page_title: Dick Turpin
section_title: As John Palmer
hierarchical_section_title: Dick Turpin / As John Palmer
caption_attribution_description: English: Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1693-1768)
context_page_description: Richard Turpin was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher early in his life but, by the early 1730s, he had joined a gang of deer thieves and, later, became a poacher, burglar, horse thief and killer. He is also known for a fictional 200-mile overnight ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess, a story that was made famous by the Victorian novelist William Harrison Ainsworth almost 100 years after Turpin's death.
  Turpin's involvement in the crime with which he is most closely associated—highway robbery—followed the arrest of the other members of his gang in 1735. He then disappeared from public view towards the end of that year, only to resurface in 1737 with two new accomplices, one of whom he may have accidentally shot and killed. Turpin fled from the scene and shortly afterwards killed a man who attempted his capture.
  Later that year, he moved to Yorkshire and assumed the alias of John Palmer. While he was staying at an inn, local magistrates became suspicious of "Palmer" and made enquiries as to how he funded his lifestyle.
context_section_description: Sometime around June 1737 Turpin boarded at the Ferry Inn at Brough, under the alias of John Palmer (or Parmen).  Travelling across the River Humber between the historic counties of the East Riding of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, he posed as a horse trader, and often hunted alongside local gentlemen.  On 2 October 1738 Turpin shot another man's game cock in the street.  While being rebuked by John Robinson, he then threatened to shoot him also.  Three East Riding justices (JPs), George Crowle (Member of Parliament for Hull), Hugh Bethell, and Marmaduke Constable, travelled to Brough and took written depositions about the incident.  They threatened to bind him over, but Turpin refused to pay the required surety, and was committed to the House of Correction at Beverley.  Turpin was escorted to Beverley by the parish constable, Carey Gill. He made no attempt at escape; It has been suggested that Turpin may have been depressed about failures in his life.
  Robert Appleton, Clerk of the Peace for the East Riding, and the man whose account details the above incident, later reported that the three JPs made enquiries as to how "Palmer" had made his money, suspecting that his lifestyle was funded by criminal activities.  Turpin claimed that he was a butcher who had fallen into debt, and that he had levanted from his home in Long Sutton, Lincolnshire.  When contacted, the JP at Long Sutton (a Mr Delamere) confirmed that John Palmer had lived there for about nine months, but that he was suspected of stealing sheep, and had escaped the custody of the local constable.  Delamere also suspected that Palmer was a horse-thief and had taken several depositions supporting his view, and told the three JPs that he would prefer him to be detained. The three JPs now presumed that the case was too serious for Palmer to remain at Beverley House of Correction, and demanded sureties for his appearance at York Assizes.  Turpin refused, and so on 16 October he was transferred to York Castle in handcuffs.
  Horse theft became a capital offence in 1545, punishable by death. During the 17th and 18th centuries, crimes in violation of property rights were some of the most severely punished; most of the 200 capital statutes were property offences. Robbery combined with violence was "the sort of offence, second only to premeditated murder (a relatively uncommon crime), most likely to be prosecuted and punished to [the law's] utmost rigour".  Turpin had stolen several horses while operating under the pseudonym of Palmer.  In July 1737 he stole a horse from Pinchbeck in Lincolnshire, and took it to visit his father at Hempstead.  When Turpin returned to Brough (stealing three horses along the way) he left the gelding with his father.  The identity of John Turpin's son was well known, and the horse's identity was soon discovered.  On 12 September 1738 therefore, John Turpin was committed to gaol in Essex on charges of horse theft, but following his help in preventing a gaolbreak, the charges were dropped on 5 March 1739.  About a month after "Palmer" had been moved to York Castle, Thomas Creasy, the owner of the three horses stolen by Turpin, managed to track them down and recover them, and it was for these thefts that he was eventually tried.
  From his cell, Turpin wrote to his brother-in-law, Pompr Rivernall, who also lived at Hempstead.  Rivernall was married to Turpin's sister, Dorothy.  The letter was kept at the local post office, but seeing the York post stamp Rivernall refused to pay the delivery charge, claiming that he "had no correspondent at York".  Rivernall may not have wanted to pay the charge for the letter, or he may have wished to distance himself from Turpin's affairs, and so the letter was moved to the post office at Saffron Walden where James Smith, who had taught Turpin how to write while the latter was at school, recognised the handwriting.  He alerted JP Thomas Stubbing, who paid the postage and opened the letter.  Smith travelled to York Castle and on 23 February identified Palmer as Turpin. He received the £200 (about £32,000 as of 2019) r
caption: Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, pressed hard to have Turpin tried in London.
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