17th century… The Newgate Calendar 24 Mar 201624 Mar 2016 People in the eighteenth century believed that they were living in a crime-ridden society. In addition to Capt. Alexander Smith’s and Capt. Charles Johnson’s criminal biographies, the Proceedings of the…
17th century… Charles Johnson’s ‘Lives of the Highwaymen’ (1734) 14 Feb 20164 Sep 2016 There is no reference in any historical archives to a Captain named Charles Johnson. The name is most likely a pseudonym for a writer whose identity is now lost to…
15th Century… Christmas in Newgate Gaol 23 Dec 2015 Newgate gaol was London’s most infamous gaol. It was built in the twelfth century as a place to hold prisoners until judges were available to debate their innocence. The original…
17th century… Captain James Hind (1616-1652): The Royalist Highwayman 15 Dec 2015 William Harrison Ainsworth’s novel Rookwood (1834) is the work which, along with Edward Bulwer Lytton’s lesser novel Paul Clifford (1830) imbued eighteenth-century highwaymen to legendary status. Ainsworth wanted to write…
