John Austin (highwayman) John Austin (highwayman) John Austin (died 7 November 1783) was an English footpad who became the last person to be hanged at the Tyburn gallows outside London. He was sentenced to death for the murder of a labourer called John Spicer from Kent. The Recorder of London, James Adair, described it as a "robbery with violence" that involved "cutting and wounding [...] in a cruel manner." This hanging would mark the end of Tyburn, a village then in the county of Middlesex, being a place of executions for almost 600 years. Austin was brought from Newgate prison in the City
The Highwayman (poem) The Highwayman (poem) "The Highwayman" is a narrative poem written by Alfred Noyes, first published in the August 1906 issue of "Blackwood's Magazine", based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The following year it was included in Noyes' collection, "Forty Singing Seamen and Other Poems", becoming an immediate success. In 1995 it was voted 15th in the BBC's poll for "The Nation's Favourite Poems". The poem, set in 18th century rural England, tells the story of an unnamed highwayman who is in love with Bess, a landlord's daughter. Betrayed to the authorities by Tim, a jealous ostler, the highwayman escapes ambush when Bess