By Bernard Capp
Around 8pm on a cold February evening in 1733, a gentleman named Francis Peters was returning to his home near Knightsbridge, London, in a hackney cab, when someone knocked on the wooden shutters of the door. An armed horseman thrust a pistol inside, demanded Peters’ money and valuables and snatched a ring from his finger. Peters handed them over without fuss. But when the thief also snatched
