Why highwaymen robbed people

This is to give notice that His Majesty hath been pleased to Order the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury to cause the sum of Twenty pounds, to be paid to such Person or Persons as shall apprehend and secure the said Nevison to bring him to justice.

Perhaps this call helped to enable his capture — after which he again escaped in , this time by playing dead and procuring an accomplice to pretend to be a doctor and pronounce him dead of the plague. He was arrested for the final time in , and was hanged at the Knavesmire, York. Reputedly the most gallant of all highwaymen, Duval was born in Normandy in and moved to England to become a footman to the Duke of Richmond. At some point he turned to highway robbery, operating roads leading to London from the north.

This incident was immortalised in a painting by William Powell Frith, but the story has many versions.

The story goes that he was killed when he turned highwayman and carried out the stagecoach robbery of a doctor one November night on Hounslow Heath in Other highwaymen who may not have made it into folklore but were no less infamous at the time, were also documented in the Gazette, with some particularly lively descriptions, such as these two men awaiting trial at Newgate Prison in for whom there is a call for witnesses Gazette issue :.

Benjamin Penrin, a thick, well-fed Man, light brown short hair, pock-broken, with several Cuts in his face, viz. The detail goes as far as to describe a wart on one of the men's fingers:. It goes on to describe the treatment doled out to the unfortunate victim: 'after they had so robb'd her they tyed her Hands behind her Back, and both her Legs together, and wrap'd up a Stone in her Handkerchief and put the same into her Mouth, and so left her'. Highwaymen started to decline in the 's.

Reasons include better policing of roads, gated toll-roads, and the availability of affordable handguns by common citizens. KidzSearch Safe Wikipedia for Kids.

Jump to: navigation , search. Category : Crime. Navigation menu Personal tools Log in. However, Britain was still a pre-industrial country.

The population was small and there were vast areas of forest and other countryside where highwaymen could lie in wait. The invention of the flintlock pistol early in the 17th century also made life easy for highwaymen.

Furthermore, Britain did not have a professional police force, which made it harder to catch them. The most dangerous roads were those around London. There is a popular image of the highwayman as a gentleman and surprisingly some highwaymen were from quite wealthy backgrounds. Perhaps it was an exciting way of life being a highwayman but it was usually a short one — most were caught and hanged before they were Furthermore, sometimes the travelers fought back.

Many stagecoaches carried armed guards and some passengers carried pistols. There were also large rewards for anyone who could capture a highwayman and bring him to justice. Most highwaymen were eventually caught and hanged. Afterward, their body was sometimes hanged on a frame called a gibbet as a warning to others.