Dick Turpin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Dick Turpin |
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Turpin imagined in William Harrison Ainsworth's novel Rookwood
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| Born | Richard Turpin 21 September 1705 (baptised) Hempstead, Essex, England |
| Died | 7 April 1739 (aged 33) Knavesmire, York, England |
| Cause | Execution by hanging |
| Alias(es) | John Palmer |
| Charge(s) | Horse theft |
| Conviction(s) | Guilty |
| Penalty | Death |
| Occupation |
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| Spouse | Elizabeth Millington |
| Children | 1 (uncertain) |
Richard Turpin (bapt. 21 September 1705 – 7 April 1739) was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher early in his life but, by the early 1730s, he had joined a gang of deer thieves and, later, became a poacher, burglar, horse thief and killer. He is also known for a fictional 200-mile (320 km) overnight ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess, a story that was made famous by the Victorian novelist William Harrison Ainsworth almost 100 years after Turpin's death.
Richard (Dick) Turpin was born at the Blue Bell Inn (later the Rose and Crown) in Hempstead, Essex, the fifth of six children to John Turpin and Mary Elizabeth Parmenter. He was baptised on 21 September 1705, in the same parish where his parents had been married more than ten years earlier.
Contents
Biography
Turpin's father was a butcher and innkeeper. Several stories suggest that Dick Turpin may have followed his father into these trades; one hints that, as a teenager, he was apprenticed to a butcher in the village of Whitechapel, while another proposes that he ran his own butcher's shop in Thaxted. Testimony from his trial in 1739 suggests that he had a rudimentary education and, although no records survive of the date of the union, that in about 1725 he married Elizabeth Millington. Following his apprenticeship they moved north to Buckhurst Hill, Essex, where Turpin opened a butcher's shop.
Turpin most likely became involved with the Essex gang of deer thieves in the early 1730s. The Essex gang (sometimes called the Gregory Gang), which included Samuel Gregory, his brothers Jeremiah and Jasper, Joseph Rose, Mary Brazier (the gang's fence), John Jones, Thomas Rowden and a young John Wheeler, needed contacts to help them to dispose of the deer. Turpin, a young butcher who traded in the area, almost certainly became involved with their activities. By 1733 the changing fortunes of the gang may have prompted him to leave the butchery trade, and he became the landlord of a public house, most likely the Rose and Crown at Clay Hill. Although there is no evidence to suggest that Turpin was directly involved in the thefts, by summer 1734 he was a close associate of the gang, which may indicate that he had been known to them for some time.
Turpin's involvement in the crime with which he is most closely associated—highway robbery—followed the arrest of the other members of his gang in 1735. He then disappeared from public view towards the end of that year, only to resurface in 1737 with two new accomplices, one of whom Turpin may have accidentally shot and killed. Turpin fled from the scene and shortly afterwards killed a man who attempted his capture.
Later that year, he moved to Yorkshire and assumed the alias of John Palmer. While he was staying at an inn, local magistrates became suspicious of "Palmer" and made enquiries as to how he funded his lifestyle. Suspected of being a horse thief, "Palmer" was imprisoned in York Castle, to be tried at the next assizes. Turpin's true identity was revealed by a letter he wrote to his brother-in-law from his prison cell, which fell into the hands of the authorities. On 22 March 1739, Turpin was found guilty on two charges of horse theft and sentenced to death; he was hanged at Knavesmire on 7 April 1739.
Turpin became the subject of legend after his execution, romanticised as dashing and heroic in English ballads and popular theatre of the 18th and 19th centuries and in film and television of the 20th century.
Legacy
Stories about Turpin continued to be published well into the 20th century, and the legend was also transferred to the stage and film.
In 1845 the playwright George Dibdin Pitt recreated the most notable "facts" of Turpin's life, and in 1846 Marie Tussaud added a wax sculpture of Turpin to her collection at Madame Tussauds. Astley's Amphitheatre put on a hippodrama of Dick Turpin's Ride to York.
In 1906 actor Fred Ginnett wrote and starred in the film Dick Turpin's Last Ride to York. Dick Turpin's Ride to York is a 1922 British historical silent film drama directed by Maurice Elvey, the first feature-length film of the story. It was for many years assumed by film historians to be completely lost, but two reels were rediscovered in 2003. Other silent versions appeared for the silver screen, and some adaptations even moulded Turpin into a figure styled on Robin Hood. Sid James appeared as Turpin in the 1974 Carry On film Carry On Dick, and LWT cast Richard O'Sullivan as Turpin in their eponymous series Dick Turpin (1979–1982). Noel Fielding will star as Turpin in a planned television series for Apple TV+.
There is a street in Feltham, near Hatton Cross tube station on the edge of London's Heathrow Airport, named Dick Turpin Way, owing to the belief that Turpin lurked in nearby Hounslow Heath.
Images for kids
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A 19th-century illustration of the raid at Loughton, as seen in the Newgate Calendar
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Epping Forest was a regular haunt of the Essex Gang.
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William Powell Frith's 1860 painting of Claude Duval, a French highwayman in England, depicts a romanticised image of highway robbery.
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Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, pressed hard to have Turpin tried in London.
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Lobby poster to Dick Turpin, a 1925 American silent film starring cowboy great Tom Mix produced by Fox Film Corporation.
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See also
In Spanish: Dick Turpin para niños
