The True Story Behind the Legend That Was Dick Turpin
Turpin stocked his butcher's shop with stolen cattle
This is the story of a famous highwayman Richard Turpin more famously known as Dick Turpin
Dick was born in 1705 in Thackstead Essex, at the ‘Blue Bell Inn’ later to be known as ‘The Rose and Crown’ he was the son of a farmer and occasional Innkeeper of the ‘Rose and Crown Inn’ John Turpin’
When he was old enough he opened a butcher's shop stocked with sheep, lamb, and cattle he stole from the surrounding countryside, not quite the legitimate way of stocking up your shop, but he got away with it for a while.
He was eventually caught in the act of helping himself to two oxen but escaped into the countryside that he knew so very well.
So bang went his butchers shop, with the thought of "You win some you loose some" he next tried his hand at smuggling but this venture proved just as much a failure as his rustling, (This guy really ought to get a proper job) by this time if you ask most people about Dick, he was thought of as the romantic loan masked highwayman who would hold up the stagecoaches, robbing the occupants and kissing the women, but in fact it was a member a gang for most of his criminal career
Dick had joined the Gregory Gang this was later to be known as The Essex Gang, roaming the countryside and robbing farmhouses, the gang would often torture and terrorize the occupants.
The unfounded romantic side of Turpin
A good example of how wrong the romantic side of Turpin was when he and the gang heard of a lonely widow woman in Loughton Essex who was rumoured to have stashed away the princely sum of £700 refused to say where it was, he and the gang held her to an open fire until screaming she revealed her hiding place, robbing isolated farmhouses proved to be profitable and became the gang's speciality.
It was only towards the end of Turpin’s criminal career that he concentrated on highway robbery, before then he and the Essex gang were responsible for many of the robberies in the surrounding counties using torture as the main method of intimidation to persuade victims to part with their money.
The London Evening Post would regularly feature accounts of Dick Turpin and the Essex gang and in 1735 The King offered a reward of £50 for the capture dead or alive for any of the gang members.
Black Bess and the 200-mile ride from London to York
Soon some gang members were captured but each time Dick Turpin managed to escape and continued his exploits, which by now included murder, a story of Turpin riding 200 miles on his horse ‘Black Bess’ from London to York was romanticized by the Victorian novelist William Harrison almost 100 years after Turpin’s death.
More gang members were arrested in 1735 and little is seen of him for a period between 1735 and 1737 he was then seen with two other men and began his robbing once more, attempting to escape yet another trap, Turpin shot and killed one of his fellow members some say it was an accident other say he shot him to divert his would-be captors.
Discovered by a letter he wrote to his Brother-in-law
Under the assumed name of John Palmer Dick Turpin was arrested and imprisoned in York Castle, he was tried for horse theft and his true identity was reviled by a letter he wrote to his brother-in-law On 22 March 1739 Dick Turpin was found guilty and was sentenced to death; he was executed aged 34 on 7 April 1739
The legend of Dick Turpin was very much romanticized in ballads and later in the 18th and 19th century as the dashing young masked highwayman who all the women loved to be robbed by, was very far from the truth indeed.
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