13. Joan Philips: The Female Half of a Seventeenth Century “Bonnie and Clyde”
Joan Philips was the daughter of a respectable Northamptonshire farmer, who could have had any man she pleased. However, Joan rejected them all in favor of petty thief Edward Bracey. Bracey had initially been after Joan’s dowry and planned to abandon her once he got hold of the cash. However, he soon discovered that Joan was more than his match. The couple robbed Joan‘s father and made off with the loot for their happily ever after a life of crime. They never married but lived and worked together, robbing on the highway until they brought an inn in Bristol with their ill-gotten gains.
After a year, the Braceys were back robbing the highway. In 1685, their luck finally ran out. Joan was captured during the robbery of a stagecoach, and shortly afterward, William died of a pistol shot while resisting arrest. Joan meanwhile was tried at Nottingham and sentenced to hang. Legend says Joan Philips met her end down Wilford Lane, close to the place she fell. However, it could be this seventeenth century ‘Bonnie‘ may not have existed at all. For historians can find little evidence of Joan Philips the highway woman and certainly no mention of her hanging down Wilford Lane or anywhere else.