Tom Cox (highwayman) hangman out of the cart carrying him to the gallows. Samuel Smith recorded that: He was listed in James Caulfield's "Blackguardiana: or, a dictionary of rogues, bawds, pimps, whores, pickpockets, shoplifters, &c." (1793) and features in a song sung by a character in the novel "Rookwood" (1834) by W. Harrison Ainsworth as follows: Tom Cox (highwayman) Thomas Cox (c. 1665 – 12 September 1690), known as "The Handsome Highwayman", was an English highwayman, sentenced to death and hanged at Tyburn. He had a reputation for a spirited nature and it is reported that when asked if he wished to say
The Highwayman (poem) age when I was genuinely excited by that kind of romantic story." 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