Highwayman
A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads.[1] Such criminals operated until the mid- or late 19th century. Highwaywomen, such as Katherine Ferrers, were said to also exist, often dressing as men, especially in fiction. [citation needed]
The first attestation of the word highwayman is from 1617.[2] Euphemisms such as "knights of the road" and "gentlemen of the road" were sometimes used by people interested in romanticizing (with a Robin Hood–esque slant) what was often an especially violent form of stealing. In the 19th-century American West, highwaymen were sometimes known as road agents.[3] In Australia, they were known as bushrangers.
Robbing
The great age of highwaymen was the period from the
They often attacked coaches for their lack of protection, including public stagecoaches; the postboys who carried the mail were also frequently held up.[5] The demand to "Stand and deliver!" (sometimes in forms such as "Stand and deliver your purse!" "Stand and deliver your money!") was in use from the 17th century to the 19th century:
A fellow of a good Name, but poor Condition, and worse Quality, was Convicted for laying an
The phrase "Your money or your life!" is mentioned in trial reports from the mid-18th century:
Evidence of John Mawson: "As I was coming home, in company with Mr. Andrews, within two fields of the new road that is by the
gate-house of Lord Baltimore, we were met by two men; they attacked us both: the man who attacked me I have never seen since. He clapped a bayonet to my breast, and said, with an oath, Your money, or your life! He had on a soldier's waistcoat and breeches. I put the bayonet aside, and gave him my silver, about three or four shillings."— The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 12 September 1781, [7]
Victims of highwaymen included the Prime Minister
Robbers as heroes
There is a long history of treating highway robbers as heroes. Originally, they were admired by many as bold men who confronted their victims face-to-face and were ready to fight for what they wanted.[9] Medieval outlaw Robin Hood is regarded as an English folk hero. Later robber heroes included the Cavalier highwayman James Hind, the French-born gentleman highwayman Claude Du Vall, John Nevison, Dick Turpin, Sixteen String Jack, William Plunkett and his partner the "Gentleman Highwayman" James MacLaine, the Slovak Juraj Jánošík, and Indians including Kayamkulam Kochunni, Veerappan, and Phoolan Devi. In the same way, the Puerto Rican pirate Roberto Cofresí also came to be venerated as a hero.
British-ruled Ireland
In the
Dangerous places
English highwaymen often laid in wait on the main roads radiating from London. They usually chose lonely areas of
To the south of London, highwaymen sought to attack wealthy travellers on the roads leading to and from the Channel ports and aristocratic arenas like Epsom, which became a fashionable spa town in 1620, and Banstead Downs where horse races and sporting events became popular with the elite from 1625. Later in the 18th century the road from London to Reigate and Brighton through Sutton attracted highwaymen. Commons and heaths considered to be dangerous included Blackheath, Putney Heath, Streatham Common, Mitcham Common, Thornton Heath – also the site of a gallows known as "Hangman's Acre" or "Gallows Green" – Sutton Common, Banstead Downs and Reigate Heath.[14]
During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, highwaymen in Hyde Park were sufficiently common for King William III to have the route between St James's Palace and Kensington Palace (Rotten Row) lit at night with oil lamps as a precaution against them. This made it the first artificially lit highway in Britain.[15]
Executions
The penalty for robbery with violence was
Decline
During the 18th century French rural roads were generally safer from highwaymen than those of England, an advantage credited by the historian Alexis de Tocqueville to the existence of a uniformed and disciplined mounted constabulary known as the Maréchaussée. In England this force was often confused with the regular army and as such cited as an instrument of royal tyranny not to be imitated.[17]
In England the causes of the decline are more controversial. After about 1815, mounted robbers are recorded only rarely, the last recorded robbery by a mounted highwayman having occurred in 1831.[18] The decline in highwayman activity also occurred during the period in which repeating handguns, notably the pepper-box and the percussion revolver, became increasingly available and affordable to the average citizen. The development of the railways is sometimes cited as a factor, but highwaymen were already obsolete before the railway network was built. The expansion of the system of turnpikes, manned and gated toll-roads, made it all but impossible for a highwayman to escape notice while making his getaway, but he could easily avoid such systems and use other roads, almost all of which outside the cities were flanked by open country.
Cities such as London were becoming much better policed: in 1805 a body of mounted police began to patrol the districts around the city at night. London was growing rapidly, and some of the most dangerous open spaces near the city, such as Finchley Common, were being covered with buildings. However, this only moved the robbers' operating area further out, to the new exterior of an expanded city, and does not therefore explain decline. A greater use of banknotes, more traceable than gold coins, also made life more difficult for robbers,[19] but the Inclosure Act[20] of 1773 was followed by a sharp decline in highway robberies; stone walls falling over the open range like a net, confined the escaping highwaymen to the roads themselves, which now had walls on both sides and were better patrolled.[21] The dramatic population increase which began with the Industrial Revolution also meant, quite simply, that there were more eyes around, and the concept of remote place became a thing of the past in England.[22]
Outside Anglophone countries
Greece
The bandits in
Kingdom of Hungary
The highwaymen of the 17th- to 19th-century Kingdom of Hungary were the betyárs (Slovak: zbojník, pl. zbojníci). Until the 1830s they were mainly simply regarded as criminals but an increasing public appetite for betyar songs, ballads and stories gradually gave a romantic image to these armed and usually mounted robbers. Several of the betyárs have become legendary figures who in the public mind fought for social justice. Hungarian betyárs included Sándor Rózsa (Slovak: Šaňo Róža), Jóska Sobri, Márton Vidróczki, Jóska Savanyú. Juraj Jánošík (Hungarian: Jánosik György), who was born and operated in Upper Hungary (now Slovakia), is still regarded as the Slovak version of Robin Hood.
India
The Indian Subcontinent has had a long and documented history of organised robbery for millennia. These included the
The Balkans and eastern Europe
The bandits in Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Bulgaria under Ottoman rule were the
Literature and popular culture
In
From the early 18th century, collections of short stories of highwaymen and other notorious criminals became very popular. The earliest of these is Captain Alexander Smith's Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen (1714). Some later collections of this type had the words The Newgate Calendar in their titles and this has become a general name for this kind of publication.[26]
In the later 19th century, highwaymen such as Dick Turpin were the heroes of a number of
Sir Walter Scott's romance The Heart of Midlothian (1818) recounts the heroine waylaid by highwaymen while travelling from Scotland to London.
Ronia, the Robber's Daughter (1981) is a children's fantasy book by Astrid Lindgren, which portrays the adventures of Ronia, the daughter of the leader of a gang of highwaymen.
Comics
The Belgian comics series 's attempts at robbing travellers in the forest.
The Dutch comics series Gilles de Geus by Hanco Kolk and Peter de Wit was originally a gag-a-day about a failed highwayman called Gilles, but the character later evolved into a resistance fighter with the Geuzen against the Spanish army.
Ithikkara Pakki, a graphic children's story book about the Indian highwayman Ithikkara Pakki, was published in April 2010 in Malayalam.[27] The life of the Indian highwayman Kayamkulam Kochunni was adapted as a comic by Radha M. Nair in the 794th issue of the Indian comic book series, Amar Chitra Katha.[28]
Music
There were many broadsheet ballads about highwaymen; these were often written to be sold on the occasion of a famous robber's execution. A number of highwaymen ballads have remained current in oral tradition in England and Ireland.[29]
The traditional Irish song "Whiskey in the Jar" tells the story of an Irish highwayman who robs an army captain and includes the lines "I first produced me pistol, then I drew me rapier. Said 'Stand and deliver, for you are a bold deceiver'." The hit single version recorded in 1973 by Irish rock band Thin Lizzy renders this last line "I said 'Stand-oh and deliver, or the devil he may take ya'."
The traditional Irish song "The Newry Highwayman" recounts the deeds and death of a highwayman who robbed "the lords and ladies bright". The traditional Irish song "Brennan on the Moor" describes an escapade of the "bold, undaunted robber". Adam and the Ants had a number one song for five weeks in 1981 in the UK with "Stand and Deliver". The video featured Adam Ant as an English highwayman.
The contemporary folk song "On the Road to Fairfax County" by David Massengill, recorded by The Roches and by Joan Baez, recounts a romantic encounter between a highwayman and his female victim. In the end, the highwayman is hanged over the objections of his victim.
Musician Jimmy Webb penned and recorded a song entitled "Highwayman" in 1977 about a soul with incarnations in four different places in time and history, a highwayman, a sailor, a construction worker on the Hoover Dam, and finally as a star ship captain. Glen Campbell recorded a version of the song in 1978, but the most popular incarnation of the song was recorded by Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash in 1984, who as a group called themselves The Highwaymen.
The Canadian singer Loreena McKennit adapted the narrative poem, "The Highwayman" written by Alfred Noyes, as a song by the same title in her 1997 album The Book of Secrets.
Cinema and television
The
The highwayman known as
Curro Jiménez, a Spanish TV series which aired from 1976 to 1979, starred a group of 19th-century highwaymen or bandoleros in the mountains of Ronda in the south of Spain.
The lives of numerous Indian highwaymen including Arattupuzha Velayudha Panicker, Ithikkara Pakki, Jambulingam Nadar, Kayamkulam Kochunni and Papadu have been adapted for cinema and television multiple times.
Season two, episode 20, of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, the main villain (voiced by James Marsters) disguises himself as a highwayman.
Films
- The Mark of Zorro (1920)
- Dick Turpin (1925)
- Dick Turpin (1933)
- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
- The Night Riders (1939)
- Frontier Marshal (1939)
- My Little Chickadee (1940)
- Virginia City (1940)
- The Mark of Zorro (1940)
- The Wicked Lady (1945)
- The Loves of Carmen (1948)
- The Lady and the Bandit(1951)
- Bend of the River (1952)
- Son of Paleface (1952)
- The King's Thief (1955)
- The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965)
- Kayamkulam Kochunni (1966)
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
- Robin Hood (1973)
- Carry On Dick (1974)
- The Mark of Zorro (1974)
- Barry Lyndon (1975)
- Kaayamkulam Kochunniyude Makan (1976)
- Joseph Andrews (1977)
- Vellayani Paramu (1979)
- Ronia, the Robber's Daughter (1981)
- Jambulingam (1982)
- The Wicked Lady (1983)
- The Deceivers (1988)
- The Lady and the Highwayman (1989)
- Plunkett & Macleane (1999)
- Kayamkulam Kochunni (2018)
- The Highwaymen (2019)
Video games
In
See also
References
- ^ Rid, Samuel. "Martin Markall, Beadle of Bridewell," in The Elizabethan Underworld, A. V. Judges, ed. pp. 415–416. George Routledge, 1930. Online quotation. See also Spraggs, Gillian: Outlaws and Highwaymen: the Cult of the Robber in England from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century, pp. 107, 169, 190–191. Pimlico, 2001
- ^ Fennor, William. "The Counter's Commonwealth," in The Elizabethan Underworld, p. 446.
- W. Hepworth Dixon, New America, p. 14: "Road-agent is the name applied in the mountains to a ruffian who has given up honest work in the store, in the mine, in the ranch, for the perils and profits of the highway."
- ISBN 0-19-821702-1.
- ^ Beattie, J. M.: Crime and the Courts in England, 1660–1800, pp. 149–158. Clarendon Press, 1986; Extracts from Wilson, Ralph: A Full and Impartial Account of all the Robberies Committed by John Hawkins, George Sympson (lately Executed for Robbing the Bristol Mails) and their Companions. 3rd edition, J. Peele, 1722.
- ^ "Browse – Central Criminal Court". www.oldbaileyonline.org.
- ^ "Trial of John Buckley, Thomas Shenton". www.oldbaileyonline.org.
- ISBN 0-14-022099-2.
- ^ Spraggs, Gillian: Outlaws and Highwaymen: the Cult of the Robber in England from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century, pp. 2–3, 7–8, 255. Pimlico, 2001.
- ^ Dunford, Stephen. The Irish Highwaymen. Merlin Publishing, 2000
- ^ Seal, Graham. The Outlaw Legend: a cultural tradition in Britain, America and Australia, pp. 69–78. Cambridge University Press, 1996.
- ^ Maxwell, Gordon S. : Highwayman's Heath: Story in Fact and Fiction of Hounslow Heath in Middlesex . Heritage Publications, Hounslow Leisure Services, 1994.
- ^ Beattie, J. M.: Crime and the Courts in England, 1660–1800, pp. 155–156. Clarendon Press, 1986; Spraggs, Gillian: Outlaws and Highwaymen: the Cult of the Robber in England from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century, p. 93. Pimlico, 2001. Harper, Charles George: Half-hours with the Highwaymen: picturesque biographies and traditions of the "knights of the road", pp. 245–255. Chapman & Hall, 1908; Online edition of Half-hours with the Highwaymen. via Internet Archive.
- ^ Walford, Leslie (7 March 2011). "Stand and Deliver!". Time & Leisure. Archived from the original on 7 July 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- ISBN 978-0230738782.
- ^ Spraggs, Gillian: Outlaws and Highwaymen: the Cult of the Robber in England from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century, pp. 212–233. Pimlico, 2001
- ^ Alexis de Tocqueville L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution
- ^ McLynn, Frank: Crime and punishment in eighteenth-century England, p. 81. Routledge, 1989.
- ^ Spraggs, Gillian: Outlaws and Highwaymen: the Cult of the Robber in England from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century, p. 234. Pimlico, 2001.
- ^ 'The Enclosure Acts and the Industrial Revolution', Wendy McElroy, 2012
- ^ "SHP History B – Crime and Punishment 1750–1900, 3.3 Highwaymen" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
- ^ "Impact of the Industrial Revolution". Ecology Global Network. 18 September 2011. Archived from the original on 8 January 2020. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
- ISBN 0-582-50601-8.
- ^ Sharpe, James: Dick Turpin: the Myth of the English Highwayman, Chapter 5: 'The Man from Manchester'. Profile Books, 2004
- ^ Spraggs, Gillian: Outlaws and Highwaymen: the Cult of the Robber in England from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century, pp. 237–240. Pimlico, 2001.
- ^ The Newgate Calendar – Bibliographical Note
- ^ "'ഇത്തിക്കര പക്കി'യുടെ കഥ കടം കൊണ്ടു, കടപ്പാടുപോലുമില്ല" [Ithikkara Pakki's story adapted, without courtesy]. Janayugom (in Malayalam). 9 October 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
- ISBN 9788184824940.
- ^ Seal, Graham: The Outlaw Legend: a cultural tradition in Britain, America and Australia, pp. 47–78. Cambridge University Press, 1996.
- ^ Monty Python's Flying Circus Script – Episode 37
- ^ Votruba, Martin: "Hang Him High: The Elevation of Jánošík to an Ethnic Icon." Slavic Review, 65#1, pp. 24–44, 2006. Abstract.
- ISBN 978-0-910366-13-7
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-7478-0260-0
- Billett, Michael (1997). Highwaymen and Outlaws, Weidenfeld Military, ISBN 978-1-85409-318-9
- Brandon, David (2004). Stand and Deliver! A History of Highway Robbery, Sutton Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7509-3528-9
- Dunford, Stephen (2000). The Irish Highwaymen, Merlin Publishing, ISBN 1-903582-02-4
- Evans, Hilary & Mary (1997). Hero on a Stolen Horse: Highwayman and His Brothers-in-arms – The Bandit and the Bushranger, Muller, ISBN 978-0-584-10340-3
- Haining, Peter (1991). The English Highwayman: A Legend Unmasked, Robert Hale, ISBN 978-0-7090-4426-0
- Harper, Charles George (1908). Half-hours with the Highwaymen: picturesque biographies and traditions of the "knights of the road", Chapman & Hall. Online edition, via Internet Archive.
- ISBN 978-1-56584-619-7
- Koliopoulos, John S (1987). Brigands with a Cause, Brigandage and Irredentism in Modern Greece 1821–1912. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822863-9
- Liapi, Lena (2019). "Roguery in Print: Crime and Culture in Early Modern London" Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9781783274406
- Maxwell, Gordon S (1994). Highwayman's Heath: Story in Fact and Fiction of Hounslow Heath in Middlesex , Heritage Publications, Hounslow Leisure Services, ISBN 978-1-899144-00-6
- Newark, Peter (1988). Crimson Book of Highwaymen, Olympic Marketing Corp, ISBN 9789997354792
- Pringle, Patrick (1951). Stand and Deliver: The Story of the Highwaymen, Museum Press, ASIN B0000CHVTK
- Seal, Graham (1996). The Outlaw Legend: a cultural tradition in Britain, America and Australia, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-55740-2(pbk)
- Sharpe, James (2005). Dick Turpin: The Myth of the English Highwayman, Profile Books, ISBN 978-1-86197-418-1
- Spraggs, Gillian (2001). Outlaws and Highwaymen: The Cult of the Robber in England from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century, Pimlico, ISBN 978-0-7126-6479-0
- Sugden, John and Philip (2015). The Thief of Hearts: Claude Duval and the Gentleman Highwayman in Fact and Fiction, Forty Steps, ISBN 978-0-9934183-0-3
External links
Media related to Highwaymen at Wikimedia Commons
- The Heroic Outlaw in Irish Folklore and Popular Literature
- Primary source book from 1674 on aspects of Highwaymen, their customs and their crimes - Jackson's Recantation; or, the Life and Death of the Notorious Highwayman