14 “Swift Nick” Nevison: The Highwayman who escaped jail by Faking the Plague.
William “Swift Nick” Nevison earned the name ‘Swift Nick” after making a 200-mile dash from Kent to York in record time so he could establish an alibi for a robbery he had committed. In 1661, after robbing a wealthy grazier of a small fortune, he retired from the road and returned to his home in Pomfret, Yorkshire to make up with his father. However, after the old man died and the money ran out, Swift Nick returned to his old ways- until he was captured during a robbery in Leicestershire and sentenced to hang.
Nevison was kept chained under close guard at Leicester jail. He suddenly fell ill, and his friends summoned a doctor who diagnosed a ‘pestilential fever”. Nevison moved to a private cell and jailers gave him a wide birth, while the doctor was left to nurse him back to health for the gallows. However, Nevison grew worse and died- and the jailers were only too happy to let the doctor take the body, which was covered with plague sores. However, not long afterward, Swift Nick was back on the road. Some initially believed him to be a ghost- until they realized Swift Nick’s illness had been nothing more than a cunning plan to escape.