Historical Context: Highwaymen
"I don't know what to make of him; he talks of keeping his horses ready saddled, and of going perhaps at a minute's warning, or of staying perhaps till the best part of this be spent."
"Ay, ten to one, father, he's a highwayman."
-Boniface and Cherry, Act One-
"Ay, ten to one, father, he's a highwayman."
-Boniface and Cherry, Act One-
England’s increasingly traveled roads offered intrepid bandits many an opportunity for acquisition, and highway robbery was no uncommon occurrence during the early eighteenth century. The highwayman became a prominent and even popular figure, exemplified in the presentation of such characters as the dashing Macheath of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. In actuality, highway robbery could create very real peril for travelers, for while some thieves might be discouraged by any show of vigor from the intended targets, others willingly employed violence in securing their prizes, becoming threats to purses and persons alike.
The highwaymen themselves hardly had an easy time of life. In the first place, relations among the thieves were likely tenuous at best, hedged ever by the thought that any gang member might confess all upon capture (particularly as the law offered pardons in exchange for information). Then, too, eighteenth-century English law prescribed capital punishment for even seemingly minor crimes, and highway robbery was one of many the offenses punishable by execution.
However dire the punishment for theft, tales of highway robbery continued to fill papers and seize popular imagination. The following excerpts provide glimpses of a few early eighteenth-century encounters with rogues.
The highwaymen themselves hardly had an easy time of life. In the first place, relations among the thieves were likely tenuous at best, hedged ever by the thought that any gang member might confess all upon capture (particularly as the law offered pardons in exchange for information). Then, too, eighteenth-century English law prescribed capital punishment for even seemingly minor crimes, and highway robbery was one of many the offenses punishable by execution.
However dire the punishment for theft, tales of highway robbery continued to fill papers and seize popular imagination. The following excerpts provide glimpses of a few early eighteenth-century encounters with rogues.
SELECTED EXCERPTS
Considering the many Robberies committed on the Road, it is not at all to be wonder’d at, that so many Highway-men are taken and every Sessions Condemn’d to condign Punishment. Upon Ware-Road (for the Twelve-month) there has been great Robbing, many Passengers depriv’d of great Booties; no Inns having any Remarkable Intelligence, suffitient to make any Observation, or to take any Cognizance of them, as they past the Roads, till a Country Gentleman’s Servant, seeing his Master Robb’d of a considerable Prize, (being over-powered by number) happened, some few Days after, (as he was Journeying to London, upon his Masters Occasions) to overtake these same Highway-men; and Remembering their Faces, began and continued a familiar Conversation with them upon the Road, till they came to London, the fittest Place for the Apprehending of unlawful Livers, whose Resolutions are generally desperate.
-"An Impartial relation of the seizing and apprehending several high-way-men in Fleet-Street," 1694
A Gentleman coming home last week from Epsom was set upon by a Highwayman, who bid him to deliver his Purse, thereupon the Gentleman offered him 12 or 14 s. that he had, which did not satisfy the fellow, who insisted that he would have Gold, but the Gentleman assuring him that he had none about him, the Highwayman went away, and said that he would not venture his Life for so small a summ.
-from Post Man and the Historical Account, Aug 17-20, 1700
A Gentleman of the Temple traveling in the Stage Coach, with others to London, was set upon on Hounslow-heath by the aforesaid Person in company with an other they were talking of the Man with the Black Mare […] when on a sudden they were overtaken by two Gentlemen, who Riding backwards and forwards […] On a sudden they stoped the Coach-man, Clap’d on their Masks, and bid them deliver: The Gentleman looking hard upon the Man on the Black Mare; was ask’d by him what he look’d on, and Swore if he [did] not forbear he wou’d shoot him; In short, they took their Mony, and Eight Shillings from the Lawyer, and made him turn his Pockets, not believing but he had more; they took his Watch and Silver hilted Sword, and so left ’em. […] This Man (that used to Robb on the Black-Mare) was formerly a Fencer, had play’d several Prizes, and afterwards Rod in the Guards: A Person very we[l]l known to many, and had follow’d that base custom of Robbing on the Highways for this many years.
-"A full and true account of the apprehending, taking and examination of one Mr. Harris...," 1704
Considering the many Robberies committed on the Road, it is not at all to be wonder’d at, that so many Highway-men are taken and every Sessions Condemn’d to condign Punishment. Upon Ware-Road (for the Twelve-month) there has been great Robbing, many Passengers depriv’d of great Booties; no Inns having any Remarkable Intelligence, suffitient to make any Observation, or to take any Cognizance of them, as they past the Roads, till a Country Gentleman’s Servant, seeing his Master Robb’d of a considerable Prize, (being over-powered by number) happened, some few Days after, (as he was Journeying to London, upon his Masters Occasions) to overtake these same Highway-men; and Remembering their Faces, began and continued a familiar Conversation with them upon the Road, till they came to London, the fittest Place for the Apprehending of unlawful Livers, whose Resolutions are generally desperate.
-"An Impartial relation of the seizing and apprehending several high-way-men in Fleet-Street," 1694
A Gentleman coming home last week from Epsom was set upon by a Highwayman, who bid him to deliver his Purse, thereupon the Gentleman offered him 12 or 14 s. that he had, which did not satisfy the fellow, who insisted that he would have Gold, but the Gentleman assuring him that he had none about him, the Highwayman went away, and said that he would not venture his Life for so small a summ.
-from Post Man and the Historical Account, Aug 17-20, 1700
A Gentleman of the Temple traveling in the Stage Coach, with others to London, was set upon on Hounslow-heath by the aforesaid Person in company with an other they were talking of the Man with the Black Mare […] when on a sudden they were overtaken by two Gentlemen, who Riding backwards and forwards […] On a sudden they stoped the Coach-man, Clap’d on their Masks, and bid them deliver: The Gentleman looking hard upon the Man on the Black Mare; was ask’d by him what he look’d on, and Swore if he [did] not forbear he wou’d shoot him; In short, they took their Mony, and Eight Shillings from the Lawyer, and made him turn his Pockets, not believing but he had more; they took his Watch and Silver hilted Sword, and so left ’em. […] This Man (that used to Robb on the Black-Mare) was formerly a Fencer, had play’d several Prizes, and afterwards Rod in the Guards: A Person very we[l]l known to many, and had follow’d that base custom of Robbing on the Highways for this many years.
-"A full and true account of the apprehending, taking and examination of one Mr. Harris...," 1704
FURTHER READING
Half-hours with the Highwaymen, Volume II, by Charles George (published by Chapman & Hall, 1908). Peruse sketches of various scoundrels, including infamous eighteenth-century rogue Jonathan Wild. Available through Google Books.
The "highwaymen" entry in Britain in the Hanoverian Age, 1714-1837 (edited by Gerald Newman, published by Taylor & Francis, 1997). Offers a brief overview of highway robbery around the time of The Beaux' Stratagem. Available through Google Books.
Back to Historical Context.
NOTE: For the introductory material above, I made most reference to Brian Loughrey and T.O. Treadwell's introduction to The Beggar's Opera, A.S. Turberville's English Men and Manners..., and James A. Sharpe's chapter in A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Britain. See Resources Cited for details.
Half-hours with the Highwaymen, Volume II, by Charles George (published by Chapman & Hall, 1908). Peruse sketches of various scoundrels, including infamous eighteenth-century rogue Jonathan Wild. Available through Google Books.
The "highwaymen" entry in Britain in the Hanoverian Age, 1714-1837 (edited by Gerald Newman, published by Taylor & Francis, 1997). Offers a brief overview of highway robbery around the time of The Beaux' Stratagem. Available through Google Books.
Back to Historical Context.
NOTE: For the introductory material above, I made most reference to Brian Loughrey and T.O. Treadwell's introduction to The Beggar's Opera, A.S. Turberville's English Men and Manners..., and James A. Sharpe's chapter in A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Britain. See Resources Cited for details.
