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'Bold text']]:''For other uses see Highway-man/men (disambiguation)''

'Highwaymen' was a term used particularly in Great Britain during the 17th and 18th centuries to describe robbers who targeted people travelling by stagecoach and other modes of transport along public highways. They would use or threaten violence in order to seize money and other valuables from their victims. A highwayman rode a horse, and usually carried a pistol. He might announce himself with the phrase "Your money, or your life!",^[1] or "Stand and deliver!",^[2] although it is not clear whether these phrases are accurate or owe more to literary imagination.
Well-known highwayman's haunts included several places around London such as Blackheath, Shooter's Hill, Hounslow Heath, Wimbledon Common and Barnes Common.

Contents

Decline

List of well known highwaymen

In popular culture

Further reading

References

See also

External links

Decline

The early years of the 19th century saw the gradual disappearance of the traditional highwayman. The better law enforcement resulting from the introduction of organized city and county police forces such the Bow Street Runners and the enclosure of common land; combined with improvements to the roads themselves, which substantially reduced the areas in which highwaymen could operate undetected and/or successfully make getaways; the development of railways, and the banking reforms which cut the amounts of cash carried by road were all factors in this decline.

List of well known highwaymen

In popular culture

Cover of The Happy Highwayman by Leslie Charteris

The Ballad of Beau Brocade, was an 1892 poem about a highwayman written by English Poet Henry Austin Dobson. Baroness Emma Orczy, the author of The Scarlet Pimpernel, published a book, Beau Brocade, in 1907 which was turned into a film in 1916.
Poet Alfred Noyes made a highwayman the subject of one of his best known poems, ''The Highwayman'', which Phil Ochs and later, Loreena McKennitt each molded into a song.
Famous traditional songs about highwaymen include the 1840s broadsheet ballad ''Whiskey in the Jar'' - which has been recorded by various groups, perhaps most famously by Irish rock band, Thin Lizzy, the traditional English folk song ''Sovay'', and other lesser known English folk songs such as ''Bold Nevison'',^[3] ''Gilderoy'',^[4] "MacPherson's Farewell"^[5] ''Newlyn Town''^[6] and ''Brennan on the Moor''^[7]
The popular expression "''higher than Gilderoy's kite''", which is to say something is killed off in the most public way as at one time the worst criminals would be hung higher than the rest for public notice. This is derived from the lines in the Gilderoy ballad:
The fictitious Mackie Messer, Mack the Knife is a character in ''The Threepenny Opera'' by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, a reworking of John Gays, ''The Beggar's Opera''. Mackie Messer is based upon MacHeath the highwayman gang leader in the Beggars Opera. The song Mack the Knife from The Threepenny Opera was later made famous by Louis Armstrong.
Dick Turpin has been a popular figure for books and films. William Harrison Ainsworths 1834 novel ''Rookwood'' was based on the life of Turpin. The 1979 film ''Carry On Dick'' starred Sid James as Turpin, and from 1979 to 1982 Richard O'Sullivan starred in the Dick Turpin TV series about the highwaymans adventures.
Although not all highwaymen commanded their victims to "stand and deliver", or demanded "Your money or your life!", they are often popularly associated with these famous phrases. 1980s British pop group Adam and the Ants, whose New Romantic style of dress drew on the styles of flamboyant 18th century highwaymen among other influences, had a hit song called "Stand and Deliver".
In the Dennis Moore sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus, the character of Dennis Moore, played by John Cleese is a highwayman who uses the phrase "stand and deliver" though at first he only steals lupins to give to the poor.^[8]
In the ''Blackadder the Third'' episode ''Amy and Amiability'', Edmund Blackadder becomes a highwayman in order to raise money at the suggestion of his servant, Baldrick, who idolises "The Shadow", a famed highwayman of the time.
There have been at least two prominent musical groups called "The Highwaymen":

★ In the 1960s, The Highwaymen - an American collegiate folk band and

★ From 1985 to 2002, The Highwaymen - an American Country supergroup

Further reading

★ Billett, Michael (1997). ''Highwaymen and Outlaws'', Weidenfeld Military, ISBN 978-1854093189

★ Brandon, David (2004). ''Stand and Deliver! A History of Highway Robbery'', Sutton Publishing Ltd, ISBN 978-0750935289

★ Evans, Hilary & Mary (1997). ''Hero on a Stolen Horse: Highwayman and His Brothers-in-arms - The Bandit and the Bushranger'', Muller, ISBN 978-0584103403

★ Haining, Peter (1991). ''The English Highwayman: A Legend Unmasked'', Robert Hale Ltd, ISBN 978-0709044260

★ Maxwell, Gordon S (1994). ''Highwayman's Heath: Story in Fact and Fiction of Hounslow Heath in Middlesex '', Heritage Publications, Hounslow Leisure Services, ISBN 978-1899144006

★ Newark, Peter (1988). ''Crimson Book of Highwaymen'', Olympic Marketing Corp, ISBN 978-9997354792

★ Pringle, Patrick (1951). ''Stand and Deliver: The Story of the Highwaymen'', Museum Press, ASIN B0000CHVTK

★ Sharpe, James (2005). ''Dick Turpin: The Myth of the English Highwayman'', Profile Books Ltd, ISBN 978-1861974181

★ Spraggs, Gillian (2001). ''Outlaws and Highwaymen: The Cult of the Robber in England from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century'', Pimlico, ISBN 978-0712664790

References

1.
Your money or your life
2.
Stand and deliver
3.
Bold Nevison
4.
Gilderoy
5.
MacPherson's Farewell
6.
Newlyn Town
7.
Brennan on the Moor
8.
Monty Python's Flying Circus Script - Episode 37

See also

★ Footpad

★ Rapparees

★ Bushranger

★ Hajduk

★ Pirate

External links

★ Stand and Deliver! - Highwaymen & Highway Robbery

★ Outlaws and Highwaymen: The History of the Highwaymen and their Predecessors, the Medieval Outlaws