(Jonathan), the detective, born at
Wolverhampton, in Staffordshire. He brought to the gallows thirty-five
highwaymen, twenty-two housebreakers, and ten returned convicts. He
was himself hanged at Tyburn for housebreaking “amidst the
execrations of an enraged populace, who pelted him with stones to the
last moment of his existence.” (1682-1725.) Fielding has a
novel entitled Jonathan Wild.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
