Highwaymen presents an entertaining and informative look at the origins and exploits of the seventeenth-and eighteenth-century "gentlemen of the road." It traces the history of their misdeeds from their rise to their ultimate downfall, brought about by the perseverance of the novelist Henry Fielding and his brother John-Bow Street magistrates-and their small but determined force of men. Drawing freely upon contemporary accounts, the author shows the metamorphosis of the highwaymen, often of aristocratic birth, into folk heroes-the proudest members of the criminal elite-worshiped and glorified in legend, ballad, novel and play. Dick Turpin, jack Sheppard, Moll Cutpurse, the old Etonian William Parsons, and the French footman Claude Duval, all these notorious highwaymen and many others are revealed here in fine character sketches and amusing anecdotes. Numerous contemporary engravings and portraits complement the tex