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RICHARD [Drcx] TURPIN (1706-1739)

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 482 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RICHARD [Drcx] See also:TURPIN (1706-1739)  , See also:English robber, was See also:born in 1706 at I-Iempstead, near See also:Saffron See also:Walden, See also:Essex, where his See also:father kept an alehouse . He was apprenticed to a See also:butcher, but, having been detected at See also:cattle-stealing, joined a notorious gang of See also:deer-stealers and smugglers in Essex . This gang also made a practice of robbing farmhouses, terrorizing the See also:women in the See also:absence of their husbands and See also:brothers, and See also:Turpin took the See also:lead in this class of See also:outrage . On the gang being broken up Turpin went into See also:partnership with Tom See also:King, a well-known highwayman . To avoid See also:arrest he finally See also:left Essex for See also:Lincolnshire and See also:Yorkshire, where he set up under an assumed name as a See also:horse dealer . He was convicted at See also:York assizes of horse-stealing and hanged on the 7th of See also:April 1739 . See also:Harrison See also:Ainsworth, in his See also:romance Rookwood, gives a spirited See also:account of a wonderful ride by See also:Dick Turpin on his See also:mare, See also:Black Bess, from See also:London to York, and it is in this connexion that Turpin's name has been generally remembered . But as far as Turpin is concerned the incident is pure fiction . A somewhat similar See also:story was told about a certain See also:John Nevison, known as " Nicks," a well-known highwayman in the See also:time of See also:Charles II., who to establish an See also:alibi rode from See also:Gad's See also:Hill to York (some 190 m.) in about 15 See also:hours . Both stories are possibly only different versions of an old See also:north road myth .

End of Article: RICHARD [Drcx] TURPIN (1706-1739)
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