{"id":34483,"date":"2024-03-30T10:58:56","date_gmt":"2024-03-30T08:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=264232"},"modified":"2024-03-31T10:11:36","modified_gmt":"2024-03-31T08:11:36","slug":"were-there-any-real-highwaywomen-and-did-they-dress-up-as-men","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/were-there-any-real-highwaywomen-and-did-they-dress-up-as-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Were there any real highwaywomen, and did they dress up as men?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Created by Sally Wainwright, Disney+\u2019s drama Renegade Nell is a historical fantasy that follows the adventures of a tavern-keeper\u2019s daughter who becomes a highwaywoman after being framed for murder. But did highwaywomen really menace England\u2019s roads? Why would they have taken to holding up travellers in real life? And did these dandy highwaywomen dress in men\u2019s clothing? <\/p>

By Jonathan Wright\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Saturday, 30 March 2024 at 08:58 AM<\/p>

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The term \u2018highwayman\u2019 dates from the early 17th century. However, the \u2018golden age\u2019 of highway robbery in England is arguably associated with the years between the Restoration<\/a> in 1660 and Queen Anne<\/a>\u2019s death, in 1714.<\/p>\n

There was often a romance attached to stories of highwaymen, who travelled on horseback and were often portrayed as gentlemen, socially superior to \u2018footpads\u2019 (who were more akin to modern-day muggers).<\/p>\n

Images of highwaymen in the popular imagination were stoked by picture stories by artists such as William Hogarth<\/a>. Perhaps pre-eminent among these tales was the legend of Dick Turpin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Were there highwaywomen in real life?<\/h2>\n

Yes, credible records of highwaywomen can be found in the records of county session court trials.<\/p>\n

Highwaywomen also appear in The Newgate Calendar<\/em>, an 18th and 19th-century volume of crime tales once as ubiquitous in English homes as the Bible.<\/p>\n

There are likewise stories in broadside ballads. These were single sheets of cheap paper printed on just one side, whose name underlines the connection to popular story-songs.<\/p>\n

At least two ballads from 1640 tell of Susan Higges<\/a>, who is said to have enjoyed a 20-year career \u201cin mens attire\u2026 upon a Gelding stout\u201d before being recognised and executed.<\/p>\n

That said, we need to be cautious about believing hearsay, as the story of Katherine Ferrers illustrates.<\/p>\n

A Hertfordshire gentlewoman born in 1634, and the heiress to a substantial fortune, Ferrers lost her wealth on account of her teenage husband\u2019s family pilfering her inheritance amidst the turmoil of the English Civil War<\/a> and its aftermath.<\/p>\n

As some stories have it, Ferrers turned to crime, and was suspected to be the \u2018Wicked Lady\u2019, a highwaywoman who terrorised Hertfordshire on horseback. Ferrers fit into the popular trope of a person of genteel background and dwindling fortune, who turned to highway robbery to make a living.<\/p>\n

\"17th-century\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Rumour has it that 17th-century gentlewoman Katherine Ferrers turned to a life of highway robbery once she lost her fortune. (Image by Alamy)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Ferrers was reputed to have died in 1660 from gunshot wounds received during a robbery. Rumours of her body being found by servants at the manor house of Markyate Cell, on the same night as a bloodied black horse was discovered wandering the grounds, have passed down the generations.<\/p>\n

Despite the popular legend, the idea that Ferrers was a highwaywoman is hard to substantiate.<\/p>\n

Did highwaywomen really dress as men?<\/h2>\n

Stories of so-called \u2018cross-dressing\u2019 recur in the ballads, and would have been shocking to contemporary readers. Renegade Nell<\/em> costume designer Tom Pye, who also worked on Gentleman Jack<\/em><\/a>, says that dress at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries was heavily gendered.<\/p>\n

\"Louisa\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Louisa Harland as highwaywoman Nell Jackson in Disney+\u2019s \u2018Renegade Nell\u2019 (Photo courtesy of Robert Viglasky\/Disney+)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u201cI think it would have been just totally unexpected that a woman would pass as a man,\u201d he tells HistoryExtra<\/em>. \u201cNobody would have seen that coming.\u201d As a result, he says, a figure such as Nell \u201cwould have passed quite easily\u201d as a man.<\/p>\n