Twm Siôn Cati is a figure in Welsh folklore.
Richard Turpin was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher early in his life but, by the early 1730s, he had joined a gang of deer thieves and, later, became a poacher, burglar, horse thief and killer. He is also known for a fictional 200-mile (320 km) overnight ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess, a story that was made famous by the Victorian novelist William Harrison Ainsworth almost 100 years after Turpin's death.
Tom King was an English highwayman who operated in the Essex and London areas. His real name is thought to have been Matthew King; whether "Tom" was a nickname or an error in reporting his crimes is uncertain, but it is the name by which he has become popularly known. Some sources claim that he was nicknamed "The Gentleman Highwayman" and he was also known as “Captain Tom King”. A contemporary account of his last robbery also mentions a brother, either John or Robert King, who was captured by the authorities on that occasion. Other reports also mention an “Elizabeth King”, possibly his wife who is mentioned in King's will.
Claude Du Vall 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.
Louis Jeremiah Abershawe, better known as Jerry Abershawe, or Abershaw, was a notorious English highwayman who terrorised travellers, mostly along the road between Kingston upon Thames and London, in the late eighteenth century.
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.
Paul Clifford is a novel published in 1830 by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It tells the life of Paul Clifford, a man who leads a dual life as both a criminal and an upscale gentleman. The book was successful upon its release. It is best known for its opening phrase "It was a dark and stormy night...", which helped inspire the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. The novel's opening lines also featured prominently in the writings of Snoopy in the Charles Schulz comic The Peanuts, sometimes followed by Snoopy's continuing with "Suddenly, a shot rang out."
Gentleman Ghost is a supervillain appearing in books published by DC Comics publications. Created by writer Robert Kanigher and artist Joe Kubert, the character first appeared in Flash Comics #88.
The Whipping Boy is a Newbery medal-winning children's book by Sid Fleischman, first published in 1986.
Finchley Common was an area of land in Middlesex, north of London, and until 1816, the boundary between the parishes of Finchley, Friern Barnet and Hornsey.
Alexander Dalzeel was a Scottish pirate and privateer who sailed in French service. Details on Dalzeel's early life - his career under pirate Henry Avery and exploits against the Spanish - appear only in Alexander Smith's 1720 collection “A Compleat history of the lives and robberies of the most notorious highwaymen,” while his later activities are corroborated by newspaper accounts and trial records.
A Mad World, My Masters is a Jacobean stage play written by Thomas Middleton, a comedy first performed around 1605 and first published in 1608. The title is proverbial, and was used by a pamphleteer, Nicholas Breton, in 1603. The title later became the basis for the title of Stanley Kramer's 1963 film, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
"Captain" James Maclaine was an Irish man of a respectable presbyterian family who had a brief but notorious career as a mounted highwayman in London with his accomplice William Plunkett. He was known as "The Gentleman Highwayman" as a result of his courteous behaviour during his robberies, and obtained a certain kind of celebrity. Notoriously, he held up and robbed Horace Walpole at gunpoint: eventually he was hanged at Tyburn.
William Plunkett was a highwayman and accomplice of the famed "Gentleman Highwayman", James MacLaine.
Henry Simms, known as Young Gentlemen Harry, was a thief and highwayman in 18th-century England who was transported to Maryland for theft, but escaped and returned to England, where he was eventually executed for highway robbery.
Isaac Darkin, who also used the alias Dumas, was a notorious highwayman in the eighteenth century.
Patrick Fleming was an Irish highwayman and the subject of poems and songs in Ireland. He was executed on April 24, 1650.
The Green Man is a public house in Putney in the London Borough of Wandsworth, on the edge of Putney Common, parts of which date back to around 1700. The pub was once frequented by highwaymen and was a popular place for participants to fortify themselves before or after a duel on nearby Putney Heath.
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.