{{short description|18th-century American outlaw}}{{Infobox person | name = James Fitzpatrick | other_names = Sandy Flash | birth_date = {{birth-date|1748}} | birth_place = [[Doe Run, Pennsylvania]], [[Colonial America]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1778|09|26|1748}} | death_place = [[Chester, Pennsylvania]], [[United States]] | death_cause = [[Execution by hanging]] | occupation = [[Highwayman]] | years_active = 1777–1778 }}
'''James Fitzpatrick''' (1748 – September 26, 1778), also known as '''Sandy Flash''', was an American [[highwayman]] who operated in [[Chester County, Pennsylvania|Chester]] and [[Delaware County, Pennsylvania|Delaware]] counties west of [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], during the [[American Revolutionary War]]. A [[Continental Army]] deserter, Fitzpatrick defected to the [[Loyalism|Loyalist]] side and entered folklore as a swashbuckling [[Robin Hood]] figure. He was popularized as a character named Sandy Flash in [[Bayard Taylor]]’s novel ''The Story of Kennett'', published in 1866.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Dixon |first=Mark E. |date=2008-07-10 |title=Standing on Sandy's Shoulders: When James Fitzpatrick was hanged, did officials enjoy it a bit too much? |url=https://mainlinetoday.com/life-style/frontline-retrospect-8/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726130806/https://mainlinetoday.com/life-style/frontline-retrospect-8/ |archive-date=2022-07-26 |access-date=2022-07-26 |website=Main Line Today |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Warden |first=Rosemary S. |date=1995 |title="The Infamous Fitch": The Tory Bandit, James Fitzpatrick of Chester County |url=https://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/view/25246 |journal=Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies |language=en |pages=376–387 |issn=2153-2109}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Moss |first=James |date=1978 |title=Gentlemen of the Road: Outlaw-Heroes of Early Pennsylvania in Life & Legend |url=https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1076&context=pafolklifemag |journal=Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=2–19}}</ref>
==Early life== Fitzpatrick was born in 1748 in the village of [[Doe Run Village Historic District|Doe Run]] in [[West Marlborough Township, Pennsylvania|West Marlborough Township]], [[Chester County, Pennsylvania|Chester County]], [[Pennsylvania]], the son of a working-class [[Scotch-Irish Americans|Scots-Irish]] immigrant. In his youth, he completed an apprenticeship with a local blacksmith, John Passmore, and then worked as a journeyman blacksmith and farmhand.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Handsome and sandy-haired, Fitzpatrick stood 6 feet 4 inches in height. He excelled at wrestling, running, and other sports. After spotting Fitzpatrick riding home one morning after a dance, a farmer was said to have exclaimed, "He went by like a sandy flash." While most such stories are apocryphal or embellished, they reflect Fitzpatrick's romanticized image.<ref name=":1" />
== Military service == Upon the outbreak of the [[American Revolutionary War]] in 1775, Fitzpatrick volunteered for the Continental Army and went to Long Island with the Pennsylvania militia in the summer of 1776. Flogged as punishment for some minor infraction, Fitzpatrick deserted, swimming across the [[Hudson River]] at night and making his way home. He was arrested in Philadelphia and released from prison on condition that he rejoin the army, whereupon he promptly deserted a second time. In September 1777, [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot]] militia from [[Wilmington, Delaware|Wilmington]], [[Delaware]], attempted to arrest him at the farm where he worked, but Fitzpatrick threatened them with a rifle, forcing them to flee empty-handed.<ref name=":0" />
When British General Sir [[William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe|William Howe]] invaded Chester County in September 1777, Fitzpatrick joined the British army, guided troop movements, and fought at the [[Battle of Brandywine]]. He roamed Chester County and Delaware County (which was part of Chester County until 1789), accosting and robbing [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Whig]] militia officers and tax collectors and working as a British scout. Although he claimed the title of captain, there is no evidence that he ever held a British military commission or commanded troops. Notably, many Chester County residents sympathized with the Loyalist cause, while others, including the [[Quakers]] who made up 40 percent of the population, remained neutral.<ref name=":0" />
== Outlaw activities == After the British withdrew from Philadelphia in June 1778, Fitzpatrick remained behind. He continued to harass the Continental Army and its supporters in the area, waging a personal vendetta against Whigs. On occasion he rode with the [[Doan Outlaws]] of [[Bucks County, Pennsylvania|Bucks County]] and partnered with fellow outlaw and boyhood friend Mordecai Dougherty.<ref name=":1" />
Fitzpatrick became notorious for bravado. After robbing two tax collectors, he stripped them, tied them to trees, and flogged them. On another occasion, he captured a militia officer who prided himself on his long hair. After stealing his officer's weapons, Fitzpatrick cut off the man's handsome [[Queue (hairstyle)|queue]] as an added indignity. He once strolled openly into a [[Kennett Square, Pennsylvania|Kennett Square]] tavern crowded with Whigs, who stood bragging what they would do to Fitzpatrick once they caught him. The outlaw ordered a drink before he was recognized, whereupon he drew a pistol and backed out, covering himself with a pistol before disappearing into the woods. On yet another occasion, Fitzpatrick attended a public meeting unarmed and in disguise, afterward capturing a boastful young militia officer after fooling him into thinking that an iron candlestick was a blunderbuss.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" />
Despite his campaign of harassment and intimidation, Fitzpatrick was never accused of murdering or seriously wounding anyone. Like [[Robin Hood]], he cultivated a reputation for gallantry and was reported to have given gifts to the poor and to have never stolen from the poor or mistreated a woman.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Green |first=Jennifer L. |url=https://www.darkhistorypa.com/ |title=Dark History of Penn's Woods: Murder, Madness, and Misadventure in Southeastern Pennsylvania |publisher=Brookline Books |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-955041-00-3 |location=Havertown, PA |pages=92–121 |language=English |oclc=1275391575}}</ref>
== Capture and death == On August 23, 1778, Fitzpatrick entered the [[Edgmont Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania|Edgmont]] home of Robert McAfee, a militia captain, to rob him. McAfee and a servant girl, Rachel Walker, subdued the outlaw after a struggle. The [[Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania]] split the £1000 bounty between them. On September 15, Fitzpatrick was convicted of burglary and highway robbery, crimes to which he confessed, and was sentenced to be hanged. He attempted to escape from prison three times but failed.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" />
Fitzpatrick was [[Hanging|hanged]] on September 26 in a botched public execution. The rope used to hang him was too long, such that when he dropped from the gallows, his toes touched the ground. The hangman actually climbed onto Fitzpatrick's shoulders to force him down, strangling him to death.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Young |first=Henry J. |date=1966 |title=Treason and Its Punishment in Revolutionary Pennsylvania |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20089931 |journal=The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography |volume=90 |issue=3 |pages=287–313 |jstor=20089931 |issn=0031-4587}}</ref>
Fitzpatrick's confederate, Mordecai Dougherty, was never captured and is thought to have fled to Canada. Tory sympathizers burned the haystacks and maimed the horses of his captor, Captain McAfee, who received £200 in compensation from the revolutionary government in 1783.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />
==Legacy==
Fitzpatrick was popularized in two novels, Bayard Taylor’s ''The Story of Kennett'' (1866) and Clifton Lisle's ''Sandy Flash: The Highwayman of Castle Rock'' (1922).<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=Bayard |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000927176 |title=The Story of Kennett |date=1866 |publisher=G. P. Putnam's sons |location=New York}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Lisle |first=Clifton |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007665103 |title=Sandy Flash, the Highwayman of Castle Rock |date=1922 |publisher=Harcourt, Brace and company |location=New York}}</ref> These novels originated the epithet "Sandy Flash," by which Fitzpatrick has entered local folklore. Two Chester County roads have been named Sandy Flash Drive after Fitzpatrick, including the main road within [[Ridley Creek State Park]], named in 1972, and another road located in a private housing estate in [[Kennett Square, Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gambardello |first=Joseph A. |date=2020-01-08 |title=Some Streets in the Philly Suburbs Are Named After a Revolutionary War Traitor |language=en |website=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]] |url=https://www.inquirer.com/history/sandy-flash-james-fitzpatrick-revolutionary-war-pennsylvania-history-20200108.html |access-date=2022-07-26}}</ref>
According to local legend, Fitzpatrick buried treasure ("enough to buy Chester County many times over") in a cave in the vicinity of Castle Rock, a rocky hill in the eastern part of [[Edgmont Township, Pennsylvania]], near [[Crum Creek]]. No treasure was ever found.<ref name=":1" />
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flash, Sandy}} [[Category:1748 births]] [[Category:1778 deaths|Fitzpatrick, James ("Sandy Flash")]] [[Category:People of Pennsylvania in the American Revolution|Fitzpatrick, James ("Sandy Flash")]] [[Category:History of Philadelphia]] [[Category:American highwaymen|Fitzpatrick, James ("Sandy Flash")]] [[Category:American people convicted of burglary]] [[Category:American people executed for robbery]] [[Category:Criminals from Philadelphia]] [[Category:Executed people from Pennsylvania]] [[Category:People executed by Pennsylvania by hanging]] [[Category:People executed for burglary]] [[Category:18th-century executions by the United States]] [[Category:18th-century American criminals]] [[Category:18th-century executions of American people]] [[Category:People from Chester County, Pennsylvania]] [[Category:Loyalists in the American Revolution from Pennsylvania]]