"On Monday morning last, about half past four o'clock, a most daring robbery was committed in the lane leading from the London Road to Pin Pound Turnpike Gate, about three miles from this city, on a young man named John Symons, a butcher of Topsham.
"He was going to fetch some sheep for his master, when he was attacked by two tall men, one of them armed with a pistol, the other with a sabre: on his endeavouring to get off, one of them made a cut at him, which penetrated through his thick great coat, breeches, and made a slight wound in his thigh; the other villain then knocked him off his horse, when they picked his pocket of upwards of twenty-six pounds in cash and bank notes. -
"Handbills have been published, offering a reward of ten guineas for the apprehending either of the above villains; - one of them is described to have a dark complexion, dark curled hair and both wore waggoner's frocks and round hats."
This is an all too typical account of a Devonshire highway robbery. (The Exeter Flying Post, 20th March, 1800) The victims seem mostly to have been farmers or their servants riding to market or on business and the highwaymen mostly to have been armed footpads, rather than Dick Turpins high to horse. There was, of course, no other way to do business than by carrying cash or unsecured bank notes.
John Symons from Topsham did not get much farther than Pinhoe before, in daylight, he was slashed in the thigh and knocked off his horse.
The footpads were wearing smock-frocks. This was not much of a clue. Waggoners they might have been but most Devon farm labourers wore similar 'frocks'.
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