William Plunkett (highwayman)

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This article is about a British highwayman. For the American politician, see William C. Plunkett.

William Plunkett was a highwayman and accomplice of the famed "Gentleman Highwayman," James MacLaine.

Plunkett lived during the mid-eighteenth century in London, on Jermyn Street, and was said to have been an apothecary who was also presumed to be a gentleman. With stolen pistols and horses, and their faces hidden by Venetian masks, Plunkett and MacLaine had a short but highly successful career as outlaws. While MacLaine was eventually hanged for his exploits, Plunkett escaped with both his illicit gains and his life.

In 1857, G.H. Hollister claimed that the Colonel William Plunket who led attacks of the Northumberland Militia upon Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in 1775 was the same person as MacLaine's former accomplice.^[1] Hollister says that Plunket acknowledged he had been the associate of Maclaine. Hollister also claims that persons in America who had known Plunkett in England had recognised him. Plunketts Creek in Lycoming County bears his namesake.