about six o’clock in the evening
They assembled in the streets , traversed them at their will and pleasure , and publicly concerted their plans . Business was quite suspended ; the greater part of the shops were closed ; most of the houses displayed a blue flag in token of their adherence to the popular side ; and even the Jews in Houndsditch , Whitechapel , and those quarters , wrote upon their doors or window-shutters , ` This House is a True Protestant . ' The crowd was the law , and never was the law held in greater dread , or more implicitly obeyed . It was about six o'clock in the evening , when a vast mob poured into Lincoln 's Inn Fields by every avenue , and divided -- evidently in pursuance of a previous design -- into several parties . It must not be understood that this arrangement was known to the whole crowd , but that it was the work of a few leaders ; who , mingling with the men as they came upon the ground , and calling to them to fall into this or that parry , effected it as rapidly as if it had been determined on by a council of the whole number , and every man had known his place . It was perfectly notorious to the assemblage that the largest body , which comprehended about two-thirds of the whole , was designed for the attack on Newgate . It comprehended all the rioters who had been conspicuous in any of their former proceedings ; all those whom they recommended as daring hands and fit for the work ; all those whose companions had been taken in the riots ; and a great number of people who were relatives or friends of felons in the jail .