This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus. |
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Saying that he turned into a criminal simply because he was exposed to his father's smuggling operations as a child is like saying a person turned into a rapist because they saw some body shop lifting as a child. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.213.7.137 ( talk) 10:02, 30 August 2008 (UTC)
Not quite, Someone who witnessed shoplifting would probably end up a shoplifter themselves, or would try to steal cars and other things. For one to be a rapist, they need to be brought up in a very unstable environment where the parents were either violent or allowed the child to witness violence through media. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.5.4.205 ( talk) 08:22, 27 December 2011 (UTC)
Was Turpin of Huguenot descent? Turpin seems to have been a prominent Huguenot surname (and we are in the right period), and is certainly French (unless there is coincidentally a separate English etymology? ... but Turpin as a surname seems to be infrequent in England). -- Mais oui! 08:24, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
Is largely fictional, I think. Would be good if someone could either source the section, or remark that it is likely to be apocryphal. ElectricRay 08:31, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
Also how is it bizarre that a thief would steal a finer horse than the one he possesses? Seems to me a pretty normal thing for a thief to do. Quadzilla99 09:19, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
Black Bess was fictional, along with Turpins friend Tom King. Both were invented by the author William Harrison Ainsworth in Rookwood, who brought Turpin to light in the 18th century and created much of the legend. Even the ride to York from London was a fiction. I reality the dude was a thug, even shooting his partner, Tom King (the real one) in cold blood. scope_creep 19:26, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
While the article is a cracking good read, it lacks encyclopedic tone. Rich Farmbrough, 09:25 17 October 2006 (GMT).
I read in 'Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits by Rosemary Ellen Guiley ISN 0-8160-4086-9 that Black Bess did not belong to Dick Turpin but to another highwayman, William Nevison. Page 386-387.
"By all accounts the ensuing gun fight was hellish and chaotic" How long did it take to load a gun in those days? Rich Farmbrough, 09:30 17 October 2006 (GMT). Most of a minute depending upon how good the person was. For this reason most guns were double barreled and violent men might carry at least two. 145.253.108.22 15:20, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
If Turpin was born on 21 September 1706 then he would have turned 22 on 22 September 1727 but this article says he was 21 when he married in 1728. Something not right here. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 165.12.252.11 ( talk) 04:32, 21 February 2007 (UTC). 165.12.252.11 04:33, 21 February 2007 (UTC)Baxter de Wahl P.S: I had to change "formally" as in "Thomas Rowden (formally a metal-worker, now outlawed)" to "formerly" as it's the correct usage. Regards, Baxter
i find this very intersing yh but it odes not make sense yh no hard fellings ok it is good but a liitle boring —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.31.246.37 ( talk) 17:08, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
These popular culture sections appear to be trivia magnets. Does anyone here seriously believe that
The name Dick Turpin appears in Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. It is the name of Newton Pulsifer's car, so named in the hopes that someday someone would ask him why.
is either a useful or worthy addition to this article? BTW, I've removed it twice now. If the consensus is that rubbish like that is to be included then I'll just take this article off my watchlist and it can degenerate into the same kind of mess that so many other articles find themselves in without me. -- Malleus Fatuorum 13:29, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
I've just ordered this, so if nobody minds I'm going to start making significant changes to this article. Parrot of Doom 21:06, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
Just a note to say that the current Roman Catholic church linked in the article was built in 1849-50. Its C of E predecessor was on the other side of the road, next to where the churchard is now. It was suppressed in the C16 and the parish united with St Denys's. It continued to be used for a period, but was in ruins by 1644. Some walls were apparently still standing in 1736, but there was no church as such - when Turpin was (or wasn't, as the case may be) buried in the churchyard. Information from Wilson, Barbara (1998). The Medieval Parish Churches of York: the pictorial evidence. York:
York Archaeological Trust. pp. 24, 81–2.
ISBN
1-874454-19-1. {{
cite book}}
: Unknown parameter |coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (
help) --
Guillaume
Tell
16:49, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
There is no likely entry on the CCEDB, but William Dyde has an entry on Venn as a Cambridge student
Dyde, William Adm. sizar at QUEENS', 28 Jun., 1686. Of London. Matric. 1686 ;B.A. 1689/90 ;M.A. 1693 .Fellow, 1690-8 . Ord. deacon (London) 24 Sep., 1692.
British history gives him as rector of Great Parndon (Harlow) from 1705 to 1754. Essex record office (SEAX) has documents relating to him.
Hope that helps. Motmit ( talk) 19:34, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
An attempt to bring the references section in line with the guidelines at MOS:APPENDIX was reverted in favour of the present style (with subheaders and miniscule text). The rationale for this was "too cluttered, former style much better", which I don't consider to be anything more than a personal judgement call. The MoS-conformant layout should be restored. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 12:24, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
I realise I may be in danger of getting into an edit war, however there are a few disputed issues arising, some of them may be trivial, but cumulatively they are problematic.
1. I don't know about other countries, but in Britain the word "cock" is fairly common slang for "penis", so saying that Turpin "shot another man's cock in the street" is exposing the article to unnecessary sniggers, not what we want in an FA. Another Wikipedian who tried to change this but was reverted seems to agree with me. Is there any distinction between "cock" and "cockerel", except that one avoids a double entendre?
2. "Higler" is a very obscure word I have never come across before. On Wikipedia it is a redirect to "peddler". It may be what contemporary sources use, but we are not obliged to copy this outside of direct quotes, otherwise this article could end up using a lot of archaic words and spellings.
3. It may well be that the earlier highwayman is sometimes known as both John Nevison or William Nevison. However his own article calls him John Nevison, so this should be followed in other articles in the absence of some good reason to the contrary. If you disagree take it up at that article not this one.
4. We have a category "English highwaymen" which is a subcategory of "English criminals" and "Highwaymen", so why are we not using it?
5. He is far more commonly known as "Dick Turpin" than "Richard Turpin", so why the longer version of the hatnote? PatGallacher ( talk) 16:01, 18 November 2010 (UTC)
I may come back on some of these issues later, but in the meantime I have edited on those issues where there has been no reply to me or some other Wikipedians agree with me. Rooster is American English and not appropriate in this context. PatGallacher ( talk) 17:27, 18 November 2010 (UTC)
I'll leave the poor chap whose cock was shot to one side for the moment. However either "English highwaymen" is a legitimate category or it isn't, it is beside the point how recently it was created or how many other articles are in it, I expect a few more will be added given time. No justification has been put forward for the longer form of the hatnote. It is beside the point whether an article was stable or in what form it passed FAC, some people may be falling into ownership of articles, see WP:OWN. PatGallacher ( talk) 01:37, 19 November 2010 (UTC)
If you look at the category English criminals it has several well-established sub-categories for e.g. English rapists, English pirates, even English people convicted of actual bodily harm, so why not English highwaymen? PatGallacher ( talk) 02:23, 19 November 2010 (UTC)
I think that there should be a greater explanation about stealing deer in this article. I am sure that most users know that deer are wild animals and as such cannot be stole like cattle or horses. I am assuming that stealing deer meant killing deer for food. I also know that the wild game of England, etc. was strictly off limits for the commoner. I think that a sentence or two explaining this would be most helpful. Dincher ( talk) 00:25, 19 November 2010 (UTC)
I deleted this text:
My rationale was that this text strays from the topic by providing background that should, at best, be provided in a note rather than in the main article text. User:Parrot of Doom reverted my deletion and so I am raising the issue here. If it is felt that it is important to provide this background material, I would propose putting it into a note. -- Pseudo-Richard ( talk) 03:32, 24 February 2011 (UTC)
Just to clarify... my problem here is that the text in question makes sense to have in a book about Dick Turpin but seems incongruous in an encyclopedia article. -- Pseudo-Richard ( talk) 15:41, 24 February 2011 (UTC)
I find the sentence that ends "the reward to £50 (about £6,900 as of 2012)" to be fairly misleading, on a number of counts. Firstly, the cited references and CPI data actually only extend as far forward as 2010, so claiming that this is "as of 2012" simply isn't justified. Secondly, and more importantly, the actual figure itself is very misleading. Sure, if you put £50 into a bank account in 1733 (had such a thing existed) and that interest just kept pace with inflation, that investment would today be worth something a little less than $7,000, but that doesn't at all give the reader a real picture of how much £50 was worth in 1733. In 1733 the average annual wage was about £14 (same source as currently presented). So the sum offered was actually equivalent to about three and a half years' wages for most people. Average UK wages today are about £24,000, so a better illustration of the value of the reward would be something in the region of £85-86,000. Of course, this is original research and interpretation, so not really fit for inclusion here. However, I think it would be much more sensible and informative to present the information as something along the lines of "... reward to £50. Average wages at the time were approximately £14 a year." That provides the reader proper context without performing any dubious OR calculations. Anybody care to comment? Thanks. Pyrop e 14:37, 23 February 2012 (UTC)
I just recommended this article to my students - thanks for writing such a good article on this topic! Wadewitz ( talk) 18:46, 25 September 2012 (UTC)
The Execution section first says he threw himself off the gallows and died within five minutes, and then that he was left hanging until late afternoon. Does this mean they hanged an already dead Turpin? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.141.217.179 ( talk) 03:45, 23 February 2015 (UTC)
The § Essex gang says in the fourth paragraph
"Charlton" is not linked, unlike other placenames in the article. I looked it up and found out why: Charlton is a disambiguation page, listing seventeen places in England called Charlton— and that's not counting compounds like Charlton-on-Otmoor or Charlton Musgrove. If anyone can work out which Charlton is referred to here and link appropriately, it would be good. -- Thnidu ( talk) 07:58, 23 February 2015 (UTC)
Does User:Parrot of Doom own this article? The response made to a warning on his Talk Page was this. This looks like it infringes the policy on civility. 20.133.0.13 ( talk) 13:14, 13 October 2015 (UTC)
The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Dick Turpin/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.
In the movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Jesse tells someone his name is Dick Turpin. Not sure if it warrants an edit per se because as references go it's pretty subtle. I'd add it myself, but seems like a LOT of work to do on my phone. Somgoth ( talk) 22:37, 18 August 2009 (UTC) |
Last edited at 22:37, 18 August 2009 (UTC). Substituted at 13:23, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
The citation given in the article is Sharpe, James (2005), The Myth of the English Highwayman, London: Profile Books, ISBN 1-86197-418-3 and here you can see, if you search the book at Googlebooks for 'handwriting' something that clarifies the article, which has slightly misleading or at least unclear phrasing that makes it sound like Smith was his former schoolteacher. The cited book says: "Smith, in fact, had taught Turpin, at that point his younger schoolmate, how to write while he was a school." https://books.google.co.th/books?id=5u8Libdf_CoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=isbn:1861974183&hl=th&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwishOb6y4DvAhXlyzgGHamhBfsQ6wEwAHoECAAQAQ#v=onepage&q=handwriting&f=false Arctic Gazelle ( talk) 18:57, 23 February 2021 (UTC)
"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."
"Among the seven witnesses called to testify were Thomas Creasy, and James Smith, the man who had recognised Turpin's handwriting."
I have found a grave stone saying Richard Turpin highwayman can't remember dates i found this 45 years ago 2A00:23C4:E795:BA00:E4AB:8973:FBCA:C70D ( talk) 22:10, 17 January 2022 (UTC)
You should include mention of the lengthy and unusual tales of Dick Turpin "The Blue Dwarf" by journalist and writer Percy B. St.John, written ~1870s and published as a Penny Dreadful in 1884 in 37 weekly episodes, each 12 pages and accompanied by a striking illustration.
(Percy is a distant relative of mine.) Stjohn1970 ( talk) 04:48, 4 March 2023 (UTC)
He was found guilty on two charges of horse theft and therefore sentenced to death? Sounds harsh and unreasonable to today's folks. -- 2A02:908:898:9780:AF26:AE07:3827:8B1F ( talk) 08:56, 19 July 2023 (UTC)
I suspect the statement "Although some of his contemporaries became the subject of chapbooks, names such as James Hind, Claude Duval and William Nevison, are not nearly as well-known today as the legend of Dick Turpin" should be reworded. To me it implies to the reader that the three named were contemporaries of Dick Turpin who operated as highwaymen at the same time as him. Yet none of them lived in the eighteenth century. Hind was executed in 1652, Duval was executed in 1670 and Nevison was executed in the 1680s. In other words they were all dead long before Turpin was born in 1705, and were famous highwaymen about 50-80 years before Turpin became an outlaw. Thus I think perhaps it might be better to say something like that "Although some highwaymen of the seventeenth century..." Dunarc ( talk) 13:47, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus. |
Dick Turpin is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so. | |||||||||||||
This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on November 18, 2010. | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the " On this day..." column on February 23, 2011, February 23, 2012, February 23, 2013, February 23, 2015, February 23, 2017, February 23, 2019, February 23, 2021, February 23, 2022, and February 23, 2023. | |||||||||||||
Current status: Featured article |
This
level-5 vital article is rated FA-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Saying that he turned into a criminal simply because he was exposed to his father's smuggling operations as a child is like saying a person turned into a rapist because they saw some body shop lifting as a child. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.213.7.137 ( talk) 10:02, 30 August 2008 (UTC)
Not quite, Someone who witnessed shoplifting would probably end up a shoplifter themselves, or would try to steal cars and other things. For one to be a rapist, they need to be brought up in a very unstable environment where the parents were either violent or allowed the child to witness violence through media. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.5.4.205 ( talk) 08:22, 27 December 2011 (UTC)
Was Turpin of Huguenot descent? Turpin seems to have been a prominent Huguenot surname (and we are in the right period), and is certainly French (unless there is coincidentally a separate English etymology? ... but Turpin as a surname seems to be infrequent in England). -- Mais oui! 08:24, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
Is largely fictional, I think. Would be good if someone could either source the section, or remark that it is likely to be apocryphal. ElectricRay 08:31, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
Also how is it bizarre that a thief would steal a finer horse than the one he possesses? Seems to me a pretty normal thing for a thief to do. Quadzilla99 09:19, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
Black Bess was fictional, along with Turpins friend Tom King. Both were invented by the author William Harrison Ainsworth in Rookwood, who brought Turpin to light in the 18th century and created much of the legend. Even the ride to York from London was a fiction. I reality the dude was a thug, even shooting his partner, Tom King (the real one) in cold blood. scope_creep 19:26, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
While the article is a cracking good read, it lacks encyclopedic tone. Rich Farmbrough, 09:25 17 October 2006 (GMT).
I read in 'Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits by Rosemary Ellen Guiley ISN 0-8160-4086-9 that Black Bess did not belong to Dick Turpin but to another highwayman, William Nevison. Page 386-387.
"By all accounts the ensuing gun fight was hellish and chaotic" How long did it take to load a gun in those days? Rich Farmbrough, 09:30 17 October 2006 (GMT). Most of a minute depending upon how good the person was. For this reason most guns were double barreled and violent men might carry at least two. 145.253.108.22 15:20, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
If Turpin was born on 21 September 1706 then he would have turned 22 on 22 September 1727 but this article says he was 21 when he married in 1728. Something not right here. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 165.12.252.11 ( talk) 04:32, 21 February 2007 (UTC). 165.12.252.11 04:33, 21 February 2007 (UTC)Baxter de Wahl P.S: I had to change "formally" as in "Thomas Rowden (formally a metal-worker, now outlawed)" to "formerly" as it's the correct usage. Regards, Baxter
i find this very intersing yh but it odes not make sense yh no hard fellings ok it is good but a liitle boring —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.31.246.37 ( talk) 17:08, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
These popular culture sections appear to be trivia magnets. Does anyone here seriously believe that
The name Dick Turpin appears in Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. It is the name of Newton Pulsifer's car, so named in the hopes that someday someone would ask him why.
is either a useful or worthy addition to this article? BTW, I've removed it twice now. If the consensus is that rubbish like that is to be included then I'll just take this article off my watchlist and it can degenerate into the same kind of mess that so many other articles find themselves in without me. -- Malleus Fatuorum 13:29, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
I've just ordered this, so if nobody minds I'm going to start making significant changes to this article. Parrot of Doom 21:06, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
Just a note to say that the current Roman Catholic church linked in the article was built in 1849-50. Its C of E predecessor was on the other side of the road, next to where the churchard is now. It was suppressed in the C16 and the parish united with St Denys's. It continued to be used for a period, but was in ruins by 1644. Some walls were apparently still standing in 1736, but there was no church as such - when Turpin was (or wasn't, as the case may be) buried in the churchyard. Information from Wilson, Barbara (1998). The Medieval Parish Churches of York: the pictorial evidence. York:
York Archaeological Trust. pp. 24, 81–2.
ISBN
1-874454-19-1. {{
cite book}}
: Unknown parameter |coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (
help) --
Guillaume
Tell
16:49, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
There is no likely entry on the CCEDB, but William Dyde has an entry on Venn as a Cambridge student
Dyde, William Adm. sizar at QUEENS', 28 Jun., 1686. Of London. Matric. 1686 ;B.A. 1689/90 ;M.A. 1693 .Fellow, 1690-8 . Ord. deacon (London) 24 Sep., 1692.
British history gives him as rector of Great Parndon (Harlow) from 1705 to 1754. Essex record office (SEAX) has documents relating to him.
Hope that helps. Motmit ( talk) 19:34, 9 November 2009 (UTC)
An attempt to bring the references section in line with the guidelines at MOS:APPENDIX was reverted in favour of the present style (with subheaders and miniscule text). The rationale for this was "too cluttered, former style much better", which I don't consider to be anything more than a personal judgement call. The MoS-conformant layout should be restored. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 12:24, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
I realise I may be in danger of getting into an edit war, however there are a few disputed issues arising, some of them may be trivial, but cumulatively they are problematic.
1. I don't know about other countries, but in Britain the word "cock" is fairly common slang for "penis", so saying that Turpin "shot another man's cock in the street" is exposing the article to unnecessary sniggers, not what we want in an FA. Another Wikipedian who tried to change this but was reverted seems to agree with me. Is there any distinction between "cock" and "cockerel", except that one avoids a double entendre?
2. "Higler" is a very obscure word I have never come across before. On Wikipedia it is a redirect to "peddler". It may be what contemporary sources use, but we are not obliged to copy this outside of direct quotes, otherwise this article could end up using a lot of archaic words and spellings.
3. It may well be that the earlier highwayman is sometimes known as both John Nevison or William Nevison. However his own article calls him John Nevison, so this should be followed in other articles in the absence of some good reason to the contrary. If you disagree take it up at that article not this one.
4. We have a category "English highwaymen" which is a subcategory of "English criminals" and "Highwaymen", so why are we not using it?
5. He is far more commonly known as "Dick Turpin" than "Richard Turpin", so why the longer version of the hatnote? PatGallacher ( talk) 16:01, 18 November 2010 (UTC)
I may come back on some of these issues later, but in the meantime I have edited on those issues where there has been no reply to me or some other Wikipedians agree with me. Rooster is American English and not appropriate in this context. PatGallacher ( talk) 17:27, 18 November 2010 (UTC)
I'll leave the poor chap whose cock was shot to one side for the moment. However either "English highwaymen" is a legitimate category or it isn't, it is beside the point how recently it was created or how many other articles are in it, I expect a few more will be added given time. No justification has been put forward for the longer form of the hatnote. It is beside the point whether an article was stable or in what form it passed FAC, some people may be falling into ownership of articles, see WP:OWN. PatGallacher ( talk) 01:37, 19 November 2010 (UTC)
If you look at the category English criminals it has several well-established sub-categories for e.g. English rapists, English pirates, even English people convicted of actual bodily harm, so why not English highwaymen? PatGallacher ( talk) 02:23, 19 November 2010 (UTC)
I think that there should be a greater explanation about stealing deer in this article. I am sure that most users know that deer are wild animals and as such cannot be stole like cattle or horses. I am assuming that stealing deer meant killing deer for food. I also know that the wild game of England, etc. was strictly off limits for the commoner. I think that a sentence or two explaining this would be most helpful. Dincher ( talk) 00:25, 19 November 2010 (UTC)
I deleted this text:
My rationale was that this text strays from the topic by providing background that should, at best, be provided in a note rather than in the main article text. User:Parrot of Doom reverted my deletion and so I am raising the issue here. If it is felt that it is important to provide this background material, I would propose putting it into a note. -- Pseudo-Richard ( talk) 03:32, 24 February 2011 (UTC)
Just to clarify... my problem here is that the text in question makes sense to have in a book about Dick Turpin but seems incongruous in an encyclopedia article. -- Pseudo-Richard ( talk) 15:41, 24 February 2011 (UTC)
I find the sentence that ends "the reward to £50 (about £6,900 as of 2012)" to be fairly misleading, on a number of counts. Firstly, the cited references and CPI data actually only extend as far forward as 2010, so claiming that this is "as of 2012" simply isn't justified. Secondly, and more importantly, the actual figure itself is very misleading. Sure, if you put £50 into a bank account in 1733 (had such a thing existed) and that interest just kept pace with inflation, that investment would today be worth something a little less than $7,000, but that doesn't at all give the reader a real picture of how much £50 was worth in 1733. In 1733 the average annual wage was about £14 (same source as currently presented). So the sum offered was actually equivalent to about three and a half years' wages for most people. Average UK wages today are about £24,000, so a better illustration of the value of the reward would be something in the region of £85-86,000. Of course, this is original research and interpretation, so not really fit for inclusion here. However, I think it would be much more sensible and informative to present the information as something along the lines of "... reward to £50. Average wages at the time were approximately £14 a year." That provides the reader proper context without performing any dubious OR calculations. Anybody care to comment? Thanks. Pyrop e 14:37, 23 February 2012 (UTC)
I just recommended this article to my students - thanks for writing such a good article on this topic! Wadewitz ( talk) 18:46, 25 September 2012 (UTC)
The Execution section first says he threw himself off the gallows and died within five minutes, and then that he was left hanging until late afternoon. Does this mean they hanged an already dead Turpin? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.141.217.179 ( talk) 03:45, 23 February 2015 (UTC)
The § Essex gang says in the fourth paragraph
"Charlton" is not linked, unlike other placenames in the article. I looked it up and found out why: Charlton is a disambiguation page, listing seventeen places in England called Charlton— and that's not counting compounds like Charlton-on-Otmoor or Charlton Musgrove. If anyone can work out which Charlton is referred to here and link appropriately, it would be good. -- Thnidu ( talk) 07:58, 23 February 2015 (UTC)
Does User:Parrot of Doom own this article? The response made to a warning on his Talk Page was this. This looks like it infringes the policy on civility. 20.133.0.13 ( talk) 13:14, 13 October 2015 (UTC)
The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Dick Turpin/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.
In the movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Jesse tells someone his name is Dick Turpin. Not sure if it warrants an edit per se because as references go it's pretty subtle. I'd add it myself, but seems like a LOT of work to do on my phone. Somgoth ( talk) 22:37, 18 August 2009 (UTC) |
Last edited at 22:37, 18 August 2009 (UTC). Substituted at 13:23, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
The citation given in the article is Sharpe, James (2005), The Myth of the English Highwayman, London: Profile Books, ISBN 1-86197-418-3 and here you can see, if you search the book at Googlebooks for 'handwriting' something that clarifies the article, which has slightly misleading or at least unclear phrasing that makes it sound like Smith was his former schoolteacher. The cited book says: "Smith, in fact, had taught Turpin, at that point his younger schoolmate, how to write while he was a school." https://books.google.co.th/books?id=5u8Libdf_CoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=isbn:1861974183&hl=th&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwishOb6y4DvAhXlyzgGHamhBfsQ6wEwAHoECAAQAQ#v=onepage&q=handwriting&f=false Arctic Gazelle ( talk) 18:57, 23 February 2021 (UTC)
"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."
"Among the seven witnesses called to testify were Thomas Creasy, and James Smith, the man who had recognised Turpin's handwriting."
I have found a grave stone saying Richard Turpin highwayman can't remember dates i found this 45 years ago 2A00:23C4:E795:BA00:E4AB:8973:FBCA:C70D ( talk) 22:10, 17 January 2022 (UTC)
You should include mention of the lengthy and unusual tales of Dick Turpin "The Blue Dwarf" by journalist and writer Percy B. St.John, written ~1870s and published as a Penny Dreadful in 1884 in 37 weekly episodes, each 12 pages and accompanied by a striking illustration.
(Percy is a distant relative of mine.) Stjohn1970 ( talk) 04:48, 4 March 2023 (UTC)
He was found guilty on two charges of horse theft and therefore sentenced to death? Sounds harsh and unreasonable to today's folks. -- 2A02:908:898:9780:AF26:AE07:3827:8B1F ( talk) 08:56, 19 July 2023 (UTC)
I suspect the statement "Although some of his contemporaries became the subject of chapbooks, names such as James Hind, Claude Duval and William Nevison, are not nearly as well-known today as the legend of Dick Turpin" should be reworded. To me it implies to the reader that the three named were contemporaries of Dick Turpin who operated as highwaymen at the same time as him. Yet none of them lived in the eighteenth century. Hind was executed in 1652, Duval was executed in 1670 and Nevison was executed in the 1680s. In other words they were all dead long before Turpin was born in 1705, and were famous highwaymen about 50-80 years before Turpin became an outlaw. Thus I think perhaps it might be better to say something like that "Although some highwaymen of the seventeenth century..." Dunarc ( talk) 13:47, 19 December 2023 (UTC)