Jerry Abershawe

Louis Jeremiah Abershawe (1773 – 3 August 1795), better known as Jerry Abershawe, or Abershaw, was a notorious English highwayman who terrorised travellers, mostly along the road between Kingston upon Thames and London, in the late eighteenth century.

Biography

Born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, Abershawe started his life of crime at the age of seventeen,Newgate Calendar Jerry Avershaw
leading a gang of robbers based at the ''Bald-Faced Stag Inn'' at Putney Vale, on the road between Kingston and London. (Accessed 19 July 2021) (Note:'' Putney Vale'' was then ''Putney Bottom''). When in hiding he frequented a house in Clerkenwell, near Saffron Hill, known as the "Old House in West Street", which was noted for its dark closets, trap-doors and sliding panels, and had often formed the asylum of wanted criminals, including Jonathan Wild and Jack Sheppard.

All efforts to bring Abershawe to justice for a time proved futile, but in January 1795 he shot dead one of the constables sent to arrest him in Southwark, and attempted to shoot another. He was eventually arrested in London at a public house, The Three Brewers, in Southwark. For his crimes he was brought to trial at the Surrey assizes in July of the same year. Although a legal flaw in the indictment invalidated the case of murder against him, he was convicted and sentenced to death on the second charge of felonious shooting.

On Monday, 3 August 1795, Abershawe was hanged on Kennington Common; his body was afterwards set on a gallows (gibbeted) at Putney Vale — the last hanged highwayman's body to be so displayed.Chambers Biographical Dictionary, , page 5

The coolness with which Abershawe met his death prolonged his notoriety, and his name was commonly used as a synonym for a daring thief in the early years of the nineteenth century. He received his sentence with extraordinary sangfroid, putting on his own hat at the same moment as the judge assumed the black cap, and "observing him with contemptuous looks" while pronouncing judgment. The few days that intervened between his conviction and execution he spent in sketching with cherries on the walls of his cell scenes from his daring exploits on the road. While being driven to the gallows he "appeared entirely unconcerned, had a flower in his mouth... and he kept up an incessant conversation with the persons who rode beside the cart, frequently laughing and nodding to others of his acquaintances whom he perceived in the crowd, which was immense", according to an article in the ''Oracle and Public Advertiser''. In a pamphlet on his career, entitled ''Hardened Villany Displayed'', which was published soon after his death, he is described as "a good-looking young man, only 22 years of age".

Abershawe was sometimes known as "The Laughing Highwayman" (ref: "Weird Croydon"):
:"Although Abershawe was far removed from the romantic image of the lovable rogue, he possessed a healthy sense of humour, often incorporating his ironic wit into his robberies. An extract from the history book ''Local Highwaymen'' reads: 'Abershaw's humour seemed to be at its best when his personal fortunes were at their worst, for instance, at the time of his trial and eventual hanging a classic example of gallows humour.'

Anecdotes of Abershawe credit him with the rude generosity commonly ascribed to men of his vocation. On one November night, it is said, after several hours spent upon the road, he was taken ill at the ''Bald-Faced Stag'', and a doctor was sent for from Kingston. Abershawe entreated the doctor, who was in ignorance of his patient's name, to travel back under the protection of one of his own men, but the gentleman refused, declaring that he feared no one, even should he meet with Abershawe himself. The story was frequently repeated by the highwayman, as a testimony to the eminence he had gained in his profession.

In popular culture

*Abershawe appears in ''The Romany Rye'' by George Borrow, alongside others such as "Galloping Dick" Ferguson.
*In the novel ''Jacob Faithful'' by Frederick Marryat, Jacob and another boy get lost on Wimbledon Common and see the hanging skeleton of Jerry Abershawe. He is a character (as Jerry Abershaw) in "The Red House" in ''Six Ghost Stories'' by Sir Thomas Graham Jackson.

References

;Attribution
*

Further reading

*''Discovering Highwaymen'' (1994), Russell Ash.

External links

Account of life of Lewis Jeremiah Avershaw
The Newgate Calendar

Hartshorn's Highwayman
Ash Museum

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abershawe, Jerry
1773 births
1795 deaths
English highwaymen
People from Kingston upon Thames
Executed people from London
People executed for robbery
People executed by England and Wales by hanging