Henry More Smith: The Mysterious Stranger

to his berth,
Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
By WALTER BATES, Esquire
Sheriff of Kings County
Being an Authentic Account of the Numerous Arrests, Remarkable Doings and Wonderful Escapes of the Most Noted Road Agent who ever Pestered the Authorities of New Brunswick
PRINTED AT THE STRATHMORE PRESS SAINT JOHN, N. B., FOR JOHN A. BOWES PUBLISHER, NINETEEN HUNDRED AND TEN
Sometime in the month of July, 1812, nearly a hundred years ago now, a well dressed, smooth spoken man, less than thirty years of age, made his appearance at Windsor, Nova Scotia. He was looking for employment, but gave those who enquired about his antecedents but little satisfaction, further than he had recently come from England, and could do almost anything in a mechanical way, and was familiar also with farm work. He was engaged under the name of Frederick Henry More by a farmer named Bond, who resided in the village of Rawden, and remained there about a year without attracting unusual attention, except for his piety. Elizabeth, the daughter of his employer, became enamored with the stranger More and on March 12, 1813, they were married, much against the will of her parents and friends.
After his marriage More took up the occupations of pedlar and tailor, which gave him an opportunity to travel about the country and to make frequent excursions to Halifax, where he appears first to have turned his remarkable talent as a thief and burglar to profitable account for upwards of a year before he was detected. He escaped the clutches of the law in Nova Scotia and reached St. John in July, 1814. Less fortunate in his operations in New Brunswick than he had been in Nova Scotia, he was arrested and lodged in Kingston gaol on July 24, 1814 on a charge of horse stealing, which in those days was punishable by death. Here he gave the name of Henry More Smith. Walter Bates was then Sheriff of Kings county, and it is to him that the public is indebted for the story of this many-sided man, who was beyond all question the most remarkable person ever confined in a New Brunswick prison.