A Highway mans demise ...

 

The story of the last Highway many to be hung at the place of his deed is common knowledge due to a tenuous ancestry connection & we were thrilled to be taken to Box Moor to visit the place making his hanging & burial on the 11th March 1802.

 I am getting ahead of myself ... 

He was born on 16th August 1781 in Hungerford & christened James, the Robert appears to come from being commonly known as Robber Snook which became Robert.

On the 10th May 1801, he robbed a mail boy, taking 6 leather mail bags containing bank & promissory notes as well as letters. He discarded his broken leather horse girth at the scene & that led to his capture as several people at a nearby Kings Arms remembered him mending one later on. 

He was already a wanted man for several highway robberies between Bath & Salisbury & for horse theft which was tried at the Old Bailey in 1799. 

However, he was acquitted due to lack of evidence. 

A considerable reward of £200 by the Post office & another £100 by Parliament for the apprehension of highway men led to him being recognised in Marlborough forest by a coach driver who had been at school with him. 

He was apprehended with the help of the passengers. He had £200 in his pockets & a 'very handsome brace of pistols'

He was imprisoned & found guilty at trial, & while many robbers were 'transported' to Australia etc, James / Robert was sentenced to be hanged because his crime was deemed 'so destructive to society and the commercial interests of the country.'  

A very good account of the trial is reported here ...

He was hung near the spot of the deed as law required & buried there. The following day the residents of Hemel Hempstead dug him up & buried him in a simple wooden coffin they provided.  

A small headstone (bearing the name 'Robert Snooks') was erected by the Box Moor Trust in 1904, whilst a footstone was installed in 1994, as part of the Trust's 400 year anniversary. The exact location of Snook's hanging, and subsequent burial is unknown, so the location of the stones is an approximation.

Standing in the muddy field occupied by woolly sheep on a crisp winters day is a different experience.

It is a reminder of times past when life was so different & how punishment was exacted for crimes. The notion of hundreds of people gathering to watch a hanging is really foreign to us. It was sobering to know of the location with busy roads & a train line nearby; not exactly a peaceful spot for eternity.

I hope you have found the story interesting - history is never predictable or dull. Thank you for stopping by & taking the time to read.

Dee