Born in the Essex village of Hempstead in September , he grew up in a relatively well-to-do household and received a modest education from the village Schoolmaster, James Smith. At the age of sixteen, he was apprenticed to a butcher in Whitechapel, then a pleasant village on the outskirts of London, where he spent five years learning his trade before setting up in business for himself at Waltham Abbey. When business was slow, he attempted to supplement his income by cattle stealing, was detected and, to avoid capture, fled into the wilds of rural Essex, where he earned a living from robbing the smugglers on the East Anglia Coast, sometimes posing as a Revenue Officer - an ingenuity that was appreciated by neither the smugglers nor the Customs Officers, and he was soon forced to flee again, this time to Epping Forest.
Here, he joined forces with a gang of poachers and with them graduated from smuggling venison into London beneath wagonloads of vegetables, to burgling houses on the north-eastern outskirts of London. Known as the "Gregory Gang", their methods were singularly ruthless and, on one occasion, Turpin is said to have held the landlady of an inn over her fire until she revealed the whereabouts of her savings. But, with an ever expanding list of charges against them, the gang found rewards of anything between fifty and a hundred pounds upon their heads and, when three of them were caught and hanged, the others decided to disperse.
One day, in February , on the London to Cambridge Road, he spotted a well-dressed individual, riding a fine horse, and duly attempted to rob him. His demand to, "stand and deliver", was, however, met with raucous laughter. Turpin had inadvertently challenged Tom King, known as the "Gentleman Highwayman" due to his liking for expensive clothes and fine horses. His image in contemporary terms was rarely glamourised: he was once depicted in a woodcut throwing an old lady onto a fire.
His first murder was of a man named Tom Morris, a servant who recognised him as a robber. Matters stepped up a gear in terms of his infamy and sheer brutality when he joined Tom King, another highway robber; but it seems that Turpin killed his accomplice during a botched robbery. He then fled north. After that, he began to make a living from horse-stealing, and to do this, he stole horses in South Lincolnshire and took them up the Great North Road to sell in East Yorkshire. It was when the Yorkshire connection occurred that he assumed the name of John Palmer.
John Palmer was charged for shooting a chicken in the street and threatening to shoot its owner as well. Turpin was feared and reviled while he was alive. The only mourners at his execution on 7 April were paid ten shillings each by Turpin.
The myth of highwayman Dick Turpin outlives the facts. Nearly everything we know about him — or think we know about him — is false. Navigation menu Personal tools Log in. Namespaces Page Talk. Views Read View source View history. This page was last changed on 2 September , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use Privacy Policy.
It's been said that Turpin would live with his parents in a small cottage locally along Fen Lane just outside of Fenny Drayton. Black Bess, Turpin's horse would be kept in a clearing in nearby Lindley Wood. When pursuers came in the area to capture Turpin, he would ride from his parents' cottage and use The Cock Inn as a hideaway. He would hide in the bar chimney and Black Bess would be stabled in the Inn's cellar to also avoid being seen.
Turpin was popular with the local villagers as he would buy alcohol for them in exchange for their silence, he was known to enjoy a flagon of ale while at the Inn. Stretton Baskerville had a reputation for being used for shelter by those who had been made homeless or unemployed who had been roaming the country seeking work and outlaws would often use the deserted village as a hiding place.
During the s a report in the newspapers was made from a spate of eyewitness accounts, of the ghost of Turpin wearing a black tricorn hat, and a coat with red sleeves. He was riding a phantom horse along Watling Street not far from the deserted medieval village of Stretton Baskerville in the parish of Hinckley, Leicestershire.
According to local legend, the ghost of Turpin may have been lured over hidden treasure; gold is reputed to have been buried were the medieval village once stood, and possibly by the highwayman himself.
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