Peter Haining - The English Highwayman: A Legend Unmasked

[dem]

Peter Haining - The English Highwayman: A Legend Unmasked (Robert Hale, 1991)

Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations

The Highwaymen: Freebooters Or Felons?
The First Highwayman Was A Woman
'The Grand Thief Of England'
'The Wild Sons Of Gentlemen'
The Knights Of The Road
A Plague Of Highwaymen
England's Greatest Highwayman Was French!
The Highwayman Who Really Rode To York
The Wicked Ladies
A Golden Era For Robbers?
The Coming Of The Thief-Takers
The Last Gallop Into Legend

Appendix: The Literature Of The Highwaymen
Index

Blurb:
The clatter of hoofs. The dark night, like a cloak, envelopes the unsuspecting wayfarer.

Suddenly, out of the gloom rides . . . the highwayman! Legendary and elusive, these masked figures continue to capture the popular imagination, combining crime with an aristocratic flamboyance.

In this informative book, Peter Haining conducts a historical survey of these ‘English outlaws’ who flourished in an era of social and political upheaval, and were eventually crushed by the punitive machinery of the the law. From the Royalist captains Hyde and Howard to the pragmatic thief-taker Jonathan Wild; from Moll Cutpurse to the wicked ladies of the silver screen; and from London to York with Swift Nicks and Dick Turpin, The English Highwayman follows the colourful careers of the Famous — and infamous — "gentlemen of the road".

An adventure story and a social history, this book will appeal to rebels and scholars alike.

Patrick Pringle's superlative Stand and Deliver: The Story of the Highwaymen (Century, 1951) counts among my most revisited books, so very unlikely that even a Peter Haining title on same theme will replace it in my affections. The English Highwayman is a delight nonetheless. In relating his dubious history of blood 'n thunder, Mr. H. quotes judiciously from earlier works on the subject, primarily Charles G. Harper's Half-Hours With The Highwaymen (1908), Elizabeth Villier's Stand & Deliver: The Romantic Adventures Of Old Toby (1928), and Mr. Pringle's masterpiece, but brings enough of his own to the party to make it all worthwhile, including brief entries on both versions of The Wicked Lady, the first, starring Margaret Lockwood (whose daring décolletage saw it banned in Birmingham - albeit only on Sundays), and the "controversial" Michael Winner remake featuring a whip-cracking Faye Dunaway. Sadly, no reference to Carry On Dick let alone 'Rancid Dick.' Adam Ant another notable absentee. Will possibly attempt a more detailed examination at a later date.

[dem]

Paul Hardy

"God damn your blood, you old bitch. If you won't tell us [where your money is] I'll set your arse on the grate.". Dick Turpin tortures the widow Shelley of Loughton for her savings .

Something that sets Haining's book apart from Patrick Pringle's: he doesn't flinch from dwelling upon the sadism of the very worst of the Highwaymen. For every 'knight of the road' like dashing, flashy French lothario Claude "the Squire of Dames" Duval, there were others only too keen to nail their victims to a tree by their (non-galloping) dicks, or torture elderly women over a fire. From what little history recalls of Jacob Halsey, the terror of Barnet and St. Albans, he was a particularly unpleasant piece of work. Folklore has been inordinately generous to a "pock-marked Whitechapel butcher" named Dick Turpin, to the point where he is arguably the most famous highwayman of them all. Nobody has made a children's TV series based on the exploits of more deserving anti-heroes like William "The Golden Farmer" Davis or Captain Reynolds. Popular legend to the contrary, it wasn't Turpin who rode flat out to York in thirteen hours - that particular feat was performed by the extraordinary John Nevison, dubbed 'Swift Nicks' by Charles II in appreciation of his horsemanship. Critics argue that there was little to distinguish Turpin from his peers beyond a mean streak and treachery toward his cronies.

Likewise, whatever Adam & The Ants would have you believe, very few of these "dandy" desperadoes contented themselves with a polite "Stand and deliver." With Peter Haining on the case, we are never far from "authentically recorded utterances," and this sadly uncredited volley appears to be one of them. "You strumpeting whore's abortion! You suffocated dogs in doublets and sodomitical sons of bitches - hand over your cash!"

While we're on the subject of glam punks, the magnificently named Gamaliel Ratsey was something of a pioneering spirit among the first wave of highwaymen in that he introduced a touch of macabre theatre to the sport. According to Patrick Pringle, Ratsey "wore a special mask which covered his whole face, and on which were painted features of an especially repulsive appearance." A true people's champion, Ratsy was forever donating his ill gotten coin to the poor, though this, apparently, is as big a fiction as the rest of his alleged life story (see below). Ratsey's brief career was curtailed indefinitely when he was hanged at Bedford in March 1605. An enterprising London publisher cashed in on the occasion with The Life And Death of Gamaliel Ratsey, the first biography of a highwayman. The public had only to wait until May of the same year for a sequel, Ratseis Ghoaste: or, the Second Part of his Madde Pranks and Robberies, with which Mr. Pringle is even less impressed. "As the 'official' biography included all Ratsey's known pranks and robberies, the second volume was almost entirely fictitious."

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Peter Newark - The Crimson Book Of Highwaymen (Jupiter, 1979)

Author's Note
A Note on The Illustrations
Heyday Of Highwaymen
The Gallows And The Gibbet
Crooked Cavaliers
Claude Duval
Gentlemen Of The Road
Jonathan Wild
Jack Sheppard
The Real Dick Turpin
Sixteen-string Jack
The Bushrangers Of Australia
The Road Agents Of America
Select Bibliography

From The Author's Note.
IN RELATING THE STORIES of celebrated highwaymen I have concentrated first on the English variety, followed by their cousins-in-crime, the 'bushrangers' of Australia and the 'road agents' and railway bandits of America's Wild West, a cavalcade of highway robbery starting in the mid-seventeenth century and ending in the early years of the twentieth century.

160 pages that read like 50 on account of the large print. Author extends the familiar rogues gallery to include pen portraits of such Aussie and Wild West equivalents as Ned 'The Iron Bushranger' Kelly, Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch. A useful beginners guide, the wealth of illustrative material is a plus, though the Haining and, especially, Pringle books offer far more by way of depth and ribald chortles.

Jagger in Ned Kelly biopic, 1970, Gillian Bray in (?).

[franklinmarsh]

Mick Jagger as Ned Kelly?!?!!? Arguably one of the most outrageous pieces of miscasting in the history of cinema. Despite it's absurd pretentiousness I can't help liking the film though, although the Mrs prefers Heath Ledger.

[dem]

Patrick Pringle - Stand And Deliver: The Story Of Highwaymen (Museum Press, 1951)

Introduction

The Father Of Highwaymen
The Man From Dunstable
Amateurs And Professionals
Strictly Business
The Gay Cavaliers
The Prince Of Prigs
Wicked Ladies
The Broad Highways
Restoration
Confessions Of A Highwayman
A Very Gallant Gentleman
The Golden Farmer
Old Mob
The Yorkshire Robber
Who Rode To York?
War Criminals
In Old Newgate
"So You Won't Talk?"
Concerning The Ordinary
The Road To Tyburn
Jonathan Wild The Great
The Real Dick Turpin
Gentlemen Of The Road
The Arm Of The Law
William Page And The Weston Brothers
Sixteen String Jack
Jerry Abershaw And Galloping Dick
The Last Of The Highwaymen

Epitome
Bibliography
Index

The English Highwayman proved great fun, so couldn't resist yet another rematch with the great Stand & Deliver, and I think it's fair to say Mr. Haining's book owes a massive debt to the earlier classic to the point where his volume couldn't have been written without it. Mr. Pringle complains throughout that the day's decency laws prevented his quoting choice passages from 18th century chapbooks whereas Haining, writing forty years later was working under no such restraints. As mentioned, Peter significantly ups the sex and sadism levels though there is the usual suspicion that he deliberately misinterprets and even invents 'facts' to suit his narrative. And why no mention of Carry On Dick? Pringle's is by far the more thorough - and mischievous - of the two. I really need to read more of his related non-fiction.

Honest Thieves: The Story Of The Smugglers (Robert Hale, 1938)
Jolly Roger: The Story Of The Great Age Of Piracy (Museum Press, 1953: Dover, 2001)
Hue And Cry: The Birth of the British Police (Museum Press, 1955)
The Thief Takers (Museum Press, 1958)
Fighting Men (Evans, 1964)
The Boys Book Of Soccer For 1956 (Evans, 1956)

Jul 12, 2016 11:19:20 GMT franklinmarsh said:

Mick Jagger as Ned Kelly?!?!!? Arguably one of the most outrageous pieces of miscasting in the history of cinema. Despite it's absurd pretentiousness I can't help liking the film though, although the Mrs prefers Heath Ledger.

Think I sleep-watched it once when it up on TV. Only thing I can remember is Ned/ Mick getting shot with a bucket on his head.

[dem]

Don't mind me, I'm just planning the next step in my illustrious 'career'.

Captain Charles Johnson - A General History of the Robberies & Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates

David Cordingly - Introduction
Captain Johnson's Introduction

The Life of Captain Avery
The Life of Captain Martle
The Life of Captain Teach
The Life of Major Bonnet
The Life of Captain England
The Life of Captain Vane
The Life of Captain Rackham
The Life of Mary Read
The Life of Anne Bonny
The Life of Captain Davis
The Life of Captain Roberts
The Life of Captain Anstis
The Life of Captain Worley
The Life of Captain Lowther
The Life of Captain Low
The Life of Captain Evans
The Life of Captain Phillips
The Life of Captain Spriggs
The Life of Captain Gow
The Life of Captain Kidd
An account of the piracies and murders committed by Philip Roche, etc.
An abstract of the civil law and statute law now in force in relation to piracy.

Notes
Glossary
Bibliography

Blurb
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 1724, THIS FAMOUS account of the lives and exploits of the most notorious pirates of the day was an immediate success. Written by the mysterious Captain Johnson (who was for some years thought to be Daniel Defoe), it appeared in the book world at a time now described as the 'golden age of piracy'.
WITH HIS DRAMATIC WRITING STYLE, WHICH vividly captures the realities of their savage existence, the author documents specific events, including trials, of a number of the most feared pirates. Highly detailed, these accounts ensure the pirates were accurately depicted in all their gruesome glory. Indeed, the work has become the main source for scholars hoping to learn more about the female pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny (who both escaped execution by being pregnant), and was largely responsible for the posthumous fame of Blackbeard and Captain Kidd.
FROM LONG JOHN SILVER TO CAPTAIN HOOK, pirates have been figures of fascination and horror for centuries. That these literary creations grew from factual evidence, much of it from this book, only serves to fire the imagination and keep their stories alive. In the ensuing two hundred and seventy years since its first publication, A General History of the Pirates has come to be generally regarded as the classic study of one of the most popular subjects in maritime history.

Re-formatted and complete with introduction and notes from the acknowledged expert on piracy, DAVID CORDINGLY.

For obvious reasons, I'd have preferred the Captain's expanded version, A General History of the Lives & Adventures of the most famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street Robbers, & C., to which is added a genuine Account of the Voyages & Plunders of the most notorious Pyrates (1734), but all grist to t'mill and finding this facsimile edition of ...Pirates in the charity shop earlier today was cause for excitement. Much admired by Patrick Pringle, who, in common with all serious modern writers on the subject, acknowledges a huge debt the mysterious Captain J.'s landmark work. Review to follow when I've got my head around it.

[ripper]

"You strumpeting whore's abortion! You suffocated dogs in doublets and sodomitical sons of bitches - hand over your cash!"

Brilliant...they really knew how to insult and threaten with style back in the old days.