E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Wild (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.
