Highwayman Outwitted, The [Laws L2]

DESCRIPTION: A highwayman stops a merchant's daughter. When she dismounts, her horse runs home with her money. He abuses her and strips her, then has her hold his horse as he bundles up his gains. She jumps on the horse and rides home, still naked but with his money
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.18(142))
KEYWORDS: outlaw escape clothes
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws L2, "The Highwayman Outwitted"
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 133-136, "The Maid of Rygate" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 448, "Highwayman" (1 text)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 16-17, "The Merchant's Daughter and the Highwayman" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 12, "The Rich Farmer's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 21, "The Highway Robber" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 226-228, "The Rich Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 2 tunes)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 89, "The Highwayman Outwitted" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 40-41, "The Highwayman Outwitted" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 682, HIOUTWIT
ST LL02 (Full)
Roud #2638
RECORDINGS:
Mike Kent, "The Rich Merchant's Daughter" (on PeacockCDROM)
Wiggy Smith, "There Was a Rich Farmer at Sheffield" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(142), "The Highwayman Outwitted by the Farmer's Daughter," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 11(92), Firth c.17(17), "The Lincolnshire Farmer's Daughter"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Crafty Farmer" [Child 283; Laws L1]
NOTES [144 words]: It's just possible that this has a real-life origin, though I doubt it: David Brandon, in Stand and Deliver! A History of Highway Robbery, pp. 29-31, reports that one Isaac Atkinson held up a young woman, who -- apparently thinking he wanted something harder to recover than her money -- threw a bag of coins in the ditch. Atkinson, instead of either pursuing his seduction or doing anything to control the girl, simply jumped off his horse to pick up the coins.
The girl then flew away on her horse, and by chance his horse followed. She was able to report where she had left him, and he was taken and hanged.
Brandon, however, cites no sources; I almost wonder if his tale wasn't based on this song, or perhaps on something like "The Crafty Farmer" and/or "Lovely Joan."
For a bit more on Atkinson, see the notes to "The Crafty Farmer" [Child 283; Laws L1]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LL02

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THE HIGHWAYMAN OUTWITTED (DT Lyrics)

In Lincolnshire lived a rich farmer,
And his daughter to market would go;
Thinking that no body would harm her,
As she rode away to and fro.

Till she met with a lusty highwayman,
Her pockets he drew from her sides;
And as she stood shivering and shaking,
He gave her the bridle to hold.

From stirrip to saddle she mounted,
She threw her legs over like a man;
All the way that she gallop'd, she shouted
Now catch me you rogue, if you can.

This highwayman soon followed after,
A bullet from his pistol let fly;
He ran, but he could not come at her,
His boots they so hampered his knees.

As she rode over her father's green pasters,
It had just struck a eleven by the clock;
Her father was sorely afrighted, to see
Her ride home in her smock.

O daughter what has been the matter, you
Have tarried so long from your home?
O father I have been sorely afrighted,
But still I have come to no harm.

Then he pulled from behind her, a
Port mantell with several articals more;
And ninety score of bright guineas,
He tumbled them out on the floor.

O father this is a grand portion,
It will keep the wild wolf from the door;
O daughter it is a grand portion,
Unto thee I will give as much more.

Then here is a health to the lass,
That the risk of her life she has run;
She tricked the highwayman compIetely
Out of his horse, money and gun.

DT #682
Laws L2
@outlaw @trick
Reprinted from a broadside by Harkness in the Houghton Library
at Harvard University in Laws American Balladry From British
Broadsides.
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