Dick Turpin highwayman, 'your money or your life'

Person

Dick Turpin highwayman, 'your money or your life'

Dick Turpin was a notorious English 17th and 18th century highwayman - a robber who stole from travellers. Highway robbery was very prevalent in a period of around 75 years from the Great Restoration in 1660.

An absence of effective policing, and the relative lack of protection for targets (such as stagecoach passengers), enabled these often violent forms of stealing.

Turpin lived from 1705 until 1739, and during this time undertook a varied criminal career. It began with his involvement with an Essex gang of deer thieves in the early 1730's. Deer poaching had been a problem in the Royal Forest of Waltham. The Essex gang used accomplices to dispose of stolen deer and Turpin - a London butcher by trade - was almost certainly a player in their activity. This marked the start of criminal activity that would include a series of violent raids and robberies.

Several members of the Essex gang were executed in 1735 - with Turpin named in an indictment for burglary - and the authorities were able to close down the group.

Turpin then turned to highway robbery, and quickly had a £100 bounty on his head. Despite this, he continued, robbing five people from a coach on Barnes Common, others travelling between Putney and Kingston Hill, and a lone individual on Hounslow Heath.

Turpin shot and killed a man who had attempted to capture him, and fled to Yorkshire. He gave his name as John Palmer, and stole horses, which he sold in Brough market. He was placed in Beverley House of Correction after unwisely attracting the attention of the authorities by shooting his landlord's cockerel.

After being moved to York Castle, Turpin (still not exposed for his true identity) wrote to his brother to ask for help. But because his brother would not pay the sixpence due on the letter, it was returned to the local post office – where Turpin’s old schoolmaster recognised his handwriting. His identity was thus revealed and he was sentenced to death and was executed in York in April 1739 , becoming a legend thereafter.

His story became linked in print with a legendary ride from London to York to establish an alibi, a tale previously attributed to the highwayman William Nevison. Turpin is also mythologised for stabling a famous steeple-chaser horse he stole at the Red Lion Inn at Whitechapel. Named "White Stocking", due to its distinctive feet, it was an act of gross stupidity because the horse was instantly recognisable and was indeed spotted at the Inn, forcing Turpin to flee from London.

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