Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Abbrevations
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- ‘Ghastly Statistics’: a Word of Warning
- 1 The Black Spot on the Mersey
- 2 Policing
- 3 Prison and Punishment
- 4 Children and Women in the Justice System
- 5 ‘The Scum of Ireland’
- 6 Protest, Riot and Disorder
- 7 The Lowest Circle of Hell
- 8 The Demon Drink
- 9 Violence
- 10 Maritime Crime
- 11 Street Robbery
- 12 Burglary and Property Theft
- 13 Poaching Wars
- 14 Scams
- 15 Victorian Family Values
- 16 ‘The Devil's Children’
- 17 Gangs and Anti-Social Behaviour
- 18 Prostitution
- 19 Sport and Gambling
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
11 - Street Robbery
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Abbrevations
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- ‘Ghastly Statistics’: a Word of Warning
- 1 The Black Spot on the Mersey
- 2 Policing
- 3 Prison and Punishment
- 4 Children and Women in the Justice System
- 5 ‘The Scum of Ireland’
- 6 Protest, Riot and Disorder
- 7 The Lowest Circle of Hell
- 8 The Demon Drink
- 9 Violence
- 10 Maritime Crime
- 11 Street Robbery
- 12 Burglary and Property Theft
- 13 Poaching Wars
- 14 Scams
- 15 Victorian Family Values
- 16 ‘The Devil's Children’
- 17 Gangs and Anti-Social Behaviour
- 18 Prostitution
- 19 Sport and Gambling
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Highwaymen and Footpads
Although Liverpool's maritime industries provided plenty of opportunities for local criminals, miles from the docks on the sparsely populated outskirts of town a different form of robbery thrived. By 1760 Liverpool inhabitants were beginning to leave their remote northern backwater to visit other towns. Wealthy travellers could take the stagecoach on its journey, via prescot, to Warrington and then on to London and elsewhere. Since the police did not protect such districts, it was wise to go armed against the threat of highwaymen and footpads. Working alone or in gangs, armed highwaymen would molest travellers on foot and stop coaches or horsemen on the public highway. The pack-horses of the ‘carrying trade’, the early nineteenth-century equivalent of the parcel delivery service, would therefore begin their journeys from Dale Street in convoys to resist the bandits that plagued the routes out of town. Footpads were simply unmounted highwaymen.
In the mid-eighteenth century the actor Ned Shuter, a great favourite with Liverpool audiences, was travelling to the town in a coach when a highwayman held it up. The only other passenger in the vehicle was an elderly man who wisely pretended to be asleep, hoping to remain undisturbed. ‘Your money or your life?’ the highwayman barked. Shuter feigned idiocy and said that his ‘uncle’ wouldn't trust him with money and paid everything for him. The robber turned his attention to the elderly ‘uncle’, slapping him about the face to wake him before relieving him of every last penny.
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- The Liverpool UnderworldCrime in the City, 1750–1900, pp. 152 - 167Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2011