Wild, JONATHAN

Wild, JONATHAN, was born about 1682 at Wolverhampton, and apprenticed to a buckle-maker in Birmingham. About 1706 he deserted his wife, and came up to London, where, during a four years' imprisonment for debt, he consorted with criminals. Thereafter he turned a receiver of stolen goods and a betrayer of such thieves as would not share with him, until for theft and receiving he was hanged at Tyburn on 24th May 1725. He forms the theme of Fielding's powerful satire (1743).