This is a chronological list of highwaymen , land pirates, mail coach robbers, road agents, stagecoach robbers, and bushrangers active, along trails, roads, and highways, in Europe, North America, South America, Australia, Asia, and Africa, from ancient times to the 20th century, arranged by continent and country.
Name | Life | Years active | Country of origin | Comments | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jerry Abershawe | 1773–1795 | United Kingdom | Last executed highwayman to have his body put on public display in England. | ||
James Aitken | 1752–1777 | United Kingdom | A mercenary who committed acts of sabotage in Royal Navy naval dockyards during the American Revolutionary War in 1776–77. | ||
John Austin | d. 1783 | United Kingdom | Last person to be publicly hanged from the gallows at Tyburn Tree, London. | ||
Bauptista Landa Tretatxu | 1716–1761 | Basque Country | A bandit whose story has passed into Basque oral literature. He died in Valladolid, in prison, in unknown circumstances. | ||
Joseph "Blueskin" Blake | 1700–1724 | United Kingdom | Former associate of Jack Sheppard and Jonathan Wild. | ||
Willy Brennan | d. 1804 | Ireland | |||
Mary Bryant | 1765–? | United Kingdom | |||
Gaspard Bouis | 1757–1781 | France | Renowned in Provence for his donations to the poor. | ||
Isaac Darkin | 1740–1761 | United Kingdom | |||
George Davenport | 1758–1797 | United Kingdom | "The Leicester Highwayman". | ||
William Davies | 1627–1689 | United Kingdom | Robbed the rich for 40 years, otherwise known as the "Golden Farmer." | ||
Tom, Dick and Harry Dunsdon | d. 1784 | United Kingdom | |||
Claude Duval | 1643–1670 | United Kingdom | He was known as 'The Gallant Highwayman'. | ||
Richard Ferguson | d. 1800 | United Kingdom | An associate of Jerry Abershawe, known as "Galloping Dick". | ||
Lady Katherine Ferrers | 1634–1660 | United Kingdom | She was believed to be the "Wicked Lady". | ||
Captain Gallagher | d. 1818 | Ireland | |||
Louis Dominique Garthausen | 1693–1721 | France | He was known as "Cartouche" or "Bourguignon" executed on the breaking wheel in Paris. | ||
William Fletcher | c.1691-1729 | United Kingdom | Aka. 'Black-Hearted Bill', because of his vicious, bloodthirsty nature, he robbed and murdered two travelers near to Nottingham in 1729. Pursued by local militia, he met his end in the caves under Ye Olde Salutation Inn in Nottingham, where his ghost is said to still haunt. Buried in unconsecrated ground with no marker or gravestone. | ||
Rufus Goodlove | 1688–1731 | United Kingdom | He robbed the houses of rich Oxford merchants while they were away in London, reputedly by seducing their wives. Hanged in Banbury after being arrested in Cropredy. | ||
James Hind | 1616–1652 | United Kingdom | |||
Captain Will Hollyday | d. 1697 | United Kingdom | Captain of the Ragged Regiment of the Black Guards; hung the young Viscount Stafford | ||
Juraj Jánošík | 1688–1713 | Slovakia | Betyár who became legendary in Slovak, Polish, and Czech cultures. | ||
Humphrey Kynaston | d. 1534 | United Kingdom | |||
George Lyon | 1761–1815 | United Kingdom | the last known highwayman to be hanged in Lancashire, England. | ||
James MacLaine | 1724–1750 | United Kingdom | |||
Louis Mandrin | 1725–1755 | France | |||
John Nevison | 1639–1684 | United Kingdom | known as "Swift Nick" | ||
Neesy O'Haughan | 1691–1720 | Ireland | |||
Nicolas Jacques Pelletier | 1756–1792 | France | He was the first person executed by guillotine during the French Revolution. | ||
William Plunkett | d. 1750 | United Kingdom | |||
John Rann | 1750–1774 | United Kingdom | |||
Sándor Rózsa | 1813–1878 | Hungary | |||
Jóska Savanyú | Hungary | ||||
Jack Shrimpton | 1671-1713 | United Kingdom | Once a soldier in the 4th Regiment of Horse commanded by Major-General Cornelius Wood, an officer in John Churchill's army; Shrimpton was hanged at Gallows Acre, at the top of St. Michael's Hill in Bristol on 4 September 1713. | ||
Ferdinando Shrimpton | 1700-1730 | United Kingdom | Son of Jack Shrimpton, and like his father he was also a soldier, Shrimpton was an associate of Robert Drummond, the Sunderland Highwayman; Shrimpton was hanged at Tyburn in Middlesex on 17 February 1730. | ||
Robert Snooks | 1761–1802 | United Kingdom | The last man to be executed in England for highway robbery. | ||
Jóska Sobri | 1810–1837 | Hungary | |||
William Spiggot | 1691–1721 | United Kingdom | A hanged highwayman and gang leader who suffered the press ordeal for not pleading. | ||
Philip Twysden | 1714–1752 | United Kingdom | The Bishop of Raphoe. | ||
Richard 'Dick' Turpin | 1705-1739 | United Kingdom | He was also known by his alias 'John Palmer'. | ||
Márton Vidróczki | Hungary | ||||
James Whitney | 1660-1693 | United Kingdom | Known by contemporaries as the Dandy Highwayman. |
Name | Life | Years active | Country of origin | Comments | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Peter Alston | 1765–1804 | United States | highwayman, counterfeiter, and river pirate, alias James May, who was believed to be an associate of Samuel Mason and the Harpe Brothers. | ||
John Alexander | d. 1818 | United States | lower Mississippi River/Natchez Trace highwaymen associated with Joseph and Lewis Hare. | ||
Robert H. "Three-Fingered" Birch | 1827–1866 | United States | a member of the infamous, 1830s-1840s, "Banditti of the Prairie", who committed highway robbery, in northern/central Illinois and an accomplice in the 1845 torture-murder of Colonel George Davenport. | ||
Captain Thunderbolt | United States | an associate of Michael Martin, "Captain Lightfoot." | |||
Doan Brothers | United States | Aaron, Levi, Mahlon, and Joseph Doan and cousin, Abraham were Loyalist highwaymen who operated in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York during the American Revolutionary War. | |||
James Ford | d. 1833 | United States | American civic leader and business owner in western Kentucky and southern Illinois, who secretly was the leader of a gang of highwaymen and river pirates known as the "Ford's Ferry Gang." | ||
William Goings | United States | Leader of highwaymen called, the "Goings Gang," from 1816-1820, along the Vincennes-St. Louis Trace, a frontier highway in southern Illinois, where Goings owned and ran a number of roadside taverns to rob and murder travelers. Samuel Young was an associate in the Goings Gang. | |||
Joseph and Lewis Hare | d. 1818 | United States | lower Mississippi River/Natchez Trace highwaymen and Baltimore, mail coach robbers. | ||
Micajah and Wiley Harpe | 1768-1799 (Micajah) 1770-1804 (Wiley) | United States | America's first known serial killers, were Loyalists, in the American Revolution, who preyed on travelers along the frontier highways of Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Mississippi. They were associates of Samuel Mason and Peter Alston. | ||
Michael Martin | d. 1821 | United States | last of the New England highwayman, robbed in Ireland and Massachusetts and was the legendary "Captain Lightfoot." | ||
Samuel Mason | 1739–1803 | United States | Samuel Mason (1739–1803), ran a gang of highwaymen along the Natchez Trace, a gang of river pirates on the Mississippi River and at Cave-In-Rock on the Ohio River, and was an associate of the Harpe Brothers and Peter Alston. | ||
Isaiah L. Potts | 1784–? | United States | a southern Illinois tavern owner who, allegedly, was the leader of a gang of highwaymen known as the "Potts Hill Gang," along a frontier highway, near Cave-In-Rock and was an associate of James Ford. | ||
David Lewis | 1790-1820 | 1806-1820 | United States | David Lewis A Pennsylvania counterfeiter and road agent that hid out in the Doubling Gap area of Central Pennsylvania. The gang had as many as 30 men. Captured in Driftwood, Pa. |
Name | Life | Years active | Country of origin | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|
Arattupuzha Velayudha Panicker | 1825–1874 | 1852–1888 | India | fought against oppression of lower castes by the upper castes in Kerala |
Ithikkara Pakki | 19th century | India | Indian Muslim outlaw active in the Travancore Kingdom during the 19th century | |
Jambulingam Nadar | d. 1923 | –1923 | India | brigand active in the southern region of the Madras Presidency during the early 20th century, shot to death by police. |
Kayamkulam Kochunni | 1818–1859 | –1859 | India | a heroic outlaw known as the Robin Hood of Kayamkulam who lived during the early 19th century in Travancore (present-day Kerala). His stories are often associated with his friend and fellow outlaw Ithikkara Pakki. |
Papadu | d. 1710 | 1702–1709 | India | a highwayman and bandit of early-18th century India who rose from humble beginnings to become a folklore hero. |
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.
Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank branch or teller, as opposed to other bank-owned property, such as a train, armored car, or (historically) stagecoach. It is a federal crime in the United States.
The Natchez Trace, also known as the Old Natchez Trace, is a historic forest trail within the United States which extends roughly 440 miles (710 km) from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi rivers.
Claude Du Vall (or Duval) (1643 – 21 January 1670) was a French highwayman in Restoration England. He came from a family of decayed nobility, and worked in the service of exiled royalists who returned to England under King Charles II. Little else is known of his history. According to popular legend, he abhorred violence, showing courtesy to his victims and chivalry to their womenfolk, thus spawning the myth of the romantic highwayman, as taken up by many novelists and playwrights.
A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads. Such criminals operated until the mid- or late 19th century. Highwaywomen, such as Katherine Ferrers, were said to also exist, often dressing as men, especially in fiction.
John Nevison, also known as William Nevison or Nevinson, was one of Britain's most notorious highwaymen, a gentleman rogue supposedly nicknamed Swift Nick by King Charles II after a renowned 200-mile (320 km) dash from Kent to York to establish an alibi for a robbery he had committed earlier that day. The story inspired William Harrison Ainsworth to include a modified version in his novel Rookwood, in which he attributed the feat to Dick Turpin. There are suggestions that the feat was actually undertaken by Samuel Nicks. The TV series Dick Turpin had an accomplice of the highwayman, Nick, who earned the nickname Swiftnick.
Robber baron is a term of social criticism originally applied to certain wealthy and powerful 19th-century American businessmen. The term appeared as early as the August 1870 issue of The Atlantic Monthly magazine. By the late 19th century, the term was typically applied to businessmen who used exploitative practices to amass their wealth. Those practices included unfettered consumption and destruction of natural resources, influencing high levels of government, wage slavery, squashing competition by acquiring their competitors to create monopolies and/or trusts that control the market, and schemes to sell stock at inflated prices to unsuspecting investors. The term combines the sense of criminal ("robber") and illegitimate aristocracy.
The Highwaymen were an American country music supergroup, composed of four of country music's biggest artists who pioneered the outlaw country subgenre: Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. Between 1985 and 1995, the group recorded three major label albums as The Highwaymen: two on Columbia Records and one for Liberty Records. Their Columbia works produced three chart singles, including the number one "Highwayman" in 1985.
In archaic terminology, a footpad is a robber or thief specialising in pedestrian victims. The term was used widely from the 16th century until the 19th century, but gradually fell out of common use. A footpad was considered a low criminal, as opposed to the mounted highwayman who in certain cases might gain fame as well as notoriety. Footpads operated during the Elizabethan era and until the beginning of the 19th century.
Katherine Ferrers was an English gentlewoman and heiress. According to popular legend, she was also the "Wicked Lady", a highwaywoman who terrorised the English county of Hertfordshire before dying from gunshot wounds sustained during a robbery.
Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai is an ancient Tamil poem in the Pattuppattu anthology of the Sangam literature. It contains 500 lines in the akaval meter. It is one of five arruppatai genre poems and was a guide to other bards seeking a patron for their art. Set as a praise for chieftain Tonataiman Ilantiraiyan of the Kanchi territory, it was composed by Uruttirankannanar sometime around 190–200 CE, states Kamil Zvelebil – a Tamil literature scholar. While the poem is from the 2nd century, it was likely added to the Pattuppāṭṭu anthology in the 4th or 5th century CE, states Dennis Hudson – an Indologist and World Religions scholar. The poem has Several Mentions Of Vishnu and his temples present in Kanchipuram, It also refers Lord Vishnu as the supreme god of the world and Brahma was born from the navel of Maha Vishnu.
A mail coach is a stagecoach that is used to deliver mail. In Great Britain, Ireland, and Australia, they were built to a General Post Office-approved design operated by an independent contractor to carry long-distance mail for the Post Office. Mail was held in a box at the rear where the only Royal Mail employee, an armed guard, stood. Passengers were taken at a premium fare. There was seating for four passengers inside and more outside with the driver. The guard's seat could not be shared. This distribution system began in Britain in 1784. In Ireland the same service began in 1789, and in Australia it began in 1828.
The Highwaymen, also referred to as the Florida Highwaymen, are a group of 26 African American landscape artists in Florida. Two of the original artists, Harold Newton, and Alfred Hair, received training from Alfred “Beanie” Backus. It is believed they may have created a body of work of over 200,000 paintings. They challenged many racial and cultural barriers. Mostly from the Fort Pierce area, they painted landscapes and made a living selling them door-to-door to businesses and individuals throughout Florida from the mid-1950s through the 1980s. They also sold their work from the trunks of their cars along the eastern coastal roads.
Codrington is a rural locality on Portland Bay in the south-west of Victoria, Australia, on the Princes Highway between Portland and Port Fairy. It is a sparsely populated area; at the 2016 census the district had a population of 52 persons, living in 15 dwellings.
Shane Bernagh Donnelly was an Irish rapparee who was active in the Cappagh and Altmore area of County Tyrone during the 17th century who would use the mountains as a vantage point to launch daring hold ups on carriages passing through the area on the main Dublin to Derry road nearby. Local legend has it that the highwayman assisted impoverished locals with his robberies, which primarily targeted members of the Protestant Ascendancy. A barracks was built in the Altmore area in an attempt to curb his activities but to little avail. Because of this Bernagh has over time become a local legend in the mould of Robin Hood who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor.
Jesse Woodson James was an American outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla and leader of the James–Younger Gang. Raised in the "Little Dixie" area of Western Missouri, James and his family maintained strong Southern sympathies. He and his brother Frank James joined pro-Confederate guerrillas known as "bushwhackers" operating in Missouri and Kansas during the American Civil War. As followers of William Quantrill and "Bloody Bill" Anderson, they were accused of committing atrocities against Union soldiers and civilian abolitionists, including the Centralia Massacre in 1864.
Steve Venard was a Northern California lawman, and renowned road agent killer. In the course of his career, he killed six highwaymen and made several important captures. He is known for participating in one of the classic gun duels of the Old West, and for being one of the most fearless lawmen of the California Gold Rush era.
The Bold Bank Robbery is a 1904 short crime film produced and distributed by the Lubin Manufacturing Company. The silent film depicts a group of burglars who plan and execute a successful bank heist. Company employee Jack Frawley was the film's director, also coming up with the story and serving as cinematographer; the cast's identities are unknown. The silent film was the first Lubin Manufacturing Company release to feature an original narrative.
Thomas Cox, known as "The Handsome Highwayman", was an English highwayman, sentenced to death and hanged at Tyburn. He had a reputation for a spirited nature and it is reported that when asked if he wished to say a prayer before being hanged, he kicked the ordinary and the hangman out of the cart taking him there.