John Nevison is remembered today as the politest highwayman in Britain. He robbed from the rich and gave to the poor – nothing interesting there – but Nevison always robbed people in the politest way possible. Nothing but pleases and thank-yous and ma’ams.
Today, Nevison is probably remembered best for a daring escape in 1676. So daring, in fact, that many later highwaymen took the credit. Here’s how it went down. Nevison was conducting a pre-dawn robbery in Kent, in southern England, when his face was recognized. As soon as he finished up robbing the unfortunate victims he use a ferry to cross the Thames River then galloped all-out to York, a city in northern England. He rode 227 miles in 15 hours. Nevison arrived in York by sunset and played a gambling game with the Lord Mayor of York, providing himself with a very strong alibi.
When Nevison was arrested for the robbery in Kent he just had to produce the Lord Mayor. No one could believe that someone could get that far, in that short a time, and Nevison was let go.
Of course he went right back to being a highwayman. A few years later Nevison was caught when an innkeeper betrayed him. Tried for highway robbery, as well as the murder of a constable, he was hanged at York in 1684.
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