Did you ever hear told of that hero,'Stand and deliver! Your money or your life!' Whether or not these words were usually uttered by highway robbers in 17th- and 18th-Century Britain is in dispute, but the romantic associations of night, fog, danger and the thrill of the chase remain vivid today, and the highwaymen of story and song bring to mind images of derring-do. We expect our historical highwaymen to have been dashing, brave, chivalrous to the ladies, and dedicated to the equitable redistribution of wealth. Sometimes, as in the case of Dick Turpin, whose primary modus operandi was attacking people in their homes, they disappoint. At other times, as in the case of John Nevison, the 17th-Century highwayman dubbed 'Swift Nick' by Charles II himself, they do not.
Bold Nevison it was his name,
And he rode about like a brave hero,
And by that he gained a great fame.
- from the ballad Bold Nevison1
As might be expected in the case of characters with such a dodgy trade, the facts are often in dispute, and myths and legends abound. In Yorkshire, Nevison's name is so well known that an association with his career can help to sell real estate more than three hundred years after he was hanged at York Castle, and country inns can still attract customers by dropping his name. Though even his first name is in dispute, Nevison enjoys the reputation of having been more like the dashing figure of romance than most of his fellow miscreants - it was in all probability he, and not Turpin, who made the famous ride from Kent to York in a day - and, although he was hanged for murder in the end, it was, in fact, the only one he had committed.
