A highwayman whose travels did not stop at death
Tucked away in an unremarkable corner of York is the last resting place of a remarkable man. Or possibly not.
Dick Turpin, legendary highwayman and star of a thousand songs, stories, and screenplays, was laid to rest in St George’s Churchyard on George Street in 1739. You can still see the gravestone, with an inscription that reads, “John Palmer otherwise Richard Turpin The notorious highwayman and horse stealer.” We know he was definitely buried here. What we can’t be sure of is whether his remains still reside under the tombstone.
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Address George Street, York YO1 9PT | Public Transport 1-minute walk from Peel Street car park. Closest bus stop: St Denys’ Road | Tip St George’s Church, across the road, has its own interesting history. It was built in 1849 and one of the architects was Joseph Hansom, inventor of the Hansom cab.
Thanks to some positive spin after his execution, Dick is remembered as a dashing dandy, a man of the people who delighted in unburdening rich travellers of their jewels and trinket boxes. In these reinterpretations, Dick is the man with the pistol holding up a stagecoach with the famous refrain, “Stand and deliver!”
Sadly, the truth is less romantic. Dick was a nasty bit of work. Born in Essex, north-east of London, he joined a violent gang of horse thieves. He became a highwayman when the rest of his posse was arrested, and with the authorities closing in on him, he shot a man dead in Epping Forest in 1737. He fled to Yorkshire, where he was apprehended and locked up in York Castle jail. You can visit his cell in the bowels of York Castle Museum today.
Tried and found guilty, he was sentenced to death. On the day of execution Dick dressed in a new frock coat and shoes, and was accompanied to the gallows by five mourners he hired for the occasion. Grave robbers were discovered stealing his body from St George’s the next morning, probably to sell to a surgeon for dissection classes. But they gave up the corpse after being chased by an angry mob.
Was he reburied permanently in the churchyard? We can’t be sure. And the gravestone is unlikely to mark the spot – it was put there more than 100 years later.
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