Highwayman
After another offer of £50 for information leading to the arrests of the robbers, the law finally caught up with the Essex Gang. On 11th February, three members were apprehended: William Saunders, John Fielder, and John Wheeler. They were caught drinking with a woman, probably Mary Brazier, the gang’s fence, when their horses were recognised or one of Joseph Lawrence’s servants identified the men. Wheeler, possibly no older than 15 at the time, quickly confessed, and gave up the rest of the gang. Walker died in Tyburn prison, and three other gang members were hanged, their bodies left to rot.
Turpin and the rest of the gang were betrayed by Wheeler, and an arrest warrant went out: ‘Richard Turpin, a butcher by trade, is a tall fresh coloured man, very much marked with the small pox, about 26 years of age, about five feet nine inches high, lived some time ago in Whitechapel and did lately lodge somewhere about Millbank, Westminster, wears a blue grey coat and a natural wig’. Around this time, Turpin had parted ways with the Essex Gang, possibly because of the attention their actions were now drawing. Returning to Hempstead, he decided to become a highwayman.
The law caught up with the rest of the Essex Gang, but Turpin remained at large. On 10th April 1735, his highwayman career began. Over the next few nights at Mile End and Epping Forest, three robberies took place for which historians believe Turpin was responsible. On 10th July, the first robbery for which Turpin was specifically named as the perpetrator, along with another former Essex Gang alumnus, Thomas Rowden, took place near Wandsworth. A highway robbery shortly thereafter would have ended in the victim’s murder, had Turpin’s accomplice not dissuaded the errant butcher. £100 was now offered for information.
This reward failed, and as more robberies continued around the Wandsworth area, locals raised their own reward for information leading to Turpin’s arrest. This also proved unsuccessful, and the considerable fear that the men inspired as well as their growing recklessness was demonstrated by reports of Turpin and Rowden riding through the streets of London in broad daylight on 9th-11th October 1735. However, they were not entirely stupid, and both seem to have decided to cease their operations shortly after the newspaper report. Rowden assumed the name Daniel Crisp, and went to Gloucestershire to counterfeit coins, his former profession.
Turpin, on the other hand, disappears entirely from the history books for a while. A rumour spread that he was in Holland for the next year or so, with several sightings reported in the London press. As we shall see later in this article, Turpin was adept at disappearing under a pseudonym when required, and so he may well have headed across the North Sea. Turpin reappears as a highwayman in England in early 1737, when he escaped capture after a robbery in Puckeridge, Hertfordshire. His accomplices however were apprehended: his wife, Elizabeth, her maid, and one Robert Nott.