Turned to Account Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Part I Turning criminals to account: three case histories and two myths of crime
- 1 The highwayman: power, grace, and money at command
- 2 Familiar murder: sin, death, damnation, repentance, God's grace, and salvation
- Part II Enucleating the truth: the criminal as sinner turned saint
- Part III Palliating his crimes: the thief as various rogues
- Postscript: Criminal biography and the novel
- Appendix I Who read the popular literature of crime?
- Appendix II The politics of thieving
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
1 - The highwayman: power, grace, and money at command
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Part I Turning criminals to account: three case histories and two myths of crime
- 1 The highwayman: power, grace, and money at command
- 2 Familiar murder: sin, death, damnation, repentance, God's grace, and salvation
- Part II Enucleating the truth: the criminal as sinner turned saint
- Part III Palliating his crimes: the thief as various rogues
- Postscript: Criminal biography and the novel
- Appendix I Who read the popular literature of crime?
- Appendix II The politics of thieving
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
He ask'd him, What Friends he had? To which he answer'd, That his Friends were but few, and that he depended upon his Fingers Ends for a Livelihood. …then the Prisoner at the Bar said, If he'd venture with him, and do as he did, he should live like a King, and never want Money; and that he'd teach him a better way to get Money, than by going to Service.
Truth of the Case of Palmer (1708), pp. 13–14Honey, says Plunket I thought … thou hadst Spirit and Resolution, with some Knowledge of the World. A brave Man cannot want; he has a Right to live, and need not want the Conveniences of Life while the dull, plodding, busy Knaves carry Cash in their Pockets … ; there is scarce Courage necessary, all we have to deal with are such mere Poltroons.
John Taylor, Ordinary Account, 3 October 1750Jack if thou wilt live with me thou shalt have money at comand or any thing thou wantest.
No Jest like a True Jest (1657)They told me he was the captain of the gang, and that he had committed so many robberies that Hind, or Whitney, or the Golden Farmer were fools to him.
Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (1722), ed. G. A. Starr, p. 281The actualities of Hind's life were mythologized even before his capture. Ultimately, with more than fifty of his confraternity, he would take his place in that compendium of “most Secret and Barbarous Murders, Unparalleled Robberies, Notorious Thefts, and Unheard-of- Cheats,” Captain Alexander Smith's Lives of the Highwaymen.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Turned to AccountThe Forms and Functions of Criminal Biography in Late Seventeenth- and Early Eighteenth-Century England, pp. 6 - 20Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1987