Dick Turpin the Noted Highwayman

this episode is going to explore and then analyze the life of Britain's most famous Highwayman Dick Turpin so turpin's real name was in fact Richard Turpin he went by dick for short he lived between 1705 and 1739 and as we shall see Dick Turpin was not the dashing and sophisticated Rogue of popular fiction he was born in East Ham Essex east of London and as a young boy he was given a fairly good education his tutor Mr Smith taught him to read and write he also completed an apprenticeship as a butcher in White Chapel London before returning home where he got married and began his own business in the trade however not all was well in the butcher trade there had once been an exclusive butcher Guild stretching back as far as 1375 in turpin's time however due to an emerging free market the trade was complet completely unregulated in other words anyone who could get hold of meat could set up shop and sell it as a result the meat trade became a saturated Market which drove prices down many butchers ended up having to supplement their income through nefarious means in order to make ends meat no pun intended for Turpin he resorted to stealing local livestock he would cut them up and sell them in his shop as his own one night however he was seen by two servants stealing two oxin from their Master's stock of course they reported this to the owner and Mr Giles of playto who in turn reported it to the local Justice of the Peace a warrant was then issued and some law enforcers were sent to turpin's house to arrest him however Turpin escaped through one of the back windows after spotting them as they approached his home Dick Turpin must have understood that his reputation was now in ruin he was an outlaw so he began a career as a full-time criminal he began as a Smuggler for a short time however he soon fell in with a gang known as the Gregory gang named after its lead member the gang is also sometimes referred to as the Essex gang because they operated in the county of Essex the members of the gang included Samuel Gregory Dick Turpin John Fielder Joseph Rose Humphrey Walker William busp and John Wheeler it's worth noting that the names of the gang members differ from source to Source however these names the once listed in a pamphlet written by Richard baze called the genuine history of the life of Richard Turpin the noted Highwayman published in 1739 the year of turpin's death this Source provides the majority of what we know about Dick Turpin and is the primary source for this episode The Gregory gang were a known gang of DD dealers who operated in and around the Essex Forest common lands had previously been available to poorer classes to farm and use however during turpin's time the wealthy had began to purchase these lands and close them off to the public this as well as existing game laws had caused much resentment among many who had once depended on these lands as a result poaching became Rife and gangs of deer Steelers red the countryside the problem became so common that in 1723 the black Act was passed into law which allowed the death penalty as punishment for the crime therefore Dick Turpin and his gang were playing a dangerous game however by the time Turpin joined the gang had Diversified in their illegal activities they became a gang of armed robbers not on the highways but in the homes of their victims the properties they chose to Target were in the countryside and isolated as these homes were so remote the gang could hold the residence there at gunpoint without interruption they would then use intimidation violence and torture to find out where the money and valubles were hidden within the property as well as the threat of firearms the gang was also reported to beat their victims forc them to sit on fire threaten them with knives pull boiling water on them and during one robbery one poor maid was even raped by a gang member convincing people of their savings the gang often got away with a small fortune I'd say it's a good bet that they were also Big Spenders because they continued to commit these robberies however the violence they committed made the gang notorious and as a result the reward for their capture Rose to £100 which was a lot of money in those days a man referred to as Mr Thompson was described as one of the king's Keepers he made an assertive attempt with his men to track down the gang and arrest them no doubt probably motivated by the reward money after a tip off he cornered most of the gang in an Alleyway Ale House in Westminster London Rosen Fielder were captured and hung wheeler was spared the news for giving evidence against the rest of the gang as for Turpin he escaped out of a window and rode away again other sources suggest that Gregory the lead gang member was also caught and hung not long after with the Greg gang now at an end Turing took to arm robbery on the roads and became the notorious Highwayman of history on one such robbery he came across A well-dressed gentleman and with pistol in hand dick attempted to rob the man the man however simply laughed for he was Tom King another notorious Highwayman of the time after a short introduction Turpin and King made what was described as assurances of fidelity to one another Turpin had had a new partner in crime they lived in a cave located in eping Forest it was a handy Hideway from there they terrorized the area as they prayed on Travelers on the nearby roads the two men were already notorious and it wasn't long before their new spike in criminal activity attracted those wanting to claim the reward money for their Capture One Man and Mr baze managed to track them down to the Red Lion Street in London and there as shootout occurred an account tells us that during the firefight Turpin attempted to shoot Mr baze but missed and shot his friend Tom King instead King received two bullet wounds and died of his wounds a week later Turpin on the other hand rode away escaping the law once more Turpin returned to the forest and in another incident he fatally shot The Keeper of the forest it wasn't long before his cave was discovered and the hounds were released to track him down alone and the authorities hot on his tail Turpin was no longer safe in the forest it was time to flee and he moved to Yorkshire to make a fresh start there he went by the Alias of John Palmer passing himself off as a horse trader however the whole thing was just another scam he would frequently travel to Lincolnshire where he would steal horses and return them to Yorkshire where he would sell them and trade them one day however in 17 38 whilst returning from his shoot he noticed his landlord's [ __ ] in the street turent came and killed it one of his neighbors witnessed the whole thing and protested and in response Turpin threatened to shoot him too of course the whole incident was reported to the landlord who in return reported it to the authorities a warrant was issued and this time Turpin was arrested however Turpin was still going by the name of John Palmer and no one was any of the wiser in 18th century England a man standing in the local community was an important factor considered in criminal cases a man's guilt was often assessed by testimony of good character provided by upstanding members of the public even those found guilty of capital crimes often escape the death sentence due to references of good character by persons of good social standing of course this all depended on the reputation of your character witness Turpin on the other hand was new to the area and therefore nobody really knew him as a result he was unable to provide any character references worse still he was going by the Alias of John Palmer a madeup name with virtu no past and let's face it he could hardly tell them who he really was Dick Turpin a wanted Highwayman the inability to provide any character Witnesses made the judge very suspicious and Turpin was sent to the house of correction at Beverly in Yorkshire Witnesses did testify however that this John Palmer often traveled to Lincolnshire and returned with plenty of money and several horses when ler questioned about this John Palmer or shall I say Dick Turpin claimed that he was the son of a butcher in Lincolnshire and his sister had kept his father's house he also went on to say that he had moved to Yorkshire after he came into debt by purchasing sheep that appr proven rotten to confirm this story an investigation was carried out in Lincolnshire which concluded that his story could not be verified worse still it was discovered that this John Palmer was accused of sheep stealing and wanted for horse theft unsatisfied the judge chose to incarcerate Turpin at York castle for a period of 4 months at this time prisoners had to pay for their own upkeep whilst incarcerated and so it wasn't long before Turin needed he wrote a letter to his brother-in-law and Mr rivol who lived in Essex now whether his brother-in-law didn't recognize the name on the letter and Mr Palmer or whether he understood that it was written by Turpin and wanted nothing more to do with him he refused to pay the postage and accept the letter out of sheer coincidence the postmaster there happened to be turpin's Boyhood shooter Mr Smith now whether he recognized his old students handwriting or simply put two and two together Mr Smith suspected that this John Palmer was in fact the notorious Dick Turpin and sought to claim the reward money for himself he reported his suspicions to the local justice of the peace and the game was up on April the 7th 1739 Turpin was hanged in York on the charge of horse theft so what can we make of the life of Dick Turpin here's my interpretation and it is just that so feel free to disagree tpin earliest crimes do seem to be an attempt to support his business and as we mentioned the butcher trade was a difficult one at this time had the trade been more profitable then it is entirely possible that Turpin could have remained an honest man however once that first arrest warrant was issued there was no going back Turin moved from one criminal venture to another smuggling poaching armed robbery of people's houses and of course Highwaymen and he also seems to have developed a knack of escaping the clutches of the law where his criminal Associates could not he was also a ruthless and violent Thug willing to torture and kill to get what he wanted however when it comes to the story of Turpin accidentally killing his buddy Tom King I have my doubts it happened that way although it is true that these pistols were very inaccurate and according to the source Turpin was on Horseback which would have made it even more so however Tom King was reported to have been shot twice the pistols used at this time could only be fired once after which would have to be primed with powder before being reloaded which could take a minute especially on Horseback and although it's possible he may have had a second pistol preloaded Turpin would have only had two shots at best before having to make his Escape so therefore I just don't think Turpin would have accidentally shot King twice that makes no sense turpin's move to Yorkshire marked the possibility to make a fresh start under a new name however it wasn't long before he turned to Crime once more stealing horses in one County and trading them in another so where did it all go wrong for Turpin sending the letter to his brother-in-law I believe was an acceptable risk because he needed money for his upkeep whilst incarcerated it was a stroke of bad luck that his Boyhood shooter happened to work in the post office and work out that the letter was sent by Turpin however I believe that Turpin made two whopping mistakes that led to his downfall the first was shooting his landlord's [ __ ] in front of witnesses this was silly whether he had become complacent or whether he had been drinking and just wasn't thinking this incident just wasn't worth the trouble and marked the beginning of the end of Dick Turin his second mistake was that he used the same name John Palmer both in Lincolnshire to steal horses and in Yorkshire to sell them whilst posing as a respectable law-abiding subject it would have made more sense to have one aliot for his illegal activities and another for his law- abiding Persona because once the authorities carried out an investigation in lincolshire into the assumed name of John Palmer the conclusion was inevitably the result of the crimes he had committed there under the name of John Palmer another thing I find interesting about the end of Di turpin's life was that once the authorities found out who he really was they never convicted him for any of the crimes he committed as Dick Turpin he was hung for the crime that he had already been incarcerated for horse theft it's almost as if the authorities just couldn't be bothered to put themselves through another trial and just hung him to be done with it just under a 100 years later in 1834 novelist William Harrison answorth published Rockwood a work of fiction featuring dick Turing The Dashing and gentlemanly Highwayman of course other than the name the Dick Turpin of fiction had little to do with his historical counterpart however the novel was a massive hit and as a result Dick Turpin became the most famous Highwayman in British history thank you for watching and if you like my content don't forget to like share comment and subscribe have a great day [Music]

Channel: Topicus History

Views: 2,629

Keywords: History, Crime, Dick Turpin, Highwayman, English History, British History, History Documentary, Animated Documentary

Id: geilAc3vY-w

Length: 15min 13sec (913 seconds)

Published: Tue May 14 2024