GOSSIPING HISTORY—DE QUINCEY'S ACCOUNT OF HATFIELD.
In proof of the severity with which the laws against forgery were enforced, I have been referred to the case of Hatfield, hanged in 1803 for forging franks. It is given very fully in Mr. De Quincey's "Literary Recollections of Coleridge" in the first volume of the Boston edition of his Works.
The story has some romance in it, and excited great interest fifty years ago. Hatfield had lived by swindling; and, though he underwent an imprisonment for debt, had, upon the whole, a long career of success. The last scene of his depredations was the Lakes, where he married a barmaid, who was called "The Beauty of Buttermere." Shortly after the marriage he was arrested, tried, and executed. Mr. De Quincey afterwards lived in the neighbourhood, dined at the public-house kept by Mary's father, and was waited upon by her. He had the fullest opportunities of getting correct information: and his version of the story is so truthlike, that I should have accepted it without hesitation but for the hanging for forging a frank. As that offence never was capital, and was made a felony punishable with transportation for seven years by 42 Geo. III. c. 63., I was impelled to compare the statement founded on gossip with more formal accounts; and I send the result in illustration of the small reliance which is to be placed on tradition in such matters. The arrival of Hatfield in a carriage is graphically described. He called himself the Hon. Augustus Hope, brother of the Earl of Hopetoun. Some doubts were felt at first, but—
"To remove suspicion, he not only received letters addressed to him under this assumed name, but he continually franked letters by that name. Now, that being a capital offence, being not only a forgery, but (as a forgery on the Post-office) sure to be prosecuted, nobody presumed to question his pretensions any longer; and henceforward he went to all places with the consideration due to an earl's brother."—P. 196.
The marriage with Mary Robinson, and the way in which they passed the honeymoon, are described:
"They continued to move backwards and forwards, until at length, with the startling of a thunderclap to the affrighted mountaineers, the bubble burst; officers of justice appeared, the stranger was easily intercepted from flight, and, upon a capital charge, he was borne away to Carlisle. At the ensuing assizes he was tried for forgery on the prosecution of the Post-office, found guilty, left for execution, and executed accordingly."—P. 199.
"One common scaffold confounds the most flinty hearts and the tenderest. However, it was in some measure the heartless part of Hatfield's conduct which drew upon him his ruin; for the Cumberland jury, as I have been told, declared their unwillingness to hang him for having forged a frank; and both they, and those who refused to aid his escape when first apprehended, were reconciled to this harshness entirely by what they heard of his conduct to their injured young fellow-countrywoman."—P. 201.
Hatfield was not "easily intercepted from flight." Sir Frederick Vane granted a warrant to apprehend him on the charge of forcing franks. Hatfield ordered dinner at the Queen's Head, Keswick, to be ready at three; took a boat, and did not return. This was on October 6: he was married to Mary on the 2nd. In November he was apprehended near Brecknock, in Wales: so those who refused to aid his escape, if such there were, were not "reconciled to the hardship by what they heard of his conduct to their young fellow-countrywoman." The "startling of the thunderclap" was preceded by an ordinary proclamation, describing the offender, and offering a reward of 50l. for his apprehension. He was not "hurried away to Carlisle," but deliberately taken to London on December 12; examined at Bow Street, remanded three times, and finally committed; and sent to Carlisle, where he was tried on August 15, 1803.
Three indictments were preferred against him: the first for forging a bill of exchange for 20l., drawn by Alexander Augustus Hope on John Crump, payable to George Wood; the second for a similar bill for 30l.; and the third for counterfeiting Colonel Hope's handwriting to defraud the Post-office.
The Cumberland jury did not "declare their unwillingness to hang him for forging a frank," that not being a capital offence. I infer, also, that it was one for which he was not tried. He was convicted on the first indictment; the court rose immediately after the jury had given their verdict; and the prisoner was called up for judgment at eight the next morning. Trying a man under sentence of death for a transportable felony, is contrary to all practice. Hatfield was executed at Carlisle on September 3, 1803.
Mary's misfortunes induced the sympathising public to convert her into a minor heroine. She seems to have been a common-place person, with small claims to the title of "The Beauty of Buttermere." A cotemporary account says, "she is rather gap-toothed and somewhat pock-marked." And Mr. De Quincey, after noticing her good figure, says, "the expression of her countenance was often disagreeable."
"A lady, not very scrupulous in her embellishment of facts, used to tell an anecdote of her which I hope was exaggerated. Some friend of hers, as she affirmed, in company with a large party, visited Buttermere a day or two after that on which Hatfield suffered; and she protested that Mary threw on the table, with an emphatic gesture, the Carlisle paper containing an elaborate account of the execution."—P. 204.
Considering the treatment she had received, it is not unlikely that her love, if she ever had any for a fat man of forty-five, was turned into hatred; and it was not to be expected that her taste would keep down the manifestation of such feeling. When Hatfield was examined at Bow Street, Sir Richard Ford, the chief magistrate, ordered the clerk to read aloud a letter which he received from her. It was:
"Sir,—The man whom I had the misfortune to marry, and who has ruined me and my aged and unhappy parents, always told me that he was the Hon. Colonel Hope, the next brother to the Earl of Hopetoun.
"Your grateful and unfortunate servant,
"Mary Robinson."
I do not blame Mr. De Quincey, having no doubt that he believed what he was told; but I have put together these facts and discrepancies, to show how careful we should be in accepting traditions, when a man of very high ability, with the best opportunities of getting at the truth, was so egregiously misled.
My authorities are, The Annual Register, 1803, pp. 421. and 428.; The Gentleman's Magazine, 1803, pp. 779. 876. and 983.; Kirby's Wonderful Magazine, vol. i. pp. 309. and 336. The Newgate Calendar gives a similar account but not having it at hand, I cannot vouch it.
H. B. C.
U. U. Club.