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This page is about the criminal occupation of highwayman, for musical groups of that name, see The Highwaymen.
Highwayman was a term used particularly in Britain during the 17th and 18th centuries to describe criminals who robbed people travelling by stagecoach and other modes of transport along public highways. Such outlaws would use or threaten violence in order to seize money and other valuables from their victims. A highwayman rode a horse, and usually carried a pistol. Another name for a highwayman is bandit.
Well-known highwaymen's haunts included several places around London: Blackheath and nearby Shooter's Hill, Hounslow Heath, and Wimbledon and Barnes Commons.
List of well known highwaymen
- Jerry Abershawe
- John Austin (the last person to be publicly hanged from the gallows at Tyburn, London, on 3 November 1783)
- Claude Duval
- Lady Katherine Ferrers, believed to be the "Wicked Lady"
- Captain Gallagher
- Tom King
- Humphrey Kynaston
- The fictitious MacHeath (aka 'Mack the Knife') originally in The Beggar's Opera by John Gay, but now more famous through The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill
- James MacLaine
- John Nevison (aka William Nevison, aka 'Swift Nick' or Swiftnicks)
- Neesy O'Haughan
- William Plunkett
- Dick Turpin
- James Hind
- George Lyons Lancashire's last hanged Highwayman
- Joseph Warshaw
- Nicolas J. Pelletier, the first person executed by guillotine during the French Revolution
Decline
The early years of the 19th century saw the gradual disappearance of the traditional highwayman. The better law enforcement resulting from the introduction of organized city and county police forces (eg: London’s Bow Street Runners); the enclosure of common land, combined with improvements to the roads themselves, which reduced the areas in which highwaymen could operate undetected, and the banking reforms which cut the amounts of cash carried by road were all factors in this decline. The development of railways also contributed to the decline.
In culture
Poet Alfred Noyes made a highwayman the subject of one of his most well-known poems, aptly named "The Highwayman", which Phil Ochs and later, Loreena McKennitt molded into a song. Famous traditional songs about highwaymen include the 1840s broadsheet ballad "Whiskey in the Jar", and other lesser known titles such as "Bold Nevison", "Gilderoy", "MacPherson's Lament", "Newlyn Town" and "Brennan on the Moor".
Although not all highwaymen commanded their victims to "stand and deliver", or demanded "Your money or your life!", they are often popularly associated with these famous phrases. This is notable in "Stand and Deliver", a hit by 1980s British pop group Adam and the Ants.
There have been at least two prominent musical groups called The Highwaymen.
See also
External links
Robbery | Theft | Highwaymen
"Highwayman"