Claude Duval Claude Duval Claude Du Vall (or Duval) (164321 January 1670) was a French highwayman in Restoration England. He came from a family of decayed nobility, and worked in the service of exiled royalists who returned to England under King Charles II. Little else is known of his history. According to popular legend, he abhorred violence, showing courtesy to his victims and chivalry to their womenfolk, thus spawning the myth of the romantic highwayman, as taken up by many novelists and playwrights. Claude Duvall was born in Domfront, Orne, Normandy in 1643 to a noble family stripped of title and land.
Dick Turpin 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 £ as of 2019) reward originally offered by the Duke of Newcastle following Turpin's murder of Thomas Morris. Although there was some question as to where the trial should be held—the Duke of