Victorian Crime. The Sunderland Highwayman

Robert Drummond was born in 1680 to a wealthy and titled Scottish family. Following some trouble as a young man he was forced to leave his home town of Perth and eventually he made his way to Sunderland and made his home in the East End. He started up a shop selling knives, combs, razors and jewellery, within a few years Drummond's business was doing well and he always had plenty of money for drink.

His favourite pub was on the edge of the Town Moor overlooking the sea, it was owned by a woman nick - named Lady Lowther. The pub was popular because of a ravine which extended from the pub to the water's edge, and was a popular route for smugglers. The pub was also a notorious drinking den for local scoundrels of the worst type. Drummond kept a mistress at Ryhope who stayed in a huge building called Three Bears Head, later to be known as Ryhope Hall. It was noticed that Drummond had plenty of money still, even though his business was falling apart.

A number of burglaries worried the people of Sunderland, but the stagecoach hold ups by a masked man on horseback with a pistol, was the man to blame. Having been seen leaving his lodgings late at night and not returning until sunrise, raised local lawmen's suspicions and they began to watch Drummonds movements.

Although they could not connect him to the stagecoach hold ups, he was caught breaking into a house nearby his lodgings. He was arrested and charged, he was found guilty and transported to the plantations of North America where he would be worked for life. Drummond however decided otherwise, after a few months he had broken free of his chains and was on a ship back to England.

Once he reached London he became a ruthless highwayman, prepared to shoot if in danger. He soon teamed up with another rouge, Ferdinando Shrimpton, and his cousin together they carried out more raids on stagecoaches. One night on Hounslow Heath the driver of a coach refused to stop for the gang, so Drummond caught up and shot him through the head. It only took days to find the gang, and Shrimpton's cousin turned King's evidence linking the gang to dozens of robberies as well as the murder on Hounslow Heath. On 17th February 1730 at Tyburn the Sunderland highwayman and Shrimpton went to the gallows showing no signs of remorse. Back in Sunderland soon after Drummond's death, the lawmen cleared out the criminals from Lady Lowther's pub which then closed. A few years later the derelict pub eroded by storms crumbled and with it a piece of Sunderland's history fell into the water.

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