Chapter I: Front Matter

HALF-HOURS WITH
THE HIGHWAYMEN

WORKS BY CHARLES G. HARPER

=The Portsmouth Road=, and its Tributaries: To-day and in Days of
Old.

=The Dover Road=: Annals of an Ancient Turnpike.

=The Bath Road=: History, Fashion, and Frivolity on an Old
Highway.

=The Exeter Road=: The Story of the West of England Highway.

=The Great North Road=: The Old Mail Road to Scotland. Two Vols.

=The Norwich Road=: An East Anglian Highway.

=The Holyhead Road=: The Mail-Coach Road to Dublin. Two Vols.

=The Cambridge, Ely, and King's Lynn Road=: The Great Fenland
Highway.

=The Newmarket, Bury, Thetford, and Cromer Road=: Sport and
History on an East Anglian Turnpike.

=The Oxford, Gloucester, and Milford Haven Road=: The Ready Way
to South Wales. Two Vols.

=The Brighton Road=: Speed, Sport, and History on the Classic
Highway.

=The Hastings Road= and the "Happy Springs of Tunbridge."

=Cycle Rides Round London.=

=A Practical Handbook of Drawing for Modern Methods of
Reproduction.=

=Stage Coach and Mail in Days of Yore.= Two Vols.

=The Ingoldsby Country=: Literary Landmarks of "The Ingoldsby
Legends."

=The Hardy Country=: Literary Landmarks of the Wessex Novels.

=The Dorset Coast.=

=The South Devon Coast.=

=The North Devon Coast.=

=The Old Inns of Old England.= Two Vols.

=Love in the Harbour=: a Longshore Comedy.

=Rural Nooks Round London= (Middlesex and Surrey).

=The Manchester and Glasgow Road=; This way to Gretna Green. Two
Vols.

=Haunted Houses=; Tales of the Supernatural.

=The Somerset Coast.= [_In the Press._]

_I walke the_ Strand, _and_ Westminster; _and scorne
to march i'th'_ Cittie, _though I beare the_ Horne.
_My_ Feather, _and my yellow_ Band _accord
to proue me_ Courtier: _My_ Boote, Spurr, _and sword_

_My smokinge_ Pipe, Scarfe, Garter, Rose _on shoe;
showe my brave minde t'affect what_ Gallants _doe.
I singe, dance, drinke, and merrily passe the day,
and like a Chimney sweepe all care away_

MULLED SACK.]

HALF-HOURS WITH
THE HIGHWAYMEN

_PICTURESQUE BIOGRAPHIES AND
TRADITIONS OF THE "KNIGHTS
OF THE ROAD"_

BY CHARLES G. HARPER

VOL. I

Man on Horseback.]

_Illustrated by Paul Hardy and by the Author, and
from Old Prints_

LONDON

CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED

1908

_All rights reserved_

PRINTED AND BOUND BY
HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD.,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.

Two Men on Horseback.]

Preface

_In a series of books designed to tell the story of the roads, and not only of the roads, but of all subjects connected with road-travel in all ages, a book on the Highwaymen was sooner or later inevitable. We have had in this series the story of the rise and progress towards perfection of coaching, and of the decay of stage-coach and mail when the era of steam came in; and we have had two volumes on the Old Inns of Old England, to which the travellers of a bygone age came, wearied, when the day's tedious travel was done. The story of the highwaymen, who robbed those travellers, is now told, for the first time since Captain Alexander Smith in 1719-20, in three small octavo volumes, and Captain Charles Johnson in 1742, in one folio volume, collated the numerous chapbooks and "last dying speeches and confessions" of that and earlier ages. Captain Johnson, who stole extensively from Smith, who himself was prone to include the most extravagant myths in his pages, calls his folio A GENERAL AND TRUE HISTORY OF THE LIVES AND ACTIONS OF THE MOST FAMOUS HIGHWAYMEN. Both of them include pirates and murderers. Of the "truth" of much in Smith and Johnson, the less said the better._

_No one has ever reprinted those authors in their original extravagance, or their grossness. It would be impossible; and, if possible, it would not be entertaining. Nor has any one ever edited them, or even written an independent history of the highwaymen. When we consider how astonishingly popular those romances have ever been which have had Claude Du Vall, and Turpin, and their like for heroes, this is not a little surprising._

_Perhaps the task has been abandoned because of the difficulty—the almost insuperable difficulty—of sifting fact from fiction, and because of a chilling sense that it would be a thankless task to present the highwayman as he really was: a fellow rarely heroic, generally foul-mouthed and cruel, and often cowardly. No novelist would be likely to thank the frank historian for this disservice; and I do not think the historian who came to the subject in this cold scientific spirit of a demonstrator in surgery would be widely read. Most of us like to keep a few of the illusions we believed in when schoolboys. Scientific historians have degraded many of our ancient heroes and exalted the villains, for whom of old no mud was too thick and slab. Beliefs are being assailed on every side. To abolish the traditional courtesy of Claude Du Vall or the considerate conduct of Captain Hind would, therefore, be strokes of the unkindest, and I have here attempted no such iconoclasm. Even where I cannot believe, I have told the tale—whenever it has been worth the telling—as it is found in criminal trials, or in Smith or Johnson, and other old sources, decorously stripped of much vile language. For really, where much that seems incredible may be fully proved, and where the believable turns out not rarely to be false, 'tis your only way._

_To continue the story of the highwaymen from Smith and Johnson down to the approaching end of all such things in the beginning of the nineteenth century, is like taking up and concluding a half-told tale. But it was worth the doing. Only in respect of the great figure Turpin has always made, has it been found really necessary to seriously consider and re-state the career of that much-overrated scoundrel, and to put him in his proper place: a very much lower one than he usually occupies._

_Hero-worshippers of the highwaymen we cannot be; as thorough disbelievers of their picturesque exploits we dare not pose: for the rest, the proper spirit in which to treat the subject is that of ironic tolerance._

CHARLES G. HARPER.

PETERSHAM,
SURREY,
_October 1908_.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. INTRODUCTORY: THE GENERAL DECLENSION FROM OUTLAW TO
HIGHWAYMAN, AND THENCE TO FOOTPAD, THIEF, AND BURGLAR—GAMALIEL
RATSEY—THOMAS DUN, OF DUNSTABLE 1

II. ROBIN HOOD AND HIS MERRY MEN 23

III. THE "HAND OF GLORY"—LIABILITY OF COUNTRY DISTRICTS FOR
ROBBERIES—EXEMPTION IN RESPECT OF SUNDAY TRAVELLING 49

IV. THE YOUNGER SONS—JUDGE POPHAM—SHAKESPEAREAN HIGHWAYMEN—THE
"CAVALIER" BRIGANDS—A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY RELIGIOUS TRACT 62

V. ENORMOUS CAPTURES MADE BY HIGHWAY GANGS—BRACY'S GANG—ROBBERIES
ON THE ROAD TO NEWMARKET—ADVERTISEMENTS OF THE PERIOD—AUGUSTIN
KING—PLUNDER AND BATTLE ON THE ST. ALBANS ROAD—SOLDIERS AS
HIGHWAYMEN 75

VI. "WHO GOES HOME?" IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS—FOOTMEN TURN
HIGHWAYMEN—SIR SIMON CLARKE—A MERRY FREAK AND ITS TRAGICAL
CONSEQUENCES—AMAZING POLTROONERY OF TRAVELLERS—ADVERTISEMENTS OF
THE PERIOD—HIGHWAY ROBBERY IN PICCADILLY 92

VII. THE HIGHWAYMEN OF WILTSHIRE AND SALISBURY PLAIN—MR. JOSEPH
READER'S ADVENTURE—THE CHERHILL GANG—"CLIBBORN'S POST"—MURDER OF
MR. MELLISH—CLOSE OF THE HIGHWAYMAN ERA 114

VIII. THE LITERATURE OF THE LATER HIGHWAYMEN 124

IX. THE NEWGATE CHAPLAINS: SAMUEL SMITH, PAUL LORRAIN, THOMAS
PURENEY—THE PRISON LIFE 131

X. THE WATCHMAN, AND THE EXECUTION BELL OF ST. SEPULCHRE 148

XI. HANGMAN'S HIGHWAY: THE ROAD TO TYBURN 156

XII. THE WAYSIDE GIBBETS 199

XIII. THE ROADS OUT OF LONDON:
I. The Dover Road 213
II. The Bath Road 221

XIV. THE ROADS OUT OF LONDON (_continued_):
III. The Great North Road 245
IV. The Oxford Road 255

MOLL CUTPURSE: THE "ROARING GIRL" 262

CAPTAIN PHILIP STAFFORD 269

CAPTAIN JAMES HIND, THE "PRINCE OF PRIGS" 273

JOHN CLAVEL, "GENTLEMAN" 307

WILLIAM DAVIS, THE GOLDEN FARMER 317

THOMAS SIMPSON: "OLD MOB" 333

CLAUDE DU VALL 342

FRANCIS JACKSON, AND HIS "RECANTATION" 356

CAPTAIN RICHARD DUDLEY 387

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

SEPARATE PLATES

PAGE

MULLED SACK _Frontispiece_

THE FOOTPADS 4

ROBIN HOOD, UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE 26

MARGARET OF ANJOU AND THE BANDIT 37

THE "HAND OF GLORY": BENEATH THE GALLOWS TREE 50

"OPEN LOCK, TO THE DEAD MAN'S KNOCK" 53

THE FIGHT IN NEEDWOOD FOREST 78

"WHO GOES HOME?" 93

SCANDALOUS SCENE AT A HERTFORD EXECUTION 143

THE BELLMAN 153

CLEVER TOM CLINCH GOING TO EXECUTION 169

AT THE "BOWL" 181

AN EXECUTION AT TYBURN 187

EXECUTION OF THE IDLE APPRENTICE AT TYBURN 188

QUEEN HENRIETTA MARIA PRAYING AT TYBURN 191

"THERE HE SWINGS BY THE ROADSIDE, IN HIS CAGE, IN A CONTEMPLATIVE
ATTITUDE, AS THOUGH PONDERING ON THE MYSTERIES OF LIFE AND DEATH" 210

FALSTAFF ON GAD'S HILL 218

EXCHANGE OF COMPLIMENTS 226

JOHN HAWKINS AND GEORGE SYMPSON ROBBING THE BRISTOL MAIL 235

MURDER OF MR. STEELE ON HOUNSLOW HEATH 243

SPIGGOTT PRESSED AT NEWGATE 253

"SHELLING THE PEAS" 261

MOLL CUTPURSE 262

ALLEN AND HIND ATTACK OLIVER CROMWELL'S CARRIAGE 281

HIND ROBS DR. PETERS 289

HIND SHOWS HIS DISGUISE 301

JOHN CLAVEL 311

THE GOLDEN FARMER AND THE TINKER 327

"OLD MOB" ROBS THE DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH 335

CLAUDE DU VALL DANCING THE CORANTO ON HOUNSLOW HEATH 348

THE FIGHT IN THE HOLLOW ROAD 360

CAPTAIN DUDLEY ON HOUNSLOW HEATH 388

CAPTAIN DUDLEY AND THE CLERGYMAN 392

ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT

"A Terrible and Seasonable Warning" 69

The End of Wild Robert 70

Dr. Newman and his Pills 107

Eighteenth-Century Advertisement 108

Lansdowne Passage 110

"Clibborn's Post" 119

Decorative Headpiece from Pureney's "Life and Confession of
Jonathan Wild and four other Malefactors" 139

The "Execution Bell," St. Sepulchre 155

The Road near Chester, 1675 200

Caxton Gibbet 202

Miles's Irons 211

The "True Protracture" of Captain Hind 274

"Here now thou seest me as a Butcher's Boy" 276

Captain Hind, the Cavalier Hero 284

"Next; here am I presented to thy view" 284

"Stand and Deliver! next in order comes" 287

"Behold! at last, the saddest sight of all" 301

Execution of the Golden Farmer 329

Image of a Highwayman.]

HALF-HOURS

WITH THE

HIGHWAYMEN