The Strange Story of Patrick O'Bryan, of Loughrea
By
A Life of Crime
Patrick O'Bryan of Loughrea, the son of very poor parents arrived in England in the reign of Charles II., and enlisted in the Coldstream Guards. Being, however, a young man of luxurious tastes he found the pay of a guardsman totally inadequate to his needs. Obtaining substantial credit at taverns and shops and borrowing from acquaintances he succeeded in subsisting for a time. These sources of money having dried up he became a highwayman.
One of his first victims was the parson of Croydon, Dr. Clewer, who had been tried as a youth at the Old Bailey, and burnt in the hand for stealing a silver cup. O'Bryan knew the parson very well, and demanded as one rogue to another, a little assistance. The doctor assured him "that he had not so much as a single farthing." Then said O'Bryan, "I must have your gown, sir." "If you can win it," replied the doctor, "you may have it." O'Bryan agreed and Dr. Clewer produced a pack of cards. O'Bryan won the game and so gained the gown.
Once he held up an acrobat, named Clarke, on Primrose Hill, with the usual salutation of 'stand and deliver,' To his amazement and terror Clarke jumped over his head and escaped. Clarke's friends told the story in public prints, and O'Bryan vowed vengeance should he ever meet Clarke again. Fortunately for the acrobat they never did meet again.
A Narrow Escape
Deserting his regiment O'Bryan stole a horse and leaving London took to the coach roads. Holding up Nell Gwyne in her coach on the road to Winchester he received a present of ten guineas from her. He gathered a band of other highwaymen around him, but at the first hold-up his youngest recruit, Claudius Wilt, was captured and hanged at Worcester. Gradually his band was rounded up and ultimately himself. He was tried and executed at Gloucester for a robbery committed within two miles of that city. When he had hanged the usual time, his body was cut down and delivered to his friends for burial, but while being carried to a house he showed signs of life. A surgeon was sent for, who bled him, and O'Bryan recovered. The surgeon under dire threats was compelled to keep his recovery secret. The highwayman promised to live a new and better life which he did while his money lasted.
His Downfall
Through his funds becoming exhausted he again stole a horse and took to the road. Shortly after he met the lawyer who had convicted him and Captain Charles Johnson records in his General History of the Lives and Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen, Murders, etc., that O'Bryan greeted him: "lest you should be so uncivil as to hang my ghost too, I think my best way is to secure you." He shot the lawyer through the head and cut up the body.
Assisted by four followers O'Bryan broke into the house of a Lancelot Wilmot of Wiltshire where they gagged the three servants, murdered the owner of the house, his wife and daughter, carried off everything valuable to the amount of two thousand five hundred pounds and set fire to the building and all who were in it.
O'Bryan was not arrested until two years later and would probably never have been suspected had not one of his men confessed while on the gallows for a murder at Bedford. Committed to Newgate, he was transferred to the assizes at Salisbury, where he admitted his crimes. He was for a second time executed and on this occasion great care was taken to do it effectively. His body was hung in chains near the house where he had murdered the Wilmots and their servants. O'Bryan was thirty-one years old at the time of his execution, which took place on Tuesday, 30th April, 1689.