Highwaymen

Highwaymen, robbers who attack passengers on the public road; those who rob on foot being further distinguished as footpads. Famous English highwaymen were Claude Duval (1643–70), Swift Nick Nevison (hanged at York in 1684), Dick Turpin (1705–39) and his comrade Tom King, and Jerry Abershaw (1773–95). Turpin's famous ride to York is a myth, based on a story told of Nevison, whose fame has even gained him a place in Macaulay's History of England. The best-known romances of the road are W. H. Ainsworth's Rookwood and Lord Lytton's Paul Clifford. There are lists of books bearing on highwaymen in Notes and Queries, 5th series, vol. viii.; and biographical notices of most knights of the road ultimately came to appear in the pages of the Newgate Calendar.