Dick Turpin? Really?

As I was adding Jethro Shaw to our family tree a few days ago, I came across this claim:

“Jethro SHAW of Oakerside Wensley farmer was a very stout able man & was said to have taken TURPIN, a notorious highwayman on Bonsall Moor”.

By Viles, Edward - http://libraries.theeuropeanlibrary.org/UnitedKingdom/treasures_en.xml, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8756024

The note was included in one of Ince’s pedigrees (“Pedigree of the family of Mr James SHAW of Bolehill Wirksworth, drawn up at his relation 28 Apr 1829 by T N Ince Wirksworth. He the Relator being nearly 78 years old”)

Thomas Norris Ince was a Wirksworth solicitor (1799–1860) who compiled a book of pedigrees, based on legal documents and family information. The pedigrees are available on the wonderful Wirksworth website (http://www.wirksworth.org.uk/Index.htm).

On the same website, Stuart Flint offered his history of the Shaw family in 2006, including this (punctuation added):

"Jethro Shaw, born 16/02/1686, married Silence Godbehere, widow of George Godbehere of Cromford. … George Godbehere died within 2 years of their marriage, and Silence then married Jethro Shaw of Wensley, a farmer at Oakerside … In Ince Pedigrees it records Jethro as having tangled with Dick Turpin possibly on Winster Moor … Some historians make the claim that Turpin never made it into Derbyshire but I have been informed by others that Turpin did indeed ride the highways of our county ... although it is known that some highwaymen made themselves out as Turpin".

Footpath and narrow stile between Bonsall Moor and Winster

According to his marriage record in 1707, Jethro Shaw came from Rowsley, now the site of a retail outlet.

So we have dates and locations for Jethro Shaw, but what about Dick Turpin? According to Wikipedia, he was born in Essex in about 1705, and was in Yorkshire in 1737. He was sentenced to death and hanged in 1739.

Gravestone at Fishergate, York. By Gareth Foster, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8352074

But was he ever in Derbyshire? I found a website called Fortean Belper, which includes a tale that Turpin “stayed at The Peacock Inn, Oakerthorpe, and lost one of his pistols there.  His ghost comes back, from time to time”. (https://www.forteanbelper.com/talking-turpin.html)

I guess we will never know, but it's a good story!

Pamphlet published by Thomas Kyll ten days after Dick Turpin was executed - http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3271056, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8376460

Ari and Eva, Jethro Shaw was your 9x great-grandfather.