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Turpin Hero

[ Roud 621 ; Laws L10 ; Ballad Index LL10 ; trad.]

Shirley Collins learnt this ballad about the legendary Highwayman at school. She sang it in 1959 on her first LP Sweet England. This track was also included in her anthology Within Sound.

Ewan MacColl sang Turpin Hero in 1960 on his and Peggy Seeger's album Chorus from the Gallows. This track was also included in the extended CD reissue of on Bold Sportsmen All. Roy Harris sang it in 1972 on his LP The Bitter and the Sweet and John Roberts & Tony Barrand in 1998 on their CD Heartoutbursts: English Folksongs collected by Percy Grainger. The last album's sleeve note commented:

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 19th 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. She commented in her sleeve notes:

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.

Lyrics

Shirley Collins sings Turpin Hero	Eliza Carthy 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?”	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	Chorus (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.”	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 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.”	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.”
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.
	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.

Links

See also the Mudcat Café thread Lyr Req: Turpin Hero (from Roy Harris).