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about

Swift Nick
Real name John William Nevison
Born at Pomfrit, Yorkshire around 1639-40, executed at York castle May 1684

At 4am on a summer's morning in 1676, he robbed a traveller at Gad's Hill in Kent near Rochester. In order to seek an alibi, he decided to ride to York, a journey of well over two hundred miles, thereby placing himself well out of the threat of any suspicion.

He rode through Chelmsford, Cambridge and Huntingdon, picked up the Great North Road and rode on to York where he met the mayor playing bowls. So that the mayor would remember him, he placed a bet on the game. At his trial, the mayor was called and Nevison escaped justice on the basis that he was in York on the day specified and could not have been in Rochester. (Incidentally, this escapade is wrongly credited to a fellow highwayman Dick Turpin who appeared on the scene in 1705.)

He was also committed to Leicester gaol for a series of robberies and this time he escaped justice by feigning the plague. An artist and a doctor attended him and the artist painted the tell-tale signs of the plague upon his person. The doctor then anaesthetised him for a couple of hours and the gaoler, fearing contagion, released him for burial and he escaped. Nevison was popular with Charles II but it is alleged that he knew of some secret that would have questioned Charles II's legitimacy to the throne of England. He therefore fell from grace and was executed in York castle in May 1684 hoping to the very end that the King would intervene and pardon him.

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from Legends of Leicester and Leicestershire, released August 12, 2019

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Steve Cartwright Leicester, UK

I am a singer/songwriter (of considerable repute), a poet and an artist and I’ve been around for centuries. I write great songs and you’ll find they span a variety of styles and cover a very wide range of topics. My poems (like my songs) are designed to inform and challenge and to make you laugh and cry. ... more

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