Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
If you've been following our new season so far, you've heard about lady and gentlemen robbers, but not all highwaymen and women were cavalier or polished. The tale of the Dunston Brothers. Thomas, Richard and Henry. Yes, that is a real life Tom, Dick and Harry are the highwaymen we'll.
Talk about in this episode.
They plundered the carriages and sometimes the homes of those living near the border of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire counties in the late seventeen hundreds. Let's tell their story and their legend. Hint, HiT's a pretty big legend. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremarchi and.
I'm Holly Frye. The Dunstan brothers grew up in the small village of Fulbrook, which is only about a mile from the town of Burford, a popular town in the Oxfordshire cottswe and a town that plays a part in the brother's criminal career. Dick, born in seventeen forty five, was the eldest brother, and from about the age of sixteen give or take, he had already taken to crime, and he was frequently fined for assault and sometimes disorderly conduct.
Tom the middle brother, was punished on and off for crimes of violence, according to court records. In seventeen seventy nine, when he would have been about the age of twenty five, he was charged with deer hunting that was considered illegal poaching. At the time. The practice was limited to the aristocracy, and under the seventeen seventy two Black Act, only authorized hunters were allowed the privilege. Poaching, it was feared, would disrupt trade and threaten the power of landowners. Tom was
actually really lucky he wasn't executed for that act. And then there was Harry, the youngest brother, who doesn't appear to get into trouble until seventeen eighty one, at least nothing on record, and that is pretty much all we know about their childhood and the beginning of their rap sheet. Though historians wonder what was the motivation for their life of crime. Some have speculated it was perhaps because of an injustice against their father, Richard Senior, but that is
just speculation. It's not at all proven.
The brothers used a cottage in the Burford area as their home base from which to commit numerous crimes, and they especially took to highway robbery. At first, they preyed on farmers, taking their stock and money as they traveled to market, and then they hid the stolen goods in the nearby Witchwood Forest. They then expanded their lawlessness to hijacking carriages such as stage coaches to steal from passengers inside. They found that the forest was a perfect place to
hide themselves and their loot. After they stopped carriages on the highway by yelling your money or your life, they robbed the pass at gunpoint. Highway robbery was not the trio's only illicit vocation. They also engaged in various other crimes, including burglary and theft, mayhem and brawling, and sometimes murder.
When it came to highway robbery, the brothers worked the main road linking Gloucester and Oxford. They knew it well because they had grown up in the area, and they had specifically chosen their home base near the border of the two counties in which the towns were located. It said they once robbed the Oxford to Gloucester coach, though some report that it was actually the Oxford to Gloucester
male coach, which would have potentially carried more loot. Regardless, they left that robbery with five hundred pounds worth of stolen money in goods now. Historical conversion of currency is never perfect, and we don't do it a whole lot, but it's worth estimating here because this was a big heist. In twenty twenty five five, the equivalent in purchasing power to that five hundred pounds ranged from sixty six thousand
pounds to about one hundred thousand pounds. That's a pretty big estimated range, but the value of their loot is known to have been quite significant in that incident, and this was the heist that truly solidified their highwaymen prowess and their legend.
We're going to take a break for a word from our sponsors, and when we're back we'll talk about Dick's arm and also the end of the Berford Highwaymen.
Welcome back to Criminalia. Their crimes as highwaymen made the Brothers legendary. We'll talk about the one Tom, Dick and Harry are best remembered for committing, and it had nothing to do with highway robbery.
Others were known to terrorize the locals of West Oxfordshire and they openly defied the law, and there was law when it came to highway robbery activities. Highway robbery was not a new crime in the eighteenth century, but with the development of roads and vehicles such as stagecoaches, as well as handguns that were easy to use, such as the flintlock pistol, it was becoming a common crime. Authorities were worried about these activities because they considered them a
threat to the privileged and wealthy landowners. So a law called Crimes against the Person and Property, which may as well have been called crimes committed by highwaymen, was put into effect from seventeen hundred until about nineteen hundred, and it covered crimes such as murder, petty theft, poaching, smuggling, and highway robbery. As of seventeen seventy two, anyone found armed and disguised on a carriageway or other main road was to be executed.
The Dunstan Brothers exploits as highwaymen made them legend, but as we know, legends can get a bit sloppy because of the exaggeration that typically comes along with it. At the very least, we know that the Dunstan Brothers did exist. They were not a combination of highwaymen told as the tale of one thief, as often happens in legendary stories
that change through the centuries. Historians have been able to connect them to the descendants of quote two generations of Maltsters from the village of Fulbrook, and a few accounts claim that the brothers were quote young gentry related to Fulbrook manor young gentry who then turned to a life of crime. Historical newspapers can help with details of a crime that happened long before us too, and in this
case there are pamphlets that have survived the years. An unsurprising spoiler alert, those pamphlets contain an account of the day that brothers were executed.
By now, the three brothers had picked up the nickname the Burford Highwaymen, perhaps one of the most unverifiable, yet a solid part of their legend tells the story of a man named Samson Pratley who challenged one of the brothers to a fight at probably the coaching inn called the Burden Hand at CAP's Lodge. But as an aside, don't mistake that for the present day Burdenhand at white Oak Green, they aren't the same. This fight was actually more of a wager really, at least it started that way.
What it became was.
A contest to see who was the strongest, and for their prize, the winner would get no not ale or money, they'd get a sack of potatoes. It was Sampson who won those potatoes, fair and square, though he never did get his prize because, after all, it turned out Tom, Dick and Harry were the kind of guys who were going to take that prize regardless of who won.
But it's likely the brothers are best remembered for a non highwayman crime that almost certainly led to Dick's death. Authorities had their suspicions that the brothers planned to rob Tangley Hall, a sixteenth century manor located on a moated site in Surrey, but they didn't have tangible evidence of any such plan. But the authorities were right. The brothers were planning to rob Tangley Hall, but they had made
a mistake. While they were plotting this crime, they had been overheard talking about the plan while drinking at the Bird in Hand. According to British folklorist and author Catherine Briggs in the book Folklore of the Cotswolds, the Dunstans had been quote drunkenly boasting of their crime, saying that no one would take them. Someone pretty likely someone in the pub that night, tipped off the authorities.
The brothers, totally unaware their premeditated robbery had been spoiled, arrived at the manor as they first had to pry open the Judas hole. A judas hole is basically a security feature. It could be a one way peep hole, or a relatively small to medium opening, or a one way window and a door. Think of it as a door viewer, used to allow the occupants inside to spy on any visitors outside without those visitors knowing they can
be seen. Door holes vary quite a bit. For instance, the size and shape of the Judas hole the Dunstans wanted to break into is lost to history. If they brought along tools, for instance, there's no record. The shape of the hole can be really pretty much whatever you want it to be, with some exception. Some are super tiny, like a hotel peep hole, while others are more like a window and sometimes the larger holes have some latticework obscuring it.
These holes are still used.
Today, and one example you'll find them often in prisons, where guards can discreetly watch over prisoners through a secret opening in the door of a prison cell. So sort of like an eighteenth century version of today's video doorbells, I mean kind of.
Tom Dick and Harry needed to get through the doorhole to break into the house, and that meant force and maybe a little widening, but that's just our own speculation, not knowing what this particular Judas hole was built to look like. For the brothers, the plan was for Dick to reach his arm through that opened hole and then unlock the bolt from the inside so that the brothers
could walk right in. But two unfortunate things happened to Dick. Firstly, a local constable named mister Secker from Widford was waiting on the other side of the door with the butler. The constable was holding a rope that he planned to use to apprehend the brothers. And then secondly, Dick got his arm stuck, but not really of his own ineptitude. This second unfortunate thing was a direct result of the
first unfortunate thing. He did get his arm through the hole, but before he could unlock the door, the constable slipped his rope over Dick's now inside the manor hand, and then tied him to the inner door handle.
As most of us surely would, he called for help from his brothers, and even the people inside the manor heard him a voice shouting quote cut cut. They also recalled hearing the sound of a sword hitting the door, which was followed by screams. And that was Dick who yelled and screamed because instead of cutting the problematic rope that bound his wrist, Tom and Harry cut off Dick's arm, leaving without the severed arm tied to the door or continuing to try to get the money and jewels from
the intended robbery. Tom and Harry were somehow able to put Dick on a horse. They rode away, and rumors claimed that they left trail of blood behind. No one saw Dick again. One person on his way to work that night described two figures varying a third in a shallow grave at a nearby quarry, but he seems to have been the only one to report it. Dick's death is generally considered to have been from complications related to
his injury. So the two remaining brothers, while they just carried on with their business.
We're going to take a break here for a word from our sponsors, and when we return we will talk about the events leading up to Tom and Harry's execution.
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about the day Tom and Harry were arrested, and also let's talk about a little bit of speculation.
By seventeen eighty four, what could have been a day of fun at the Burford Whitsuntide Festival was not just for contextual assign Whitson is the name many European churches use for Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter, commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles. In Christian belief systems, whitson Tide is the week that starts with the Sunday of whitsun So this was a springtime event. The Dunstan brothers had said were particularly unruly that afternoon
and likely inebriated during their attendance. Following the fair, the men went drinking at the Bird in Hand. It was close to the fairground, but it also just seems to have been their favorite watering hole. And then things got worse.
When barkeep slash landlord William Harding teased that he could take Tom and Harry in a fight and jokingly played at arresting them. The brothers didn't get the joke, and in his anger about that, Harry fired his gun at William. According to most accounts reported of this event, the bullet hit a coin Harding's waistcoat pocket and ricocheted away, which
saved his life. Before the Dunstan brothers could get away or order another drink, they were overpowered by fellow customers who'd witnessed the fight, and there the brothers were arrested. Though they had more on their crime resume than highway robbery, they were tried and sentenced as highwaymen, which meant death
by hanging. They were executed at Gloucester in July of seventeen eighty four, and William, for his part, he became something of a local celebrity as the guy who brought the Dunstan brothers to justice.
Though we know through court records that they were charged and tried as highwaymen, not for murder. The Leeds Intelligencer and Yorkshire General Advertiser reported on the execution a little differently, and this is a great example of a story that runs differently from the majority of others that we found in research, suggesting that they were successful in their murder of the innkeep and that they were tried for that crime. Quote. On Friday Sennight, Thomas and Henry Dunstan were executed at
Gloucester for the murder of Henry Harding. The morning of their execution, they appeared very penitent. Henry was particularly free in acknowledging that a life so ill spent as his could not expect an exit no less miserable. He seemed a good deal affected that his body was to be hanged in chains so near his father's house. He endeavored to exculpate his brother as having been free from those villainies which had marked his own conduct, and endeavored to
keep up his brother's spirit to the last. The brother was lame of one leg, and when they were tying up, he exhorted him to be of good cheer. Come, Tom, said he you have but one leg, but you have but a very little time to stand.
After their execution, Tom's and Harry's bodies were taken to their home near Oxfordshire and hung in gibbets. Common at the time, gibbeting was the use of a gallows type structure, so envision a post with a prominent arm from which bodies were hanged on public display, and that was often to deter others from a life of crime.
And did it work not?
Especially highwaymen were practicing their art until at least the mid eighteen hundreds.
In the finale to their story, there is an interesting bit of speculation, and who doesn't like a little speculation from time to time. Suppose there was another Dunsden brother named Charles. I certainly read that Richard Senior had more kids than this, so it's possible he did.
Yeah, there were two that were older than Robert and they had passed away.
Yeah, he had a bunch like.
Yeah, this is a real rumor, but to be clear, that does not mean it is a fact. Unlike his brothers, though, Charles was law abiding and a religious person with a wife and family. The Dunstan brother's grandfather, John Dunstan, had connections to the church in Fulbrook and was a well regarded member of the community. So, according to the rumor following the trial and execution of Tom and Harry, Dick's
arm was returned to the family. It said that Charles, if Charles existed, was probably the one to receive the lost limb. Other reports suggest that authorities retained the severed arm as evidence that it was pickled for two weeks in a solution of quote Saltpeter long peppers and salt. When the arm was dry, it was kept safe, allegedly somewhere.
As for Tom, Dick and Harry, they actually gained notoriety after their deaths. Mostly rumor and exaggeration of real events did the trick, but it took nearly one hundred years after their deaths for them to become the famous and notorious highwaymen that we still talk about today.
All right, Maria, would you like a little slug of something from my hip flask? I?
Would you? Sharon?
I am. I'm gonna share some history, some drink history here. So there was a book. There were many books, but in seventeen fifty there was a book written that was popular in England called English Housewiffery, and it had many recipes in it, including recipes for one of the few sort of mixed drinks you would get in the day, which was punch. Oh yeah, punch was super popular. And this particular cookbook, book of Tricks for the Home, includes a recipe for milk punch, which sounds vile, but I'm
going to read it. This reads simply, the opening ingredient is going to make you your stomach lurch a little, So get ready to make milk punch. Take two quarts of old milk, the old yeah, a quart of good brandy, the juice of six lemons or oranges, whether you please, and about six ounces of loaf sugar. Mix them all together and drop them through a jelly bag. Take off the peel of two of the lemons or oranges and put it into your bag. When it is runoff, bobblet t. We'll keep as long as you please.
God bet it will.
That sounds horrifying.
Is old milk the same thing as buttermilk?
I don't know, curdled.
I'm sure it's curdle and sour.
I don't know.
Just the idea of take two quarts of old milk.
Yeah, I don't need any more detail, I guess.
I don't know why I ask hard pass.
There is a milk punch another way right after it. That's much simpler. This includes that that use of a word that comes up when you look at old cookbooks, which can be spelled with a J or a G. You'll see it as jills or gills, depending on how you like to pronounce it. That means like, I think it's like a four ounce measure.
Mm hmm.
Don't take my word for it. I didn't look it up, but I know I have looked it up in the past, and I think it's a four ounce measure. Take three jills of water, a jill of old milk, and a gill of brandy. Sweeten it to your taste. You must not put any acid into this, for it will make it curdle. This one isn't. And to be clear, I
do want to say about the milk punch. They're straining it, so it's kind of like the way you would make a clarified milk punch today, where you do let milk sit in a thing and it kind of all the fats come to the top and you pull that off and you strain it and you get you do get a drink that will stay for a very long time, like indefinitely, and it has a very silky mouthfeel. It's
very smooth. This one that that another way version, they're simplified version doesn't include that straining step, which is why they don't have you add any of.
The lemon and orange.
Yeah, then they have punch another way, and this one involves no dairy, so everybody can breathe a sigh of relief. This is really the inspiration for today's drink, which is take five pints of boiling water and one quart of brandy, add to it the juice of four lemons or oranges, and about six ounces of loaf sugar. When you have mixed it together, strain it through a half sieve or cloth, and put into your bowl the peel of a lemon
or orange. So I don't want to do all that, but I do want to make a yummy cocktail that's inspired by it. So you're gonna hear a lot of ingredients that are very similar and in terms of measures, this also borrows a little similar DNA, but it's changed up a bit from like a Collin's recipe, because you know, you can have a Tom Collins or a John Collin,
or maybe Collins. So this one starts with two ounces of brandy, you could also use cognac if you want to have your fancy brandy involved an ounce of orange liqueur, and this is poorer's choice. So whether you have like a curasow or triple sac either as fine a half
ounce of lemon juice. And the reason we're not using much is because we are using a citrus liqueur an ounce of simple syrup, and then you're gonna shake that with ice, strain it and pour over fresh ice, and then top it with one to two ounces of club soda, depending on how much you like to dilute it out. Now, once you have your club soda, and take a peek at your glass because you want to add to your glass at this point more ice to its almost to the rim. Because the last thing we're gonna do, and
this is what gives this drink its name. And I'm sorry it's a little but I couldn't resist. So you filled your drink, which is fine, but I would say kind of a dull. It's not that exciting as a drink. At this point, you are gonna fill it to the rim with ice, and then you're gonna pour over it slowly a half ounce to three quarters of an ounce of ruby port. And it looks kind of like there's blood dripping into your drink because this is called Dick's arm.
Oh could not.
I know it's grizzly, but it's just such a weird turn of events.
I know he's a criminal, but I mean, poor poor Dick.
Poor Dick. Oh man. I seriously wonder if his brothers misunderstood his directive or if they were like, there's no way this is gonna work unless we chop his arm off. Like, I don't know what happened there.
I feel like it's the second.
I feel like he's yelling cut and they're like, cut, just did not go for the rope.
Now, I will say the mocktail for this. It's a little sweeter, but it's very delicious. Here you go. You're gonna start. You're not gonna use all this. You can make several drinks with six ounces of a low sugar white grape juice, and you're gonna let that steep with a little earl gray tea for I don't know, twenty thirty minutes. It doesn't have to be warm. You can
cold steep it. Just give it a shake now and again, this is gonna be your replacement for brandy, and it the tea gives it a much fuller body and a little bit of a bass note, and it's actually quite nice just to drink on its own. So you're gonna take two ounces of the resulting concoction, one ounce of orange syrup, one half ounce of lemon juice, one ounce of simple syrup. You're gonna do the same thing, shake
and strain that and pour it over ice. Do your club soda on top, same thing with filling your glass up with as much ice as it will hold. And then you're gonna put a half ounce to three quarters from now of pomegranate juice on top of that. This drink is good. This mocktail is really good. Like the original drink is fine, but this mocktail turned out like, oh, this is really the star of the show. So that
is that is Dick's arm and mocktail form. Hopefully you don't think I'm too much of a ghoule, but I just as a detail.
It was so detailed.
You don't You don't get an accidental dismemberment by your brothers very often.
No, In fact, this is the first story I've ever heard about.
So I couldn't help but fixate on it. Uh. So that is our our drink for Tom, Dick and Harry. And uh you know, I myself wonder if Anybody's ever gone to try to find Dick's grave and see if he in fact has no arm.
Well, I do know that allegedly there is still evidence of a bullet hole in the wall, but I have no I have no source for like primary source for. I have no way of really knowing. But it was Sarah.
The detail was not included. But wouldn't it be cool? It doesn't, It doesn't.
Change the murder versus uh not murder.
But we hope you have enjoyed this wild story and that this drink is delicious if and hopefully doesn't horrify you. We will be right back here again next week with another story of a highwayman or woman and a drink and a mocktail to go with it. Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.