Documentary, Britain's Outlaws: Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues,
part 1
#BritainSunkenHistory #Shipwrecks #History #Documentary
part 1
#BritainSunkenHistory #Shipwrecks #History #Documentary
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LearningTranscript
00:00For a period in the 17th and 18th centuries, crime was endemic.
00:20On the open roads, robbers robbed with impunity.
00:24On the high seas, pirates roamed.
00:27Felons robbed, burgled and cheated.
00:32Across the country, there was no established police force.
00:36And although the ultimate penalty was death, who was there to enforce it?
00:42In this series, I want to explore the world of the British outlaw.
00:48The original anti-hero in an age of swashbuckle, daring and style.
00:55And no outlaw was more glamorous, romantic and glorified than the highwayman.
01:01The masked horseback robber who stole hard cash and admirers' hearts in pursuit of a merry life and a short one.
01:10Most people think of the highwayman as an underworld figure, perhaps an 18th century rogue like Dick Turpin.
01:29But their origins lie much earlier, with the fall from grace of the king's men and the rise of gentlemen robbers in the English Civil War.
01:42The brutal conflict that erupted in the 1640s.
01:48As the country tore itself apart, a maelstrom of violence, disorder and distrust created the perfect conditions for outlaws to thrive.
01:59The royalists had lost.
02:02King Charles was executed.
02:05Great houses were devastated in battle.
02:08Suddenly, thousands of experienced military men were unemployed and angry.
02:13Some decided their best chance of survival was to take to the roads as what we would now call highwaymen.
02:20Under Cromwell's rule, reports began to emerge of lawlessness on the roads on a scale never before seen.
02:28Fantastical stories appeared of outlaws, men whose political beliefs had failed them and who now sought glory in a life of crime.
02:40These were military-trained sharpshooters who found themselves on the losing side.
02:46There had been highway robbery for as long as there had been roads.
02:50But this...
02:52Well, this was something different.
02:54It became a menace that marked the age and lent a new air of romance to crime.
03:03For these outlaws were motivated by principles as much as money.
03:08Former soldiers who clung to a broken sense of honour mixed with thievery.
03:15Men like Captain James Hind.
03:18In 1651, Hind was dragged out from a London barber shop and arrested by heavily armed soldiers.
03:26A wanted man, he had been living under an alias for months until his hiding place was betrayed.
03:32He was taken to Newgate prison and clapped in irons.
03:40Hind was a passionate royalist and he had already fought and lost in the name of the crown.
03:46But he was already well known for a very different reason.
03:50Because Hind was the most notorious outlaw highwayman in Britain.
03:54And his fame was about to explode.
03:57He was the unparalleled thief, the stories about him were almost unbelievable.
04:01Hind was born in Oxfordshire in 1616.
04:05He wasn't nobleman but his family were respected and comfortably well off.
04:11For the young James, education held little appeal,
04:15Young James, education held little appeal, so eventually his father apprenticed him to a butcher, hoping he would take to an honest trade.
04:25After 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.
04:35Now, 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.
04:45It wasn't long before the young Hind fell into bad company.
04:51He was arrested whilst drunk in the arms of a prostitute and thrown into a jail called the Poultry Comptor.
04:58In this grim and filthy dungeon, one inmate stood out from all the rest, Thomas Allen, an experienced highwayman and gang leader.
05:08After their release, the two decided to join forces.
05:11But first, the inexperienced Hind needed to prove himself a worthy partner.
05:19As the gang hid, he was sent out on his first robbery.
05:22They chose an ambush site at Shooter's Hill on the outskirts of London and waited until a gentleman and his servant came by, travelling alone.
05:36If Hind was nervous, he didn't show it.
05:39With pistols drawn, he demanded money, and the gentleman, in fear of his life, handed over ten pounds, a healthy sum for a first attempt.
05:49But then something unusual happened.
05:53It was said that Hind took pity on the man he had just robbed.
05:57He put his hand back in the purse, took out twenty shillings, and gave it back to the man, saying it was for his travel expenses.
06:05It was an act that marked him out as something different.
06:08Handing back money was a calculated display of gallantry, and it piqued Allen's interest.
06:16Hind quickly became his second-in-command.
06:19His reputation was set as a principled and gentlemanly robber.
06:23Hind had star quality.
06:26But the politics of civil war were never far away.
06:30Hind and Allen's gang had sworn oaths as royalists and began to single out parliamentarians.
06:35The list of Hind's supposed victims reads like a who's who of the Roundhead regime.
06:42One day, as he travelled through Dorset, Hind spotted a chance to ambush John Bradshaw,
06:47the judge who had actually condemned King Charles to death.
06:51Knowing that his name now struck fear into the hearts of men,
06:55Hind put his pistol to Bradshaw's head and demanded his money with particular venom.
07:00I fear neither you nor any king-killing son of a whore alive.
07:05I have now as much power over you as you lately had over the king.
07:10Judge Bradshaw placed a trembling hand into his pocket and drew out a mere forty shillings in silver.
07:17The highwoman was distinctly unimpressed and swore that he'd shoot him through the heart there and then
07:22if he didn't find coin of another species.
07:25With his life hanging in the balance, the judge handed over a purse full of gold instead.
07:32After a lecture on the immorality of parliament's cause, Hind shot all six of the coach horses dead.
07:40Stories like these, whether real or imagined,
07:43were used by writers to question the legitimacy of parliament's authority.
07:48But there's more, because while these robberies of the great and the good burnished his reputation,
07:54he also became known as something of a Robin Hood figure, a highwayman with a conscience.
08:03After running short of money, Hind held up a farmer who was on his way to market to buy his wife and ten children a cow.
08:11The farmer begged him not to take his meagre forty shillings, as it was all he had,
08:16and had taken him two years to scrimp together.
08:20Hind was desperate and took it anyway, but the farmer was repaid double and extra a week later,
08:26when, true to his word, the highwayman returned to pay him back.
08:31It was all good PR, but simple farmers weren't enough to make a legend.
08:36Hind craved infamy.
08:38In several accounts of his life, there's a story of an attack that proved to be the Hind gang's undoing
08:45on Oliver Cromwell himself.
08:48They launched their assault as Cromwell's coach left Huntington.
08:52It's unclear if it was meant to be a simple robbery or an assassination,
08:56but he was heavily guarded and the attack went horribly wrong.
09:00Thomas Allen and several of his men were captured and executed,
09:04and Hind barely managed to escape with his life.
09:08He went on the run, riding his horse until it dropped,
09:12and eventually returning to the anonymity of his old haunts in London.
09:17In the end, Hind was betrayed by one of his fellow royalists.
09:21A former soldier recognised him and reported him to the Speaker of the House of Commons.
09:27Hind by now had some very powerful enemies.
09:29He was already well-known, but now something extraordinary happened.
09:35He became a celebrity the length and breadth of the country.
09:41During the Civil War, there was a boom in the production of printed material.
09:46Hind's exploits were published in a rich tapestry of pamphlets, ballad songs,
09:51chapbooks, poems and broadsheets, published at a prodigious rate,
09:54and all claiming to relate his true words and story.
09:59Hind is the first figure, to my knowledge, who becomes a celebrated criminal.
10:05The political changes and the war were accompanied by a massive upsurge in print.
10:11So what we're looking at with Hind is two things.
10:14It's the historical circumstances that make a high woman like Hind possible,
10:19and it's also the emergence of print culture to a greater degree than before.
10:25These printed works were something like early tabloids.
10:31Their authors were untroubled with journalistic accuracy,
10:35and the readers didn't really care either.
10:38These weren't just morality tales, nor were they bland official accounts.
10:43These stories were colourful, they were exciting.
10:45They were designed to entertain.
10:47In the press, Hind embodied the idea of the jovial cavalier resisting against the dour Puritans.
10:57While the regime was busy banning Christmas, he's out there enjoying himself.
11:02It's not through prayer and hard work.
11:04He's drinking, carousing and having adventures.
11:08Now, in the imagination, the highwayman is gallant, he's principled and he's damn good fun.
11:14From his jail cell, Hind actually denied many of the stories attributed to him in the pulp press.
11:21When asked about some of the pamphlets written about him,
11:24he answered that they were fictions, before adding,
11:28But some merry pranks and revels I have played.
11:31That I deny not.
11:34But none of that mattered.
11:37The regime simply could not let Hind become a rallying point for royalist sympathisers.
11:43They wanted him dead.
11:44The authorities were having none of it.
11:49Hind wasn't just any royalist soldier.
11:52He'd fought alongside the future Charles II, right to the end.
11:57He was taken to Worcester, the scene of Charles II's last battle,
12:01where he was tried and convicted for treason.
12:05Hind would suffer a traitor's death.
12:07He was hung, drawn and quartered, his head displayed on a spike above the bridge over the severn.
12:18Despite Hind's gruesome end, the horse had already bolted.
12:22Highwaymen were a menace on the roads, but their stories were bestsellers.
12:27Technology was on the highwaymen's side.
12:31The printing press made them famous, and the Civil War flooded the country with a revolutionary invention that allowed them to flourish.
12:39The flintlock pistol.
12:42This weapon made the highwayman's signature surprise attack much easier.
12:48What were the advantages of this type of weapon for the highwayman?
12:52The flintlock gave the highwayman the chance to have his weapon all primed and ready to go, and then in his coat.
12:59The best way to really understand the advantages of the flintlock is to look what had to be used before.
13:06This is a match lock, and this is the match, hence the match lock.
13:11And for this to be ready to fire, that has to be glowing red.
13:15There's no way you could load this and then go about your business with it ready to use.
13:20It's as powerful as anything that came later, but if you like, it's fire by appointment.
13:26How does the flintlock work?
13:27Well, three key components in a flintlock.
13:31The cock, which is this piece here, which holds the flint.
13:34The frisson, which is what the spark comes from.
13:38And the pan.
13:39So, to make this work, you would go back to half cock, which is where we are there.
13:45You would pour powder in the pan, and then close the frisson.
13:51And then the final thing to make it go, you go back to full cock.
13:55And when you pull the trigger, that piece of flint flies forward, drags down the frisson, scraping off little bits of metal as red-hot sparks.
14:04And then a few sparks and flame from the pan goes into the barrel and sets off the main charge.
14:09What sort of range did they fire over?
14:11The pistols particularly would have been effective over a short range.
14:14They were designed to hit a man-sized target at a range perhaps not that much greater than an arm's length plus a sword.
14:26Yay!
14:28Right on the chin.
14:29He'll be staggering around now, wouldn't he?
14:36After the Civil War, amidst a flood of weapons and desperate men roaming the nation, highway robbery became an epidemic.
14:46Each infamous figure took the myth to a new level, and the state wasn't ready.
14:52The age of the highwayman had arrived.
14:56On the lonely 17th century roads, you never knew who was lurking in the shadows.
15:02Just outside of the cities, towns and villages, England was like the Wild West.
15:09Vast swathes of countryside stretched across the landscape.
15:13There was no police force, and out here, law and order of any description had very little reach.
15:19People and possessions could simply vanish.
15:30Highwaymen swarmed around wealth.
15:33Their main hunting grounds were the arterial King's Roves that headed out from the major cities, especially London,
15:40carrying the richest members of society.
15:42A few miles from the capital, and you were a sitting duck.
15:45Highwaymen lay in wait around areas like Hounslow Heath, Shooter's Hill, and the Great North Road,
15:52which all became notorious robbery hotspots.
15:56Travel was expensive.
15:59Coached passengers, by definition, were wealthy, and so they were frequently targeted.
16:03But highwaymen saw everyone on the road as fair game.
16:06To make matters worse, the roads of the period were terrible, deep-rutted in summer, and impassable quagmires in winter.
16:20They were little more than trackways badly maintained and cursed by those who travelled on them.
16:25The rough countryside terrain worked to the highwaymen's advantage.
16:33Coaches plodded along at around five miles per hour on a good road, slower on a poor one.
16:41Hills were particularly dangerous because coaches were forced to slow down,
16:46which made them an ideal location for ambush.
16:49Heathland and forests provided plenty of cover for robbers to hide,
16:54and urban centres were an ideal location to lie low.
17:08After the death of Cromwell, the English Republic fell apart,
17:12and in 1660, Charles II was brought to England to take the throne.
17:17The time of disgruntled royalist highwaymen running riot around the countryside came to an end.
17:25They had been valiant losers in the new order, but the monarchy was back.
17:31Jubilant royalists returned home triumphant with the new king.
17:35They were extravagant and hedonistic, and they brought someone with them.
17:39Claude Duval, the man who gave highwaymen sex appeal.
17:43He was from Normandy and worked as a footman to an exiled English aristocrat.
17:49Footmen were expected to be good shots and keen horsemen,
17:52with a reputation for hauteur and insolence.
17:56Being a footman was a great training for being a highwayman,
17:59because you were essentially an armed guard to protect the noble family that you worked for.
18:04You were chosen for your height and good looks.
18:06So the kind of glamour was written into it.
18:09Very fast runners, sure shots because they were trained to fire.
18:13I mean, it was almost like training someone to be a highwayman.
18:17Restoration aristocrats were a bunch of dissolute hedonists.
18:20Their French-style fashion was elaborately decadent,
18:23and debauchery was positively encouraged,
18:26all of which rubbed off on their entourage.
18:30Duval would have been described as a pop-injay for his fashionable French clothes,
18:34and he soon gained a reputation for fine living.
18:37He was an insatiable drinker, womaniser and gambler,
18:41but this was a lifestyle that he simply couldn't afford.
18:44Now, for a man with an ego like Duval's,
18:47getting a proper job was simply out of the question.
18:49So instead, he turned highwayman.
18:52Unlike Hind, Duval wasn't interested in politics.
19:01He robbed simply to keep the party going.
19:04He became a thief with style to match his daring.
19:08With Duval, panache was added to the highwayman legend.
19:14Soon enough, Duval found his way to the top of the nation's wanted list,
19:18with a reward of £20 offered for his capture.
19:22He robbed travellers and royal officials,
19:24anyone with money that came his way.
19:28This was a highwayman with no pretense to any social mission.
19:32He doesn't seem to have had any scruples about robbing from the poor.
19:36Robin Hood, he was not.
19:38On one occasion, Duval and an accomplice
19:41came across two gentlemen and their servants.
19:43Engaging them in conversation,
19:45they then robbed every penny from the servants,
19:49without even bothering to search their wealthy employers.
19:57But there was a particular theme in the tales of Duval's career
20:00that really made his name,
20:02and that was his pursuit of women.
20:05He gained a reputation for gallantry,
20:07particularly for returning keepsakes or trinkets to women
20:10after he'd robbed them.
20:12He was as keen on stealing their heart as their money.
20:18This persona is perfectly captured
20:20in an 1860 painting by William Frith
20:23of an encounter on Hounslow Heath.
20:26With Duval, it was your money or your wife.
20:29Duval's gang held up a coach
20:31carrying a gentleman and his wife
20:32with the enormous sum of £400 on board.
20:37As the gang approached,
20:38the lady played a tune on her flageolet
20:40to show she wasn't scared.
20:42Duval was intrigued.
20:45After complimenting the man on his wife's musical skills,
20:48he asked if she danced as well as she played,
20:51and if the gent would allow her to dance with him.
20:54Surrounded by pistols,
20:55it's perhaps unsurprising that the husband promptly agreed.
20:59Leaping down from his horse,
21:01Duval and the lady danced a courant together,
21:03while his cronies play music to accompany them.
21:06Of course, Duval is as skilled with his feet as he is with his blade,
21:10and when the dance is over,
21:12he hands his dancing partner back into the coach.
21:16Duval then takes £100 from her husband as payment for the music,
21:20but excuses him from the remaining £300 for being a good sport.
21:24The incident really sums up what Duval's all about.
21:28There's swashbuckle and ladies going weak at the knees when Duval's around.
21:32But that's exactly what he brought the idea of the highwayman.
21:36Romance, a bit of dash and sexual frisson.
21:39In the end, it was Duval's hedonistic lifestyle that brought him down.
21:48To celebrate a successful robbery, he stopped off at the pub.
21:51The Frenchman had a reputation for being handy with sword and pistol,
21:56but by the time a bailiff arrived to arrest him, he was legless.
21:59Too drunk to resist, he was thrown into Newgate jail to await his fate.
22:04At his trial, well-placed ladies of the court tried to intervene for a reprieve,
22:10but it was to no avail.
22:12Claude Duval was found guilty and sentenced to hang.
22:16Duval rode to the gallows in 1670, watched by thousands of women,
22:21from duchesses to prostitutes.
22:23He was 27.
22:29For the poor, he was an iconic figure,
22:31a rock star criminal, a glamorous gangster.
22:35Through Duval, they could escape the status of their birth,
22:38even if in fantasy.
22:40For the nobility, he added a touch of danger and excitement to their world.
22:45It would have been a thrill to have been robbed by him.
22:49Writers recounting Duval's adventures often did so
22:52to express concern about the Restoration elite,
22:55that they were dissolute and robbing the public to pay for their excess.
22:58Some thought they were less interested in ruling than womanising and gambling.
23:04There was also the feeling that courtly manners were becoming feminised
23:07and, even worse, French.
23:10All of which was a nasty foreign corruption of good old English morality.
23:16One of the interesting things about Claude Duval
23:17is that he kind of reflects the society that produced him.
23:20He likes women and gambling and dancing
23:23and, presumably, all the other vices of the court of Charles II.
23:28And so he's a focus for criticism of Charles II's court.
23:34Frith's painting of Duval captures the moment of a hold-up
23:37in a way that instantly mythologises it.
23:40Duval is at the centre being all gallant,
23:42whilst his less respectable sidekicks do the rest.
23:46He's got the clothes, the style and the mask.
23:48Highwaymen were noted for dressing like the wealthy gentlemen of the day.
24:02This was partly out of vanity,
24:04but partly to blend in with the well-to-do passengers.
24:08Crime was considered the province of the poor,
24:11so dressing this way was intended to allay suspicion.
24:14Every highwayman had a different approach to disguise.
24:25Some accounts mention that some highwaymen
24:27pulled their periwigs down to cover their eyes
24:29or, more bizarrely, tucked their tails into their mouths.
24:34Others wore their hats pulled down low, wore false beards,
24:37or simply did nothing at all of risky and cocky approach.
24:41The famous tricorn hat arrived around 1700,
24:51but what about that iconic black mask?
24:55Well, we know that some highwaymen did wear a mask,
24:58but before the most common disguise was a simple scarf.
25:01As important as choosing their disguise
25:09was selecting the right victims.
25:12The best operators carefully gathered intelligence on prime targets.
25:17In 1674, an obscure highwayman named Francis Jackson
25:22recorded his adventures in a confessional pamphlet.
25:25If Jackson hoped it would give him a reprieve,
25:27he was wrong and he was hanged.
25:29But its value to us today is that he's left us
25:32a kind of highwayman's manual,
25:34a how-to guide for robbery on the road.
25:41In his book, Jackson explains how highwaymen had a spy network
25:45working throughout the coaching inns and taverns
25:48that dotted the landscape.
25:50Everyone was involved, from the landlords to the stablehands,
25:53each getting a cut of the profits for a good tip-off.
25:55He also explained how highwaymen employed deception and confidence tricks,
26:04building false familiarity with potential victims,
26:07ingratiating themselves into fellow travellers' company before attacking.
26:11And Jackson also had advice for those who got caught.
26:18To procure mercy from the bench,
26:21there must be a plausible account given
26:23how you fell into this course of life.
26:26Fetching a deep sigh, saying that you were well-born,
26:30but by reason of your family falling into decay,
26:33you were exposed to great want.
26:35And rather than shamefully beg,
26:37for you knew not how to labour,
26:39you were constrained to take this course for a subsistence,
26:42that it is your first fault which you are heartily sorry for
26:46and will never attempt the like again.
26:50Most interestingly of all, I think,
26:53he also has advice for travellers.
26:55Never say goodbye and never reveal your destination
26:58in case a highwayman is listening.
27:01Also, never travel on a Sunday,
27:03because the roads are deserted and the authorities won't help.
27:07Then there was the robbery itself,
27:13the riskiest part of the venture for all concerned.
27:17To minimise the risks, highwaymen often worked in gangs,
27:20and they developed strategies to make robberies go smoothly.
27:25Sometimes they simply chatted to the driver before pulling a gun,
27:28but if that wasn't an option,
27:30there was the direct approach, an ambush.
27:32One of the gang would approach directly from the front
27:37with pistol drawn to hold up the driver.
27:41Attacking head-on shielded him from the passengers inside,
27:44who might be armed,
27:45and it allowed him to make sure the driver surrendered.
27:50A second highwayman would head for the passengers.
27:53He might approach from directly behind the coach,
27:56minimising the chance of getting shot.
28:00From the rear or side window,
28:02he would then threaten or charm the passengers.
28:05Guttural threats of violence,
28:07alternating with witty provocations,
28:09both intended to coerce victims
28:11into handing over their goods without resistance.
28:15Then the gang made their escape.
28:18To prevent pursuit, or out of spite,
28:20they would sometimes cut the bridles,
28:23or kill the horses.
28:25Finally, they would flee into a busy city,
28:27or head to a friendly inn,
28:29and establish an alibi.
28:32Escape and evading the law were vital skills in highway robbery.
28:40In highwayman legend,
28:42the greatest of all escape tales
28:44belonged to the robbers of the Great North Road,
28:46and they don't come any more sensational
28:48than those of John Neverson.
28:51Years before Dick Turpin,
28:53he became famous for his ingenious and daring escapes.
28:56This is the peak district in Derbyshire,
29:00John Neverson's stomping ground.
29:03It's the ideal environment for highwaymen.
29:05In reality, Neverson was a bit of a thug.
29:13He operated protection rackets
29:15on the routes to the markets down south.
29:17He took money, not from wealthy aristocrats,
29:21but from drovers, from butchers, from shopkeepers.
29:24He was also a horse thief and a murderer,
29:27killing a parish constable sent to arrest him.
29:31Neverson was a hard man.
29:33He was also a survivor.
29:35Like many highwaymen's stories,
29:40it's unclear what's true and what is just a good yarn,
29:43but Neverson's legend was full of incredible escape routines.
29:47In 1674, he broke out of Wakefield Jail
29:51before charges could be brought.
29:54A few years later, he was sentenced to transportation
29:57and hopped ship before it left the docks.
29:59But he wasn't done yet.
30:02According to the Newgate calendar,
30:03in 1681, the law caught up with him again
30:06and he was sent to Leicester Jail.
30:08But this time, escape seemed impossible.
30:11His escapades were well known
30:13and it was reported that he was so elaborately shackled
30:16that he could scarcely move.
30:19To get out of this one,
30:20he'd need a plan with a new level of cunning
30:22and a little bit of help from his friends.
30:27The first step was to get out of the closely guarded cell.
30:31He did this by feigning a deadly sickness
30:34and calling for his friends to pay their last respects,
30:37one of whom was a physician.
30:39On his arrival, his friend declared that Neverson had the plague
30:43and he would infect the whole prison,
30:45wardens included, if he was not isolated.
30:50Neverson was moved and unshackled
30:52and the guards kept their distance.
30:54Then he brought in an artist
30:55who set about painting the fatal symptoms of plague
30:58all over his body.
31:00His physician friend then gave him a sleeping draught
31:03and they claimed he was dead.
31:09After a cursory examination from his jailers
31:12who were too scared to get close,
31:14his friends were allowed to come
31:16and claim his body and take it away in a coffin.
31:19He was soon up on his feet, however,
31:22only this time as a highwayman robbing as his own ghost,
31:26which made him even more terrifying to his victims.
31:30But there was another highwayman on the North Road
31:33with an escape story that became even more famous,
31:36known as Swift Nix,
31:39a shadowy figure nicknamed for being as fast as the devil himself.
31:44The story goes that he relieved a debt collector of £500
31:48near Rochester one morning,
31:50but he was worried that the victim
31:52would be able to identify him in court.
31:54Now, a lesser man might have killed the collector,
31:57but Swift Nix decided on a more elaborate alibi.
32:01He decided to ride the 230 miles to York in one day,
32:06a feat then considered impossible.
32:10After hatching his plan, he sped off,
32:13tearing through Chelmsford and Cambridge
32:15before herring up the Great North Road.
32:16Riding several horses into the ground,
32:20he arrived in York around 7.30,
32:22and, changing into his finest clothes,
32:25he finally arrived, breathless, at its destination.
32:30A bowling green.
32:33Swift Nix stepped onto the green
32:35and exchanged pleasantries with the mayor,
32:37who would later swear that he'd been his guest that evening
32:39and couldn't possibly have been in Kent that very morning.
32:43This story was later attributed to Dick Turpin riding Black Bess,
32:47but the original was Swift Nix.
32:55But all of these stories, whether true or not,
32:58tell us what people wanted to see in their highwaymen.
33:01They needed to be charming, generous and clever.
33:05Who would have thought that a game of bowls
33:07was a way of staying out of jail?
33:09There was little to actually stop highwaymen plying their trade.
33:17The state was small,
33:18and its ability to control the population was limited,
33:21which meant it reacted to crimes
33:24but did not try to prevent them.
33:26Fear of brutal punishment
33:28was supposed to keep criminals in check.
33:31Law enforcement was a localised affair.
33:34Constables were unpaid amateurs
33:38whose job it was to keep the peace
33:39and occasionally arrest villains
33:41if they didn't look too dangerous.
33:43In London, watchmen were tasked
33:46with keeping some sense of peace in the disorderly city.
33:50Watchmen were hired by the parish
33:52to walk round at night.
33:54Like the constables,
33:55they're seen as pretty ineffectual,
33:57quite often paid off, quite often old men.
34:00You know, it's a job you give to someone
34:01who's retiring kind of thing.
34:02And so they're all...
34:04In most cases, they're seen as laughably inefficient.
34:08Perhaps the main hindrance to a highwayman early on
34:11seems to have been the hue and cry.
34:15A potty of regular citizens
34:17gathered by their victims to hunt them down.
34:21Eventually, though, it was a change in the law
34:23that posed the biggest threat to highwaymen
34:25as the 18th century dawned.
34:27By this time, it was acknowledged
34:30that things had got completely out of control.
34:33But the aristocracy who ran the state
34:35had no interest in founding a police force.
34:38It had more than a little whiff of French tyranny
34:41and expense about it.
34:43Justice was about making the legal penalties stronger
34:46rather than prevention.
34:47They wanted to use the law
34:50to bring down the knights of the road.
34:54The High Women's Act came into force in 1693.
34:59And you've got relatively wealthy people
35:01being robbed in inaccessible places
35:05by men on horseback.
35:07So their getaway was pretty easy
35:09and the detection was pretty unlikely.
35:12So they offered rewards to people
35:14who apprehended high women.
35:16The other section, of course,
35:17was to try and turn criminals against criminals,
35:20get grasses.
35:22So if you were convicted of a robbery
35:24and therefore you were facing
35:25the death penalty yourself,
35:26if you were prepared to turn Queen's evidence
35:28and shop at least two of your confederates,
35:32you would receive a pardon
35:34for the robberies that you had committed.
35:39Any private citizen could bring in a highwayman
35:42if they dared,
35:43but taking them to court wasn't simple.
35:46It was their victims who had to pay for a prosecution
35:49and provide evidence.
35:51For many, it simply wasn't worth it.
35:55These were not men to cross lightly.
35:56When one highwayman couldn't get a ring
36:01off his victim's hand,
36:02he cut off her finger.
36:04When another swallowed her jewellery
36:06to keep it safe,
36:07so the robber cut her open.
36:10And when their identity was threatened,
36:13they could be particularly ruthless.
36:15On one occasion,
36:16a local woman witnessed the robbery
36:18and called out that she recognised the robbers
36:21and that she would report them.
36:22They turned around and cut out her tongue.
36:26But there were also some instructive accounts
36:29of victims fighting back against their attackers,
36:33including an incident with two highwaymen
36:35at the Surrey village of Ripley.
36:37Their victims alerted the local population
36:41who chased their attackers across a village green
36:44into the middle of a game of cricket.
36:46Now, one of the attackers managed to escape,
36:49but the other was beaten into submission
36:51with cricket bat and stumps.
36:53Whatever the truth about their methods,
36:59as the 1700s progressed,
37:01highwaymen's stories became an increasingly popular
37:04form of entertainment.
37:06As their fame grew,
37:07so did the sense of romance around the idea
37:10of who they were and what they stood for.
37:14In 1714, Captain Alexander Smith's book,
37:17The Complete History of the Lives and Robberies
37:20of the Most Notorious Highwaymen,
37:22caused a sensation.
37:23It set the bar for colourful
37:25and slightly dubious accounts
37:27of the big names in highway robbery.
37:30But whilst the public might find them romantic,
37:32the elite weren't so keen.
37:34They represented a threat to the social order.
37:37Not only were they attacking property with impunity,
37:40without any regard to the rank of their victims,
37:43but the robberies were giving them wealth
37:45and pretensions of status.
37:47To satirists, there was a delicious irony
37:51to the howls of outrage about highwaymen.
37:54For them, politicians in the Georgian government
37:57were even worse thieves.
37:59In 1728, John Gay penned The Beggar's Opera,
38:04using a highwayman called McHeath
38:06as a central character in his stage satire.
38:09McHeath was the theatrical incarnation of the gentleman robber,
38:13but he wasn't the villain of the piece.
38:16He was moral, he was noble,
38:18and it was set against the rapaciousness of the elite.
38:22His character was used to dissect the hypocrisy
38:24of the ruling classes,
38:26who were losing more at the gambling tables
38:28than they were on the roads.
38:30Then there was the corruption.
38:34In John Gay's eyes,
38:35highwaymen were more honest thieves than the government.
38:38The ruling class were committing robberies of their own,
38:41but they were getting away with it.
38:43Prime Minister Robert Walpole
38:44spirited away thousands of pounds,
38:47and when the Chancellor,
38:48the Earl of Macclesfield,
38:50took £100,000 in bribes,
38:53all he got was a fine.
39:00The highwayman epidemic was a sign of the times.
39:04Britain was becoming a modern state.
39:07Commerce and capitalism were accelerating rapidly,
39:10leaving the old order behind.
39:13Highwaymen have been said to symbolise this process
39:16as upwardly mobile, ruthless,
39:19and heavily profit-oriented.
39:22Highwaymen stole because they wanted the money
39:24to support their lifestyle
39:26and didn't want to work for it.
39:28But there was still a sense
39:29that there were good and bad thieves in England.
39:32Criminality had its own hierarchy,
39:35and right at the top were highwaymen.
39:37Many even considered themselves gentlemen.
39:41None more so than James Maclean.
39:44He was the son of a wealthy Scottish clergyman
39:47with connections.
39:48Not quite a gentleman, but not far off.
39:51He was raised to become a merchant,
39:52but early on it was clear
39:54that he had a better eye for fine clothes than business.
39:57Maclean was also a hopeless gambler
40:00and fritted away a considerable inheritance.
40:03Eternally on the scrounge,
40:05he then moved to London to find himself a rich wife.
40:08He quickly married a tradesman's daughter
40:10and used her £500 dowry
40:12to set up a grocer's shop.
40:14For a while, it looked like he'd turned his life around.
40:22When his wife died,
40:24it quickly became clear
40:25that she had been the one running the business.
40:28Maclean was clueless,
40:29so he sold up and packed his kids off to their grandparents.
40:33With his remaining funds,
40:34he then bought expensive clothes
40:36and began to mingle in high society
40:39in an attempt to bag himself a wealthy wife.
40:42But he had no luck,
40:43and soon the money ran out.
40:52Maclean had become desperate
40:53when he met a man named William Plunkett.
40:57Now, he was an apothecary
40:58and a fellow bankrupt,
41:01and he suggested that they start up a new business together,
41:04setting up shop as highwaymen.
41:06Plunkett recognised that Maclean's gentlemanly pretensions
41:13might actually come in handy.
41:15Expressing sympathy for his plight,
41:17Plunkett urged Maclean to join him on the roads.
41:20I thought, Maclean,
41:22thou had spirit and resolution
41:23with some knowledge of the world.
41:26A brave man cannot want
41:27he has a right to live
41:29and need not want the conveniences of life
41:32while the dull, plodding, busy knaves
41:34carry cash in their pockets.
41:36We must draw upon them to supply our wants.
41:40They need only impudence
41:41and getting the better of a few silly scruples.
41:44There's scarce courage necessary.
41:48Their ruse was simple but effective.
41:51While Maclean mingled with the great and the good,
41:53Plunkett posed as his footman,
41:56which gave him access below stairs
41:57where he could get information from the staff.
42:01And so with Maclean listening upstairs
42:03and Plunkett downstairs,
42:05loose lips would provide juicy targets.
42:09Maclean, though, was a bit of a coward.
42:11During a hold-up,
42:12Plunkett sent him to stop the drive of a coach
42:15while he searched the passengers,
42:17but Maclean's courage failed him.
42:19Trembling with fear,
42:19he tried several times
42:21but just couldn't do it
42:23and Plunkett had to step in.
42:25But eventually Maclean got the hang of it
42:27until one incident made them the talk of the town.
42:31In Hyde Park,
42:32they held up the coach of Horace Walpole,
42:35the Prime Minister's son and Gothic novelist,
42:37who soon found himself in a horror story of his own.
42:42The ever-nervous Maclean
42:43was collecting the passengers' valuables
42:45when his gun went off by accident,
42:47nearly blowing off Walpole's head
42:49and severely scorching the shocked man's cheek.
42:52After profuse apologies,
42:54Maclean gathered the goods
42:55and they scarpered.
42:57True to his gentlemanly credentials,
43:00a mortified Maclean wrote to Walpole the next day
43:02to apologise
43:03and to try and sell him his own belongings back.
43:07Maclean became known as the Gentleman Highwayman
43:10and by reputation,
43:11he was courteous to a fault.
43:13Finally, he got to live as he'd always seen himself,
43:16a high flyer,
43:18mixing with the very best people in society.
43:20And then, inevitably,
43:23it all went wrong.
43:25The blundering duo robbed the Salisbury stagecoach,
43:28relieving Lord Eglinton of his purse and blunderbuss
43:31and a wealthy passenger named Josiah Higdon
43:34of his clothes and expensive fabrics.
43:38Maclean then tried to sell some of the stolen goods.
43:40Firstly, he went to a lacemaker with some of Josiah Higdon's golden lace.
43:45But, unluckily for him,
43:47it was exactly the same lacemaker who had just sold it to Higdon.
43:51After narrowly escaping that encounter,
43:55Maclean was arrested.
43:57Higdon recognised his stolen property in the local shop
44:00where Maclean had eventually sold it
44:02and, unbelievably,
44:04had left his name and address.
44:07He'd been caught red-handed.
44:08Plunkett fled,
44:09never to be seen again.
44:11Maclean was sent to jail
44:13where he became a celebrity inmate.
44:15Three thousand people paid his jailers to visit him,
44:19including several of the aristocratic
44:21circle he had been so desperate to court.
44:27Being unable to tell a common criminal
44:29apart from a gentleman
44:30posed a threat to the social order
44:33and Maclean's story was used as a dire warning.
44:37But status was important to criminals.
44:40Whilst in jail,
44:41Maclean apparently wrote a treatise
44:43published after his death
44:44that attempted to distinguish
44:46the types of crime he committed
44:48from those of other mere criminals.
44:51Highway robbers were considered
44:53gentlemen of the road.
44:55In order to be a highwayman,
44:56you had to have the equipment.
44:57You had to have a horse.
44:58You had to be able to feed the horse.
44:59You had to have a saddle.
45:01Well, I suppose you could nick those,
45:03but more often than not,
45:04you inherited those
45:06because you came from that sort of class
45:07and you had to be able to ride.
45:09And not everyone could ride a horse,
45:11but the gentry could or the well-off
45:13or the better-off could.
45:15Highwaymen were, no doubt,
45:17at the top of the criminal hierarchy.
45:19They got to ride at the front of the cart
45:21to execution at Tyburn.
45:23A highwayman, Maclean insisted,
45:25would only ever rob the rich,
45:27whereas the lowly footpath
45:28had little nobility in his work.
45:32Standing at Tyburn tree,
45:34Maclean faced his end
45:35as he had carried out his career.
45:37His last words as he saw the gallows?
45:40Oh, Jesus.
45:45All of the colourful tales
45:47of the highwayman age
45:48were later taken
45:49and distilled into the story of one man,
45:52Dick Turpin.
45:55Popular culture down the centuries
45:57would embellish and exalt his legend
45:59through entertaining yarns.
46:01But lurking behind the glamorous Turpin of myth
46:04was a real man
46:06with a far darker story.
46:14Turkin's real life
46:16was probably more typical
46:17of the average highwayman.
46:19He was a braggart,
46:20a bully,
46:21and a coward.
46:22Violence was his modus operandi,
46:24not gallantry.
46:27Like the royalist robber James Hind,
46:30he trained as a butcher
46:31with a shop in Essex.
46:34Butchery was a respectable profession,
46:36but feeling the pinch
46:37in changing times.
46:40Turpin's downward spiral began
46:42when he started selling meat
46:43for a dodgy gang of poachers.
46:45When the law got involved,
46:47he left his business
46:47and joined his suppliers,
46:49the Gregory gang.
46:51Soon, however,
46:52even poaching became too risky.
46:54So, ironically,
46:55they turned to something
46:56that they thought would be safer.
46:58Armed robbery.
47:01There was no glamour
47:02or panache to these outlaws.
47:04The gang was ruthless
47:05with a reputation
47:06for violence,
47:08torture,
47:08and rape.
47:10Far from the cheeky
47:11and respected thieves
47:12of popular fiction,
47:13they were housebreakers
47:15who preyed on the defenceless.
47:17And they were perfectly prepared
47:19to carry out their threats,
47:21beating, burning,
47:22and slashing their victims.
47:24The gang turned to house robbery.
47:27And in early 1735,
47:28this gang attacks
47:29an isolated farmhouse
47:31in Edgeware,
47:32which was in a village
47:33on the outskirts of London,
47:34which involves torturing
47:36a 70-year-old man
47:38who's the householder
47:40to get him to reveal
47:41where valuables
47:41in the house are hidden.
47:43This involves sitting on the fire,
47:45bare buttocked,
47:46whipping him.
47:48While this is going on,
47:49one of the leaders of the gang
47:50is upstairs raping a maid
47:52at Pistol Point.
47:53These are not folk heroes.
47:58The gang was eventually
48:00brought down
48:00by a justice of the peace
48:02and Turpin fled.
48:04But one of their members
48:05had been captured
48:05and confessed everything.
48:07And he even gave
48:08a description of Turpin,
48:10now a wanted man.
48:13Richard Turpin,
48:15a butcher by trade,
48:16is a tall, fresh-coloured man,
48:18very marked with the smallpox,
48:20about 26 years of age,
48:21about 5 feet 9 inches high,
48:24wears a blue-grey coat
48:25and a light natural wig.
48:28After a time on the run,
48:30Turpin ended up
48:31in Epping Forest.
48:32A busy route from London,
48:34it provided the perfect location
48:36for his transformation
48:37into a highwayman.
48:38And an ideal hiding place
48:43for a man with a price on his head.
48:46For a short time,
48:47Turpin and his small gang
48:48of associates
48:49were prolific thieves,
48:51but inevitably
48:51they got greedy.
48:53Turpin spotted a horse
48:55that he thought
48:55looked much finer
48:57than his own
48:57and forced the owner
48:58to hand it over
48:59at gunpoint.
49:00It was to be his downfall.
49:04The horse
49:04was an expensive racehorse
49:06named White Stockings
49:08for the white marks
49:09on its lower legs.
49:11And it wasn't long
49:11before the horse
49:12and Turpin
49:13were tracked down.
49:17They were found
49:18at a pub
49:19in Whitechapel.
49:20A local constable
49:21was summoned
49:21and a posse raised
49:22to set an ambush.
49:23In the ensuing melee,
49:26one of his gang
49:27was shot
49:28and mortally wounded.
49:30Accounts differ
49:30as to who pulled
49:31the trigger
49:32and why.
49:33Some reports
49:34say that Turpin
49:35fired in order
49:36to silence his colleague.
49:38Others say
49:38he was trying
49:39to free him.
49:40Either way,
49:41his luck
49:41was running out.
49:44As the noose tightened,
49:45Turpin's notoriety
49:47came back
49:47to haunt him.
49:48Eager to claim
49:49the large reward
49:50on his head,
49:51a forest keeper's servant,
49:52Thomas Morris,
49:53set out to capture him.
49:55But Turpin
49:56wasn't going
49:56to go quietly
49:57and he shot
49:58Morris dead.
50:02The reward
50:03was raised
50:03to 200 pounds.
50:07Turpin resurfaced
50:08in Yorkshire
50:09and changed his name
50:10to John Palmer.
50:12He then became
50:13a horse dealer,
50:14the 18th century
50:15equivalent
50:15of a second-hand
50:16car salesman.
50:17And, of course,
50:19all of Palmer's horses
50:20were stolen.
50:21For a few years,
50:24he blended in,
50:25gaining a measure
50:26of respectability
50:27and friendship
50:27in the local area.
50:29But then,
50:29after a hunting trip
50:30with some locals,
50:32the man everyone
50:32knew as John Palmer
50:34made a bizarre
50:35and fatal mistake.
50:36To the utter bewilderment
50:38of the hunting party,
50:39he took out his pistol
50:40and blew the head
50:41off one of his landlord's chickens.
50:43Then,
50:44when a neighbour complained,
50:45Palmer threatened
50:46to do the same to him.
50:48A constable was summoned
50:49and John Palmer
50:50was sent to the local jail.
50:53The authorities
50:54began to suspect
50:55that there was more
50:56to this strange
50:57John Palmer chap.
50:58No one knew anything
50:59about him before
51:00he arrived a few years earlier
51:02or how he earned a living.
51:04From his accent,
51:04he clearly wasn't local.
51:08Inquiries were made
51:09in Lincolnshire,
51:10where John Palmer
51:11had lived before.
51:13And, sure enough,
51:14they recognised the man.
51:15He'd been arrested
51:16for the theft
51:17of livestock and horses
51:18and had since escaped.
51:21Realising they had
51:22a bigger case on their hands,
51:24they brought him here
51:25to York Jail.
51:33But they still didn't know
51:34his true identity.
51:36In 1739,
51:37the man known as John Palmer
51:39wrote a letter
51:39to his brother-in-law,
51:41Pompa Rivenall,
51:42back in Essex,
51:43asking for his help.
51:45But when Rivenall
51:46looked at the letter,
51:47he claimed not to know
51:48anyone from York
51:49and refused to pay
51:50the postal charge.
51:52By a bewildering coincidence,
51:54the letter was seen
51:55by a man called James Smith,
51:58the very man
51:58who had taught Richard Turpin
52:00how to write.
52:02Recognising the handwriting,
52:03he went straight
52:04to the authorities.
52:06John Palmer
52:06had been rumbled.
52:08At York Assizes
52:10in 1739,
52:12Richard Turpin
52:12was put on trial
52:14for horse theft.
52:17Despite repeated denials
52:19of the trial,
52:21John Palmer
52:21was identified
52:22as Dick Turpin
52:23and he was found guilty.
52:25When asked by the judge
52:26why he had failed
52:27to bring any character witnesses
52:29to his defence,
52:31Turpin said
52:31that he had been told
52:33that his trial
52:33would be moved to Essex
52:35and that he was unable
52:36to bring anyone here
52:37where he was a stranger.
52:39It seemed
52:40he never even expected
52:41it to get this far.
52:50In the end,
52:52Turpin was condemned
52:53as a simple horse thief
52:54and he was hanged here
52:56at York Racecourse.
52:58And in an irony
53:00that can't have escaped him,
53:01the hangman
53:02was a fellow highwayman
53:03who'd been spared the noose
53:05for carrying out
53:06the day's executions.
53:11Perhaps the only act
53:13that Turpin carried out
53:14that was anything
53:15close to the legend
53:16was when he was standing
53:18on the cart
53:18with the noose
53:19around his neck
53:20and he stamped
53:21his shaking leg
53:23until it was still
53:24and then he jumped off
53:25into oblivion
53:26before he could be pushed.
53:28During his life,
53:34Turpin was reviled
53:35by Walpole's
53:36Whig administration.
53:38He was ammunition
53:38for their opponents
53:39who suggested
53:40that they were not
53:41being tough enough
53:42on law and order.
53:43But the public
53:45would remember men
53:46like Turpin differently.
53:48As memories
53:48of the real man faded,
53:50the myth took over.
53:51A few decades
53:54after his death,
53:55Turpin reappeared in song
53:57as a much rehabilitated character.
53:59Wow!
54:00Said Turpin,
54:12he'd never find me or
54:13I hid my money
54:15in my book.
54:16The lawyer says,
54:17there's none can find
54:19I hid my gold
54:20in my cake behind.
54:22Oh, rare Turpin hero,
54:25oh, rare Turpin, oh.
54:27As they were riding
54:34past the mill,
54:36Turpin commands him
54:37to stand still,
54:38he says,
54:39your cloak,
54:39I must cut off
54:41my mask,
54:41he needs a saddle plug.
54:44Oh, rare Turpin hero,
54:47oh, rare Turpin hero.
54:49Wow!
54:57It's such a fantastic song,
55:00but it's one of so many
55:02about highwaymen.
55:03Why was it so popular?
55:04Well, people just love
55:06to have their own robe,
55:07their own supervillain,
55:08especially their own local one,
55:10and someone to stand up
55:11to authority.
55:12When you look at it
55:13as a historian,
55:14it's very clear
55:14that the myth
55:15and the reality
55:16are not the same,
55:17and in real life,
55:18these people were
55:19very unpleasant.
55:20They were violent,
55:21armed robbers.
55:22Often when these ballads
55:23were originally sold,
55:25they were telling the news,
55:26they told the truth,
55:27so they would say
55:28what actually happened
55:28to these characters
55:29usually hung,
55:31but as soon as these songs
55:32got into the mouths
55:33of the people,
55:34the stories were very different,
55:35and usually they'd
55:36get away scot-free.
55:38The songs took these legends
55:39around the country,
55:41and if you had
55:42a fantastic story
55:44coupled with
55:46a really catchy tune,
55:47then that's just going
55:48to spread like wildfire.
55:51In the early 1800s,
55:53captivated by the old tales
55:55of highwaymen,
55:55was a young writer
55:56called William Harrison
55:57Ainsworth.
55:59It was largely
56:00through his writing
56:01that Dick Turpin
56:02and all highwaymen
56:03came to be
56:04the heavily romanticised
56:06mythical robes
56:07we know today.
56:10Through Ainsworth's
56:121834 novel,
56:13Rookwood,
56:14Turpin became associated
56:15with Black Bess
56:16and the famous
56:17escape ride to York.
56:19He was remodelled
56:20with the virtues
56:21of an 1830s gentleman
56:22fit for a new age,
56:24an icon of Englishness
56:26and manly imperial pride.
56:28With Ainsworth,
56:29highwaymen were transformed
56:31from the exciting
56:32but ultimately doomed criminal
56:34to the fantasy hero
56:36of boy's own adventures.
56:39But the fictional highwayman
56:41could only become
56:42a proper hero
56:43because the real thing
56:44was no longer around
56:46to spoil the illusion.
56:47By the 1800s,
56:49mounted robbers
56:49had long since ceased
56:51to be a threat
56:51to society.
56:53The age of the highwaymen
56:56was over.
56:58The world around them
57:00had changed.
57:02The enclosure of fields
57:04and open countryside
57:05had limited their movement.
57:08Faster coaches travelled
57:09on smoother roads
57:11which were, in turn,
57:12policed by mounted patrols.
57:14Railways were perhaps
57:16the final nail
57:17in their coffin
57:17as the wealthy
57:18simply ceased
57:19to travel by road.
57:22Writers seized upon
57:23the idea of highwaymen
57:24as lovable
57:25and misunderstood rogues
57:27who did as they liked
57:28and did it with style
57:29and they developed
57:30these ideas
57:31just as the highwaymen
57:32were fading into the past.
57:35They became
57:36the star attraction
57:37of penny dreadfuls,
57:39cheap theatre shows
57:40and children's toys.
57:41And one day,
57:45Ainsworth's story
57:46would find its ultimate expression
57:47on Hollywood's silver screens.
57:50As the prospect
57:52of violence disappeared,
57:53so did the darker,
57:55unsavoury aspects
57:56of the highwaymen's story.
57:58As Victorian heroes,
58:00highwaymen became
58:01fancy dress outlaws
58:03with straightened-out morals
58:04and a firm sense
58:05of social justice.
58:07They also brought
58:08a hint of danger,
58:10rebellion and free spirit
58:11to a very straight-laced age.
58:14But they were outlaws
58:14who would accompany us
58:15on adventures
58:16rather than steal our wallets
58:18and it was a potent mix.
58:20The real thing may have gone,
58:22but in our imagination,
58:23they were here to stay.
58:26Next time,
58:27from the highways
58:28to the high seas,
58:29the British outlaw
58:30turns to piracy.
58:32Their plunderings
58:33threaten a fledgling
58:34maritime empire
58:35and the bloody exploits
58:37of swashbucklers
58:38like Captain Kidd
58:39and Blackbeard
58:40make them into
58:40the most hunted renegades
58:42in history.
58:50Coming up next tonight
58:51here on BBC4,
58:52we're icebound in Alaska.
58:54Don't go away.
58:54We're icebound in Alaska.
59:16We'll see you next time—
59:17most of how we're
59:18While running in Alaska.
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