Dick Turpin Dick Turpin Richard Turpin (bapt. 21 September 1705 – 7 April 1739) was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher early in his life but, by the early 1730s, he had joined a gang of deer thieves and, later, became a poacher, burglar, horse thief and killer. He is also known for a fictional overnight ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess, a story that was made famous by the Victorian novelist William Harrison Ainsworth almost 100 years after
Charles Allen Duval of England Magazine' vol 1, 1842: Some of his other well-known sitters were Charles Halle, Joseph Whitworth, Samuel Bough and the inventor Joseph Burch whose portrait is now in the Science Museum. Duval painted an oil portrait of the inventor Joseph Burch (1825–1898) measuring 84 x 68.5 cm. It was commissioned by the Patent Museum and is now in the Science Museum store at Blythe House. Some of his inventions can also be seen at the Museum: For a comprehensive list of Duval's works see: the 'Arnold Hyde Dictionary' of local artists compiled in the 1930 at Manchester Art Gallery.