DICK TURPIN

Much of my childhood was coloured by tales of Dick Turpin, the highwayman, because a short distance from our home in Long Sutton (Lincs) was a narrow roadway known as Swapcote Lane. And it was there, according to folklore, that Turpin exchanged his coat with a sympathetic local and thus escaped his pursuers.
The story, however, has many holes in it. To begin with, Swapcote - named thus before Turpin was born - was also known as Swepcot, and before that, Nettlebed Lane. And second, although Turpin is thought to have had relatives in the area, not many Suttonians would have displayed much sympathy for him. Because Turpin was more than a bully. He was also a thug, a swindler and a murderer.
He had arrived in the town in July, 1737, his previous hunting grounds of Epping Forest, Finchley Common and Hounslow Heath having become too hot for him. In his 30s, stylishly dressed, and with a face scarred by smallpox, he announced himself as a horse dealder and butcher named John Palmer (Palmer being his mother's maiden name).
Legend also had it that he stabled his horse in High Street, then known as Village Street or Kirkgate. This at least may have been true, for there was also a tradition that Turpin's cottage and butcher's shop were attached to buildings owned by families named Crosby, on one side, and Oliver on the other.
Palmer appeared to be a person of substance, and although he stayed only nine months it was noted he was frequently away, and was thought to have attended Manchester races. However, it began to dawn on folk that Palmer was not who he said he was, and a complaint (or perhaps several complaints, possibly for horse stealing) was levelled against him. Finally, an arrest warrant was issued by the JP, Mr Delamore, but when a constable went to serve it he was knocked to the ground. Palmer was not seen in the town again.
And that might have been the end of the story as far as Long Sutton was concerned until, a year later, Mr Delamore received a letter from a magistrate in Beverley, Yorkshire, saying that Palmer had been arrested for shooting, while drunk, his landlord's gamecock, and asking if, as Palmer had evidently claimed, his father lived in Long Sutton. Mr Delamore replied giving the details of the attempted arrest and assault on the constable. And so the highwayman's goose was cooked.
The trial of John Palmer opened at York Assizes on March 22, 1739, and faced with the evidence he soon admitted that he was Richard (Dick) Turpin, one-time Essex butcher and highwayman. Nevertheless, at his trial he was found guilty only of horse stealing. But it was enough. He was 34 when he was hanged, a clerk later writing on the verdict sheet: 'Guilty. No goods. Hanged.'
In more recent years Long Sutton has been fascinated by Turpin's short stay, and there is one account, written by a former local clergyman, Canon Leigh Bennett, in which he said he had talked to a builder named Carbutt who remembered demolishing a cottage at the back of the then Post Office near where the Old Welcome pub had once stood. This cottage said to have have been, briefly, Turpin's home.
Mr Carbutt also claimed, apparently, that during the demolition he found a horse pistol with a silver handle, and the skeleton of a horse. Possible, of course, but in terms of local folklore this was two stories too far.