I know you are not supposed to do this, so if the powers want to delete this posting, so be it, but from Jon Raven's book "Turpin Hero", this is the first verse

On (Dm) Hounslow (C) Heath as (Dm) I rode o'er
I spied a lawyer (Dm) riding before.
"Kind (F) Sir", said I, (C) "ain't (F) you afraid
Of (Dm) Turpin, that mis- (C) chie- vous blade"
(Dm) O rare (C) Turpin hero,
(Dm) O rare (C) Turpin- (Dm) O

His notes read:

Turpin, like Robin Hood, is one of the criminal heroes that many of us grow up with. Their exploits, way of life, and colourful characters seem everything any one could want from life. We see them as we see the television personality or the pop star. We see the side that glitters and we feel envy and perhaps jelousy, but there are many sides to every person, some good, some bad, some happy and some unhappy. For me, at least, Turpin and others like him gave release for dreams and fantasy.

Sad to say the facts are nothing like romantic as the fiction. He never did make that famous ride from London to York and he was a pretty unsuccessful robber too. He started life as a London butcher but he eventually became involved in cattle thefts. Later he took part in deer poaching in Epping Forest and then he became a highway robber. This does not seem to have been very successful either because he next turned up in Lincoln where he took to horse-stealing.

Discovered at this occupation, he fled to Yorkshire, took an assumed name and, 'lay low' for awhile. Alas, Turpin did shoot the cock mentioned in the song and this was probably his downfall. He was flung into prison to await trial and he decided to write to his brother in Essex. The letter was read by the authorities who then ralized they had "the" Turpin on their hands. He was charged with many of the crimes he had committed but he was eventually hanged for horse-stealing, the first crime of which he was actually proven guilty.

He was hanged at York in April 1739, aged thirty-four years.      



Allan