'Bold Nevison'

Did you ever hear told of that hero,
Bold Nevison it was his name,
And he rode about like a brave hero,
And by that he gained a great fame,

Now when I rode on the highway,
I always had money in store.
And whatever I took from the rich
Why I freely gave it to the poor.

I have never robbed no man of tuppence
And I've never done murder nor killed.
Though guilty I've been all my lifetime
So gentlemen do as you please.

Though the subject of frequently issued prose chapbooks and broadsides, there do not appear to be many versions of this song of William Nevison, one of the most colourful highwaymen of the seventeenth century. He became notorious during Charles II's reign and tradition has it that Charles named him 'Swift Nick' - a name he well deserved for it was Nevison, not Turpin, who made the famous ride to York, to supply himself satisfactorily with an alibi for a robbery that he had committed in London the same day that witnesses had seen him upon the Bowling-green of York. He was convicted and hung for another offence on May 4th, 1685. This version of the ballad was sung by Joseph Taylor and recorded on a wax cylinder for Percy Grainger in 1908