Saturday Scenes

On the 23rd of February in 1739, a murderer was caught because his former school teacher recognised his handwriting. Dick Turpin was an English highwayman man who was known as a poacher, burglar, horse thief and murderer.

Turpin was hiding from the law at the Ferry Inn in Yorkshire under the alias of John Palmer when he landed in trouble for breaching the peace: he shot another man’s cock in the street and then threatened to shoot the man who rebuked him. He was committed to a House of Correction when he could not pay the required surety.

Local magistrates soon discovered that he had no apparent source of income. He was imprisoned in York Castle under suspicion of being a horse thief. However, his true identity was not discovered until he wrote a letter to his brother-in-law at Hempstead.

Dick Turpin – Wikipedia

From his cell, Turpin wrote to his brother-in-law, Pompr Rivernall, who also lived at Hempstead. Rivernall was married to Turpin’s sister, Dorothy. The letter was kept at the local post office, but seeing the York post stamp Rivernall refused to pay the delivery charge, claiming that he “had no correspondent at York”.

Rivernall may not have wanted to pay the charge for the letter, or he may have wished to distance himself from Turpin’s affairs, and so the letter was moved to the post office at Saffron Walden where James Smith, who had taught Turpin how to write while the latter was at school, recognised the handwriting. He alerted JP Thomas Stubbing, who paid the postage and opened the letter. Smith travelled to York Castle and on 23 February identified Palmer as Turpin. He received the £200 (about £27,000 as of 2013) reward originally offered by the Duke of Newcastle following Turpin’s murder of Thomas Morris.

On the 23rd of February in 2013, some excellent photographs were taken from locations all over the world. It would be criminal not to at least take a look!

And these are the upstanding citizens who took them:

• ClareRevell
• TheSilentPlanet
• elibrody
• AmboClaire
• maidbloke
• madyline
• exRAFairman
• davey_steven
• Namasqui
• JanetIsserlis
• HeideSpruck
• WadeyLady001
• akrabat
• icklemouse
• jamesnnb
• SazzyMCH
• mousewords
• ernmander
• HarryMyhre
• DaughterofLir
• robdavies
• annemnicholas
• martin_chrisj
• JeannieKelly
• CliffStanford
• fembat
• dudleypj
• Pewari
• akaSylvia
• RobStormchaser

Did you know that you can find out what people are up to on other days of the week? Just take a look at the Twitter list for Saturday Scenes of 2012!

If you submitted a photograph this year, you have been added to the list. It’s fun to watch it grow as the year progresses.

And if you haven’t submitted yet – join us! Just take a photograph on Saturday and send the link to @SatScenes with the location! It’s easy and fun and we love seeing new sights.

Did you know that you can find out what people are up to on other days of the week? Just take a look at the Twitter list for Saturday Scenes of 2013!

If you submitted a photograph this year, you have been added to the list. It’s fun to watch it grow as the year progresses; we’re up to 62 members already!

And if you haven’t submitted yet – join us! Just take a photograph on Saturday and send the link to @SatScenes with the location! It’s easy and fun and we love seeing new sights.