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Turpin Hero / Dick Turpin and the Lawyer

[ Roud 621 / Song Subject MAS28 ; Master title: Turpin Hero ; Laws L10 ; Ballad Index LL10 ; VWML FK/3/154 ; GlosTrad Roud 621 ; Wiltshire 230 , 779 ; Folkinfo 432 ; DT TURPINHE , TURPNLAW ; Mudcat 58481 ; trad.]

Bob Copper: Early to Rise The Copper Family Song Book Fred Hamer: Garners Gay Mike Harding: Folk Songs of Lancashire Maud Karpeles: Cecil Sharp’s Collection of English Folk Songs William Long: A Dictionary of the Isle of Wight Dialect Roy Palmer: Everyman’s Book of English Country Songs Peggy Seeger, Ewan MacColl: The Singing Island Steve Roud, Julia Bishop: The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs

Richard Turpin (1705-1739) was a legendary English highwayman.

Ewan MacColl sang Turpin Hero in 1957 on his and Peggy Seeger’s Riverside album of British ballads of crime and criminals, Bad Lads and Hard Cases, and in 1960 on their Peggy Seeger’s album Chorus From the Gallows. This track was also included in 1998 on the extended CD reissue of his and A.L. Lloyd’s album Bold Sportsmen All and later on several other MacColl anthologies (The Definitive Collection in 2003, The Anthology in 2010, An Introduction to Ewan MacColl in 2018). The original album’s liner notes commented:

According to Chappell’s Popular Music of the Olden Time, this ballad was written in 1739, just before Turpin was executed. There are several broadside versions of it, the oldest of which is contained in a pamphlet entitled The Dunghill Cock, or Turpin’s Valiant Exploits. It is fairly widely known among south country traditional singers, but only in this version.

Shirley Collins sang Turpin Hero in 1959 on her first LP Sweet England. This track was also included in 2002 on her anthology Within Sound. Alan Lomax noted on the first album:

A version of the folk ballad about the legendary Highwayman which Shirley Collins learned at school. The tune is traditional.

The Halliard sang Ballad of Dick Turpin in a 1968 recording session as a demo for their Saga label. It was finally released in 2006 on their CD The Last Goodnight!. They noted:

Classic broadside lyric and also a very popular song in the early British folk clubs. Dave [Moran] suspects that he heard the song from Ewan MacColl and also, he thinks, maybe Steve Benbow, though both of their versions would have been slower. Sometime after this Halliard recording, the song appeared in Roy Palmer’s A Ballad History of England (1979).

Barry Skinner sang Turpin Hero in 1971 on his Argo album Bed, Battle & Booze and on the Argo anthology The World of Folk. A recording made by Paul Adams on 1968 was released in 2018 on Fellside’s final anthology Destination. Barry Skinner noted on his Argo album:

The English Highwayman, who is famed mainly for his ride from London to York, where his ‘grave’ can be seen.

By all accounts, Turpin retired from robbing, but was recognised by someone whilst in prison, for shooting a cockerel whilst is a drunken stupor. Hence ‘dung-hill cock’ in the last two verses.

Roy Harris learned Turpin Hero “from Roger Grimes who used to sing at the Nottingham Traditional Music Club”. He sang it in 1972 on his LP The Bitter and the Sweet. A.L. Lloyd noted:

In choosing heroes, the folk are weird. Dick Turpin, an East End butcher’s boy, commenced his wild career by stealing cattle in West Ham and selling the beef, door to door. Pursued by the law, he took to housebreaking and highway robbery. Things became hot, he retired, got into a squabble over a gamecock, was arrested, unmasked, and hanged on 6 April 1739. Ignoble enough; even the celebrated ride to York was not his (it was performed by the bandit ‘Nicks’ Nevison in 1676), but somehow Turpin became a legendary hero. Several apocryphal adventures were strung into an epic ballad that did brisk business as a broadside. But over the years, it got whittled down till only the exploit with the lawyer remained. Sam Weller knew the song, so did Stephen Dedalus. Miraculously, it still remains green.

The Broadside from Grimsby sang Dicky Turpin in 1978 on their Topic album of songs and ballads collected in Lincolnshire, The Moon Shone Bright. Patrick O’Shaughnessy noted:

Dicky Turpin, from Mr. Dean Robinson of Scawby Brook, 1906 [collected by Percy Grainger at Brigg, Lincolnshire]. Mr. Robinson sang it in a mixed mode. Turpin was a villainous butcher of Whitechapel who increased his profits by rustling sheep and eventually turned highwayman. He was hanged at York in 1739 for stealing horses in Lincolnshire. The famous ride to York was not his at all, but was accomplished much earlier by another highwayman named Nevison. Turpin has been romanticised as a hero in a novel, W.H. Ainsworth’s Rookwood, and in several ballads.

Jim Copper learned Dick Turpin from Fred ‘Nobby’ Earle, a farm labourer of Rottingdean, and added it to the Copper Family Song Book. Bob Copper sang it on his 1977 Topic album Sweet Rose in June. Mike Yates noted:

The remaining songs are 18^th century compositions. Anonymous broadside verses; lyrical, as in The Rose in June—a song known to Thomas Hardy—or again in Young Johnnie possibly a late 18^th century stage song that is also known to country singers as The Long and Wishing Eye—a corruption of the term ‘languishing eye’; or factual, with characters like Bold General Wolfe and Dick Turpin. Although opposites—Turpin started out as an East End butcher’s boy who supplemented his living by stealing cattle in West Ham; he died on the gallows on 6 April 1739—their lives comprised the very stuff of folk heroes.

Arthur Knevett sang Dicky Turpin on his 1988 cassette Mostly Ballads. Vic Gammon commented in the album’s notes:

Percy Grainger got this song about another English ‘social Bandit’ (to use E.J. Hobshawm’s term) in Lincolnshire from the singing of David Belton. The Lawyer is but one of a number of encounters in earlier versions of the ballad.

Pete Morton sang Dick Turpin on his 1998 Harbourtown album Trespass. He noted:

Dick Turpin was a cruel and heartless man and people shouldn’t go around singing the praises of such a villain (unless you’re making a traditional album of course).

John Roberts and Tony Barrand sang Turpin Hero in 1998 on their CD of English folksongs collected by Percy Grainger, Heartoutbursts. They noted:

From Mr. David Belton, blacksmith, at Ulceby, July, 1906. Dick Turpin was perhaps the most famous of England’s highwaymen, thanks in good part to a 19^th Century novel, Rookwood, which recounts the famous ride to York on his horse Black Bess. This reputedly provided him with an alibi good enough to satisfy a jury. There is a lesser-known but more accurate song which relates this same tale with its proper hero, Nevison, who was hanged in York in 1685, twenty years before Turpin was born: Grainger also phonographed a set of Bold Nevison from Joseph Taylor. Jack Ketch, mentioned in the last verse of the song, was public executioner during the reign of Charles II. He gained notoriety for his clumsy dispatching of Lord Russell in 1683 and of the Duke of Monmouth two years later, for whom Ketch needed five strokes with the axe and even then had to finish the beheading with a knife. His name became associated with executioners, including hangmen, for over two hundred years, and at times the condemned man would indeed pay the hangman, in hopes of a tidy job.

Eliza Carthy recorded Turpin Hero for her 2005 CD Rough Music. This track was also included in 2018 on her Topic anthology An Introduction to Eliza Carthy. A live recording from the Wayward Tour in May/June 2013 was included in 2015 on her DVD and CD The Wayward Tour Live. She noted on the original album:

Turpin seems to be regarded as a hero not because he stole from the rich and gave to the poor, but simply because he stole from the rich, “robbed that judge as he sat in his coach”, and because he was portrayed as the classic dashing highwayman in a popular fiction some forty-odd years after his death. In fact he not only stole from the rich but from the poor too. By all accounts he was violent and inept, on one occasion accidentally shooting dead his partner instead of the officer holding him. He finally gave himself away while in quite profitable hiding in Yorkshire by shooting his landlord’s cockerel in the street in a fit of bad temper. Canadian versions of this song have the chorus as “Turpin I-ro”, which is probably fair.

He seems to be very concerned with his image in the end, playing the well-dressed gallant to the watching crowd as he is carted off to the gallows in York, paid mourners in tow, chatting himself with his executioner for half an hour before throwing himself off the ladder. I learned this from a recording of Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger.

Colin Meloy sang Turpin Hero on his 2006 EP Colin Meloy Sings Trad. Arr. Shirley Collins.

Issy & David Emeney sang Turpin the Blade in 2007 on their WildGoose CD Legends & Lovers. They noted:

One of many versions of the story of Dick Turpin and the Lawyer, which may even be slightly true! Most versions place the incident on Hounslow Heath and not Salisbury Plain—we just liked the tune! Accounts of his eventual demise differ somewhat, but our favourite is the one that says Turpin was hanged in 1739, not for highway robbery, but for getting drunk and shooting his landlord’s gamecock. Bet he was kicking himself!

The Owl Service sang Turpin Hero on their CD A Garland of Song. This recording was also included in 2008 on the Leigh Folk Festival anthology Moonshine Murder Mountains & Mudflats.

Brian Peters sang Turpin Hero in 2010 on his CD Gritstone Serenade. He noted:

The heroic status of Dick Turpin, the celebrated highwayman, is entirely mythical. The man was a brutal murderer of little significance even within the annals of highway robbery, and he never made his famous overnight ride from London to York, nor did he own a horse named Black Bess. Nonetheless he reputedly cut a fine figure on the scaffold, and a romanticised broadside ballad was rushed out within days of his death. The cunning trick played upon the lawyer is imaginary and, although Turpin did indeed bring himself to the attention of the authorities by shooting a cockerel, the charge on which he went down was horse-thieving. This version of Turpin Hero was collected in Lincolnshire by Percy Grainger, and I heard it on a CD by the US’s prime English folksong ambassadors John Roberts and Tony Barrand, after John and I had engaged in a comprehensive album swap.

This video shows Brian Peters at the National Folk Festival, Canberra, 2016:

The Dollymopps sang Turpin Hero in 2011 on their CD of traditional songs from the Isle of Wight collected by W.H. Long in the 1880s, Long Songs. They noted:

Dick Turpin was an Essex badman. Like Al Capone, he was never ‘caught in the act’ but was eventually hanged in 1739 for the lesser crime of shooting a rooster that woke him up (hence the reference to a dunghill cock). Our version is woven from Long’s variations and our own additions. The tune is from William Chappell’s Popular Music of the Olden Time.

Keith Kendrick and Sylvia Needham sang Turpin ’Ero in 2012 on their WildGoose CD Well Dressed. Kendrick noted:

Or—Ear ’ole as I usually call it! A great version of this song chronicling the life, antics and eventual demise of Richard (Dick) Turpin—the vicious old English thug and highwayman. Learned from the wonderful singing of another of my all-time heroes—the great, Roy Harris.

Pete Coe and Alice Jones sang Turpin Hero in 2014 on their CD of songs collected by Frank Kidson, The Search for Five Finger Frank. They noted:

(Roud 621, Folk Song Society Journals 9) From the singing of T.C. Smith, collected in Scarborough [VWML FK/3/154] .

Marco Pirroni and Jen Vix sang Turpin Hero on the 2015 Shirley Collins tribute album Shirley Inspired….

Nick Hart sang Turpin Bold in 2017 on his CD Nick Hart Sings Eight English Folk Songs. He noted:

This was learned, in the main, from my very dear friends and sometime heroes Keith Kendrick and Sylvia Needham. I love their version of this (which can be heard on the album Well Dressed) and when i found a similar version collected by Vaughan Williams in Essex, I ended up using the Essex choruses but stuck Keith and Sylvia’s verses in amongst them.

Pilgrims’ Way sang Turpin Hero on their 2017 album Stand & Deliver. They noted:

From tbe singing of tbe Imagined Village People; tbe tragic tale of Dick Turpin’s failure to obtain legal aid under a Tory government. Turpin was eventually hanged on account of having terrible bandwriting.

Lyrics

Shirley Collins sings Turpin Hero

On Hounslow Heath as I rode o’er
I spied a lawyer riding before.
“Kind sir,” said I, “are you afraid,
Of Turpin, that mischievous blade?”

Chorus (repeated after each verse):
O rare Turpin hero,
O rare Turpin O

Said Turpin, “He’d ne’er find me o’er
I hid my money in my boot.”
The lawyer says, “There’s none can find,
I hid my gold in my cape behind.”

As they were riding past the mill
Turpin commands him to stand still;
Says he, “Your cloak I must cut off,
My mare she needs a saddle cloth.”

This caused the lawyer much to fret
To see how simply he’d been took,
But Turpin robbed him of his store
Because he knew he’d lie for more.

Roy Harris sings Turpin Hero

Turpin was a-riding across Ramsey Moor,
He spied a lawyer go a-riding before,
He said to the lawyer, “Now, ain’t you afraid
To meet with Turpin, that mischievous young blade?”

Chorus (after each verse):
Turpin hero! Turpin was a hero,
He was a valious,Turpin Ho!

He said to the lawyer, “Now let us be cute
We’ll hide our moneys down in our boot.”
“O,” said the lawyer, “Well my gold he won’t find,
I got it all stitched down into my cloak cape behind.”

They rode till they came onto the foot of the hill
“O,” said Turpin, “Now you must keep still
My horse’s in need of a new saddle-cloth,
So your cloak cape you must take off.”

When that I have robbed you of all of your store,
You know very well that you can get some more,
At every town that you do come in,
Tell them you were robbed by the bold Turpin.

Turpin he was taken and in prison he was cast
For killing of a gamecock he will hang at last,
Fifteen golden guineas he has put by,
To pay Jack Ketch’s salary high.

Bob Copper sings Dick Turpin

As I was a-riding along on the moor
I saw the lawyer on before,
I ride up to him these words I say,
Have you seen Turpin pass this way?

Chorus (after each verse):
For I’m the hero, the Turpin hero,
I am the great Dick Turpin ho.

No, I ain’t seen Turpin pass this way
Neither do I want to see him this long day
For he robbed my wife all of ten pounds
A silver snuffbox and a new gown.

O, says Turpin, I’ll play cute
I’ll put my money down in my boot.
O, says the lawyer, he can’t have mine,
For mine’s sewn up in the cape behind.

As we were riding up Bradbury Hill
I bid the lawyer to stand still,
For the cape of his coat I must cut off
For my horse he wants a new saddle cloth.

I robbed the lawyer of all his store
And bid him to go to law for more.
And d my name is questioned in
You can tell him my name is Dick Turpin.

I am the last of Turpin’s gang
And I am sure I shall be hanged,
Here’s fifty pounds before I die
To give Jack Ketch for hanging I

Pete Morton sings Dick Turpin

As Dick Turpin rode across the moor,
He spied a lawyer ride before
He rode up to him and he thus did say,
“Have you seen Dick Turpin ride this way?”

Chorus (twice after each verse):
Diddle yay do, fiddle yay yay O
I am the valiant Turpin-O.

“No, I’ve not seen him for many’s the day,
And I don’t want to see him much anyway,
And if I did, well, I’d have no doubt,
He’d turn my pockets inside out.”

Dickie Turpin said, “I’ve been astute,
I’ve hid all my money in my high top boot,”
The lawyer replied, “He won’t find mine,
I hid it in my greatcoat cape behind.”

They rode together till they came to a hill,
When he bid that lawyer to be still,
“The greatcoat cape,” he says, “it must come off,
My Black Bess needs a new saddle-cloth.

“Now that I’ve robbed you of all your store,
You can go back to court to try to make more.
The very next town that you ride in,
You can tell ’em you were robbed by Dick Turpin.”

John Roberts and Tony Barrand sing Turpin Hero

As Dickie rode out all across yon moor,
He spied a lawyer riding out before
He rode up to him and he thus did say,
“Have you seen Dickie Turpin ride this way?”

Chorus (after each verse):
To my heigh-ho, Turpin hero,
I am the valiant Turpin-O.

“No, I’ve not seen him for many a day,
No more do I want to see him ride this way,
For if I did, I’d have no doubt,
He would turn my pockets inside out.”

“Oh aye, lad,” Dickie says, “Oh I’ve been cute,
I’ve hid my money in my old top boot,”
Then says the lawyer, “He shan’t have mine,
For I hid it in my greatcoat cape behind.”

So they rode along together till they came to a hill,
Where he bid the old lawyer to stand quite still,
He says, “Your greatcoat cape it must come off,
For my Black Bess wants a new saddle-cloth.

“So now I’ve robbed you of all your store,
You may go and work for more,
And the very next town that you ride in,
You can tell ’em you was robbed by Dick Turpin.”

But wasn’t Dickie caught so hard and fast,
For killing of an old gamecock at last,
He says, “Here’s fifty pound, before I die,
To give Jack Ketch for a lad like I.”

Eliza Carthy sings Turpin Hero

On Hounslow Heath as I rode out
I spied a lawyer riding about;
“Now sir,” I said, “Run all you can
From Turpin that mischievous man.”

Chorus (after each verse):
O rare Turpin hero,
O rare Turpin O

Says Turpin, “He’d ne’er find me out
I hid my money in my boot.”
Well then says he lawyer, “There’s none can find,
My gold, for it’s stitched in my coat behind.”

As they rode down by the Powder mill
Turpin demands him to be still;
“Now Sir, your coat I will cut off
For my mare she needs a new saddle cloth.”

As Turpin rode in search of prey
He spied a taxman on the way;
And boldly then he bid him stand,
“Your gold,” he said, “I do demand.”

Oh Turpin then without remorse,
He knocked him quite from off his horse;
And left him on the ground to sprawl
While he rode off with his gold and all.

As Turpin rode on Salisbury plain
He met Lord Judge with all his train;
And hero-like he did approach
And robbed that Judge as he sat in his coach.

Oh Turpin he at last was took
For the shooting of a dung-hill cock,
And carried straight into jail
Where his bad move he does bewail.

Well Turpin is condemned to die,
To hang upon yon gallows high;
Whose legacy is a strong rope,
For the shooting of a dung-hill cock.