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 (320 km) 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 imagined in William Harrison Ainsworth's novel Rookwood
21 September 1705 entry of Turpin's name in the parish baptism register for Hempstead, Essex (fifth line down).
A 19th-century illustration of the raid at Loughton, as seen in the Newgate Calendar
Epping Forest was a regular haunt of the Essex Gang.
A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads. Such criminals operated until the mid- or late 19th century. Highwaywomen, such as Katherine Ferrers, were said to also exist, often dressing as men, especially in fiction.
Asalto al coche (Attack on a Coach), by Francisco de Goya.
English highwayman James Hind depicted in an engraving now in the National Portrait Gallery.
The execution of the French highwayman Cartouche, 1721
Dick Turpin riding Black Bess, from a Victorian toy theatre.