WEBVTT - William Davis: Farmer by Day, Highwayman by Night 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:04.399 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:05.359 with iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:14.960 One evening, as mister Hart, a young gentleman of Enfield, 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.920 traveled over Finchley Common Highwayman William Davis, who had been 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:22.320 preying on carriages for about four or five hours already 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.600 that night, rode up to his target, shouting quote, a 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:28.320 plague on you, how slow you are to make a man? 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.960 Wait on you, come, deliver what you have. Hart, who 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:35.200 had been entertaining his mistress, was surprised he was being 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:38.040 robbed and began to make excuses why he had no 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.479 money with him, But William, he was having none of that. 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.159 He turned out Heart's pockets himself and left with more 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:48.280 than one hundred guineas and a gold watch. He slapped 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:50.760 hard on the back, advised him not to lie when 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.680 quote an honest gentleman desired a small boon of him, 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:58.280 and rode off to find the next target. Welcome to Criminalia. 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:03.320 I'm Maria Tremarky, I'm Holly Frye. William Davis led a 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:07.120 double life. He was a successful highway robber by night 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:12.240 and by day a respectable farmer. He kept his criminal 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:16.000 career a secret, even from his wife and family for decades, 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:19.479 until he was caught leaving the scene of what would 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:23.120 be his final crime. He was born in Wrexham in 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:27.160 North Wales in sixteen twenty seven. His family relocated while 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:30.399 he was still young to Sodbury, Gloucestershire, and it was 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:32.640 there where he met and married the daughter of a 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:37.959 wealthy innkeeper. Together the couple had a large family, eighteen 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:41.560 children total. Maybe that's why he had to turn to 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:42.480 a life of crime. 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:43.440 I have thought that. 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:47.280 To feed all those damn. 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:48.200 Kids, it's a lot of mouths. 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:53.000 They moved to Bagshot on the Surrey Berkshire border, where 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:57.840 William became a successful farmer. Farming was honest work, but 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.320 it was also a clever way to distract others from 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:05.280 noticing that he had another life, that secret one as 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:09.120 a highwayman. In fact, he's considered one of the most 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:13.840 notorious highwaymen of the seventeenth century. This wasn't something that 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:17.240 he dabbled in to keep life spicy. It was a real, 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:19.240 although illegal career for. 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:24.400 Him, posthumously nicknamed the Golden Farmer. As a highwayman, William 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:29.160 was primarily interested in you guessed it stealing gold coins. 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:33.560 As a respectable farmer, he paid all his debts in gold. 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:37.480 William didn't just steal gold, though he stole gold, absolutely, 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:41.360 but he stole whatever valuables you had. He was a robber. 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:45.520 He wasn't handing back jewels saying no thank you. But 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:49.720 he never passed paper money, notes, bills, none of it. 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:52.959 Over and over in the stories of his life, it's 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:56.840 recounted that William used minted gold guineas as his preferred currency, 0:02:57.240 --> 0:03:00.560 and it was all to avoid anyone identifying as a 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.519 highway robber. No one was going to recognize their specific 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:09.160 gold coins. And while people thought he was a bit eccentric, 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:11.200 no one refused his payments. 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:15.560 According to the writings of editor George Daniel of Canonbury, 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:19.119 William had been a corn chandler in Thames Street, where 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:22.959 he sold his goods by day and robbed other farmers 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:26.200 at night. So a corn chandler is a person who 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:29.840 buys and sells corn and grain products, which is one 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:33.280 hundred percent in line with what historians know about William's 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:37.680 honest work, and some of his early highway robbery victims 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:41.600 did include his fellow farmers on their way to and 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.480 from market. I mean, who are we kidding? They were 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:49.240 always his targets, although he was not exclusively hitting farmers. 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:52.960 The Surrey village of Bagshot and its surrounding area was 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.800 one of William's favorite haunts, and not just because it 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.680 was close to home. The village prospered because of its location. 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.080 It sat on the main route linking London to the 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:06.800 West Country, on the Great West Road. Inns and taverns 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.200 began to appear in the area to serve the demand 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:13.200 of stagecoach and carriage travelers. By the seventeen hundreds, which 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.880 is a little bit after William was prowling the roads, 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:19.680 there were nearly a dozen inns along the Great West 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:23.640 Road alone. It attracted the attention of travelers and tourists, 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:27.480 but Bagshot also attracted the attention of thieves and highway 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:31.240 robbers began to prey on unassuming travelers passing through that area. 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.120 William was one of them and worked Bagshot and as 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:36.120 far afield as Salisbury Plaine. 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:40.680 William worked alone, at least at first, he became a 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:43.880 master at getting what he wanted from his victims. He 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.719 was not known to be violent, but he was certainly intimidating. 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:51.760 One popular tale about him tells how he once robbed 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.159 his own landlord of the annual rent money that they'd 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:59.200 just collected from him. It's about eighty pounds bidding the 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.920 landlord to quote, come deliver what you have in a trice. 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:07.600 The landlord never knew that their robber was actually a 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:13.120 person who, under different circumstances, they'd instantly recognize, and a 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:15.240 person that they liked and respected. 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:19.000 William did work with associates on and off, but when 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:23.360 he wasn't going solo, he primarily rode alongside another highwayman, 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.520 Thomas Simpson, known as Old Mob, who, as his stories 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:32.560 would suggest, really liked to rob high profile targets. One 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.440 version of William's story suggests he became the leader of 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:37.720 what grew to be a pretty large gang where he 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:41.599 met Old Mob. Whether this sizeable gang is fact or fiction, 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:44.600 and its likely fiction, as there are no stories that 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:49.039 exist of William robbing with multiple accomplices. The relationship between 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:52.800 William and Thomas was a real one. Simpson had quote 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.280 little education and less manners, but he was a good highwayman, 0:05:56.360 --> 0:06:00.240 and the pair plundered carriages together and apart for roughly 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:05.000 forty years. There are highway robbery stories told of Thomas, 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:09.400 some without William side by side. But as this is 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:11.920 a story about William, we're going to focus on his 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:13.160 outlaw life. 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:15.400 We're going to take a break for a word from 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:19.279 our sponsors, and when we're back, we have several anecdotes 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.719 of William Davis, the gold loving highway robber to share. 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:40.799 Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's tell stories about William Davis, 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:41.920 highway robber. 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:45.040 When you begin to tease a part the story of 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:49.320 William's criminal career. One of the first anecdotes about the highwayman, 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:53.080 the wanted farmer that you'll inevitably come across, is this 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:58.839 career highlight. One evening, William, working solo, stormed and plundered 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:04.000 several carriages headed towards Salisbury. He stopped every single carriage 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:06.359 and lined them up on the side of the road. 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:11.040 Each carriage was full to capacity, carrying groups of well 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:15.160 healed ladies. Every traveler in the first coach gave their 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:18.560 gold to their robber as demanded, with the exception of 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:23.120 one woman. That one passenger insisted that she had no 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:27.400 money and wasn't carrying anything to give him. Fearing this 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:31.320 delay could compromise his looting of the other coaches. William 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:34.920 instructed her to wait while he collected valuables from all 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:38.400 those other travelers, and then promised that he would return 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.200 to her carriage and ask her again what she had 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:45.400 for him. Upon his return. The woman still insisted that 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:48.360 she did not have anything at all for him, and 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:52.160 this sent William into a fit of rage. According to 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.400 the Newgate Calendar's retelling of the crime, the woman quote 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:59.400 persisting in her former statement, enraged him to such a 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:03.280 degree that, seizing her by the shoulder, he employed language 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:07.080 which it would be hardly proper here to set down. Well. 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:12.760 What he said was printed in another publication. Get ready. Uh. 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:16.240 What William screamed at her was quote, you canting bitch, 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:18.760 If you dally with me at this rate, you'll certainly 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:22.680 provoke my spirit to be damnably rude with you. You see, 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.520 these good women here were so tender hearted as to 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:29.000 be charitable to me, and you, you, whining horror, are 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:32.040 so covetous as to lose your life for the sake 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:36.520 of mammon. Come, come, you hollow hearted bitch. Unpin your 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:39.400 purse strings quickly, or else I shall send you out 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:42.400 of the Land of the Living. I want to memorize 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:45.200 this entire speech so I can whip it out at 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:46.240 pertinent moments. 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:49.439 Yeah, it was great, you did a great reading. 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:55.960 Hmmm, feels good. In return for this quite uncharming outburst, 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:59.480 the lady did finally give up a purse of guineas, 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:03.199 a gold watch and a diamond ring. And it's said 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:06.559 that the two parted quote as good friends as when 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.240 they were first introduced to each other. I don't know 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:12.520 what level of good friends that was, but apparently. 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.520 Go Newgate Calendar, right. Uh? 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:19.120 Is this an accurate account of what was said? Listen? 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:21.560 There's no way anyone can be sure, but it's a 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:22.760 great monologue. 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:27.160 So on to the next one. Squire Broughton, a barrister 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:31.000 of the Middle Temple, was another of William's victims. The 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.000 two happened by chance to meet one evening at an 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:38.880 inn along one of William's favorite hunting roads. William, having 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.440 quickly chosen Broughton as his next mark, pretended to be 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:45.480 a farmer on his way to file a complaint concerning 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:48.439 an offense a neighboring farmer had committed when he allowed 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:52.600 his cattle to break into William's land. He wondered, could 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:55.520 Broughton recommend an expert in the field to help him out. 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:58.800 Broughton offered to take William on as his own client, 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:03.400 and William took at gunpoint several pounds, some large pieces 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:05.920 of gold, and a gold watch from the barrister. 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:10.440 It was at Salisbury Plain where William encountered the carriage 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:13.839 of the Duchess of Albemarle. Before he could rob her, 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:17.360 though he first had to get through her security, There 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:21.080 was a quote long engagement with a postilion, a coachman, 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:25.120 and two footmen. Some accounts suggest that several shots were 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:29.320 actually fired. Gunfire or not, everyone did walk away with 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:33.920 their lives, and William walked away uninjured. By all accounts 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:36.920 of this robbery, he found the Duchess to be stubborn 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:42.400 and defiant. She just would not part with anything. Frustrated, 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:45.640 he unleashed. According to Charles Harper in his book Half 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:49.520 Hours with the Highwaymen, quote a torrent of bad language. 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:54.480 Not only was his victim obstinate and opinionated, she was 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:59.640 also wearing face paint, and William had opinions about that. 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:03.800 Face paint was a fashion statement at this time in 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.440 England and Europe in particular among the upper classes. And 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:11.280 this kind of artificial beautification was worn by wealthy men 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:14.320 and women alike, and a lot of people criticized it. 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.520 Some found it to be a deceptive way of masking 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:22.640 one's physical imperfections. People still say that some compared upper 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:25.640 class women who had painted their faces to sex workers, 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:30.479 and conventionally it had been associated with sex workers, courtisans, 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:35.720 and actresses. That comparison was, of course, to underscore its immorality. 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:39.720 Samuel Peeps, the English author and politician known for his 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:43.760 eyewitness accounts of major events during the time, recorded in 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.000 his private diary that he'd attended a dinner party where 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:51.600 the hostess's painted face made him quote loathe her. There 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:55.520 was a growing popular discomfort with women's painted faces, and 0:11:55.600 --> 0:12:01.120 William was absolutely on team discomfort. Seeing the duchess painted face, 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.120 he yelled at her, quote, you bitch incarnate, You would 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:06.800 rather read over your face in the glass every moment 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:09.600 and blot out pale to put in red than give 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:12.480 an honest man as I am, a small matter to 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:17.240 support him on his lawful occasions on the road. Some interesting, 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:20.920 you know, relationships with the truth In that statement but 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.079 there is also some debate on how this robbery ended. 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:26.640 He may have left with three diamond rings in a 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:31.360 gold watch, but he may also have left without anything, 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:35.920 instead leaving the frustration of robbing the Duchess's carriage to 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:38.760 rob another that was making its way toward him. 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:42.480 Not long after his encounter with the Duchess, William met 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.720 Sir Thomas Day, a Justice of peace living at Bristol, 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:48.319 who was traveling on the road between Gloucester and Wister. 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:52.320 Day did not know William or how William made his living, 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:55.200 and the two started up a conversation as they rode 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:59.840 along on horseback one evening. William, though knew who Day was, 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.800 and he began to set up his mark. He began 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:06.400 by telling Day a big bowld lie of how he'd 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:09.680 recently been the target of a highwayman. But as luck 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:12.080 would have it, that day, his horse was fast enough 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:14.880 to outrun his robber. He would have lost about forty 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:19.000 pounds if he'd been caught, said Day quote. Truly that 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.760 would have been very hard. But nevertheless, as you would 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:24.720 have been robbed between Sun and Sun, the county upon 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:27.080 you suing, it would have been obliged to have made 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:31.200 your loss good again. They continued riding and chatting until 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:36.120 William spotted a convenient place to well go highwayman. He 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:39.120 shot Day's horse from under him, and, pointing a pistol 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:43.040 at his victim's chest, demanded his money and his valuables 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:47.560 thrown to the ground. Day it said, replied, quote, I thought, sir, 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:51.440 that you had been an honest man. William replied, quote, 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:55.400 you see your worship's mistaken, and had you any guts 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:57.800 in your brains, you might have perceived by my face 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.600 that my countenance was the very picture of mere necessity. Therefore, 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:05.760 deliver presently for I am in haste. William then thanked Day, 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:09.079 who was still shocked at his bad luck, and left 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:11.200 with his sixty pounds in gold and silver. 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.200 An elderly cattle farmer at Putney Heath was another of 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:20.360 William's victims. William, playing a polite and gentlemanly role, wrote 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:23.560 up to the farmer, appearing helpful. He wanted to let 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.280 the farmer know that he had seen some suspicious people 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:29.720 not far behind them, and he suspected they were highwaymen. 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:34.520 Would he William continued conceal ten guineas for him, as 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.600 they would surely be safer with him. Based on how 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:41.240 modest the farmer appeared, no one would suspect he had 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:45.520 any coin on him. The farmer accepted, and in turn 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:49.200 told William that he himself had fifty guineas bound in 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:53.800 the lappet of his shirt. Anybody else just WinCE for 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:57.040 a visual assist. A lappet is like a decorative flap 0:14:57.080 --> 0:14:59.360 on a garment, So think of something like a piece 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:02.480 of laced that's worn around a collar in this instance, 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:05.920 and it could potentially have things tucked into it. And 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:08.680 after about a mile and a half of riding together, 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:11.880 William said to the man, quote, I believe there's nobody 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:15.520 will take the pains of robbing you or me today. Therefore, 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:18.560 I think I had as good take the trouble of 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:23.000 robbing you myself. So instead of delivering your purse, pray, 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:27.239 give me the lappet of your shirt. The farmer, surprised 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:31.360 at his companion's duplicitous behavior, began begging his robber to 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.960 please just let him go, but William, in response, cut 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:37.720 off the lappet from the man's shirt and made off 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:39.640 with all sixty guineas. 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:41.480 We're going to take a break for a word from 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:44.960 our sponsors. When we return, we'll talk about William's final 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:48.480 robbery and how he ended up on trial for murder. 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:07.360 Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about what happened when 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:11.240 William came out of robber retirement for one last job. 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.720 William robbed carriages for more than forty years, and his 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:19.040 entry in the eighteen eighty five Dictionary of National Biography, 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:23.800 a reference book that includes biographies of influential or otherwise 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:28.160 significant people, notes that it was his quote charming manners 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.720 that helped him remain successful for so long. I mean, 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:34.720 maybe they saw something in him that we did not. 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:39.240 He did once retire from highway robbery work for several years, 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:43.280 but then he came back for one more job, hoping 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:45.680 to make a large sum of money quickly so he 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:49.440 could purchase land adjacent to his property. Maybe it was 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:52.520 that he had gone soft in retirement, or he'd fallen 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:56.920 out of practice, because this time he got caught, whether 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.360 he was spotted in the act or as he began 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.680 to flee, he was pursued in Salisbury Court in Fleet Street. 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:06.440 He nearly escaped, but in that escape attempt he fatally 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:10.040 shot a butcher who was among those trying to apprehend him. 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:15.280 William's criminal and agricultural careers came to a hard stop. 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:19.600 He was arrested, charged and jailed at Newgate Prison. While 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:20.560 awaiting trial. 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:24.879 William was tried for the butcher's murder, not for his 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:28.880 highway robbery crimes at the Old Bailey sessions between December 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:34.040 eleventh and December seventeenth, sixteen ninety. His secret life of crime, 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:38.000 well that was no longer a secret. Convicted, he was 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:41.960 executed by hanging on December twenty second, at age sixty four, 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:44.920 at the end of Salisbury Court where he had shot 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:48.439 the butcher, and subsequently he was hung in chains on 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:51.800 Bagshot Heath, where he had committed several of his crimes. 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:56.440 According to Bagshot historian Ken Clark quote William Davis, the 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:59.560 Highwayman was hanged and gibbeted in front of the premises 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:03.879 in six ninety The Golden Farmer. It allegedly changed to 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:07.320 the Jolly Farmer in eighteen twenty three. 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.480 As we have seen a lot this season about highway robbers, 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:15.119 fact in fiction tends to blur, and sometimes a lot. 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:18.520 Surely some of the stories attached to William are his 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:23.000 and surely some are not what's been questioned though, aren't 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:27.080 the crimes he committed, but rather his execution date, of 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:32.000 all things. Usually that record is pretty solid, but his 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:36.240 is a few centuries old, so there are questions such 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:40.000 as was there more than one person named William Davis, 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:44.560 a person whose story intertwined with our William Davis. Well, 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:50.280 that's really quite possible. Equally possible are poorly kept records. 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.960 A person identified as William Davis in old printed trials 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:59.040 at the British Museum suggests the Golden Farmer was executed 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.159 in September of s sixteen eighty five, and not as 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:06.119 a punishment for murder, rather for quote being the principal 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.080 figure in a burglary and felony committed in company with 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.800 when John Holland and Agnes Waring at the house of 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:15.960 a minister one Lionel Gatford in lime. That sounds like 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:18.119 a totally different William Davis. 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.560 Then in September of sixteen eighty nine it happens again 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:24.879 when the London Gazette published that there were Quote, in 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:30.080 custody at Newgate two persons suspected of being housebreakers and robbers, 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.880 several instruments for breaking into houses having been taken with them. 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:38.399 One calling himself William Freeman, whose right name is William Hill, 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:43.320 commonly called the Golden Farmer, an indifferent, tall black man, 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:47.080 well set with black hair, has a shaking in his head, 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:51.280 and is between fifty and sixty years of age. Again, 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:54.920 that does not sound like our William Davis. 0:19:55.720 --> 0:20:00.040 William's adventures, good or bad, fact or fiction appear we 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:03.720 heard not only in the popular publications, the Newgate Calendar 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:08.160 and the Dictionary of National Biographies, but also in broadsides, 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:11.960 chap books. And there's even a play all telling his story, 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:14.880 or you know, at least some version of his story. 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:19.399 So to really settle it all out, let's meet it, 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:22.400 the jolly Farmer. Have a drink? What do you have 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:24.040 in your hip flask? My dear? 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:27.800 I love so many things about his story. It's so evocative. 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:30.200 I actually do quite like him. I think he's interesting. 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.000 I love his double life. I love that he was 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:34.080 a legitimate farmer. 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:36.800 I love that we had stories to tell about him 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:39.439 rather than just focusing on his trial, because there were 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:41.840 records for that. Like, I really enjoyed going on his 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:45.639 terrible adventures with him. I guess you could say. 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:47.320 I like getting to say his foul language. I like 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:50.600 all of it. So I wanted to make a drink 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:58.000 called the Golden Farmer, that is golden color, that includes 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:03.919 items that refer to his life in agriculture, and also 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:07.080 because he often sidled up to people, made friends with them, 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:10.040 and then turned on them, a drink that looks like 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:14.919 one thing and tastes very much like another. So oh yeah, okay, 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:17.200 So what you're going to put into your shaking tin 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:21.399 is two ounces of apple juice, three quarters of an 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:24.359 ounce of diluted corn syrup. So that is corn syrup 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:26.280 that you would buy from the grocery store like you 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:29.440 were gonna make some confection or baked thing, but you're 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:33.280 gonna combine it with water one to one and get 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:35.359 it diluted down so it's not so thick and it 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:38.680 flows more easily in your drink. Two ounces of apple juice, 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:41.400 three quarters of an ounce of diluted corn syrup, three 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:44.680 quarters of an ounce of lemon juice, three quarters of 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:47.240 an ounce of egg white, or a single egg white 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:49.840 if you're actually separating it from the yolk from a 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:52.639 real egg rather than a pour out, and then an 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:55.360 ounce and a half of gin, and then to all 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:57.760 of this you are going to add the surprise ingredient, 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:00.679 which is just a pinch of yellow curry powder. 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:01.720 I'm intrigued. 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:04.720 Actually, I really like how this one turns out. So 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:07.800 you're gonna dry shake this, meaning without ice. You'll give 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:09.920 it a good shake that helps that egg get nice 0:22:09.920 --> 0:22:12.960 and frothy and aerated. Then you will add ice and 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:15.840 give it another shake, and then you're gonna double strain it, 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:19.200 meaning you pour it out using your hawthorn strainer, threw 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:23.280 a mesh strainer into a pre chilled glass, and on 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:26.920 top of that beautiful foamy top that you get from 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:30.520 the egg white, you're gonna sprinkle just a scant amount 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:35.840 of your yellow curry, just a little because then on presentation, 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:40.600 this drink looks like some yummy autumnal nutmeg situation. And 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:42.960 then instead when you sip it, you get not that. 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:47.240 You get like this bright, very light, not very sweet 0:22:47.280 --> 0:22:49.960 at all, drink that has a little heat at the 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:52.080 base of it, which is kind of fun. Like yellow 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:55.920 curry isn't usually as hot as other curries, and it'll 0:22:55.960 --> 0:22:58.480 depend on what kind you have on hand or you purchase, 0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:02.200 but it's fair mild compared to others, but it does 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:05.320 have a warmth to it, and so it just shifts 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:08.520 the gears on this in a way that is really fun, 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:11.680 and it turns out to be such an absolutely fun drink. 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:14.520 Telling you, if you think it sounds crazy, maybe give 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:16.439 it a try, because I'm it's quite yummy. 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:18.560 I think that there were a lot of people who 0:23:18.600 --> 0:23:21.240 thought that turmeric showing up in drinks was a little 0:23:21.240 --> 0:23:23.800 bit crazy at first, and then we all went crazy 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:26.720 for them. So maybe maybe curry is a way to 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:27.720 go here everywhere. 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:31.760 I did think about using turmeric here, and the thing is, 0:23:31.800 --> 0:23:35.600 as we've talked about before, turmeric very effective, especially in 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:40.479 color change. But it's tricky and it is really hard 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:44.920 to actually incorporate, like literally physically it gets it stays 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:47.560 kind of grainy, it doesn't break down as well as 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:49.760 other things, and so you can kind of get a 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:52.399 little bit of turmeric sludge at the bottom of your glass. Yes, 0:23:52.600 --> 0:23:54.439 sometimes it's worth it, but let me tell you, I 0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:58.960 didn't have any sludge from the curry. Beautifully sludge, no 0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:01.520 sleddge mix right in with that gin happy as a 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:05.439 little clamp. So for the mocktail version of this, you're 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:07.600 gonna make the exact same thing. You're just gonna use 0:24:07.640 --> 0:24:10.160 cama meal tea instead of gin. That will also add 0:24:10.200 --> 0:24:15.160 another layer of slightly yellowish tone to it. So yummy, 0:24:15.480 --> 0:24:20.200