In the life of Henry Cook recorded by George Borrow, an early scene is played out upon Finchley Common: the robber caught a horse by the bridle and commanded the rider to dismount on pain of death. The traveller obeyed. Cook took his purse and his mount. The gentleman then offered him three guineas if he would send the beast to an inn at St Albans. Cook promised to do so; yet, once clear of the place, he kept the animal for himself. The owner was thus left to wait for a horse that the highwayman had resolved never to return.
Cook had first been apprenticed to a leather-cutter. His father subsequently established him in a shop of his own at Stratford, where the young man married and had three children. The trade declined as he neglected his bench to keep dissolute company; his debts grew so heavy that he fled his house for fear of the bailiffs. In concert with an apothecary named Young, he took to plundering gardens, fishponds, and hen-roosts. A reward was proclaimed and a warrant granted. Duly warned, Cook lay hid for two months at the house of a kinsman at Grays, in Essex.
He then learned that a Stratford bailiff had sworn to apprehend him. Cook sent word, bidding the officer "look to his own safety," for should their paths cross, he would blow his brains out. The missive sufficed to daunt the man. Returning secretly to Stratford, Cook found another man grown familiar with his wife; enraged, he seized the household furniture and sold it in London. A relation in Shoreditch harboured him so long as his money held out. When his last resources were spent, Cook bought powder, ball, and a pair of pistols in Moorfields.
Upon the Newington road, he robbed a traveller of fifteen shillings, then returned to London. The next day, he took his station on Finchley Common and stopped the gentleman mentioned at the outset. Having kept the horse promised to St Albans, he rode across country to Enfield Chase and sought shelter at an inn where he was known, feigning fear of arrest for debt. He remained there two days, then took about six pounds near Tottenham. On the morrow, he robbed eight pounds from a coach upon the St Albans road. An advertisement accurately describing the stolen gelding soon compelled him to quit his retreat.
At Hadley Common, near Barnet, Cook robbed a gentleman and forced an exchange of horses, leaving his own spent mount in return. At South Mims, catching sight in the inn of a traveller he had previously plundered, he hurried to the stables, vaulted into the saddle, and spurred away. Between Mims and Barnet, he fell in with eight horsemen, one of whom recognised the beast. Cook brazenly declared he had bought it at the Bell in Edmonton, and offered to ride thither to prove his word. Nearing the village, he wheeled into a by-lane and presented a pistol at his pursuers. Country folk raised the alarm, and as night fell, Cook abandoned the horse and took to the woods.
He made his way back to London and soon returned to the highway. At Finchley, still shaken by his narrow escape, he let several travellers pass unmolested; but after dark, he robbed an elderly man of his mount and five pounds. Shortly thereafter, he forced another rider to exchange horses, foisting upon him the beast he had just taken. The owner of the first horse came up with the traveller, recognised his property, and reclaimed it, leaving the innocent man to make his way on foot. Cook, meanwhile, returned to his old haunt near the Chase.
The horse was presently cried in the gazettes. Its owner, joined by three companions, seized Cook and carried him to Newgate. At the ensuing sessions of the Old Bailey, the prosecutor could not swear positively to his face, and Cook was acquitted. His friends subsequently compounded his debts, and he went back to live with his wife at Stratford. He reopened his shop, yet the lure of the road remained strong. Displaying thirty pounds to his journeyman, Taylor, Cook asked how such a sum might be laid out in hides. Taylor perceived how the money had been gotten and offered to ride with him as his partner upon the highway. Cook agreed.
The pair stopped numerous coaches upon the skirts of Epping Forest. Their repeated robberies threw the countryside into terror, though their caution long averted suspicion. Captain Mawley took a place in the basket of the Colchester stagecoach for the express purpose of keeping watch. When Cook and Taylor demanded the passengers' money, Mawley fired: the ball struck Taylor full in the head. Cook turned instantly upon the captain, robbed him at pistol-point, and rifled his dead comrade's pockets as the coach drove off. Hearing the country people gather and say they knew the fallen man, and that he had been in company with Cook, the robber withdrew behind a hedge, listened, and then struck across the fields to London.
In the capital, Cook passed three days in riot and prodigality, then sent a kinsman to gather tidings at Stratford. Warrants were out; he was counselled to take to the sea. He promised to do so, but instead purchased a horse and rode to Brentwood. There, hearing the folk talk of the "notorious Stratford highwayman," he followed a stagecoach on the morrow and took thirty pounds from the passengers. He presently fell in with a London gang. Near Bow, they stopped a coach conveying youths from their academy. Mr Cruikshanks came up on horseback; one of the robbers demanded his purse, and upon his hesitating, another struck him dead on the spot. The band divided the spoil at an alehouse near Hackney Marsh. Cook soon parted from them, yet the memory of the murder gave him no rest.
Assuming another name, he went to St Albans and worked three weeks as a shoemaker. Taking fright when a pursued highwayman rode through the town, he fled towards Woburn. On the road, he robbed a farmer of fifty pounds and a horse, then reached Birmingham, where he sold the mount and set up shop under the name of Stevens. Mrs Barrett, whom he engaged first as his housekeeper and then took as his mistress, accompanied him to the races and places of diversion. His funds dwindling, Cook told her that an aunt allowed him an annuity of a hundred pounds, and departed under pretence of receiving his quarter's payment. Near Dunstable, he robbed a farmer of sixteen pounds and a horse; at Daventry, he fell in with a Manchester merchant, with whom he rode towards Coventry. Cook advised his companion to conceal his gold against the perils of the road, slipped his own into his boot, and watched the merchant deposit his purse into his pocket. In a lonely lane, Cook drew upon him and took thirty-five guineas.
Cook returned to Birmingham and carried on his trade, taking to the road only when his purse ran low. A London tradesman happening to ask how long he had lived in the town, Cook took alarm and fled. Near Highgate, he robbed a Mr Zachary of his horse and money. The following day, he committed another robbery in Epping Forest, then rode through Stratford. He saluted old acquaintances from the saddle, but dared not dismount. His kinsman again urged him to fly. Meeting him at South Mims, Cook begged him to sell five watches; the man refused, bidding him dispose of them himself in London. Near nightfall, Cook followed a chaise down the descent towards Holloway and demanded the purses of two gentlemen within. The postillion whipped his horses instead of pulling up; Cook fired, wounding one of the occupants in the arm, and galloped back towards Mims.
On the following day, he went into London to sell the watches. A woman recognised him in Cheapside, dogged his steps to a public house in Norton Folgate, and fetched a constable. The officer found upon Cook five watches and about nine pounds in coin. Mr Zachary identified him before the magistrate. Cook offered to impeach his pretended accomplices, but his proposal was rejected and he was committed to Newgate. The chronicle records that he formed a desperate plot to butcher the keepers and break gaol; the design being discovered, he was loaded with heavy irons and cast into the condemned hold.
Tried at the Old Bailey and cast for death, Cook at first made light of his sentence. Yet when the dead-warrant arrived, he fell into violent convulsions and never regained his health or his courage. He was carried to Tyburn and hanged on the 6th of December 1741. Borrow does not specify which of his many highway robberies formed the ground of his capital conviction.