Richard (Dick) Turpin was a notorious English highwayman. He was born in 1706 at Hempstead, Essex and died in 1739 when he was hanged at York. The son of the landlord of the Bell Inn, he started his career as a butcher's apprentice before becoming an associate of Tom King, whom he accidentally shot. A smuggler, cattle-thief, housebreaker, highwayman and horse-thief, he was finally caught and executed for the murder of an Epping keeper.
As a young man, Dick Turpin was reputedly allowed more money than he needed, and developed extravagant tastes, and was it was said of him that he 'cut a dash round the town among the blades of the road and turf, whose company he affected to keep.' His family thought that marriage would settle the roguish Dick, and he was betrothed to a Miss Palmer whom he married. However, Miss Palmer was of a similar nefarious nature and remained a loyal and faithful partner to Dick throughout his subsequent criminal life.
As a child, Dick Turpin had taught himself poaching, and later he joined a gang of small-time villains who showed him the profit to be made from stealing the occasional sheep. Leaving them, Dick Turpin started stealing deer from Epping Forest, which he sold to contacts in London he had made while training as a butcher. Suspicions of his activities abound, but it was not until he stole a local cow and sold its beef locally did he have to leave home and went to Plaistow where he stole two cows, butchered them and sold the beef locally, only to be discovered by the investigations of two farm workers who had been charged with looking after the cattle he stole.
Pursued by Bow Street Runners, Dick Turpin left for Essex where he noticed furtive figures both solitary and gangs roaming the roads at dusk. Enquiries revealed these figures were smugglers, and Dick Turpin took to confronting them at night and demanding money in the name of the king.
Becoming lonely he joined a gang of deer-stealers until they attracted too much attention, at which point he left the gang and became a house-breaker before joining Gregory's gang and within a few weeks leading the gang. While leading the Gregory gang Dick Turpin realised that it was in his own interests to be lenient with his victims, and courted public sympathy by insisting the gang were never unruly or ill treated their robbery victims.
Dick Turpin's demise was ridiculous. While in Yorkshire under an assumed name, that of Palmer, he worked as a legitimate horse dealer until one day while returning from a shooting party he deliberately shot a cockerel. The event was witnessed by a friend of the cock's owner who upon asking the reason for the killing was jokingly offered to be shot also by Dick Turpin. A warrant was subsequently issued and while in custody his true identity was recognised and he was tried, and condemned to be hanged for horse stealing. Research Dick Turpin
Abbreviations
People
Research Dick Turpin