Скачать или смотреть Dick Turpin Part 3

Part three of our three part historical documentary looking at the life of the notorious and violent English Highwayman known as Dick Turpin.

Dick Turpin was born in 1705 at the Blue Bell Inn in Hempstead, Essex, as the fifth of six children to John Turpin and Mary Elizabeth Parmenter. The inn would later become the Rose and Crown, but back then, it was the place where Dick’s story began.
He was baptized on September 21st, 1705, right there in the same parish where his parents had tied the knot more than a decade earlier. So, right from the start, Turpin was part of the community, but little did anyone know what was ahead.
Turpin’s father, John, was a butcher and innkeeper. And many stories suggest that young Dick may have followed in his father’s footsteps, possibly working as an apprentice butcher in the Whitechapel area as a teenager.
One story even suggests that he ran his own butcher’s shop in the town of Thaxted, but what we do know for sure is that he didn’t stay in Essex forever.
By about 1725, Turpin married Elizabeth Millington. After his apprenticeship, he and his new wife moved north to Buckhurst Hill in Essex, where Dick opened another butcher’s shop.
Things were looking pretty normal for Turpin at this point — no sign of the wild outlaw to come. But sometimes, life takes an unexpected turn.
In the early 1730s, poaching was rampant in the Royal Forest of Waltham, an area notorious for deer theft. It was so widespread that the government passed the Black Act in 1723, which made it a crime to disguise your face while hunting or poaching. But despite the law, deer poaching persisted, leading to the creation of even harsher punishments in 1737—seven years of transportation for the most serious offenders.
One group of thieves, the Essex Gang—or sometimes called the Gregory Gang—became infamous for their exploits. But who were they? This gang was led by Samuel Gregory and included his brothers, Jeremiah and Jasper, alongside a handful of notorious criminals like John Jones, Thomas Rowden, and even Mary Brazier, their fence.
Among them, a young butcher from the area—Richard Turpin—would become closely involved. But how did he get mixed up in such dangerous business? Well, by 1733, Turpin had likely left the butchery trade behind and become the landlord of a pub—probably the Rose and Crown at Clay Hill.
Now, while there's no direct evidence linking Turpin to the poaching itself, by 1734, he was closely connected to the Essex gang. This could mean he was already known to the criminals or had become part of their circle in some other way.
By the end of 1734, the gang had moved away from poaching. They started raiding homes, targeting wealthy landowners and farmers. In one brutal attack on Ambrose Skinner, a 73-year-old farmer, the gang made off with an estimated £300—worth more than £61,000 in today’s money.
Over the next several months, their raids became more violent. They struck multiple times, with Turpin at the forefront. In January 1735, they attacked the home of a man named Mr. Saunders in Charlton, and just a week later, they raided a farm at Croydon. These weren't just robberies—they were savage, with the victims beaten and tortured.
One of the most chilling incidents occurred at Earlsbury Farm. Turpin and his gang burst in, armed with pistols, and brutally attacked the elderly farmer, Joseph Lawrence. They tortured him, pulling him around the house and even forcing him to sit on a hot fire before making off with less than £30.
Despite their violent spree, their luck would soon run out. By February 1735, members of the gang, including Turpin, were on the run. Several were arrested, and it was only a matter of time before the authorities closed in.
The press was quick to pick up on Turpin’s criminal exploits. Descriptions of him were widely circulated—'a tall man, marked with smallpox, about five foot nine, wearing a blue-grey coat and natural wig.' The hunt for Richard Turpin was on.
Once Wheeler's confession became public, the remaining members of the gang knew their time was running out. Their once-thriving criminal empire began to crumble as the law closed in. But the gang wasn’t done just yet…
On the 15th of February 1735, as Wheeler was giving up his former accomplices, a daring robbery took place at the home of Mrs. St. John in Chingford. This was no random heist. It was carried out by some of the gang's most notorious members: Samuel Gregory, Herbert Haines, and possibly Turpin himself.
The robbery was swift, but soon, Turpin and Rowden split from the group, heading for Hempstead to visit family. But the law was hot on their trail. And Gregory, along with Haines, found themselves in a dangerous situation.