How A Royalist Became The Most Feared Highwayman In Britain | Britain's Outlaws | Absolute History

i'm alice loxton and i present documentaries over on history hit tv if you're passionate about all things history sign up to history hit tv it's like netflix but just for history we've got hours of ad-free documentaries about all aspects of the past you can get a huge discount from history hit tv make sure you check out the details below and use the code absolute history all one word when you sign up now on with the show [Music] for a period in the 17th and 18th centuries crime was endemic on the open roads robbers robbed with impunity on the high seas pirates roamed felons robbed burgled and cheated [Music] across the country there was no established police force and although the ultimate penalty was death who was there to enforce it in this series i want to explore the world of the british outlaw the original anti-hero in an age of swashbuckle daring and style and no outlaw was more glamorous romantic and glorified than the highwayman the masked horseback robber who stole hard cash and admirers hearts in pursuit of a merry life and a short one [Music] most people think of the highwayman as an underworld figure perhaps an 18th century rogue like dick turpin but their origins lie much earlier with the fall from grace of the king's men and the rise of gentleman robbers in the english civil war the brutal conflict that erupted in the 1640s as the country tore itself apart a maelstrom of violence disorder and distrust created the perfect conditions for outlaws to thrive the royalists had lost king charles was executed great houses were devastated in battle suddenly thousands of experienced military men were unemployed and angry some decided their best chance of survival was to take to the roads we would now call high women under cromwell's rule reports began to emerge of lawlessness on the roads on a scale never before seen fantastical stories appeared of outlaws men whose political beliefs had failed them and who now sought glory in a life of crime these were military-trained sharpshooters who found themselves on the losing side there had been highway robbery for as long as there had been roads but this well this was something different it became a menace that marked the age and lent a new air of romance to crime for these outlaws were motivated by principles as much as money former soldiers who clung to a broken sense of honour mixed with thievery men like captain james hind in 1651 hind was dragged out from a london barber shop and arrested by heavily armed soldiers a wanted man he had been living under an alias for months until his hiding place was betrayed he was taken to newgate prison and clapped in irons hind was a passionate royalist and he had already fought and lost in the name of the crown but he was already well known for a very different reason because hind was the most notorious outlaw highwayman in britain and his fame was about to explode described as the unparalleled thief the stories about him were almost unbelievable hind was born in oxfordshire in 1616. he wasn't a nobleman but his family were respected and comfortably well off for the young james education held little appeal so eventually his father apprenticed him to a butcher hoping he would take to an honest trade after falling foul of his master's violent temper once too often the teenager decided to run away and he headed to london to seek his fortune now in the eyes of some the capital was a place that corrupted with vice and sin but for a man like hind it simply offered the best entertainment around it wasn't long before the young hind fell into bad company he was arrested whilst drunk in the arms of a prostitute and thrown into a jail called the poultry compta in this grim and filthy dungeon one inmate stood out from all the rest thomas allen an experienced highwayman and gang leader after their release the two decided to join forces but first the inexperienced hind needed to prove himself a worthy partner as the gang hid he was sent out on his first robbery they chose an ambush site at shooters hill on the outskirts of london and waited until a gentleman and his servant came by traveling alone if hind was nervous he didn't show it with pistols drawn he demanded money and the gentleman in fear of his life handed over 10 pounds a healthy sum for a first attempt but then something unusual happened it was said that hind took pity on the man he had just robbed he put his hand back in the purse took out 20 shillings and gave it back to the man saying it was for his travel expenses it was an act that marked him out as something different handing back money was a calculated display of gallantry and it piqued allen's interest hind quickly became his second in command his reputation was set as a principled and gentlemanly robber hind had star quality but the politics of civil war were never far away hind and alan's gang had sworn odes as royalists and began to single out parliamentarians the list of hein's supposed victims reads like a who's who of the roundhead regime one day as he traveled through dorset hind spotted a chance to ambush john bradshaw the judge who had actually condemn king charles to death knowing that his name now struck fear into the hearts of men hind put his pistol to bradshaw's head and demanded his money with particular venom i fear neither you nor any killing son of a alive i have now as much power over you as you lately had over the king judge bradshaw placed a trembling hand into his pocket and drew out a mere 40 shillings in silver the high highwayman was distinctly unimpressed and swore that he'd shoot him through the heart there and then if he didn't find coin of another species with his life hanging in the balance the judge handed over a purse full of gold instead after a lecture on the immorality of parliament's cause hind shot all six of the coach horses dead stories like these whether real or imagined were used by writers to question the legitimacy of parliament's authority but there's more because while these robberies of the great and the good burnished his reputation he also became known as something of a robin hood figure a highwayman with a conscience after running short of money hind held up a farmer who was on his way to market to buy his wife and 10 children a cow the farmer begged him not to take his meager 40 shillings as it was all he had and had taken him two years to scrimp together hind was desperate and took it anyway but the farmer was repaid double and extra a week later when true to his word the highwayman returned to pay him back it was all good pr but simple farmers weren't enough to make a legend hind craved infamy in several accounts of his life there's a story of an attack that proved to be the hind gang's undoing on oliver cromwell himself they launched their assault as cromwell's coach left huntington it's unclear if it was meant to be a simple robbery or an assassination but he was heavily guarded and the attack went horribly wrong thomas allen and several of his men were captured and executed and hind barely managed to escape with his life he went on the run riding his horse until it dropped and eventually returning to the anonymity of his old haunts in london in the end hind was betrayed by one of his fellow royalists a former soldier recognized him and reported him to the speaker of the house of commons hind by now had some very powerful enemies he was already well known but now something extraordinary happened he became a celebrity the length and breadth of the country during the civil war there was a boom in the production of printed material pine's exploits were published in a rich tapestry of pamphlets ballard songs chat books poems and broadsheets published at a prodigious rate and all claiming to relate his true words and story hind is the first figure to my knowledge who becomes a celebrated criminal the political changes and the war were accompanied by a massive upsurge in print so what we're looking at with hind is two things it's the historical circumstances that make a highwayman-like hound possible and it's also the emergence of print culture to a greater degree than before these printed works were something like early tabloids their authors were untroubled with journalistic accuracy and the readers didn't really care either these weren't just morality tales nor were they bland official accounts these stories were colorful they were exciting they were designed to entertain in the press hind embodied the idea of the jovial cavalier resisting against the daoa puritans while the regime was busy banning christmas he's out there enjoying himself it's not through prayer and hard work he's drinking carousing and having adventures now in the imagination the highwayman is gallant he's principled and he's damn good fun from his jail cell hind actually denied many of the stories attributed to him in the pulp press when asked about some of the pamphlets written about him he answered that they were fictions before adding but some merry pranks and rebels i have played that i deny not but none of that mattered the regime simply could not let hind become a rallying point for royalist sympathisers they wanted him dead the authorities were having none of it hind wasn't just any royalist soldier he'd fought alongside the future charles ii right to the end he was taken to worcester the scene of charles ii's last battle where he was tried and convicted for treason hind would suffer a traitor's death he was hung drawn and quartered his head displayed on a spike above the bridge over the seven despite hein's gruesome end the horse had already bolted highwaymen were a menace on the roads but their stories were best sellers technology was on the highwayman's side the printing press made them famous and the civil war flooded the country with a revolutionary invention that allowed them to flourish the flintlock pistol this weapon made the highwayman's signature surprise attack much easier what were the advantages of this type of weapon for the highwayman the flintlock gave the highwayman the chance to have his weapon all primed and ready to go and then in his coat the best way to really understand the advantages of the flintlock is to look what had to be used before this is a match lock and this is the match hence the match lock and for this to be ready to fire that has to be glowing red there's no way you could load this and then go about your business with it ready to use it's as powerful as anything that came later but if you like it's it's fire by appointment how does the flintlock work well three key components in a flintlock the which is this piece here which holds the flint the frison which is what the spark comes from and the pan so to make this work you would go back to half which is where we are there you would pour powder in the pan and then close the frison and then the final thing to make it go you go back to full and when you pull the trigger that piece of flint flies forward drags down the frison scraping off little bits of metals red hot sparks and then a few sparks and flame from the pan goes into the barrel and sets off the main charge what sort of range did they fire over the pistols particularly would have been effective over a short range they were designed to hit a man-sized target at a range perhaps not that much greater than an arm's length plus a sword on the chin he'll be staggering around now wouldn't he after the civil war amidst a flood of weapons and desperate men roaming the nation highway robbery became an epidemic each infamous figure took the myth to a new level and the state wasn't ready the age of the highwayman had arrived on the lonely 17th century roads you never knew who was lurking in the shadows just outside of the city's towns and villages england was like the wild west vast swathes of countryside stretched across the landscape there was no police force and out here law and order of any description had very little reach people and possessions could simply vanish highwaymen swarmed around wealth their main hunting grounds were the arterial king's roads that headed out from the major cities especially london carrying the richest members of society a few miles from the capital and you were a sitting duck highwaymen lay in wait around areas like hounslow heath shooters hill and the great north road which all became notorious robbery hot spots travel was expensive coach passengers by definition were wealthy and so they were frequently targeted but high women saw everyone on the road as fair game to make matters worse the roads of the period were terrible deep rutted in summer and impassable quagmires in winter they were little more than trackways badly maintained and cursed by those who traveled on them the rough countryside terrain worked to the highwayman's advantage coaches plodded along at around five miles per hour on a good road slower on a poor one hills were particularly dangerous because coaches were forced to slow down which made them an ideal location for ambush heathland and forests provided plenty of cover for robbers to hide and urban centers were an ideal location to lie low [Music] after the death of cromwell the english republic fell apart and in 1660 charles ii was brought to england to take the throne the time of disgruntled royalist highwaymen running right around the countryside came to an end they had been valiant losers in the new order but the monarchy was back jubilant royalists returned home triumphant with the new king they were extravagant and hedonistic and they brought someone with them claude duvall the man who gave highwayman's sex appeal he was from normandy and worked as a footman to an exiled english aristocrat footmen were expected to be good shots and keen horsemen with a reputation for halter and insolence being a footman was a great training for being a high women because you were base essentially an armed guard to protect the noble family that you worked for you were chosen for your height and good looks so the kind of glamour was written into it very fast runners um sure shots because they were trained to fire i mean it was almost like training someone to be a highwayman restoration aristocrats were a bunch of dissolute hedonists their french style fashion was elaborately decadent and debauchery was positively encouraged all of which rubbed off on their entourage duval would have been described as a popinjay for his fashionable french clothes and he soon gained a reputation for fine living he was an insatiable drinker womanizer and gambler but this was a lifestyle that he simply couldn't afford now for a man with an ego like duvals getting a proper job was simply out of the question so instead he turned highwayman unlike hind duval wasn't interested in politics he robbed simply to keep the party going he became a thief with style to match his daring with duval panache was added to the highwayman legend soon enough duval found his way to the top of the nation's wanted list with a reward of 20 pounds offered for his capture he robbed travellers and royal officials anyone with money that came his way this was a highwayman with no pretence to any social mission he doesn't seem to have had any scruples about robbing from the poor robin hood he was not on one occasion duval and an accomplice came across two gentlemen and their servants engaging them in conversation they then robbed every penny from the servants without even bothering to search their wealthy employers [Applause] but there was a particular theme in the tales of duvall's career that really made his name and that was his pursuit of women he gained a reputation for gallantry particularly for returning keepsakes or trinkets to women after he'd robbed them he was as keen on stealing their heart as their money this persona is perfectly captured in an 1860 painting by william frith of an encounter on hounslow heath with duvall it was your money or your wife duval's gang held up a coach carrying a gentleman and his wife with the enormous sum of 400 pounds on board as the gang approached the lady played a tune on her flagele to show she wasn't scared duval was intrigued after complimenting the man on his wife's musical skills he asked if she danced as well as she played and if the gent would allow her to dance with him surrounded by pistols it's perhaps unsurprising that the husband promptly agreed leaping down from his horse duval and the lady danced the kurant together while his cronies play music to accompany them of course duval is as skilled with his feet as he is with his blade and when the dance is over he hands his dancing partner back into the coach duval then takes a hundred pounds from her husband as payment for the music but excuses him from the remaining three hundred pounds for being a good sport the incident really sums up what duval's all about there's swashbuckle and ladies going weak at the knees when devours around but that's exactly what he brought the idea of the highwayman romance a bit of dash and sexual freeson in the end it was duvall's hedonistic lifestyle that brought him down to celebrate a successful robbery he stopped off at the pub the frenchman had a reputation for being handy with sword and pistol but by the time a bailiff arrived to arrest him he was legless too drunk to resist he was thrown into newgate jail to await his fate at his trial well-placed ladies of the court tried to intervene for a reprieve but it was to no avail claude duvall was found guilty and sentenced to hang duval road to the gallows in 1670 watched by thousands of women from duchesses to prostitutes he was 27. [Music] for the poor he was an iconic figure a rock star criminal a glamorous gangster through duvall they could escape the status of their birth even if in fantasy for the nobility he added a touch of danger and excitement to their world it would have been a thrill to have been robbed by him writers recounting duvall's adventures often did so to express concern about the restoration elite that they were dissolute and robbing the public to pay for their excess some thought they were less interested in ruling than womanizing and gambling there was also the feeling that courtly manners were becoming feminized and even worse french all of which was a nasty foreign corruption of good old english morality one of the interesting things about claude duvall is that he kind of reflects the society that produced him he likes women and gambling and dancing and presumably all the other vices of the court of charles ii and so he's he's a focus for criticism of charles ii's court frith's painting of duvall captures the moment of a hold-up in a way that instantly mythologizes it duval is at the center being all gallant whilst his less respectable sidekicks do the rest he's got the clothes the style and the mask [Music] highwaymen were noted for dressing like the wealthy gentleman of the day this was partly out of vanity but partly to blend in with the well-to-do passengers crime was considered the province of the poor so dressing this way was intended to allay suspicion every highwayman had a different approach to disguise some accounts mentioned that some highwaymen pulled their periwigs down to cover their eyes or more bizarrely tucked their tails into their mouths others wore their hats pulled down low wore false beards or simply did nothing at all a risky and cocky approach the famous tricorn hat arrived around 1700 but what about that iconic black mask well we know that some highwaymen did wear a mask but by far the most common disguise was a simple scarf as important as choosing their disguise was selecting the right victims the best operators carefully gathered intelligence on prime targets in 1674 an obscure highwayman named francis jackson recorded his adventures in a confessional pamphlet if jackson hoped it would give him a reprieve he was wrong and he was hanged but its value to us today is that he's left us a kind of highwayman's manual a how-to guide for robbery on the road in his book jackson explains how highwayman had a spy network working throughout the coaching inns and taverns that dotted the landscape everyone was involved from the landlords to the stable hands each getting a cut of the profits for a good tip-off he also explained how highwaymen employed deception and confidence tricks building false familiarity with potential victims ingratiating themselves into fellow travellers company before attacking and jackson also had advice for those who got caught to procure mercy from the bench there must be a plausible account given how you fell into this course of life fetching a deep sigh saying that you were well born but by reason of your family falling into decay you were exposed to great want and rather than shamefully beg for you knew not how to labor you were constrained to take this course for a subsistence that it is your first fault which you are heartily sorry for and will never attempt the like again most interestingly of all i think he also has advice for travellers never say goodbye and never reveal your destination in case a highwayman is listening also never travel on a sunday because the roads are deserted and the authorities won't help then there was the robbery itself the riskiest part of the venture for all concerned to minimize the risks highwaymen often worked in gangs and they developed strategies to make robberies go smoothly sometimes they simply chatted to the driver before pulling a gun but if that wasn't an option there was the direct approach an ambush one of the gang would approach directly from the front with pistol drawn to hold up the driver attacking head-on shielded him from the passengers inside who might be armed and it allowed him to make sure the driver surrendered a second highwayman would head for the passengers he might approach from directly behind the coach minimizing the chance of getting shot from the rear or side window he would then threaten or charm the passengers guttural threats of violence alternating with witty provocations both intended to coerce victims into handing over their goods without resistance then the gang made their escape to prevent pursuit or out of spite they would sometimes cut the bridles or kill the horses finally they would flee into a busy city or head to a friendly inn and establish an alibi escape and evading the law were vital skills in highway robbery in highwayman legend the greatest of all escape tales belonged to the robbers of the great north road and they don't come any more sensational than those of john neverson years before dick turpin he became famous for his ingenious and daring escapes this is the peak district in derbyshire john neverson's stomping ground it's the ideal environment for high women [Music] in reality neversome was a bit of a thug he operated protection rackets on the routes to the markets down south he took money not from wealthy aristocrats but from drovers from butchers from shopkeepers he was also a horse thief and a murderer killing a parish constable sent to arrest him neverson was a hard man he was also a survivor like many high women stories it's unclear what's true and what is just a good yarn but neverson's legend was full of incredible escape routines in 1674 he broke out of wakefield jail before charges could be brought a few years later he was sentenced to transportation and hopped before it left the docks but he wasn't done yet according to the new gate calendar in 1681 the law caught up with him again and he was sent to leicester jail but this time escaped seemed impossible his escapades were well known and it was reported that he was so elaborately shackled that he could scarcely move to get out of this one he'd need a plan with a new level of cunning and a little bit of help from his friends the first step was to get out of the closely guarded cell he did this by feigning a deadly sickness and calling for his friends to pay their last respects one of whom was a physician on his arrival his friend declared that neverson had the plague and he would infect the whole prison wardens included if he was not isolated nevison was moved and unshackled and the guards kept their distance then he brought in an artist who set about painting the fatal symptoms of plague all over his body his physician friend then gave him a sleeping draft and they claimed he was dead after a cursory examination from his jailers who were too scared to get close his friends were allowed to come and claim his body and take it away in a coffin he was soon up on his feet however only this time as a highwayman robbing as his own ghost which made him even more terrifying to his victims but there was another highwayman on the north road with an escape story that became even more famous known as swift knicks a shadowy figure nicknamed for being as fast as the devil himself the story goes that he relieved a debt collector of 500 pounds near rochester one morning but he was worried that the victim would be able to identify him in court now a lesser man might have killed the collector but swift nix decided on a more elaborate alibi he decided to ride the 230 miles to york in one day a feat then considered impossible after hatching his plan he sped off tearing through chelmsford and cambridge before hearing up the great north road riding several horses into the ground he arrived in york around 7 30 and changing into his finest clothes he finally arrived breathless at its destination a bowling green swift nick stepped onto the green and exchanged pleasantries with the mayor who would later swear that he'd been his guest that evening and couldn't possibly have been in kent that very morning this story was later attributed to dick turpin riding black bess but the original was swift knicks but all of these stories whether true or not tell us what people wanted to see in their highway mode they needed to be charming generous and clever you'd have thought that a game of bowls was a way of staying out of jail there was little to actually stop highwaymen plying their trade the state was small and its ability to control the population was limited which meant it reacted to crimes but did not try to prevent them fear of brutal punishment was supposed to keep criminals in check law enforcement was a localized affair constables were unpaid amateurs whose job it was to keep the peace and occasionally arrest villains if they didn't look too dangerous in london watchmen were tasked with keeping some sense of peace in the disorderly city watchmen were hired by the parish to walk around at night like the constables they're seen as pretty and effectual quite often paid off quite often old men you know it's a job you give to someone who's retiring kind of thing and so they're they're all in most cases they're seen as laughably inefficient perhaps the main hindrance to a highwayman early on seems to have been the hue and cry a posse of regular citizens gathered by their victims to hunt them down eventually though it was a change in the law that posed the biggest threat to highwayman as the 18th century dawned by this time it was acknowledged that things had got completely out of control but the aristocracy who ran the state had no interest in founding a police force it had more than a little whiff of french tyranny and expense about it justice was about making the legal penalties stronger rather than prevention they wanted to use the law to bring down the knights of the road the high women's act came into force in 1693 and you've got relatively wealthy people being robbed in inaccessible places by men on horseback so their getaway was pretty easy and the detection was pretty unlikely so they offered rewards to people who apprehended high women the other section of course was to try and turn criminals against criminals get grasses so if you are convicted of a robbery and therefore you were facing the death penalty yourself if you were prepared to turn queen's evidence and shop at least two of your confederates you would receive a pardon for the robberies that you had committed any private citizen could bring in a highwayman if they dared but taking them to court wasn't simple it was their victims who had to pay for a prosecution and provide evidence for many it simply wasn't worth it these were not meant to cross lightly when one highwayman couldn't get a ring off his victim's hand he cut off her finger when another swallowed her jewellery to keep it safe so the robber cut her open and when their identity was threatened they could be particularly ruthless on one occasion a local woman witnessed a robbery and called out that she recognized the robbers and that she would report them they turned around and cut out her tongue but there were also some instructive accounts of victims fighting back against their attackers including an incident with two highwaymen at the surrey village of ripley their victims alerted the local population who chased their attackers across a village green into the middle of a game of cricket now one of the attackers managed to escape but the other was beaten into submission with cricket bat and stumps whatever the truth about their methods as the 1700s progressed highwaymen's stories became an increasingly popular form of entertainment as their fame grew so did the sense of romance around the idea of who they were and what they stood for in 1714 captain alexander smith's book the complete history of the lives and robberies of the most notorious highwayman caused a sensation set the bar for colorful and slightly dubious accounts of the big names in highway robbery but whilst the public might find them romantic the elite weren't so keen they represented a threat to the social order not only were they attacking property with impunity without any regard to the rank of their victims but the robberies were giving them wealth and pretensions of status to satirists there was a delicious irony to the howls of outrage about highwaymen for them politicians in the georgian government were even worse thieves in 1728 john gay penned the beggar's opera using a highwayman called mcheath as a central character in his stage satire mcheath was the theatrical incarnation of the gentleman robber but he wasn't the villain of the peace he was moral he was noble and it was set against the rapaciousness of the elite his character was used to dissect the hypocrisy of the ruling classes who were losing more at the gambling tables than they were on the roads then there was the corruption in john gay's eyes highwaymen were more honest thieves than the government the ruling class were committing robberies of their own but they were getting away with it prime minister robert walpole spirited away thousands of pounds and when the chancellor the earl of macclesfield took a hundred thousand pounds in bribes all he got was a fine the highwayman epidemic was a sign of the times britain was becoming a modern state commerce and capitalism were accelerating rapidly leaving the old order behind high women have been said to symbolize this process as upwardly mobile ruthless and heavily profit-oriented highwaymen stole because they wanted the money to support their lifestyle and didn't want to work for it but there was still a sense that there were good and bad thieves in england criminality had its own hierarchy and right at the top were high women many even considered themselves gentlemen none more so than james maclean he was the son of a wealthy scottish clergyman with connections not quite a gentleman but not far off he was raised to become a merchant but early on it was clear that he had a better eye for fine clothes than business mclean was also a hopeless gambler and fritted away a considerable inheritance eternally on the scrounge he then moved to london to find himself a rich wife he quickly married a tradesman's daughter and used her 500 pound dowry to set up a grocer's shop for a while it looked like he'd turned his life around [Music] when his wife died it quickly became clear that she had been the one running the business mclean was clueless so he sold up and packed his kids off to their grandparents with his remaining funds he then bought expensive clothes began to mingle in high society in an attempt to bag himself a wealthy wife but he had no luck and soon the money ran out mclean had become desperate when he met a man named william plunkett now he was an apothecary and a fellow bankrupt and he suggested that they start up a new business together setting up shop as highwayman plunkett recognized that mclean's gentlemanly pretensions might actually come in handy expressing sympathy for his plight plunkett urged mclean to join him on the roads i thought maclean thou had spirit and resolution with some knowledge of the world a brave man cannot want he has a right to live and need not want the conveniences of life while the dull plodding busy knaves carry cash in their pockets we must draw upon them to supply our wants their need only impudence and getting the better of a few silly scruples ah there's scarce courage necessary their ruse was simple but effective while mclean mingled with the great and the good plunkett posed as his footman which gave him access below stairs where he could get information from the staff and so with mclean listening upstairs and plunk it downstairs loose lips would provide juicy targets maclean though was a bit of a coward during a hold up plunkett sent him to stop the drive of a coach while he searched the passengers but maclean's courage failed him trembling with fear he tried several times but just couldn't do it and plunkett had to step in but eventually maclean got the hang of it until one incident made them the talk of the town in hyde park they held up the coach of horus walpole the prime minister's son and gothic novelist who soon found himself in a horror story of his own the ever nervous maclaine was collecting the passengers valuables when his gun went off by accident nearly blowing off walpole's head and severely scorching the shocked man's cheek after profuse apologies maclean gathered the goods and they scarfed true to his gentlemanly credentials and mortified mclean wrote to walpole the next day to apologize and to try and sell him his own belongings back mclean became known as the gentleman highwayman and by reputation he was courteous to a fault finally he got to live as he'd always seen himself a high flyer mixing with the very best people in society and then inevitably it all went wrong the blundering duo robbed the salisbury stagecoach relieving lord egglington of his purse and blunderbuss and a wealthy passenger named josiah higdon of his clothes and expensive fabrics maclean then tried to sell some of the stolen goods firstly he went to a lace maker with some of josiah higdon's golden lace but unluckily for him it was exactly the same lace maker who had just sold it to higdon after narrowly escaping that encounter mclean was arrested higdon recognized his stolen property in the local shop where mclean had eventually sold it and unbelievably had left his name and address he'd been caught red-handed plunkett fled never to be seen again mclean was sent to jail where he became a celebrity inmate three thousand people paid his jailers to visit him including several of the aristocratic circle he had been so desperate to court being unable to tell a common criminal apart from a gentleman posed a threat to the social order and mclean's story was used as a dire warning but status was important to criminals whilst in jail mclean apparently wrote a treatise published after his death that attempted to distinguish the types of crime he committed from those of other mere criminals highway robbers were considered a gentleman of the road in order to be a high woman you had to have the accoutrements he had to have a horse he had to be able to feed the horse he had to have a saddle well i suppose you could nick those but more often or not you inherited those because you came from that sort of class and you had to be able to ride and not everyone could ride a horse but the gentry could or the well-off or better off could highwaymen were no doubt at the top of the criminal hierarchy they got to ride at the front of the cart to execution at tyburn a highwayman mclean insisted would only ever rob the rich whereas the lowly footpath had little nobility in his work standing at tyburn tree mclean faced his end as he had carried out his career his last words as he saw the gallows oh jesus all of the colorful tales of the high women age were later taken and distilled into the story of one man dick turpin popular culture down the centuries would embellish and exalt his legend through entertaining yarns but lurking behind the glamorous turpin of myth was a real man with a far darker story [Music] turpin's real life was probably more typical of the average highwayman he was a braggart a bully and a coward violence was his modus operandi not gallantry like the royalist robber james hind he trained as a butcher with a shop in essex butchery was a respectable profession but feeling the pinch in changing times turpin's downward spiral began when he started selling meat for a dodgy gang of poachers when the law got involved he left his business and joined his suppliers the gregory gang soon however even poaching became too risky so ironically they turned to something that they thought would be safer armed robbery there was no glamour or panache to these outlaws the gang was ruthless with a reputation for violence torture and rape far from the cheeky and respected thieves of popular fiction they were housebreakers who preyed on the defenseless and they were perfectly prepared to carry out their threats beating burning and slashing their victims the gang turned house robbery and in early 1735 this gang attacks an isolated farmhouse in edgeware which was in a village on the outskirts of london which involves torturing a 70 year old man who is the householder to get him to reveal where valuables in the house are hidden uh this involves sitting on the fire bear buttocks whipping him while this is going on one of the leaders of the gang is upstairs raping and made a pistol point now these are not folk heroes the gang was eventually brought down by a justice of the peace and turpin fled but one of their members had been captured and confessed everything and he even gave a description of turpin now a wanted man richard turpin a butcher by trade is a tall fresh-coloured man very marked with the smallpox about 26 years of age about 5 feet 9 inches high wears a blue grey coat and a light natural wig after a time on the run turpin ended up in epping forest a busy route from london it provided the perfect location for his transformation into a highwayman and an ideal hiding place for a man with a price on his head for a short time turpin and his small gang of associates were prolific thieves but inevitably they got greedy turpin spotted a horse that he thought looked much finer than his own and forced the owner to hand it over at gunpoint it was to be his downfall the horse was an expensive race horse named white stockings for the white marks on its lower legs and it wasn't long before the horse and turpin were tracked down they were found at a pub in white chapel a local constable was summoned and a posse raised to set an ambush in the ensuing melee one of his gang was shot and mortally wounded accounts differ as to who pulled the trigger and why some reports say that turpin fired in order to silence his colleague others say he was trying to free him either way his luck was running out as the noose tightened turpin's notoriety came back to haunt him eager to claim the large reward on his head a forest keeper's servant thomas morris set out to capture him but turpin wasn't going to go quietly and he shot morris dead the reward was raised to 200 pounds turpin resurfaced in yorkshire and changed his name to john palmer he then became a horse dealer the 18th century equivalent of a second-hand car salesman and of course all of palmer's horses were stolen for a few years he blended in gaining a measure of respectability and friendship in the local area but then after a hunting trip with some locals the man everyone knew was john palmer made a bizarre and fatal mistake to the utter bewilderment of the hunting party he took out his pistol and blew the head off one of his landlords chickens then when a neighbour complained palmer threatened to do the same to him a constable was summoned and john palmer was sent to the local jail the authorities began to suspect that there was more to this strange john palmer chap no one knew anything about him before he arrived a few years earlier or how he earned a living from his accent he clearly wasn't local enquiries were made in lincolnshire where john palmer had lived before and sure enough they recognized the man he'd been arrested for the theft of livestock and horses and had since escaped realizing they had a bigger case on their hands they brought him here to york jail but they still didn't know his true identity in 1739 the man known as john palmer wrote a letter to his brother-in-law pompa rivenal back in essex asking for his help but when rivenal looked at the letter he claimed not to know anyone from york and refused to pay the postal charge by a bewildering coincidence the letter was seen by a man called james smith the very man who had taught richard turpin how to write recognizing the handwriting he went straight to the authorities john palmer had been rumbled at yorker sizes in 1739 richard turpin was put on trial for horse theft despite repeated denials of the trial john palmer was identified as dick turpin and he was found guilty when asked by the judge why he had failed to bring any character witnesses to his defense turpin said that he had been told that his trial would be moved to essex and that he was unable to bring anyone here where he was a stranger it seemed he never even expected it to get this far in the end turpin was condemned as a simple horse thief and he was hanged here at york racecourse and in an irony that can't have escaped him the hangman was a fellow highwayman who'd been spared the noose for carrying out the day's executions [Music] perhaps the only act that turpin carried out that was anything close to the legend was when he was standing on the cart with the noose around his neck and he stamped his shaking leg until it was still and then he jumped off into oblivion before he could be pushed during his life turpin was reviled by walpole's whig administration he was ammunition for their opponents who suggested that they were not being tough enough on law and order but the public would remember men like turpin differently as memories of the real man faded the myth took over a few decades after his death turpin reappeared in song as a much rehabilitated character [Music] behind oh as they were riding past the military commands him to stand still he says your cloak [Music] wow [Music] it's such a fantastic song but it's one of so many about hi women why was it so popular well people just love to have their own rogue their own super villain especially their own local one and someone to stand up to authority when you look at it as a historian it's very clear that the myth and the reality are not the same and in real life these people were very unpleasant they were violent armed robbers often when these ballads were originally sold they were telling the news they told the truth so they would say what actually happened to these characters usually hung but as soon as these songs got into the mouths of the people the stories were very different and usually they'd get away scot-free the songs took these legends around the country and if you had a fantastic story coupled with a really catchy tune then that's just going to spread like wildfire in the early 1800s captivated by the old tales of highwayman was a young writer called william harrison ainsworth it was largely through his writing that dick turpin and all highwaymen came to be the heavily romanticized mythical robes we know today through ainsworth's 1834 novel rookwood turpin became associated with black bess and the famous escape ride to york he was remodeled with the virtues of an 1830s gentleman fit for a new age an icon of englishness and manly imperial pride with ainsworth highwaymen were transformed from the exciting but ultimately doomed criminal to the fantasy hero of boyzone adventures but the fictional highwayman could only become a proper hero because the real thing was no longer around to spoil the illusion by the 1800s mounted robbers had long since ceased to be a threat to society [Music] the age of the highwayman was over [Music] the world around them had changed the enclosure of fields and open countryside had limited their movement faster coaches traveled on smoother roads which were in turn policed by mounted patrols railways were perhaps the final nail in their coffin as the wealthy simply ceased to travel by road writers seized upon the idea of highwaymen as lovable and misunderstood rogues who did as they liked and did it with style and they developed these ideas just as the highwaymen were fading into the past they became the star attraction of penny dreadfuls cheap theater shows and children's toys and one day ainsworth story would find its ultimate expression on hollywood's silver screens as the prospect of violence disappeared so did the darker unsavory aspects of the highwayman's story as victorian heroes highwaymen became fancy dress outlaws with straightened out morals and a firm sense of social justice they also brought a hint of danger rebellion and free spirit to a very straight-laced age but they were outlaws who would accompany us on adventures rather than steal our wallets and it was a potent mix the real thing may have gone but in our imagination they were here to stay

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 72,484

Keywords: history documentaries, absolute history, world history, ridiculous history, quirky history, highwaymen, highwaymen dick turpin, dick turpin, james hind highwayman, outlaws history channel

Id: ak2vk91mdrs

Length: 58min 51sec (3531 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 19 2021