Dick Turpin
Dick Turpin was an infamous English highwayman and a central figure in criminal folklore during the early 18th century. Born in Essex, he initially worked as a butcher but soon turned to a life of crime, starting with cattle theft and later joining a gang known for violent house robberies. Turpin's criminal activities escalated to highway robbery around London after a series of violent incidents led to a bounty on his head. He became notorious for his ability to evade capture, even adopting a false identity as John Palmer while continuing his illicit trade in stolen livestock.
Turpin’s downfall came when he was arrested for horse theft in Yorkshire and subsequently linked back to his true identity. He was tried and sentenced to hang in 1739. His execution marked the end of his life, but it also sparked a lasting legacy. The romanticized narrative of his exploits, particularly the legendary overnight ride from London to York on his horse, Black Bess, was popularized by novelist William Harrison Ainsworth in the 19th century. This portrayal transformed Turpin into a cultural icon, inspiring countless works that glorified his image as a daring and adventurous outlaw, which continues to resonate in popular culture today.
Subject Terms
Dick Turpin
English highwayman and cattle thief
- Born: September 1, 1705
- Birthplace: Hempstead, Essex, England
- Died: April 7, 1739
- Place of death: York, North Yorkshire, England
Major offenses: Horse stealing, housebreaking, highway robbery, and murder
Active: 1730-1738
Locale: Mostly Essex and Lincolnshire, England
Sentence: Death by hanging
Early Life
Dick Turpin (TUR-pihn) was the son of John Turpin, a farmer and keeper of The Bell Inn (now the Bluebell Inn) in Hempstead, Essex. Dick received a basic education and was apprenticed to a butcher, but throughout his youth he was known to be disorderly and violent. At some uncertain date he married Elizabeth (“Bess”) Millington and opened a butcher’s shop near Thaxted, in Epping Forest, Essex. He soon found it easier to steal cattle than acquire them legitimately and so entered a life of crime.
Criminal Career
Turpin’s early cattle thieving was apparently cut short when he was identified by a local man, and Turpin fled into the Essex countryside. He is alleged to have spent time as a smuggler along the Essex coast until caught by revenue men, but he escaped and returned to Epping. He fell in with a band of deer thieves who turned their attention to housebreaking. They were known as the Gregory Gang, after the group’s leader. The Newgate Calendar catalogs a long sequence of their crimes, which became steadily more vicious. Their method was to barge into the house, bind and gag the occupants, and ransack the place. They expected the occupants to reveal the locations of items of special value; if they did not, the gang would inflict harm. Turpin once threatened to lay an old woman across the fire.
Legal Action and Outcome
After one violent robbery in February 1735, where a maidservant was raped and the owner had near-boiling water thrown on him, a warrant was issued for the gang’s arrest, with a reward of fifty pounds, later increased to one hundred pounds. This was sufficient for most of the gang to be captured over the following few months. Only Turpin and Thomas Rowden remained at large.
During the rest of 1735, Turpin and Rowden turned to highway robbery, with known offenses in Barnes and Southwark and on roads north and south of London. During the winter of 1735 Rowden left for Gloucester, where he was eventually caught and later hanged. Turpin went into hiding, possibly in Holland, but was back operating as a highwayman in February, 1737, now in conjunction with Matthew King. The two had a hideaway in a cave in Epping Forest, near Loughton.
In April, 1737, Turpin stole a horse at gunpoint, but Richard Bayes, a local landlord who was helping the victim, learned of the horse’s whereabouts and sought to recover it. A struggle ensued in which Turpin, trying to shoot Bayes, shot his partner King instead. King died a week later, after he had revealed Turpin’s whereabouts. During that week Turpin was recognized by Thomas Morris, who sought to apprehend him, but Turpin shot and killed Morris. A reward of two hundred pounds was now placed on Turpin’s head, the warrant stating that he was “about five feet nine inches high, very much marked with the small-pox . . . and broad about the shoulders.”
Turpin fled north to Brough in Yorkshire, adopted the name John Palmer, and operated as a horse trader. Turpin crossed into Lincolnshire, where he would steal cattle and horses and then sell them. However, on October 2, 1738, Turpin made the mistake of shooting a domestic chicken, and when a witness threatened to inform, Turpin threatened to shoot him. The informant sought a warrant for John Palmer’s arrest. Taken before the justice of the peace, Turpin was unable to provide surety for good behavior and was committed to the house of corrections in Beverley.
Investigations into Palmer’s background were undertaken, and it was learned that Palmer was wanted in Lincolnshire for stealing sheep. He was moved to the prison at York Castle. From there, in February, 1739, Turpin wrote to his brother-in-law in Essex beseeching him to provide evidence of good character. His brother-in-law refused to accept the letter, and it remained at the local post office, where, remarkably, it was seen by Turpin’s old schoolmaster, who had taught him to write. He recognized the handwriting and, consulting a local magistrate, read the letter and made the connection between Palmer and Turpin.
This sealed Turpin’s fate. He was tried at York Assizes on March 22, 1739, convicted on two indictments of horse stealing, and condemned to hang.
It was only now that Turpin became the flamboyant character of legend. He acquired a new frock coat and shoes to wear for his execution and hired five men to act as mourners. He gave away his personal belongings to local people. On the day of his execution he chatted with the executioner before throwing himself off the ladder to his death by hanging.
Impact
An account of Dick Turpin’s life was recorded in the Newgate Calendar from which Turpin’s notoriety grew. However, he might have been forgotten had it not been for the writer William Harrison Ainsworth, who used Dick Turpin as a character in his novel Rookwood (1834). It was Ainsworth who made Turpin a gallant, almost heroic villain and who created the legend of Turpin’s overnight ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess. This account captured the public imagination and turned Turpin’s image into that of a romantic daredevil. The success of Rookwood gave impetus to the genre of the Newgate novel, which drew upon and often glorified villains recorded in the Newgate Calendar. These included such “penny dreadfuls” of Victorian Britain as Dick Turpin by Henry Downes Miles (1840) and Black Bess: Or, The Knight of the Road by J. F. Smith(1868), which created the romantic image that endures to this day.
Bibliography
Barlow, Derek. Dick Turpin and the Gregory Gang. London: Phillimore, 1973. A basic starting place for a detailed study of Turpin’s crimes.
Day, Julius E., and Arty Ash. Immortal Turpin. London: Staples Press, 1948. The first thorough biography with detailed sources and dispassionate analysis.
Sharpe, James. Dick Turpin. London: Profile Books, 2004. As well as examining the historical Turpin, Sharpe seeks to explore why the highwayman has been so romanticized.
Spraggs, Gillian. Outlaws and Highwaymen: The Cult of the Robber in England. London: Pimlico, 2001. This shows how Turpin was absorbed into an existing English tradition of creating robber heroes.