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"Captain" James Maclaine (occasionally "Maclean", "MacLean", or "Maclane") (1724 – 3 October 1750) was an Irish man of a respectable presbyterian family who had a brief but notorious career as a mounted highwayman in London with his accomplice William Plunkett.
James Joseph McClean (/ m ə ˈ k l eɪ n / mə-KLAYN; born 22 April 1989) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a winger for EFL League One club Wrexham. McClean played with Trojans, Institute, his hometown club Derry City, and Sunderland before moving to Wigan Athletic in August 2013.
It follows the story of Captain James Macleane (Miller) and Will Plunkett (Carlyle), two men in eighteenth century Britain who are both struggling to survive. The characters are loosely based on two genuine highwaymen of the eighteenth century, James MacLaine and William Plunkett, although the story bears little relation to their actual lives. [5]
Maclaine, James (1724–50), gentleman highwayman, was born in Co. Monaghan, second son among two sons and one daughter of the Rev. Lauchlin Maclaine, presbyterian minister, from Scotland, and Elizabeth Maclaine (née Milling). His brother, Archibald Maclaine (qv), later became a minister.
- He Turned to Crime After Falling on Hard Times in Dublin
- He Robbed Some Famous Faces in His Time
- They Became Notorious For Their Friendly Criminality
- Crime Made Him A Wealthy Man
- His Cover Was Blown by An Observant Pawnbroker
- He Was Hanged at The Same Gallows as Oliver Cromwell
- His Life Has Spawned Art, Operas and Hollywood Movies
After his minister father died, MacLaine squandered his inheritance money in Dublin on fine clothes, gambling and prostitutes. Out of pocket, he moved to London and married the daughter of an innkeeper. Things were going well until his wife died three years later and MacLaine ruined himself for a second time pursuing a new wealthy wife. Having met ...
MacLaine and Plunkett were responsible for 20 highway robberies in the six months after they took to a life of crime. Many of their robberies occurred in London’s now world-famous Hyde Park, which during the mid-18thcentury was still relatively untamed and wild. Among their victims were Horace Walpole - the famed art historian, writer and politicia...
MacLaine and Plunkett were always restrained and courteous whenever they stopped stagecoaches along the highways of London. MacLaine became so famed for his courteousness while robbing people that he earned himself the nickname the 'Gentleman Highwayman'. MacLaine even penned a letterof apology to Horace Walpole after accidentally discharging his g...
The spoils that MacLaine took from his career as a highwayman finally allowed him to engage in the high-society lifestyle he had always craved. MacLaine’s new standing made him a bit of a heartthrob with the ladies. His trial at the Old Bailey became a social occasion attracting numerous upper class women. As had always been in the case, it would b...
MacLaine was eventually arrested when he tried to pawn Lord Elgington’s coat to a sharp-eyed pawnbroker on Monmouth Street who was aware of the robbery. MacLaine was soon arrested and upon a search of his home, many of the items the men had stolen were found, among them Horace Walpole’s blunderbuss rifle. The unprecedented publicity surrounding Mac...
MacLaine, occasionally spelt Maclean or Macleane, was hanged at Tyburn gallows exactly 92 years after the death of Oliver Cromwell whose body was exhumed and then posthumously hanged at Tyburn in 1661. Maclaine's execution went ahead despite the pleas of a number of high-society personalities, as the authorities viewed setting him free as “setting ...
MacLaine is thought by some to be the inspiration for Macheath the Knife, the antihero of John Gay’s famous opera The Beggar’s Opera. A modern portrayal of his life appeared in the 1999 film Plunkett & Macleane, which starred Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, Liv Tyler and Alan Cumming. The film was something of both a critical and box office flop,...
- Irish Post
James Macleane, the gentleman highwayman at the bar. “A broadside on the trial of the robber James Maclaine; with an etching showing the interior of a court room, the judges seated on the left, Maclaine standing on the right, in the middle background a lady standing, giving evidence in his favour; and with engraved title and letterpress text ...
Description. Title and imprint from engraved text below image at top of sheet. Among Maclaine's other crimes is the robbing of the Salisbury Coach at Turnham Green on 26 June 1750, when he was disguised using a Venetian mask.
