An increasing gap between the rich and poor led to an increase in crime, with highway robberies occurring on many roads leading to larger cities. Whilst highway robbery has been romanticised as the poor stealing from the rich, they were often opportunistic hunters targeting anyone who appeared vulnerable.

Thame, a market town which attracted people for trade, and without a formal police force, was an area where highway robbers operated.

In Huntingdon in 1740, a “highwayman” called Dobinson was arrested with four others, for robbing ‘John Bletsoe on the Highway, near Stilton, of upwards of twenty pounds’. The Gloucester Journal (27 January 1740) added:

‘Dobinson, upon examination, was found to be a woman who dressed in men’s clothes, and says she formerly lived at Thame in Oxfordshire.’