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A highwayman was a robbery who stole from travellers. This type of theft 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.Samuel Rid. "Martin Markall, Beadle of Bridewell," in The Elizabethan Underworld, A. V. Judges, ed. pp. 415–416. George Routledge, 1930. Online quotation.Spraggs, pp. 107, 169, 190–191. Such crime 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.
The first attestation of the word highwayman is from 1617.Fennor, William. "The Counter's Commonwealth," in The Elizabethan Underworld, p. 446. such as "knights of the road" and "gentlemen of the road" were sometimes used by people interested in romanticizing (with a Robin Hood–esque slant) what was often an especially violent form of stealing. In the 19th-century American West, highwaymen were sometimes known as road agents.Brewer, E. Cobham. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1898, defines road-agent as "A highwayman in the mountain districts of North America," citing the generation earlier, W. Hepworth Dixon, New America, p. 14: "Road-agent is the name applied in the mountains to a ruffian who has given up honest work in the store, in the mine, in the ranch, for the perils and profits of the highway." In Australia, they were known as .
They often attacked coaches for their lack of protection, including public stagecoach; the mail carrier who carried the mail were also frequently held up.Beattie, J. M.: Crime and the Courts in England, 1660–1800, pp. 149–158. Clarendon Press, 1986; Extracts from Wilson, Ralph: A Full and Impartial Account of all the Robberies Committed by John Hawkins, George Sympson (lately Executed for Robbing the Bristol Mails) and their Companions. 3rd edition, J. Peele, 1722. The demand to "!" (sometimes in forms such as "Stand and deliver your purse!" "Stand and deliver your money!") was in use from the 17th century to the 19th century:
The phrase "Your money or your life!" is mentioned in trial reports from the mid-18th century:
Victims of highwaymen included the Prime Minister Lord North, who wrote in 1774: "I was robbed last night as I expected, our loss was not great, but as the postilion did not stop immediately one of the two highwaymen fired at him (They had guns at the time) – It was at the end of Gunnersbury Lane." Horace Walpole, who was shot at in Hyde Park, wrote that "One is forced to travel, even at noon, as if one was going to battle." During this period, crime was rife and encounters with highwaymen or women could be bloody if the victim attempted to resist. The historian Roy Porter described the use of direct, physical action as a hallmark of public and political life: "From the rough-house of the crowd to the dragoons' musket volley, violence was as English as plum pudding. Force was used not just criminally, but as a matter of routine to achieve social and political goals, smudging hard-and-fast distinctions between the worlds of criminality and politics... Highwaymen were romanticized, with a hidden irony, as 'gentlemen of the road.'"
In early modern Ireland, acts of robbery were often part of a tradition of Irish Catholic resistance to the Dublin Castle administration and Protestant Ascendancy. From the mid-17th century onwards, Catholic highwaymen who harassed the Crown and their supporters were known as 'tories' (from Irish tóraidhe, raider; tóraí in modern spelling). By the end of the century, they were also known as . Notable Irish highwaymen of the period included James Freney, Redmond O'Hanlon, Willy Brennan and Jeremiah Grant.Dunford, Stephen. The Irish Highwaymen. Merlin Publishing, 2000Seal, pp. 69–78.
To the south of London, highwaymen sought to attack wealthy travellers on the roads leading to and from the English Channel ports and aristocratic arenas like Epsom, which became a fashionable spa town in 1620, and Banstead Downs where horse races and sporting events became popular with the elite from 1625. Later in the 18th century, the road from London to Reigate and Brighton through Sutton attracted highwaymen. Commons and heaths considered to be dangerous included Blackheath, Wimbledon Common, Streatham Common, Mitcham Common, Thornton Heath – also the site of a gallows known as "Hangman's Acre" or "Gallows Green" – Sutton Common, Banstead Downs and Reigate Heath.
During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, highwaymen in Hyde Park were sufficiently common for King William III to have the route between St James's Palace and Kensington Palace (Rotten Row) lit at night with oil lamps as a precaution against them. This made it the first street light highway in Britain. (2025). 9780230738782, Pan Macmillan. ISBN 9780230738782
In England, the causes of the decline are more controversial. After about 1815, mounted robbers are recorded only rarely, the last recorded robbery by a mounted highwayman having occurred in 1831.McLynn, Frank: Crime and punishment in eighteenth-century England, p. 81. Routledge, 1989. The decline in highwayman activity also occurred during the period in which repeating handguns, notably the pepper-box and the percussion cap revolver, became increasingly available and affordable to the average citizen. The development of the Rail transport is sometimes cited as a factor, but highwaymen were already obsolete before the railway network was built. The expansion of the system of Toll road, manned and gated Toll road, made it all but impossible for a highwayman to escape notice while making his getaway, but he could easily avoid such systems and use other roads, almost all of which outside the cities were flanked by open country.
Cities such as London were becoming much better policed: in 1805 a body of mounted police began to patrol the districts around the city at night. London was growing rapidly, and some of the most dangerous open spaces near the city, such as Finchley Common, were being covered with buildings. However, this only moved the robbers' operating area further out, to the new exterior of an expanded city, and does not therefore explain decline. A greater use of , more traceable than gold coins, also made life more difficult for robbers,Spraggs, p. 234. but the Inclosure Act 1773'The Enclosure Acts and the Industrial Revolution', Wendy McElroy, 2012 was followed by a sharp decline in highway robberies; stone walls falling over the open range like a net, confined the escaping highwaymen to the roads themselves, which now had walls on both sides and were better patrolled. The dramatic population increase which began with the Industrial Revolution also meant, quite simply, that there were more eyes around, and the concept of remote place became a thing of the past in England.
The Hajduk (Hungarian: Hajdú) also originated in Hungary. They were formed from large numbers of Hungarians forced out of Syrmia and the Banates (Banate of Srebrenik, Banate of Nándorfehérvár, Banat of Macsó), moving upwards to central Hungary because of the Turkish attacks (they are replaced by the Serbs, Bosnians and Croats settling in the region). By the end of the 16th century, they had developed into a significant military force. They developed their own military organisation, separate from the ranks established in the country – they chose their own commanders, captains, lieutenants and corporals. Their rights were later taken away by the Austrians after the defeat of the Rákóczi's War of Independence, fearing their military power, they forced them into serfdom, so this was the end of the Hajduk golden age.
A number of traditional about highwaymen exist, both positive and negative, such as "Young Morgan", "Whiskey in the Jar", and "The Wild Colonial Boy".
From the early 18th century, collections of short stories of highwaymen and other notorious criminals became very popular. The earliest of these is Captain Alexander Smith's Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen (1714). Some later collections of this type had the words The Newgate Calendar in their titles and this has become a general name for this kind of publication. The Newgate Calendar – Bibliographical Note
In the later 19th century, highwaymen such as Dick Turpin were the heroes of a number of , stories for boys published in serial form. In the 20th century the handsome highwayman became a stock character in historical love romances, including books by Emma Orczy and Georgette Heyer.
Sir Walter Scott's romance The Heart of Midlothian (1818) recounts the heroine waylaid by highwaymen while travelling from Scotland to London.
Ronia, the Robber's Daughter (1981) is a children's fantasy book by Astrid Lindgren, which portrays the adventures of Ronia, the daughter of the leader of a gang of highwaymen.
The Dutch comics series Gilles de Geus by Hanco Kolk and Peter de Wit was originally a gag-a-day about a failed highwayman called Gilles, but the character later evolved into a resistance fighter with the Geuzen against the Spanish army.
Ithikkara Pakki, a graphic children's story book about the Indian highwayman Ithikkara Pakki, was published in April 2010 in Malayalam. The life of the Indian highwayman Kayamkulam Kochunni was adapted as a comic by Radha M. Nair in the 794th issue of the Indian comic book series, Amar Chitra Katha.
The traditional Irish song "Whiskey in the Jar" tells the story of an Irish highwayman who robs an army captain and includes the lines "I first produced me pistol, then I drew me rapier. Said 'Stand and deliver, for you are a bold deceiver'." The hit single version recorded in 1973 by Irish rock band Thin Lizzy renders this last line "I said 'Stand-oh and deliver, or the devil he may take ya'."
The traditional Irish song "The Newry Highwayman" recounts the deeds and death of a highwayman who robbed "the lords and ladies bright". The traditional Irish song "Brennan on the Moor" describes an escapade of the "bold, undaunted robber". Adam and the Ants had a number one song for five weeks in 1981 in the UK with "Stand and Deliver". The video featured Adam Ant as an English highwayman.
The contemporary folk song "On the Road to Fairfax County" by David Massengill, recorded by The Roches and by Joan Baez, recounts a romantic encounter between a highwayman and his female victim. In the end, the highwayman is hanged over the objections of his victim.
Musician Jimmy Webb penned and recorded a song entitled "Highwayman" in 1977 about a soul with incarnations in four different places in time and history, a highwayman, a sailor, a construction worker on the Hoover Dam, and finally as a Astronaut. Glen Campbell recorded a version of the song in 1978, but the most popular incarnation of the song was recorded by Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash in 1984, who as a group called themselves The Highwaymen.
The Canadian singer Loreena McKennit adapted the narrative poem, "The Highwayman" written by Alfred Noyes, as a song by the same title in her 1997 album The Book of Secrets.
The highwayman known as Juraj Jánošík (1688–1713) became a hero of many folk legends in the Slovak people, Czech, and Polish cultures by the 19th centuryVotruba, Martin: "Hang Him High: The Elevation of Jánošík to an Ethnic Icon." Slavic Review, 65#1, pp. 24–44, 2006. Abstract. and hundreds of literary works about him have since been published.Few in English, e.g.: Moore Coleman, Marion (1972). A brigand, two queens, and a prankster; stories of Janosik, Queen Bona, Queen Kinga and the Sowizdrzal. Cherry Hill Books. The first Slovak feature film was Jánošík, made in 1921, followed by seven more Slovak and Polish films about him.
Curro Jiménez, a Spanish TV series which aired from 1976 to 1979, starred a group of 19th-century highwaymen or bandoleros in the mountains of Ronda in the south of Spain.
Ronia, the Robber's Daughter (aka Ronja Robbersdaughter in the US) is a 1984 Swedish fantasy film, based on the 1981 novel of the same title by Astrid Lindgren, and narrating the adventures of Ronia, the daughter of the leader of a gang of highwaymen.
Ronja, the Robber's Daughter (Japanese: 山賊の娘ローニャ, Hepburn: Sanzoku no Musume Rōnya) is a Japanese animated television series, also based on Lindgren's novel Ronia, the Robber's Daughter, and directed and storyboarded by Gorō Miyazaki.
The lives of numerous Indian highwaymen including Arattupuzha Velayudha Panicker, Ithikkara Pakki, Jambulingam Nadar, Kayamkulam Kochunni and Papadu have been adapted for cinema and television multiple times.
Season two, episode 20, of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, the main villain (voiced by James Marsters) disguises himself as a highwayman.
The animated series Over the Garden Wall features Jerron Paxton as a highwayman, including a short original song he composed in conjunction with The Blasting Company.
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