The son of a saddler, James Hind was born in Chipping-Norton in Oxfordshire. His father an honest church going man gave him the best education he could and sent him to school until he was fifteen. On completion of his education James was apprenticed to a butcher in the town, and lasted two year in that position before he ran away.
With a few pound he managed to get from his mother he made his way to London, where met up and joined forces with Thomas Allen a well known highwayman. However, before he was allowed join Allen and his gang, he was set a test. That of going to Shooters Hill and holding up the first traveller he met. The gang secretly followed Hind, and watched from a nearby thicket to see how he got on. Hind passed the test and took fifteen pounds from the traveller and then to Allen’s and his companions surprise gave the traveller a coin back as the man was destitute. Some of the others were not impressed, but Allen liked the gesture and welcomed Hind into the gang.
When the English Civil War broke out, Hind, like many highwaymen enlisted in the Royalist Army where he was soon commissioned. Unfortunately the Parliamentarians took the country, King Charles was executed and Captain Hind had no choice but to go back on the road. With the Royalist cause lost, the Captain decided to wage his own private war on the Roundheads, and straight away nearly lost his life.
Along with Allen and a few of the old gang, he decided the hold up Oliver Cromwell on the road from Huntington but there were more guards than they expected and they were outnumbered. In the fight that ensued Allen was captured and hanged soon afterward, Hind managed to escape but rode his horse to death in doing so.
After lying low for a while, Captain Hind was soon back and up to his old tricks, and waylaid Hugh Peters a celebrated roundhead preacher taking from him thirty pieces of gold, and as an afterthought, his cloak and jacket.
One time while Hind going about his business on the road between Sherborne and Shaftsbury in Dorset he came across none other than the roundhead Sergeant Bradshaw. Bradshaw was one of the Parliamentarians who had sat in judgement and pronounce sentence of death on the king. It was an opportunity too good to miss and he was delighted to take forty shilling in silver and a purse full of Jacobuses (22carat gold coins bearing the head of James I). However, because the Sergeant had held back on the gold, Captain Hind, after treating him to sermon on greed, shot all six of his horses, leaving Bradshaw stranded.
With his Royalist leanings Captain Hind was one of those that flocked to the banner of Charles II when he marched from Scotland to confront the Roundheads. The two armies met at Worcester and after a bloody battle the Royalist’s were defeated. Hind escaped back to London and going under the name of Brown took lodgings with a Mr Denzle in Fleet Street.
Hind was wanted by those in authority, not only for highway robbery, but also for his support of the Royalist cause and there were those in government that would see him hang either way. When a close acquaintance gave the Captain up, he was arrested and charged with various robberies but when no witnesses would testify against him there was no case for hanging. However, they bundled him into a coach and transferred him to Reading in Berkshire where he was arraigned before a judge for the killing of a George Symson. The case against him was proven but before his captors could have him executed, Oliver Cromwell issued and amnesty for all offences except treason.
Captain Hind’s hopes of beating the hangman were dashed however, when he was transferred to Worcester prison.
In September 1652 he was found guilty of high treason and later in the month was hung, drawn and quartered. (The condemned man was hanged for a few minutes, taken down and while still alive, he was castrated, had his intestines drawn and burnt while he watched. He was then beheaded, his body cut into quarters and displayed in separate public places).
Captain Hind’s head was displayed on the Bridge Gate over the River Seven but within a week was spirited away to be buried in private. His body quarters were hung on the other gates of the city and left there until they eventually turned to dust.
With his Royalist leanings Captain Hind was one of those that flocked to the banner of Charles II when he marched from Scotland to confront the Roundheads. The two armies met at Worcester and after a bloody battle the Royalist’s were defeated. Hind escaped back to London and going under the name of Brown took lodgings with a Mr Denzle in Fleet Street.