possession of some of the people of Hemel Hempstead, who on the
following day procured a coffin, reopened the grave, and, placing the
body in the coffin, thus gave it some semblance of civilised interment;
but, those being the times of the body-snatchers, doubts have been
expressed of the body being really there. It is thought that the
body-snatchers may afterwards have visited the lonely spot and again
resurrected it.
Two rough pieces of the local "plum-pudding stone" were afterwards
placed on the grave, and remained until recent years.
Boxmoor is not now the lonely place it was. The traveller who seeks
Snooks's grave may find it by continuing northward from Apsley End,
passing under the railway bridges, and coming to a little roadside inn
called the "Friend at Hand." Opposite this, on the right-hand side
of the road, and between this road and the railway embankment runs a
long narrow strip of what looks like meadow land, enclosed by an iron
fence, This is really a portion of Boxmoor. At a point, a hundred and
fifty yards past the inn, look out sharply for a clump of five young
horse-chestnut trees growing on the moor. Close by them is a barren
space of reddish earth, with a grassy mound, a piece of conglomerate,
or "pudding-stone," and a newer stone inscribed "Robert Snooks, 11
March, 1802." This has been added since 1905, and duly keeps the spot
in mind.
[Illustration: SNOOKS'S GRAVE.]
HUFFUM WHITE
The decay of the highwayman's trade and its replacement by that of
the burglar and the bank-robber is well illustrated by the career of
Huffum, or Huffy, White, who was first sentenced for burglary in 1809.
Transportation for life was then awarded him, and we might have heard
no more of his activities, had not his own cleverness and the stupidity
of the authorities enabled him to escape from the hulks at Woolwich.
Thus narrowly missing the long voyage to Botany Bay, he made direct for
London, then as now the best hiding-place in the world. He soon struck
up an acquaintance with one James Mackcoull, and they proposed together
to enter upon a course of burglary; but at the very outset of their
agreement they were arrested. Mackcoull, as a rogue and vagabond, was
sent to prison for six months, and White was sentenced to death as an
escaped convict, the extreme penalty being afterwards reduced to penal
servitude for life.
[Illustration: HUFFUM WHITE ESCAPING FROM THE HULKS.]
On January 20th, 1811, Mackcoull was released, and at once, like
the faithful comrade he was, set about the task of securing White's
escape from the convict ship to which he had again been consigned.
Dropping overboard in the fog and darkness that enshrouded the lower
reaches of the Thames on that winter's evening into the boat that
Mackcoull had silently rowed under the bows of the ship, White was
again free.
An astonishing enterprise now lay before White, Mackcoull, and a new
ally: a man named French. This was nothing less than a plan to break
into the premises of the Paisley Union Bank at Glasgow. Arrived in
Glasgow, they at length, after several disappointments, succeeded in
forcing an entry on a Saturday night, selecting that time for the sake
of the large margin it gave them for their escape, until the re-opening
of the bank on the Monday morning. Their booty consisted of £20,000 in
Scotch notes: a large sum, and in that form an unmanageable one, as
they were eventually to discover.
The burglary accomplished, their first care was to set off at once for
London, posting thither by post-chaise, as fast as four horses could
take them. At every stage they paid their score, which they took care
should be a generous one, as beseemed the wealthy gentlemen they posed
as, with a £20 note: thus accumulating, as they dashed southward along
those four hundred miles, a heavy sum in gold.
On the Monday morning the loss of the notes was of course at once
discovered. Information was easily acquired as to the movements of
the men who were at once suspected, and they were followed along the
road, and some days later White was arrested in London by a Bow Street
runner, at the house of one Scoltock, a maker of burglars' tools. None
of the stolen property was found upon White, Mackcoull having been
sufficiently acute to place all the remaining notes in the keeping of
a certain Bill Gibbons, who combined the trade of bruiser with that of
burglars' banker.
Mackcoull himself went into hiding, both from the law and from his
associates, he having had the counting and custody of the notes, and
told White and French the amount was but £16,000.
It now became quite evident to French, at least, that, so far as he
and his friends were concerned, the remaining notes were merely so
much waste-paper. Their numbers were bound to be known, and they could
not safely be negotiated. So he suggested to Mrs. Mackcoull that they
should propose to return the paper-money to the Bank, and save further
trouble, on the understanding that they should not be prosecuted.
Mrs. Mackcoull appears to have had an influential friend named Sayer,
employed in close attendance upon the King, and by his good offices
secured a pardon for all concerned, on the conditions already named.
Unfortunately, she could not fully carry out the bargain agreed upon,
for, on the notes being counted, it was discovered that only £11,941
remained.
White, already in custody, was once more condemned to transportation
for life. The procedure must by this time have become quite staled by
familiarity, and we picture him going again to the hulks with an air of
intense boredom.
He, of course, again escaped, and was soon again on his burglarious
career: this time at Kettering among other places. But the exploit
which concluded his course was the almost purely highwayman business
of robbing the Leeds mail-coach, on October 26th, 1812, near Higham
Ferrers. He had as accomplices a certain Richard Kendall and one Mary
Howes. White had booked an outside seat on the coach, and had, in the
momentary absence of the guard in front, cleverly forced open the lock
of the box in which the mail-bags were kept, extracted the bags, and
replaced the lid. At the next stage he left the coach. The accomplices,
who had a trap in waiting, then all drove off to London, White
immediately afterwards making for Bristol, where he was soon located,
living with two notorious thieves, John Goodman and Ned Burkitt. A
descent was made upon the house, and the two arrested, but White
escaped over the roof of a shed, and through the adjoining houses.
He was traced in April 1813 to a house in Scotland Road, Liverpool,
where, in company with a man named Hayward, he was meditating another
burglary. The officers came upon them hiding in a cellar, and a
desperate struggle followed; but in the end they were secured.
Richard Kendall and Mary Howes, _alias_ Taylor, were already in
custody, and White was arraigned with them at the ensuing Northampton
Assizes, for the robbery of the Leeds mail. Witnesses spoke at this
trial to having seen the men in the gig on the evening of October 26th,
on the road near Higham Ferrers, and afterwards at the house of Mary
Howes, who lived close by, and the keeper of the turnpike deposed to
only one gig having passed through that evening. There were no fewer
than forty witnesses, and the trial occupied fourteen hours.
Mary Howes was acquitted, not from lack of evidence, but merely on a
technical flaw in the indictment; her offence having been committed in
another county. White and Kendall were convicted and sentenced to death.
White again came near to escaping. By some unknown means, a file had
been conveyed to him, and on the night before the execution he filed
through his irons, and then forced a way through several doors, being
only stopped at the outer gate. The following morning, August 13th,
1813—unlucky date, with two thirteens—he met his fate with an unmoved
tranquility. He declared Kendall to be innocent. When the chaplain
asked him earnestly if he could administer any comfort to him at that
solemn moment, he replied: "Only by getting some other man to be hanged
for me."
Kendall was then brought to the gallows, declaring himself to be
innocent, and a murdered man.
Mackcoull, the earlier associate of White, disappeared for years, but
was arrested for a robbery in 1820, and died in prison soon after
receiving sentence.
[Illustration: [++] Gibbet.]
INDEX
Abershaw, Jeremiah, i. 104; ii. 361-369
Adams, Richard, ii. 122
Allen, —, i. 123
— Robert, i. 276, 278-281
Arnott, Lieut., i. 97
Avery, —, ii. 121
Beatson, John and William, ii. 370-375
_Beggar's Opera, The_, i. 240; ii. 296
Belchier, William, i. 224
Berkeley, 5th Earl of, i. 237-240
Bird, Jack, ii. 86-97
Blake, Joseph ("Blueskin"), ii. 134-136
Boulter, Thomas, ii. 238
Bow Street Patrol, i. 123
"Bowl" Inn, St. Giles-in-the-Fields, i. 166, 177-181
Bracy, —, i. 76
Bradshaw, Jack, ii. 101
Brown, Thomas, i. 211
Bunce, Stephen, ii. 117-120
Carrick, Valentine, i. 145
Catnack, James, i. 127-130
Caxton, Gibbet, i. 201-204
Cherhill Gang, i. 117
Clarke, Sir Simon, Bart., i. 97
Clavel, John, i. 307-316
"Clever Tom Clinch," i. 166, 177
Clewer, Revd. William, ii. 81
"Clibborn's Post," i. 119-121
Cottington, John ("MulledSack"), i. 158; ii. 26-34, 210
Cox, Tom, i. 166, 254
"Cutpurse," Moll (Mary Frith), i. 262-268; ii. 128, 129
Darkin, Isaac, ii. 264-270
Davis, William (the "Golden Farmer"), i. 317-332, 341
Denville, Sir Josselin, i. 17; ii. 55
Dickson, Christopher, i. 102
Dorbel, Tom, ii. 72
Dowe, Robert, i. 148, 153, 154
Drewett, Robert, i. 211
— William, i. 211
Dudley, Captain Richard, i. 387-397; ii. 55
Dun, Thomas, i. 17-22
Du Vall, Claude, i. 175, 214, 224, 254, 334, 342-355; ii. 173,
249, 272
Edwards, William, ii. 79
Elms, The, Smithfield, i. 157
— — St. Giles-in-the-Fields, i. 158, 165
— — Lane, Lancaster Gate, i. 158
— — Tyburn, i. 162
Everett and Williams, i. 254
Falstaff, i. 62, 64, 217, 221
Ferguson, Robert ("Galloping Dick"), i. 105; ii. 353-360
Finchley Common, i. 245-249, 253-255, 319; ii. 122
Frith, Mary ("Moll Cutpurse"), i. 262-268; ii. 128, 129
Gad's Hill, i. 62, 214, 217-221, 314; ii. 10
"Galloping Dick" (Robert Ferguson), i. 105; ii. 353-360
Gibbets, i. 122, 199-212, 214, 363
Gibson, John, i. 202
Giles, St., i. 157
"Golden Farmer," The (William Davis), i. 317-332, 341
Hackney Marshes, i. 91; ii. 182, 208
Haggarty, —, i. 243
Hal, Prince, i. 62, 64, 217
Hall, John, i. 154; ii. 110-116
"Hand of Glory," The, i. 49-57, 210
"Hangman's Highway," i. 156-198
Harris, James, i. 89
Hartley John, i. 101
Hawes, Nathaniel, i. 253
Hawke (or Hawkes), William, i. 147, 224
Hawkins, John, i. 229-236
— William, i. 229, 231, 232, 236
Hill, Thos., i. 66
Hillingdon Heath, i. 323, 324
Hind, Capt. James, i. 65, 214, 273-306, 334; ii. 173, 249
Holborn, i. 163-175
— Bars, i. 172
— Hill, i. 164, 170, 171
Holloway, i. 243
Hood, Robin, i. 23-48, 57
Horner, Nicholas, ii. 148-157
Hounslow Heath, i. 89, 121, 122, 123, 224-244, 267, 346, 388;
ii. 29, 51, 71, 248, 252, 259
Jackson, Francis, i. 356-386
Johnson, Charles, Historian of Highwaymen, i. 14, 17, 18, 124, 235,
270, 335, 339, 392; ii. 41, 158, 166, 233
— Joe, ii. 167
Joiner, Abraham, i. 67
King, Augustine, i. 84
— Matthew, ii. 206, 208, 209
— Robert, ii. 206
— Tom, ii. 198-203, 205-210, 228
Knightsbridge, i. 222-224
Lansdowne Passage, i. 110
Lewis, Paul, ii. 316-319
Lorrain, Rev. Paul, i. 132-134
Low, Richard, ii. 115-117
Maclaine, James, ii. 249, 271-300
Maidenhead Thicket, i. 59, 295; ii. 38
Marlborough Downs, i. 118
Mary-le-Bourne, St., i. 159-161
Mellish, Mr., Murder of, by highwaymen, i. 121
Miles, Edward, i. 210
Morgan, —, i. 99-101
"Mulled Sack" (Cottington, John), i. 158; ii. 26-34, 210
Nevison, John, or William ("Swiftnicks"), ii. 1-25, 229, 231,
232, 234
Newgate, i. 145, 146, 148-154, 156, 246, 249-254, 302; ii. 62, 63,
131, 268, 296, 334-338, 352
— Ordinaries of, i. 124-126, 131-139, 142-145, 169, 187, 365;
ii. 117, 143, 272
Newmarket, i. 78-82, 173-175; ii. 301
New Oxford Street, i. 163, 176
O'Brian, Patrick, ii. 81-85
Ogden, Will, ii. 98-104
"Old Mob" (Thomas Simpson), i. 254, 333-341
Ovet, Jack, ii. 105-109
Oxford Street, i. 163, 181, 192; ii. 279, 332
Page, William, ii. 249-263
Parsons, William, ii. 241-248
Peace, Charles, i. 6-11
_Peine forte et dure_, i. 249-254
Phillips, Thos., i. 249-253
Piccadilly, Highwaymen in, i. 109
Plunkett, —, ii. 280-283, 286-290
"Poor Robin," ii. 90-93
Popham, Sir John, i. 62
Porter's Block, Smithfield, i. 158; ii. 63
Poulter, John, ii. 301-315
Pressing to Death, i. 249-254
Price, James, i. 211
Pureney, Rev. Thos., i. 132, 133, 135-139, 142; ii. 117, 143, 147
Rann, John ("Sixteen-string Jack"), ii. 340-352
Ratsey, Gamaliel, i. 14-17
Reresby, Sir John, i. 82
Reynolds, Capt., i. 66
— Tom, ii. 98, 104
_Rizpah_, i. 204-206
Robin Hood, i. 23-48, 57; ii. 233
"Rowden the Pewterer," ii. 196, 198, 215
Rumbold, Thomas, ii. 35-40
St. Giles-in-the-Fields, i. 157, 176-181
St. Mary-le-Bourne, i. 159-161
St. Sepulchre, i. 148-155, 163, 165
Salisbury Plain, i. 114, 117, 214, 318; ii. 41, 266
Shakespeare, Highwaymen in, i. 62-64, 217, 221
Sheppard, Jack, i. 137, 140, 183, 246, 247
Shooter's Hill, i. 214-217, 276; ii. 101, 189, 260
Shotover Hill, i. 255; ii. 30
Shrimpton, John, i. 256-258
Simms, Harry, i. 97
Simpson, Thomas ("Old Mob"), i. 254, 333-341
"Sixteen-string Jack" (Rann, John), ii. 340-352
Smith, Capt. Alexander, Historian of Highwaymen, i. 11-14, 75, 124,
235, 270, 335, 339, 391; ii. 41, 81-83
Smith, Rev. Samuel, i. 132, 367
Smithfield, i. 157; ii. 63, 281
— Rounds, i. 158; ii. 34
Snooks, Robert, ii. 376-383
Spiggott, Wm., i. 248-253
Stafford, Capt. Philip, i. 269-272
Steele, Mr., Murder of, i. 240-244
Stratford Place, i. 158-161
Sunday Trading Act, i. 60
"Swiftnicks" (Nevison, John, or William), ii. 1-25, 229, 231,
232, 234
Sympson, George, i. 229, 231
Taylor, Tom, ii. 123-125
Tooll, "Captain" Edmund, i. 246
Tracey, Walter, ii. 158-165
Turpin, Richard, i. 124, 129, 215, 245, 247; ii. 1, 173-240, 249
Turpin's Oak, i. 245
Twm Shon Catti, ii. 65-72
Twysden, Bishop of Raphoe, i. 236
Tyburn, i. 133, 146, 153, 155, 156-198, 245, 249, 254, 281, 354, 397;
ii. 46, 59, 97, 116, 122, 147, 168, 248, 257, 284, 299, 319, 339
Waltham Cross, i. 87
Watling Street, i. 159
Westons, The, ii. 320-339
Weymouth, Charles, i. 102
White, Huffum, ii. 384-391
Whitney, Capt. James, i. 86, 158; ii. 41-64, 173
"Who goes Home?" i. 92-95
Wickes, Edward, i. 254; ii. 166-172
Wild, Jonathan, i. 137, 187, 265; ii. 126-147
Wild, Robert, i. 70-74
Wilson, Ralph, i. 231, 232, 235, 236
Witherington, Thos., i. 171
Withers, John, ii. 75-80
Wright, —, i. 231
_Printed and bound by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and
Aylesbury._
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