Obscure Find

In 2015, Jacqueline Simpson published an article, "They Say England Has No Folktales," where she outlined the misconceptions people have about the country's narrative tradition. One striking reference concerned a variant of tale type 1525A, "Tasks for a Thief":

Henry Mayhew in London Labour and the London Poor (1861) gives a short, vigorous rendering of a version of The Master Thief, here entitled Clever Jack, which was told him by an intelligent looking 16-year-old boy in a London workhouse. The boy said the inmates would sometimes tell stories among themselves – romantic ones, bawdy ones, and ones about ‘some big thief who was very clever at stealing’. He added that they would always call the hero Jack. 

It was an exciting discovery. The tradition-bearer was unexpected (young, working-class, male), there was some context for the telling, and it was published in a non-folklore book. Finding the text was mildly difficult, since Simpson didn't cite the volume (four total) or page numbers (389 - 390), but I located the story. Here it is:

Clever Jack

    You see, mates, there was once upon a time, and a very good time it was, a young man, and he runned away, and got along with a gang of thieves, and he went to a gentleman's house, and got in, because one of his mates sweethearted the servant, and got her away, and she left the door open. And the door being left open, the young man got in and robbed the house of a lot of money, 1000ℓ., and he took it to their gang at the cave. Next day there was a reward out to find the robber. Nobody found him.

    So the gentleman put out two men and a horse in a field, and the men were hidden in the field, and the gentleman put out a notice that anybody that could catch the horse should have him for- his cleverness, and a reward as well ; for he thought the man that got the 1000ℓ. was sure to try to catch that there horse, because he was so bold and clever, and then the two men hid would nab him.

    This here Jack (that's the young man) was watching, and he saw the two men, and he went and caught two live hares. Then he hid himself behind a hedge, and let one hare go, and one man said to the other, 'There goes a hare,' and they both run after it, not thinking Jack's there. And while they were running he let go the t'other one, and they said, ' There's another hare,' and they ran different ways, and so Jack went and got the horse, and took it to the man that offered the reward, and got the reward ; it was 100ℓ.; and the gentleman said 'D-n it, Jack's done me this time.'

    The gentleman then wanted to serve out the parson, and he said to Jack, 'I'll give you another 100ℓ. if you'll do something to the parson as bad as you've done to me.'

    Jack said, 'Well, I will;' and Jack went to the church and lighted up the lamps, and rang the bells, and the parson he got up to see what was up. Jack was standing in one of the pews like an angel, when the parson got to the church.

    Jack said, 'Go and put your plate in a bag; I'm an angel come to take yon up to heaven.' And the parson did so, and it was as much as he could drag to church from his house in a bag ; for he was very rich. And when he got to the church Jack put the parson in one bag, and the money stayed in the other ; and he tied them both together, and put them across his horse, and took them up hills and through water to the gentleman's, and then he took the parson out of the bag. and the parson was wringing wet.

    Jack fetched the gentleman, and the gentleman gave the parson a horsewhipping, and the parson cut away, and Jack got all the parson's money and the second 100ℓ., and gave it all to the poor. And the parson brought an action against the gentleman for horsewhipping him, and they both were ruined.

    That's the end of it.