SOCIETY knew what it thought about them and it was mostly bad. Brave, independent, resourceful, even entrepreneurial they may have been, but the women who, in the 17th and 18th centuries, turned to crime on the nation's highways inspired deep mistrust-and not simply for the danger they posed to travellers. For highwaywomen, a term coined in the 1730s, were worse than criminals. More than their male counterparts, they represented a potent challenge to the established order: gun-toting, pipe-smoking, violent and, more often than not, cross-dressing.
Of one of Britain's best-known highwaywomen Mary Frith, known as Moll Cutpurse, whose life of crime lasted five decades, including targeted offences against Parliamentarians during the Civil War, the author of A History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Noted Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts and Cheats, written in 1714, found little to commend.
Instead, he criticised Moll for fighting boys; he scorned her 'natural abhorrence of tending children'. Such a tendency, he impressed upon his readers, was anything but 'natural'.
In 1662, the Newgate Calendar had castigated Moll as 'a very tomrig or hoyden', possessed of a 'boisterous and masculine spirit'. Highwaywomen such as Moll were transgressive and readers were not surprised when they learned that, as a young girl, she 'could not endure that sedentary life of sewing or stitching; a sampler was as grievous to her as a winding sheet; and on her needle, bodkin and thimble she could not think quietly, wishing them changed into sword and dagger'.
Denne historien er fra September 25, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra September 25, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
