James Townsend Saward

Who is James Townsend Saward?

James Townsend Saward was a Victorian English barrister and forger also known by the nickname of Jim the Penman. In addition to his legal career he forged money orders for almost 30 years.

Saward was accepted into the Bar in 1840, became a barrister and had his chambers in the Inner Temple.

At the time a normal forging method was to forge somebody's signature and take the money order in to bank. The only hope to recover the money was if the clerk remembered the culprit's face. To bypass even this risk, Saward decided to cover his tracks with a string of accomplices.

Saward required blank cheques and told his accomplices to spread a rumor that they would pay well for stolen cheques; pickpockets usually threw them away as useless. If he got used cheques into his hands, he could try to imitate the signature. If the holder of the account had a special signature he used only in his cheques, Saward sent an accomplice to acquire a copy. One solicitor was fooled by asking him to collect a debt; Saward got the signature when he paid the debt minus his commission by a cheque.