Part 1
# Half-hours with the Highwaymen - Vol 2: Picturesque Biographies and Traditions of the "Knights of the Road" ### By Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
---
Transcriber's Note:
This book was published in two volumes, of which this is the second. The first volume was released as Project Gutenberg ebook #53111, available at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53111.
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._]
[Illustration: SIXTEEN-STRING JACK.]
HALF-HOURS WITH THE HIGHWAYMEN
_PICTURESQUE BIOGRAPHIES AND TRADITIONS OF THE "KNIGHTS OF THE ROAD"_
BY CHARLES G. HARPER
VOL. II
[Illustration: [++] Man and woman talking.]
_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.
CONTENTS
PAGE
NEVISON: "SWIFT NICKS" 1
JOHN COTTINGTON, _alias_ "MULLED SACK" 26
THOMAS RUMBOLD 35
"CAPTAIN" JAMES WHITNEY 41
TWM SHON CATTI 65
JOHN WITHERS AND WILLIAM EDWARDS 75
PATRICK O'BRIAN 81
JACK BIRD 86
WILL OGDEN, JACK BRADSHAW, AND TOM REYNOLDS 98
JACK OVET 105
JOHN HALL, RICHARD LOW, AND STEPHEN BUNCE 110
"MR." AVERY AND DICK ADAMS 121
JONATHAN WILD 126
NICHOLAS HORNER 148
WALTER TRACEY 158
NED WICKS 166
DICK TURPIN 173
WILLIAM PARSONS, THE BARONET'S SON 241
WILLIAM PAGE 249
ISAAC DARKIN, _alias_ DUMAS 264
JAMES MACLAINE, THE "GENTLEMAN" HIGHWAYMAN 271
JOHN POULTER, _alias_ BAXTER 301
PAUL LEWIS 316
THE WESTONS 320
JACK RANN: "SIXTEEN-STRING JACK" 340
ROBERT FERGUSON—"GALLOPING DICK" 353
JERRY ABERSHAW 361
JOHN AND WILLIAM BEATSON 370
ROBERT SNOOKS 376
HUFFUM WHITE 384
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
SEPARATE PLATES
PAGE
SIXTEEN-STRING JACK _Frontispiece_
NEVISON'S RIDE TO YORK 11
"SWIFT NICKS" BEFORE CHARLES THE SECOND 17
"MULLED SACK" ROBS THE ARMY PAY WAGGON 33
WHITNEY HUGGED BY THE BEAR 42
WHITNEY AND THE USURER 53
TWM SHON CATTI AND THE HIGHWAYMAN 73
JACK BIRD FIGHTS THE CHAPLAIN 95
THE ROBBERY AT THE HACKNEY BAKER'S 115
JONATHAN WILD ON THE WAY TO EXECUTION 147
HORNER MEETS HIS MATCH 154
TURPIN AND HIS GANG IN THEIR CAVE IN EPPING FOREST 177
TURPIN HOLDS THE LANDLADY OVER THE FIRE 189
TURPIN MEETS TOM KING 1201
TURPIN IN HIS CAVE 212
WILLIAM PARSONS 242
WILLIAM PAGE 252
MACLAINE, THE LADIES' HERO 275
JAMES MACLAINE 276
MACLAINE AND PLUNKETT ROBBING THE EARL OF EGLINTON ON HOUNSLOW HEATH 289
MACLAINE IN THE DOCK 292
NEWGATE'S LAMENTATION; OR, THE LADIES' FAREWELL TO MACLAINE 299
PAUL LEWIS 316
THE WESTONS ESCAPING FROM NEWGATE 337
"SIXTEEN-STRING JACK" AND ELLEN ROCHE IN THE DOCK 348
"GALLOPING DICK" 354
JERRY ABERSHAW ON PUTNEY HEATH 365
SNOOKS ADDRESSING THE CROWD AT HIS EXECUTION 381
HUFFUM WHITE ESCAPING FROM THE HULKS 384
ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT
Nevison's Leg-irons, in York Museum 23
Jonathan Wild in the Condemned Cell 136
Satirical Invitation-card to Execution of Jonathan Wild 139
Turpin's Baptismal Register, Hempstead 174
Bold Dick Turpin 197
Tom King 206
Dick Turpin 207
Tom King 209
Tom King 211
Dick Turpin 215
Sir Ralph Rookwood and Simon Sharpscent 219
Turpin's Cell in York Castle 222
Ralph Ostler 225
Turpin's Waist-girdle, Wrist-shackles, and Leg-irons 226
Maid of the Inn 229
Highwaymen carousing 229
Innkeeper 231
Turpin's Stone 237
Portmanteau, formerly belonging to Turpin, discovered at Clerkenwell 240
William Parsons 247
James Maclaine 272
Jack Rann 345
Snooks's Grave 383
[Illustration: HALF-HOURS WITH THE HIGHWAYMEN]
NEVISON: "SWIFT NICKS"
When Harrison Ainsworth wrote _Rookwood_, that fantastic romance of highway robbery and the impossible exploits of the Rookwood family, he did a singular injustice to a most distinguished seventeenth-century highwayman, John Nevison by name, and transferred the glory of his wonderful ride to York to Dick Turpin, who never owned a "Black Bess," and who never did anything of the kind. Turpin, by virtue of Ainsworth's glowing pages, has become a popular hero and stands full in the limelight, while the real gallant figure is only dimly seen in the cold shade of neglect.
John or "William" Nevison, by some accounts, was born at Pontefract, in 1639, of "honest and reasonably-estated parents." Sometimes we find him styled Nevison, at other times he is "alias Clerk" in the proclamations issued, offering rewards for his arrest. Occasionally, in the chap-books, we find John Nevison and William Nevison treated as two separate and distinct persons, no doubt because the recorded adventures of this truly eminent man were so widely distributed over the country, that it was difficult to believe them the doings of one person. But there seems to be no reasonable doubt that one and the same man was the hero of all these doings, as also of the famous Ride to York. Of course it is now by far too late to snatch from Turpin the false glory bestowed upon him. A hundred romances, a century of popular plays, have for ever in the popular mind identified him with the Ride to York, and with all manner of achievements and graces that were never his. Lies are brazen and immortal; truth is modest; and the Great Turpin Myth is too fully established to be thoroughly scotched.
But let us to the career of Nevison, as told in the pages of what few authorities exist. He seems to have been a precocious boy: precocious in things evil. Indeed we must needs regard him as a _wunderkind_ in that sort, for between the ages of thirteen and fourteen, and when still at school, he is reported to have been the "ringleader in rudeness and debauchery." He stole a silver spoon from his father, who delegated the thrashing so richly deserved to the schoolmaster, who seems to have "laid on" in the thorough manner suggested to Macduff. A vivid picture presents itself to us, of William (or John) occupying a sleepless night, rubbing the parts and meditating revenge. As a result of his deliberations, he arose before peep of day and, cautiously taking his father's keys, stole to the domestic cashbox and helped himself to the ten pounds he found there. Then, taking a saddle and bridle from his father's stable, he hastened to the paddock where the schoolmaster had a horse out to graze. Saddling it, he made off for London, which he reached in four days. He dared not sell the horse, for by that means he might have been traced, so he killed the unfortunate animal when within one or two miles of London.
Buying a new suit of clothes and changing his name, he soon found employment with a brewer. In that situation he remained nearly three years, and then left suddenly for the Continent, incidentally with £200 belonging to the brewer. Holland was the country he honoured with his presence, and there he found a fellow-mind in the person of a young Dutch woman who, robbing her father of all the money and jewels she could lay hands upon, eloped with him. They were soon arrested, but Nevison broke prison, and with some difficulty, made his way into Flanders, and enlisted in the troops stationed there under command of the Duke of York. It is not to be supposed that such a restless temperament as his would allow him long to remain subject to restrictions and the word of command, and accordingly he deserted, made across to England, and, purchasing a horse and arms, and "resolving for the Road," blossomed out as a full-blown highwayman. As his original biographer prettily puts it, he embarked upon "a pleasant life at the hazard of his neck, rather than toil out a long remainder of unhappy days in want and poverty, which he was always averse to." Who, for that matter, is not? Let us sigh for the days that were, the days that are no more, when such adventures as the highwaymen sought were to be found on every highway. A short life, so long as it was a merry, was sufficient for these fine fellows, who desired nothing so little as a gnarled and crabbed age, and nothing so much as a life filled with excitement, wine, and the smiles of the fair. Those smiles were apt to be purchased, and generally purchased dear, but in that respect the highwaymen were never disposed to be critical.
Nevison's success, immediate and complete, proclaimed his fitness for the career himself had with due thought and deliberation chosen. At first he kept his own counsel and haunted the roads alone. Sometimes he went by the name of Johnson.
At this early stage he met one evening on the high road two farmers, who told him it was dangerous to go forward, themselves having only a few minutes before been robbed of forty pounds by three highwaymen, scarce more than half a mile off.
"Turn back with me," he said, "and show me the way they went, and, my life to a farthing if I do not make them return your money."
They accordingly rode back with him until they had come within sight of the three robbers, when Nevison, ordering the two farmers to stand behind, rode up and spoke to the foremost of the three.
"Sir," said he, "by your garb and the colour of your horse, you should be one of those I look after, and, if so, my business is to tell you that you borrowed of two friends of mine forty pounds, which they desired me to demand of you, and which, before we part, you must restore."
Two of the men then made haste to ride off.
"How?" quoth the remaining highwayman. "Forty pounds; d—n me, is the fellow mad?"
"So mad," replied Nevison, "that your life shall answer me, if you do not give me better satisfaction."
With that Nevison drew his pistol and suddenly clapped it to the man's chest; at the same time seizing his horse's reins, in such a manner that he could not draw either sword or pistols.
"My life is at your mercy," he confessed.
"No," said Nevison, "'tis not that I seek, but the money you have robbed those two men of. You must refund it."
With the best grace he could, the highwayman parted with what he had, saying his companions had the rest.
Nevison then, making him dismount, and taking his pistols, desired the countrymen to secure him, while he pursued the others. In the gathering twilight, as he galloped up, they, thinking it was their friend, drew rein.
"Jack," said one to him, "why did you stop to argue with that fellow?"
"No, gentlemen," said Nevison, "you are mistaken in your man; though, by token of his horse that I ride and his arms I carry, he hath sent me to you, to ransom his life. The ransom, sirs, is nothing less than your shares of the prize of the day, which if you presently surrender, you may go about your business. If not, I must have a little dispute with you, at sword and pistol."
One of them then let fly at him, but his aim missing, Nevison's bullet in reply took him in the right shoulder. He then called for quarter and came to a parley, which ended in the two surrendering not only their share of the two travellers' money, but a total amount of a hundred and fifty guineas. Nevison thereupon returned to the farmers and, handing them their money, went his way with the balance of one hundred and ten guineas.
This, it will at once be conceded, was by no means professional conduct; and was indeed, we may say, a serious breach of the highway law, by which thieves should at any rate stand by one another, shoulder to shoulder against the world.
Nevison, however, like a true philosopher and a false comrade, improved any occasion to his own advantage, without scruple. You figure him thus, rather of a saturnine humour, with an ugly grin on his face, instead of a frank smile; but probably you would be quite wrong in so doing. At any rate, the ladies appear to have loved him, for we learn that, "in all his pranks, he was very favourable to the female sex, who generally gave him the character of a civil, obliging robber." He was also charitable to the poor, and, being a true Royalist, he never attempted anything against those of that party.
After many adventures, our William, or John, as the case may be, one day secured no less a sum than £450 by a fortunate meeting on the road with a rich grazier who had just sold, and been paid for, some cattle. He resolved to let the road lie fallow, as it were, for a while, and to seek, in a temporary retirement in his native place, that repose which comes doubly welcome after a period of strenuous professional endeavour.
He was joyfully received by his father, who still was living in the old town of Pontefract, although some seven or eight years had passed since his son had levanted and disappeared utterly from the parental ken. He had long given up all hopes of seeing his boy again; and now he was returned, a young man of twenty-one years of age, and with a respectable sum of money; the savings of a frugal and industrious life in London, according to his own account.
Here is an idyllic picture: the highwayman returned home, soothing the declining days of his father, and living as quietly and soberly as though he had never emptied a pocket on the King's highway!
After the death of his father, he left the quiet existence at Pontefract, and opened the second part of his career upon the road. He now so far departed from his former practice as to become the moving spirit in a numerous band whose headquarters were long situated at Newark. They particularly affected Yorkshire, and inspired the drovers and graziers who used the Great North Road with dread.
At times, however, he would range southward again, by himself, and one of these expeditions resulted in the marvellous feat that made him famous at the time, and should have kept him so for all time. His well-earned laurels, unhappily, have been snatched by a heedless hand from his brow, and placed on the unworthy head of Turpin. Such are the strange vagaries of fame!
Nevison's all-eclipsing exploit originated in a four-o'clock-in-the-morning robbery upon Gad's Hill, near Rochester.
For some reason, Nevison appears to have been particularly afraid of being recognised by the traveller whom he stopped and relieved of his purse on that May morning, and he immediately, for the establishment of an _alibi_, conceived the idea of riding such a distance that day as to make it appear humanly impossible he could have been near Rochester at that hour. He proposed to ride to no less distant a place than the city of York, two hundred and thirty miles away from that "high old robbing hill." To the modern commentator, writing with even pulse, it would seem that, unless that traveller's purse had been very well lined, the proceeds of the robbery would not be nearly worth this tremendous effort, after the taking of it.
It would seem that in being so rash as to rob a traveller in the dawning of that May day, he had indeed been so unfortunate as to happen upon some one who knew him; and there was nothing else but to put as many miles as he could between the dawn and the setting of the sun. So behold him, mounted upon his "blood bay" mare, galloping away for Gravesend. He crossed the Thames to Tilbury, and so went, by way of Horndon and Billericay, to Chelmsford, where he halted an hour and gave his gallant steed some balls. Thence through Braintree, Bocking, Wethersfield, Fenny Stanton, Godmanchester, and Huntingdon, where he halted another half-hour; and so, straight down the Great North Road (but avoiding the towns) to York. Of course he must needs have had several remounts on the way. It is unthinkable that one horse could have performed such a journey. But Nevison was no lone unfriended knight of the road, and, in his extensive operations, had excellent friends in different parts of the country, who could help him on occasion to a good horse.
[Illustration: NEVISON'S RIDE TO YORK.]
Arrived at York, he halted only to put up his horse, and to remove the travel-stains and signs of haste from his person, and then made his way to the nearest bowling-green, where it chanced that so important a personage as the Lord Mayor was playing bowls with some friends.
Nevison took an early opportunity of asking the time, and was told it was just a quarter to eight. Having done this, and thus fixed the time and the incident in the Lord Mayor's mind, he was satisfied, and after-events proved the wisdom of his flight; for he was shortly afterwards arrested on another charge of highway robbery, and, among those who were present, in an effort to identify him with other charges, was none other than the early morning traveller upon Gad's Hill.
The _alibi_ on that count was triumphantly established. Nevison called his York acquaintances, and the Lord Mayor was appealed to. That civic dignitary readily deposed to the fact that this falsely-accused gentleman was on the York bowling-green on the evening of that day: and in the end, Nevison was acquitted on all charges.
But the highwaymen of that age had a good deal of the braggart in their composition. They could not do a clever thing without taking the world into their confidence; and so, heedless of the danger to his career, Nevison told the story of the ride to delighted ears. Instead of being arrested on what was practically a confession, he became the hero of the hour. The tale even reached the ears of Charles the Second, who had him presented, and, loving a clever rogue as he did (and possibly with some fellow-feeling, in the recollection of how himself had been a harassed fugitive), pardoned him, and christened him "Swift Nicks."
Elsewhere, we read that the robbery took place at Barnet, and that it was thence Nevison rode to York. The traveller, it seems in this version, had set out from the "Blossoms" inn, Lawrence Lane, in the city of London, and lost five hundred and sixty guineas on this monumental occasion.
According to one account, this was "in or about" May 1676; but it is difficult to fix the dates of many of the seventeenth-century highwaymen's doings within a few years, and this would certainly appear to be an error, for it can be proved that he bore the nickname "Swift Nicks" years before. For example, we find in December 1668 a proclamation offering £20 reward for the arrest of several specified highwaymen, including Swift Nicks; and another in the _London Gazette_ of November 18th, 1669, in which "Swift Nix" is again mentioned. This proclamation is in itself an interesting and valuable sidelight upon the social conditions of that age:
WHITEHALL, _Nov. 17th._
His Majesty having been informed that divers lewd and disorderly persons have committed great and heinous Robberies, Murders, and Burglaries, imboldened thereto either out of hope to escape the hand of Justice, or by the carelessness and negligence in keeping due Watches and Wards, and the pursuit of them by Hue and cry, or the concealment of them and their Horses by Inn-keepers, Ostlers, and others, and that some which have been indicted for these offences, and others not indicted but guilty of the same, continue their wicked practices in spoiling his good subjects, of which number are said to be Lewis, alias Lodowick, alias Claude de Val, alias Brown, Swift Nix, alias Clerk, Humble Ashenhurst, Martin Bringhurst, John Spencer, William Stavely, William Stanesby, Thomas Stanley, Nicholas Greenbury, William Talbot, Richard Wild, William Connel, Nicholas James, and Herman Atkins, are notoriously known to be such, and of one party and knot, etc. His Majesty minding to preserve all His loving Subjects in their Lives and Estates from all Rapine and Violence, was thus pleased to order His Proclamation to be issued out, Commanding all His Subjects and Officers of Justice to use their endeavours for the apprehension of the said persons, and all others who have been, or shall be guilty of the offences aforesaid, that they may be proceeded against according to Law and Justice, declaring His Will and Pleasure,
That all Justices take Order, that due Watches and Wards be kept by Horse and Foot for the apprehension of such offenders; Commanding all Vintners, keepers of Common Ordinaries, Gaming Houses, Inn-keepers, Horse-keepers, and other persons where such persons shall be or resort, to apprehend or cause them to be apprehended, etc., or otherwise themselves to be proceeded against as far as by due course of Law they may, declaring that whosoever shall before the 20th of _June_ next, apprehend or cause to be apprehended any of the said persons above-named, and brought into custody, and prosecute them to a Conviction, shall have a reward of Twenty pounds for every such offender, and for every other notorious Robber, Burglar, or Murderer, the sum of Ten pounds within 15 days after their Conviction, to be paid by the respective Sheriff of the County where such conviction shall be had, upon the Certificate of the Judge, or under the hands of two or more Justices of the Peace before whom they were convicted.
And so forth. This official proclamation clashes discordantly with the kindly, forgiving character of the King's interview with Nevison. Of course, there would naturally be all the difference between a proclamation and a private act of clemency; and not even in those days, when a King might do strange things, was it possible, or thinkable, to give a highwayman liberty to rob as he pleased. We may, perhaps, not without justification, surmise that this highwayman's continued and notorious activity wore out the easy-going monarch's patience.
[Illustration: "SWIFT NICKS" BEFORE CHARLES THE SECOND.]