Gamaliel ratsey biography

Gamaliel Ratsey (died 1605) was an English highwayman of the early 17th century.
By Stephen Basdeo.
Gamaliel Ratsey was the son of Richard Ratsey, a well to do gentleman of Market Deeping in Lincolnshire.

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On this day the notorious highwayman Gamaliel Ratsey was hanged.

He was born in Market Deeping, the son of wealthy Richard Ratsey. Unfortunately as a young boy he went off the straight and narrow. In 1600 he enlisted in the army which accompanied Sir Charles Blount to Ireland but his time fighting did not cure him of his wicked ways. On his return to England in 1603 he robbed the landlady of an inn at Spalding. He was caught but escaped from prison, stealing a horse. He entered into partnership with two well known thieves named George Snell and Henry Shorthose and went on to commit many acts of highway robbery in Northamptonshire (which at the time included Peterborough).

Ratsey’s exploits were notorious but were also characterised by humour, generosity to the poor and daring. On one occasion, near to Peterborough, he robbed two rich wool merchants then ‘knighted’ them as Sir Walter Woolsack and Sir Samuel Sheepskin. On another, whilst robbing a Cambridge scholar he extorted a learned oration from him. He usually wore a hideous mask leading him to

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Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ratsey, Gamaliel

RATSEY, GAMALIEL (d. 1605), highwayman, son of Richard Ratsey, a well-to-do inhabitant of Market Deeping, Lincolnshire, took to evil courses as a boy, and in 1600 enlisted in the army which accompanied Sir Charles Blount (afterwards Earl of Devonshire) to Ireland. On returning to England about 1603, Ratsey robbed of 40l. the landlady of an inn at Spalding, but, when arrested, he escaped from prison, and, stealing a horse of a serving-man on the road, entered into partnership in Northamptonshire with two reckless thieves named respectively Snell and Shorthose. Ratsey's exploits on the highway, which were thenceforth notorious, were equally characterised by daring and rough humour. He usually wore a mask in which the features were made hideously repulsive. Gabriel Harvey referred to him as Gamaliel Hobgoblin. Ben Jonson wrote in his ‘Alchemist’ (i. 1) of a ‘face cut … worse than Gamaliel Ratsey's.’ In ‘Hey for Honesty’ (1651), assigned to Thomas Randolph, an ugly woman is similarly described (Randolph, Works

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Gamaliel Ratsey

English highwayman (died 1605)

Gamaliel Ratsey (died 1605) was an English highwayman of the early 17th century.

Life

He was the son of Richard Ratsey, a well-to-do inhabitant of Market Deeping, Lincolnshire who "took to evil courses as a boy". In 1600 he enlisted in the army which accompanied Sir Charles Blount (afterwards Earl of Devonshire) to Ireland where the Earl of Essex as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was attempting to put down a rebellion. On returning to England about 1603, Ratsey robbed the landlady of an inn at Spalding of £40, and, when arrested, he escaped from prison and stealing a horse from a serving-man on the road. Later he entered into partnership in Northamptonshire with two reckless thieves named respectively George Snell and Henry Shorthose. Ratsey's exploits on the highway, which were thenceforth notorious, were equally characterised by daring and rough humour.^[3] On one occasion he robbed two wool merchants and knighted them by the roadside as Sir Walter Woolsack and Sir Samuel Sheepskin. He usually wore a mask in wh