Henry Fielding,
An Enquiry into the Causes of the late Increase of Robbers…
(1751)
“ But here they find no Manner of Difficulty; for many Persons are weak enough to take Servants without any Character; and if this be insisted on, there is an ingenious Method in this Town of obtaining a false Character from one who personates the former Master or Mistress: To obviate all this, an Office is erected in the Strand, opposite Cecil-Street, where the best Servants in every Capacity are to be heard of; and where the Public may be assured, that no Servant shall ever be register'd, who cannot produce a real good Character from the last Place in which he or she actually lived ”
