Tom Cook, Westborough’s Robin Hood, saw himself as the “Leveler”
since he balanced the local economy by giving to the poor what he stole from
the rich. Noted for his cunning and
personal charm, Tom Cook was born on October 6, 1738 in the “plaster house” at 114 East Main Street
on the west corner of Lyman Street . He was the son of the blacksmith Cornelius
Cook and his wife Eunice Forbush Cook.
Legend has it that as a child Tom became deathly ill, and
his mother- at her wit’s end- cried out, “Only spare his life, only spare his
life, and I care not what he becomes!” Miraculously the child was spared and
grew into a handsome scoundrel who made his livelihood by his sharp wit and
agile fingers. The Cook family left
Westborough to settle in Wrentham in 1750, but Tom Cook chose to wander the New England countryside, stealing from carefully chosen,
affluent victims. Supposedly Cook also
managed to collect protection money from those who did not relish a visit from
the thief.
Tom Cook kept none of this booty for himself; he doled it
out generously to those less fortunate than their neighbors. He would slip into one prosperous farmer’s
kitchen and steal a pudding cooking on the fire, only to drop it into the pot
of a hungry family down the road.
One story has Tom climbing into a bedroom and selecting the
very best featherbed. Wrapping the
comforter in a sheet, he climbed out the window, went around the hosue, and
knocked at the door. When the mistress
of the house answered the door, Tom Cook asked politely if he might leave his
bundle with her for safekeeping. The woman
refused to have either Tom Cook or his bundle in her house, so off he went with
a clear conscience to present a sick comrade with the featherbed.
Although he was often arrested, Tom seemed little interested
in mending his ways. Reverend Parkman
recorded in his journal for August 27, 1779, “The notorious Thomas Cook came in
(he says) on Purpose to see me. I gave
him what Admonition, Instruction, and Caution I could. I beseech God to give it Force! He leaves me With fair Words – thankful and
Promising.”
In his old age, Cook no longer could rely on his wits to
live. His last years were spent on the Upton Road farm of
Levi Bowman who boarded the town’s poor.
Tom Cook died near the age of ninety and is thought to be buried in an
unmarked pauper’s grave in town.
More of his exploits are described in The Leveller by Jackie
Greene (1984) and The Hundredth Town by Harriet M. Forbes.
do you find his behavior acceptable?
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