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Read the alternative
version - Swiftnicks' Ride as told in
Captain Richard Dudley
in The Newgate Calendar |
The
Complete Newgate Calendar, Vol. I
APPENDICES
NO. I
DEFOE'S
ACCOUNT OF SWIFTNICKS' RIDE TO YORK
From Gravesend we
see nothing remarkable on the road but Gad's-Hill,
a noted place for robbing of seamen after they have received their pay
at Chatham. Here it was that the famous robbery was committed in the year
1676 or thereabouts; it was about four a clock in the morning when a gentleman
was robbed by one Nicks on a bay mare, just on the declining part of the
hill, on the west side, for he swore to the spot and to the man.
Mr Nicks, who robb'd
him, came away to Gravesend, immediately ferry'd over, and, as he said,
was stopp'd by the difficulty of the boat, and of the passage, near an
hour; which was a great disappointment to him, but was a kind of bait
to his horse : From thence he rode cross the county of Essex, thro' Tilbury,
Hornden, and Bilerecay to Chelmsford: here he stopp'd about half an hour
to refresh his horse, and give him some balls; from thence to Braintre,
Bocking, Wethersfield; then over the downs to Cambridge, and from thence
keeping still the cross roads, he went by Fenny Stanton to Godmanchester,
and Huntington, where he baited himself and his mare about an hour ; and,
as he said himself, slept about half an hour, then, holding on the north
road, and keeping a full larger gallop most of the way, he came to York
the same afternoon, put off his boots and riding cloaths, and went dress'd
as if he had been an inhabitant of the place, not a traveller, to the
bowling-green, where, among other gentlemen, was the Lord Mayor of the
city; he singling out his Lordship, study'd to do something particular
that the Mayor might remember him by, and accordingly lay some odd bett
with him concerning the bowls then running, which should cause the Mayor
to remember it the more particularly ; and then takes occasion to ask
his Lord ship what a clock it was ; who, pulling out his watch, told him
the hour, which was a quarter before, or a quarter after eight at night.
Some other circumstances, it seems, he carefully brought
into their dis-course, which should make the Lord Mayor remember the day
of the month exactly, as well as the hour of the day.
Upon a prosecution
which happen'd afterwards for this robbery, the whole merit of the case
turn'd upon this single point: The person robb'd swore as above to the
man, to the place, and to the time, in which the fact was committed: namely,
that he was robb'd on Gad's-Hill in Kent, on such a day, and at such a
time of the day, and on such a part of the hill, and that the prisoner
at the bar was the man that robb'd him : Nicks, the prisoner, deny'd the
fact, called several persons to his reputation, alleg'd that he was as
far off as
Yorkshire at that time, and that particularly, the day whereon the prosecu
tion swore he was robb'd, he was at bowles on the publick green in the
City of York ; and to support this, he produced the Lord Mayor of York
to testify that he was so, and that the Mayor acted so and so with him
there as above.
This was so positive,
and so well attested, that the jury acquitted him on a bare supposition,
that it was impossible the man could be at two places so remote on one
and the same day. There are more particulars related of this story, such
as I do not take upon me to affirm; namely, that King Charles II. prevailed
on him, on assurance of pardon, and that he should not be brought into
any farther trouble about it, to confess the truth to him privately, and
that he own'd to His Majesty that he committed the robbery, and how he
rode the journey after it, and that upon this the King gave him the name
or title of Swift Nicks, instead of Nicks.
Daniel Defoe A
Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain, 1724., vol. i., letter
ii.
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