A
highwayman was a
robber who preyed on travelers, particularly one who traveled by
horse; those who robbed on foot were called
footpads. Mounted robbers were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads. Such robbers operated in
Great Britain and
Ireland from the
Elizabethan era until the early 19th century.
The word highwayman is first attested from the year 1617; other
euphemisms included "knights of the road" and "gentlemen of the road." In the 19th century
American West, highwaymen were known as
road agents. In the same time period in Australia, they were known as
bushrangers.
Robbers as heroes
There is a long history of treating highway robbers as heroes. Originally they were admired by many because they were considered to be bold men who confronted their victims face-to-face and were ready to fight for what they wanted. The most famous English robber hero is the legendary medieval
outlaw Robin Hood. Later robber heroes included the
Cavalier highwayman
James Hind, the
debonair French highwayman
Claude Du Vall,
John Nevison,
Dick Turpin and 'Sixteen-Jack' (
John Rann) and the Slovak
Juraj Jánošík.
Some highwaymen were remembered as Robin Hood-like figures who robbed those who were wealthy and helped people who were poor.
Modus operandi
Some highwaymen robbed alone, but others operated in pairs or in small gangs. They often targeted
coaches, including public
stagecoaches; the
post-boys who carried the mail were also frequently
held up. The famous demand to '
Stand and deliver!' (sometimes in forms such as 'Stand and deliver your purse!' or 'Stand and deliver your money!') was in use from the 17th century.
A fellow of a good Name, but poor Condition, and worse Quality, was Convicted for laying an Embargo on a man whom he met on the Road, by bidding him Stand and Deliver, but to little purpose; for the Traveller had no more Money than a Capuchin, but told him, all the treasure he had was a pound of Tobacco, which he civilly surrendered. (The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 25 April 1677)
The phrase '
Your money or your life' is mentioned in trial reports from the middle of the eighteenth 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)
Dangerous places
Highwaymen often lay in wait on the main roads radiating from
London. They usually chose lonely areas of
heathland or woodland.
Hounslow Heath was a favorite haunt: it was crossed by the roads to
Bath and
Exeter. Bagshot Heath in
Surrey was another dangerous place on the road to Exeter. One of the most notorious places in England was
Shooter's Hill on the Great Dover Road.
Finchley Common, on the Great North Road, was very nearly as bad. Many other places could be mentioned.
Executions
The penalty for
robbery with violence was
hanging, and most notorious highwaymen ended on the
gallows. The chief place of execution for London and
Middlesex was
Tyburn. Famous highwaymen who ended their lives there included
Claude Du Vall,
James MacLaine, and
Sixteen-string Jack. Highwaymen who could go to the gallows laughing and joking, or at least showing no fear, are said to have been admired by many of the people who came to watch.
Decline
After about 1815 mounted robbers are recorded only rarely.
The last recorded robbery by a mounted highwayman occurred during 1831.
The development of the
railways is sometimes cited as a factor, but highwaymen were already obsolete before the railway network was built. A very important factor was the expansion of the system of
turnpikes, manned and gated
toll-roads, which made it all but impossible for a highwayman to escape notice while making his getaway. At the same time, London was 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. A greater use of
banknotes, more traceable than gold coins, also made life more difficult for robbers.
Enclosure, and with it the decline in undeveloped open fields and increase in private incentives to regulate trespassers, may also have played a role.
Irish highwaymen
In 17th, 18th and early 19th century Ireland acts of robbery were often part of a tradition of popular resistance to British
colonial rule and settlement and
Protestant domination. From the mid-17th century, Irish bandits who harassed the British were known as 'tories' (from Irish
tórai, raider). Later in the century they became known as '
rapparees'. Famous Irish highwaymen included
James Freney, Willie Brennan and Jeremiah Grant.
Highwaymen in Hungary
The highwaymen of 18th and 19th century
Kingdom of Hungary were the
betyárs. Up to 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. The most famous Hungarian betyárs were
Rózsa Sándor and
Sobri Jóska.
Juraj Jánošík (
Hungarian Jánosik György) is still regarded as the Slovakian
Robin Hood.
Highwaymen in literature and popular culture
thumb|270px|right|Dick Turpin riding Black Bess, from a Victorian toy theatre.In
Shakespeare's King Henry IV Part I Sir John Falstaff is a highwayman, and part of the action of the play concerns a robbery committed by him and his companions. Apart from Falstaff, the most famous highwayman in
English drama is
Captain Macheath, hero of
John Gay's 18th-century
ballad opera The Beggar's Opera. The modern legend of Dick Turpin owes an enormous amount to
Rookwood (1834), in which a heavily fictionalised Turpin is one of the main characters.
Alfred Noyes's narrative poem 'The Highwayman' has been immensely popular ever since its publication in 1906.
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.
From the early 18th century collections of short 'lives' 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
'Newgate Calendar' in their titles and this has become a general name for this kind of publication.
The highwayman known as
Juraj Jánošík (1688–1713) became a hero of so many folk legends in the
Slovak, Czech, and Polish cultures by the 19
th century that hundreds of
literary works about him have since been published. The first
Slovak feature film was
Jánošík, made in 1921, followed by seven more Slovak and Polish
films about him.
In the later 19th century highwaymen such as
Dick Turpin were the heroes of a number of
'penny dreadfuls', stories for boys published in serial form. In the 20th century the handsome highwayman became a
stock character in historical love romances, including books by
Baroness Orczy and
Georgette Heyer.
The
Carry On films included a highwayman spoof in
Carry On Dick (1974). The
Monty Python team sent up the highwayman legends in the
Dennis Moore sketch in episode 37 of
Monty Python's Flying Circus. In
Blackadder the Third,
Mr. Edmund Blackadder turns highwayman in the episode
Amy and Amiability. In the British children's television series
Dick Turpin, starring
Richard O'Sullivan, the highwayman was depicted as an 18th-century Robin Hood figure.
The traditional Irish song
Whiskey in the Jar tells the story of an Irish highwayman that 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.'"
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 (see and ).
Highwaymen in films
List of highwaymen
See also
