Highway robbery on horseback required physical strength, courage and aggression, qualities by no means the prerogative of the male sex. Those who argue that anything men can do women can do as well if not better will not be surprised to learn that there were women highway robbers. They tended to dress exactly like their male counterparts, so masks, tricorn hats, capes and riding boots were what the modish lady of the road would sport. They wore these clothes to conceal their sex. How they handled the terse command, ‘Stand and Deliver,’ we shall never know. They rode astride the horse, giving them a greater degree of control over their mounts. Sitting side-saddle would obviously have given the game away.
Leading light of these women robbers was a most formidable virago, Mary Frith, known far and wide as ‘Moll Cutpurse’, who was born in about 1584. She was intelligent and resourceful and definitely not the sort to trifle with. Her exact date of birth is not known but she is reputed to have been born with her fists clenched and she quickly learned that with her fists she could command respect. She was adept with the quarterstaff and an excellent wrestler. As a teenager she was described as a ‘rumpscuttle’, a marvellous word meaning a tomboy or hoyden and now unfortunately obsolete. She grew into a tall woman, commanding in voice and presence and portrayed in some accounts as ugly and in others as comely. Moll was well able to mix with the lads and scorned the company of girls and their domestic and familial activities. As a teenager she was the despair of her parents because of her wilfulness and waywardness. Her father, thinking she would be pleased with an opportunity usually only open to young men, offered to get her an apprenticeship as a saddler but that was too tame for Mary.
Her misdeeds growing greater, Mary’s parents in desperation called on her uncle, a minister, to offer his advice. He suggested that she should be sent to America, presumably ‘out of sight, out of mind’. They took no chances, accompanying her to the ship and placing her on board. The moment their backs were turned she jumped ship. As they stood on the quay watching the ship drop down below the horizon, massive relief diluted by only the tiniest twinge of remorse, they had no idea that she was only a couple of miles away, marching determinedly towards the blighted rookeries of St Giles in London. She soon proved an adroit pickpocket or cutpurse, hence her nickname, but she was after a larger, more assured income.
Moll Cutpurse set herself up in Fleet Street as a fence or receiver, undercutting her rivals by offering better prices to the pickpockets and other thieves who used her services. She was an astute businesswoman and developed a fast and profitable turnover. What she received from thieves and robbers was quickly on display in her shop and often bought back within the hour by those who had just been robbed. As the fame of Moll’s shop grew, those who had had articles valued for sentimental, personal or intrinsic reasons stolen would make their way to her shop.
In a wicked world, Moll gained a reputation for integrity. Those who had been robbed knew that she would not fleece them while robbers knew that they would get a fair price. She was known to be handy with her fists, skilful with pistols or sword and to possess a powerful presence and stentorian voice. Therefore, few people ever gave her trouble and she enjoyed widespread respect. She became an institution, not least because she wore men’s clothes, usually sporting an evil-smelling briar pipe, occasionally replacing it with an equally rank cheroot. After hours, she could be found in any of Fleet Street’s many taverns, where she was capable of drinking even the most hardened male toper under the table, which she frequently did. The fact that she was androgynous greatly enhanced her sexual attractiveness and she is said to have had innumerable lovers of both sexes. This helps to explain another nickname, and the name of a play, ‘The Roaring Girl’. The play in which she was the chief character, was written by Middleton and Dekker and first performed in 1611. Many wished to importune her, but few dared to do so – it was wiser to let her come to you.
Not much is known about Moll’s exploits out on the highway but on one occasion she heard that General Fairfax would soon be approaching London across Hounslow Heath. Like many other members of the underworld, Moll found that her income had dropped during the austere days of the Commonwealth and she had no liking for its leaders. In broad daylight she accosted Fairfax who was accompanied by two servants. She relieved him of 250 jacobuses, a gold coin worth between 20 and 25s, but in order to effect a getaway she had to shoot General Fairfax in the arm and the horses from under the servants. Riding pell-mell back towards London, her horse collapsed at Turnham Green and she was quickly captured. Money talked and she was able to obtain her freedom at a cost of at least £2,000. By that time Moll was well-off and could afford it. She died in 1659 of dropsy and in her will left £20 to her drinking associates to spend on celebrating the restoration of the monarchy, something she obviously felt was bound to happen sooner or later. It is likely that for £20 they would have been able to enjoy a carousal that lived on in the memory for a very long time.
Moll may have been eye-catching rather than pleasing to the eye but the word alluring definitely fits Joan Philips, better known as Joan Bracey. She was born in 1656 into comfortable yeoman stock in Northamptonshire, but on starting an affair with a well-known highwayman was ejected peremptorily from the family home. She became his common-law wife and adopted his surname of Bracey. The couple ran an inn in the West Country where Joan’s beauty was an asset because the bar was always full of men eager to eye up, woo and hopefully seduce the exceptionally winsome landlady. Joan’s fidelity, however, seemed absolutely unassailable. This naturally only succeeded in making her even more captivating to the lecherous swains who daily jostled each other while leering over the bar of the Braceys’ hostelry.
On one occasion one of Joan’s suitors proved more persistent than most. Dacey was known to be extremely rich and he thought that perhaps it was his wealth that made her seem to waver from her previous unstinting fidelity. Indeed it certainly was his wealth that caused the apparent change in Joan’s response but not for the reason he thought. It was money she was after, not his body. The artless victim could scarcely believe his luck when Joan intimated that he should return to the inn at a time when her husband would be many miles away.
It was a dark night after closing time when Dacey, dressed in his best finery and smelling strongly of scented water, knocked, almost beside himself with anticipation, at the inn door. He was greeted by a maid who took his hand and led him upstairs. Her mistress was waiting eagerly for him in her bedroom, the maid said, but wanted her paramour to undress in a room close by, just in case her husband should return unexpectedly. Dacey thought this seemed sensible but was surprised when the maid herself began avidly taking his clothes off in the dark. He was down to nothing else but a shirt when she whispered that she would take his clothes into another room and then return for him. This she quickly did and, grasping his hand because it was pitch black in the inn, she led him to her mistress’s chamber, or at least so he thought. A door opened and he was on his own and surprised to hear the key turn in the lock. He groped around in the darkness trying to locate the bed and calling out his beloved’s name. A frisson of expectation scintillated through his body as Joan’s disembodied voice told him to locate the door in the other wall. He did so, opened the door and went through it. He then heard the door close and lock while Joan’s voice, more muffled this time, told him to continue along the passage and through the door and out into the yard. When he protested that he was undressed, Joan told him that he had his shirt and if he wanted to wait around, her husband would be back in an hour or two. He could then explain to him why he was hanging around outside the inn in the middle of the night clad only in a shirt. Dacey, crestfallen, slunk away, robbed of his pride, his expected prize of the night, his gold watch and chain and other valuables. The inn lost a regular customer that night but the Braceys were laughing.
Sometimes the Braceys worked the roads together but on at least one occasion Joan went out on her own. She held up a coach near Nottingham and had just called on its occupant to deliver when the latter unexpectedly leapt out and knocked her off her horse. She was easily caught and handed over to the authorities who were amazed when the secret of her sex was revealed. She was hanged in 1685 at Nottingham aged just twenty-nine.
Another apparent female robber was Mary Blacket, who could match neither of the other heroines for ugliness or beauty. She was arrested in 1726 for highway robbery and sentenced to be hanged at Tyburn, but what made the case interesting was that she claimed mistaken identity. That was a frequent occurrence but less common was the vehement way in which the normally very placid Mary continued arguing her innocence even when all possibility of a reprieve had been exhausted. She won widespread admiration for the way in which she met her end with consummate dignity. Not showing a hint of fear, she used the scaffold once more to assert her innocence and to declare that she forgave all those who had mistakenly brought her to her death. It seems likely that Mary Blacket was hanged for the crimes of some other, unknown miscreant.
An interesting example of female criminality was Ann Meders, who included fraud and bigamy in her portfolio alongside highway robbery. She seems to have been born in 1643 and grew into a pretty woman obsessed with the idea of achieving high social and financial status. This in itself was not particularly unusual but what marked her out were the methods she employed in pursuit of these aims. Marriage to a wealthy man was one option but she seems to have married three in quick succession without concerning herself overmuch about dissolving the marriages once it became clear that they were not going to provide the instant riches that she craved. This activity attracted the attention of the authorities and Ann withdrew to the continent for a while. Both there and on her return to England she worked her way through large numbers of lovers, many of whom showered her with gifts and money in exchange for sharing her bed. This was exhausting work, physically and emotionally. She was harried by lovelorn or indignant ex-lovers for whom she no longer had any use, pestered by her current tranche of ardent paramours and constantly looking out for fresh admirers prepared to lavish their largesse on her.
Ann’s problem was that it did not really seem to matter how much money she received, she was always broke, given the ostentatious lifestyle on which she insisted. One night an old but affluent lover unwisely revealed that he had £200 hidden in his coach. When he left her, she took her own coachman into her confidence and together they sped after him, holding him up at pistol-point. They extorted the money easily, assisted by the threat that if he told the authorities she would personally and immediately tell his wife about the affair and would provide her with the fullest and most scurrilous details of his sexual preferences.
Ann proceeded to carry out many other robberies within the built up area of London but she was eventually arrested for stealing a fine silver plate. Her debut at the Old Bailey was something of a sensation because of the low-cut dress she chose to wear for the occasion. Ann revealed much of her capacious bosom and it probably attracted more attention than the presentation of evidence and other humdrum proceedings of the court. Despite her natural advantages, however, the situation looked bad for Ann so she then used another tactic frequently employed by women who found themselves in the dock – she claimed she was pregnant. A new jury of women was sworn in but with a marked lack of sympathy, they quickly decided that her claim was false. Ann was hanged at Tyburn in January 1673, aged thirty.
In 1662 another female highway robber was born in Ipswich, Suffolk – Nan Hereford. She went into service in London at the age of seventeen and, like many before her, got into bad company in the capital and became involved with a gang of street thieves. She operated as a shoplifter and pickpocket before graduating to working with a male partner named Kirkham. They held up rich and severely inebriated gentlemen staggering back home from their clubs. The attraction of this palled and they decided to try their hand at the highwayman’s trade. Kirkham’s career as a highwayman was short-lived. He was caught carrying out his very first robbery and was hanged at Tyburn. Nan, however, decided to go it alone and her career in the saddle lasted for about six years.
There are cases of highway robbers inadvertently accosting travellers on the road only to find that the timid horseman turns out to be one of their own kind. This coincidence happened to Margaret Matthews, born in Suffolk in about 1660, and she chose as her ‘victim’ probably one of the most feared highwayman in East Anglia at the time. He was Thomas Rumbold and he did not take kindly to what appeared to be a slim and callow youth working his patch. Margaret and Rumbold exchanged fire but only managed to hit each other’s horses. These collapsed and their riders both fell to the ground. They then continued their argument with swords and eventually Rumbold overcame his adversary and bound his arms and legs. He proceeded to give his vanquished opponent a thorough search to ascertain what valuables he had about his person. He was amazed while rummaging conscientiously through his antagonist’s clothing to discover that his captive was female. Such a tantalising discovery would have caused many men to renew their investigations with even greater thoroughness but Rumbold refused to take advantage of the situation and treated Margaret with great consideration, given the circumstances.
Not much is known of the life and activities of Margaret Matthews but she should be credited with the unique achievement of robbing her own husband out on the highway. He had systematically beaten her up and this was one reason why she turned to robbery because she hoped to gain her financial independence. Disguised, she waylaid him in a remote spot knowing that he was carrying a large sum of money. His pitiable fear when faced with what he believed was a highwayman convinced her that, although within the home he was quick with his fists, like so many of his kind he was actually a weak coward.
One female robber who became very famous was Lady Catherine Ferrers, born in 1662. She was the daughter of a well-to-do Hertfordshire landowner who wanted to add social status to his wealth by marrying his daughter to Sir Ralph Ferrers of nearby Markyate Cell. At the age of sixteen, Catherine reluctantly obeyed her father’s wishes and married Sir Ralph who was much older and and who proved to be something of a disappointment. In spite of Catherine’s strikingly attractive appearance, he seemed more concerned with the stewardship of his estates. Life was too dull for a spirited young woman like Catherine and so, casting around for some spice in her life, she resolved to try her hand at highway robbery. She made use of a secret passage from her bedroom in order to leave home unnoticed. Necessarily she took great pains with her disguise and found, to her delight, that her first victim was none other than her sister-in-law, a bitter shrew of a woman whom she absolutely loathed. Robbery and revenge made a sweet combination.
Catherine Ferrers’s first experience gave her the taste for more. She enjoyed the sense of power she obtained from seeing men lose their bluster when facing the business end of a pistol. She extended her range of operations to the busy and potentially lucrative Watling Street that ran close by her home. Her career on the road could have come to an early end when she held up a solitary rider and found herself gazing at a pistol instead. She had accosted a celebrated highwayman by the name of Jerry Jackson. Fortunately, he either saw the funny side of the situation or was perhaps so taken by Catherine’s looks when he discovered her sex that he happily put his pistol away. Soon she and Jackson became lovers and partners-in-crime. They worked together for a while, during which time Catherine added murder to her portfolio of misdemeanours. Her partner was eventually captured and hanged at Tyburn. How Catherine ended her career is uncertain but she died in 1684, perhaps from wounds sustained during a robbery or on the gallows. Whatever her fate, the image of such a swashbuckling and nubile highwaywoman was very attractive to filmmakers. The adventures of Catherine Ferrers, or at least a version of them based very loosely on her real life, have been the subject of two films, both of which were entitled The Wicked Lady.
The records confirm that most of the women highway robbers mentioned here were hanged but there is a record of one, Mary Pile, who sailed with the first fleet of transported convicts to Botany Bay in 1785. As with their male counterparts, the ladies of the road mostly had short careers which ended predictably in a brief and one-sided meeting with the hangman.