“I’ve no more notion where I was born, than you have – if so much. I first become aware of myself down in Essex, a thieving turnips for my living. Summun had run away from me – a man – a tinker – and he’d took the fire with him, and left me wery cold.”
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 42. Magwitch’s biography, as explained to Pip, is that he was born a poor orphan and had to resort to crime in order to survive. He stole turnips so that he could eat and stay alive.