Monsieur Turpin

Francois Henri Turpin was born in Caen, France in 1709 and died, possibly in Paris, in 1799. So he was a contemporary of Mr. Richard Turpin.

He was a professor at the University of Caen, then moved to Paris, as so many did in the 18th century, to seek his fortune. He spent his days philosophising with the likes of Claude Helvetius, himself a man of letters, mathematics and philosophy enjoying an allowance of 100,000 crowns a year from the Queen of France. Francois Turpin was not so lucky and "he was only enabled with difficulty to earn a livelyhood by putting his pen at the service of the booksellers".


Claude Adrien Helvetius - a man of the Enlightenment and wigs

His most famous essay was La France illustre, ou Le Plutarque Francais but its critics were harsh and claimed Turpin was "ni Plutarque ni Francais" - so, not a very good writer then.


source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. 1926
appologies to French speakers, this software doesn't seem to support accents, or if it does I haven't found them. Francois should have a cedilla on the c, as should Francais, and Helvetius has an accute on the second e.