Aberrant Robber

Travel in 1680’s England was fraught with peril and to hear the words ‘stand and deliver’ would petrify you, knowing you were about to be robbed by a highwayman or Tamar Ellerby, the twenty-one year old daughter of a vicar, who took up her pistols and became the ‘Aberrant Robber’. Mixing with the landed gentry, Tamar falls in love with a Lord’s son but almost dies having an abortion after her lover proves unfaithful. Gambling is ruining Cornelius Clarkson, the son of a Yorkshire squire and the able lieutenant of John Bannister, the main handler of stolen goods in the North of England. Clarkson becomes greedier and starts to keep stolen goods for himself with the result that Bannister arranges for his arrest and subsequent hanging. Clarkson manages to escape, meeting Tamar during a robbery, deciding he can use her to ruin Bannister. Tamar never trusts Clarkson and discovering Bannister’s hidden stash, finds herself the ‘heiress’ of the men’s wealth in a sudden twist of fate, outwitting the authorities in the process. ‘Aberrant Robber’ portrays the lives of people in 1680’s England where life was cheap, poverty was widespread and a life of crime appealed to many. ‘Aberrant Robber’ depicts the real villainy, the real harshness and the real corruption of the times.