A character of that name appeared in the story "The String of Pearls," but was an older potential suitor of Johanna Oakley (with her mother's approval) with no personal connection to Sweeney Todd.

It was not until Christopher Bond wrote his 1973 play Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street that the character of Judge Turpin emerged as he is most often portrayed.

[citation needed] In Bond's play and its subsequent adaptations by Stephen Sondheim and Tim Burton, Judge Turpin has Benjamin Barker arrested and sent to a penal colony in Australia in order to have Barker's wife, Lucy, to himself.

He sends his henchman, Beadle Bamford, to summon her to his home, "blaming himself for her dreadful plight."

Todd is about to cut Turpin's throat when he is interrupted by Hope, who reveals Johanna's plan to escape.