[00:30:08]>> What kind of snares or traps do Charles use?

[00:30:10]>> There were small traps like these small animal traps. So >> what is that? It looks like a trap for fairies.

[00:30:16]>> Yeah, it's about this about the right size. So this is this is how this operates. So, it's sprung by pushing this down. You open the teeth. Um, and then we clip that up like that.

[00:30:29]>> Okay. So, it's all set for the rabbit.

[00:30:31]>> Along comes Mr. Rabbit.

[00:30:32]>> Yeah.

[00:30:36]>> Oh, that's so horrible, isn't it?

[00:30:38]>> It's not nice.

[00:30:40]>> And presumably the thing about leaving a few of these around is that it means the gamekeeper will know that there are poachers about. If the gamekeeper comes across them, he knows people out and about. Poacher comes back to check his traps.

[00:30:52]>> Gotcha.

[00:30:52]>> Gotcha.

[00:30:53]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:30:55]>> So, a [music] rabbit trap could become a trap for the poacher who set it.

[00:31:00][screaming] >> So, if Charles wanted something much bigger and much more effective, what might he do?

[00:31:07]>> Well, there is this option.

[00:31:11]I suppose something like this.

[00:31:15]Would you actually be able to bring down something like a rabbit with that?

[00:31:18]>> You would. Although it's a musket, it works much the same way as a as a as a modern shotgun. Oh, >> so you put pellets in it.

[00:31:25]>> Pellets in it. This was scattershot meant that hopefully anything sort of 10, 15 yards away, you're going to hit it.

[00:31:33]>> But isn't there a big drawback to using a gun? The bang.

[00:31:37]>> The bang. The size. Absolutely.

[00:31:40]Generally, the whole idea about poaching is is you're relying on stealth uh on a level of secrecy. Something like this, you're going to hear it from half a mile away.

[00:31:53]But Charles was presented with an irresistible opportunity. On the 22nd of November 1820, there was a big and noisy local festival.

[00:32:03]>> Oh, rebel, rebel, rebel. I do love a rebel.

[00:32:06]None of the revelers, Charles figured, would hear his musket in the distant woods. Hooray!

[00:32:18]>> When it was dark, Charles went over to his hiding place, produced his musket, and he would have had a big tunic on with a pocket in it down here somewhere, and he would put the butt in it to support it. And then he would sneak out. hoping that before morning he would have been able to find something warm and furry with which he could feed his family the next day.

[00:32:46]The weather was perfect. Just enough moon to light the way and just enough wind in the trees to mask the sound of footfall. Taking his terrier, Charles made his way to collect his brother-in-law John Pointer. Then the two of them pressed on to the plantation of Palmerston's estate with all its rich pickings.

[00:33:11]Cautiously, they crept to the spot where they'd seen feeasants roosting earlier.

[00:33:16]Charles raised his gun, but unfortunately, Deputy Gamekeeper Robert Snellgrove was a party pooper who'd rather be lying in wait for poachers than reing.

[00:33:28]As soon as he heard Smith's gun, he was after them. Snailg Grove caught up with them, and as he did so, there was a bang and an almighty cloud of smoke.

[00:33:45]It cleared to reveal Snellgrove bleeding badly from his thigh. The poachers were nowhere to be seen. [music] Charles Smith went on the run, but Snailgrove had seen his face clearly enough to identify him. It took them over a year to catch up with Charles, but eventually he was tried in Winchester. And on March the 23rd, 1822, he was hanged.

[00:34:14]Charles was one of the last men hung for poaching under the Georgians.

[00:34:21]He was unlucky. Just a year later, the law was changed and poaching was no longer punishable by death.

[00:34:31]In Georgian times, the countryside was beginning to get crowded.

[00:34:37]So, a lot of ordinary country folk started heading off to the cities.

[00:34:42]And nowhere was a more seductive destination than the booming capital.

[00:34:49]In the 1730s, the whole of London was squashed into a fraction of its size today. London started here round about Towerbridge that's there and stretched about a mile in this direction over towards Westminster. And that was London. And it was rampacked full about 700,000 people and dogs and horses and other animals. And amongst this hurly burly was a woman called Elizabeth Bowman.

[00:35:21]She's in there somewhere.

[00:35:24]That's her.

[00:35:27]Elizabeth was one of the many young single women who [music] saw an opportunity to make money from George and London's expanding population. Six days a week she'd get up at sunrise and leave her small rented room to come shopping here at Covent Garden Market.

[00:35:44]It was the best place in London to buy juniper berries, herbs, and spices [music] because Elizabeth was a maker and seller of the capital's most popular recreational product, gin.

[00:35:58]In Georgian times in London, they were knocking back an incredible 7 million gallons of gin every year. That's it's stupid. Two pints of gin every week for every adult. Oh, thank you.

[00:36:16]Two pints is what we drink on average per year. I mean, all right, I'm slightly more than the average, but you know what I mean.

[00:36:25]Anyway, Elizabeth certainly had a lot of eager customers for her product, but what was her life like? Anastasia Miller is an expert on drinking in the 18th century.

[00:36:38]>> Why do you reckon a woman like Elizabeth would have got involved in the gin making trade? Because if you were a good girl, you would want to do something where it it's honorable enough that you could sell something, you could make something, you could make enough of a profit.

[00:36:54]>> So, you're implying that she could avoid the sex trade.

[00:36:57]>> She could avoid the sex trade.

[00:37:00]>> An incredible 20% of George and London's young women were involved in the sex trade, whereas selling and making jin was considered far more respectable. For Elizabeth, it meant she could afford a new bonnet when she needed or visit one of the new theaters that was springing up around Coven Garden, and she might even treat herself to a ball of scented soap for her daily ablutions.

[00:37:26]Making Jin was a bit of a dodgy business.

[00:37:30]First, Elizabeth probably blacked a jug or two of rough neat spirit from the local distillery. No questions asked.

[00:37:39]Okay. So, Elizabeth's got some of this dodgy stuff. She takes it home. Yes.

[00:37:43]What does she do?

[00:37:44]>> Well, she's going to make it into gin.

[00:37:46][laughter] >> Easiest way is you take your spirit.

[00:37:52]>> And she probably used, you know, just regular old crockery jugs, things like that. Now, here's the important part.

[00:37:58]She had to have juniper.

[00:38:00]>> Is that the thing that really marks Janelle?

[00:38:02]>> That is what Jyn is. But juniper berries were pricey and might sometimes have been beyond Elizabeth's budget.

[00:38:09]>> Other way to do it to get that piny smell was to use this.

[00:38:14]>> Let me [laughter and snorts] know what that is. Is that paint stripper?

[00:38:18]>> Well, that's oil of turpps.

[00:38:20]>> Turpps. Yes.

[00:38:21]>> They used to tip turpps into the gin.

[00:38:23]>> Well, they also used to take oil of vitrial to give it a little bit of peppery bite, >> which is what nowadays?

[00:38:29]>> Sulfuric acid.

[00:38:31]>> Oh, that's ridiculous.

[00:38:32]>> Oh, I know. And if she was feeling creative, Elizabeth may have added her own herbs and spices as well.

[00:38:38]>> Seal this up, let it sit overnight, and you're done. You've made gin.

[00:38:45]>> Once Elizabeth had made her gin, the next challenge was to fogg her dodgy home brew. One of the most horrible things confronting Elizabeth daily would have been the sheer filthiness of London. There have been rubbish strewn all over the place, pigs snorting everywhere. And in the days before main sewers had been put in, human effluent was just chucked into the street or else whoosh went straight into the river temps.

[00:39:12]Elizabeth would have had to walk many miles a day through this without wellies or a face mask just to get to her customers.

[00:39:21]>> Where and when was Jyn sold?

[00:39:24]>> They sold it everywhere. They went up and down the streets do. But the best place to sell gin was if you showed up to places where people gathered and you're looking at hangings at the Taiban tree. If you're going to go see a proper set of hangings for the day, you're going to need refreshment. You're going to need gin. [screaming] >> After spending the day at the gallows, Elizabeth might have found some more thirsty customers at the local fight night. Women used to do bare knuckle fighting because it's another way to make money. And they'd be selling jin as a refreshment, but they also gave it away as a prize.

[00:39:57]>> Really, >> ladies love jin. [laughter] >> But unfortunately, ladies loved it too much, as did men and quite a few children.

[00:40:10]By the 1730s, jin was no longer just a recreational drug. Londoners had become hopelessly addicted to the tipple Elizabeth was selling.

[00:40:21]So the government banned hawking gin on the streets.

[00:40:25]And that meant Elizabeth's livelihood was seriously under threat.

[00:40:32]Desperate for an income, she moved her gin operation underground and found a clever way to advertise her bootleg. A puss and mew.

[00:40:43]What you do? You fancy a gin, right? And you stand, this is absolutely true, you would stand outside it going push, push, push, push, push, push, push inside.

[00:40:52]Elizabeth would hear it and she would reply me.

[00:40:58]So the bloke knew that it was time to put his penny in or his tuts if he wanted a double and then she would pour the gin out and it would come down that spout and uh he would get out his putter mug and drink it. It was a bit like ordering a burger from a drive-in.

[00:41:17]But in spring 1738, Elizabeth's luck finally ran out. She was snitched on for selling jin and sentenced to 2 months imprisonment at the Tott House of Correction.

[00:41:30]Georgian houses of correction were pretty brutal places. Inmates like Elizabeth were forced into hard labor.

[00:41:37]They used to have to spend the whole day hammering away at tough hemp plants to extract the fibers for rope making. They lived in squalid, cramp conditions. The food was meager. The whippings were frequent. All for committing the crime basically of being a poor person trying to get a living in a rich man's world.

[00:42:00]After prison, Elizabeth disappears from the historical records. Maybe she stopped selling jin. Or maybe this canny operator became even better at hiding her trade.

[00:42:16]For ordinary people in Georgian Britain, whether jinhawkers, sailors, or poachers, life was a hell of a struggle.

[00:42:24]But I'm just in awe of their spirit of survival.