Being in the lobby of the lords one day, when an appeal of an interesting nature was expected to come on, so that Barrington thought to profit by numbers of genteel people that generally attend; unhappily for Barrington’s projects, a gentleman recognised his person, and applying to the deputy usher of the black rod, Barrington was disgracefully turned out, and, of course, totally disappointed of the harvest he had promised himself.
Barrington, having by some means heard that this gentleman was the person who had denounced him to the keeper of the lobby, was so indiscreet as to threaten him with revenge for what he deemed an unmerited injury; but, the magistrates thinking otherwise, they granted, upon that gentleman’s complaint, a warrant against Barrington to bind him over to keep the peace. His credit having sunk so very low, that not one of all his numerous acquaintance would become a surety for him, he was compelled to go to Tothill-fields Bridewell, where he remained a considerable time under confinement, from his inability to procure the bail that was required. However, having again obtained a release from that disagreeable quarter, he had no alternative but that of his old profession, and, therefore, in about three months afterwards, we find him detected in picking the pocket of a low woman, at Drury-Lane theatre, for which, being indicted and convicted at the Old Bailey, he was sentenced to ballast-heaving, or, in other words, to three years’ hard labor on the river Thames, on board of the hulks at Woolwich. As soon as it was convenient, in the spring of 1777, Barrington was put on board one of these vessels.
A sudden remove from ease and affluence to a scene of wretched servitude and suffering, and the privation of almost every comfort in life, could not but have a most sensible effect upon a man in his condition. In short, he was not only harassed and fatigued with labor, to which he had been unaccustomed, but even disgusted with the filthy language of his fellow-convicts, whose blasphemous effusions, which they seemed to make use of by way of amusement, must have been a constant source of the most disagreeable sensations in the mind of almost any person not totally lost to the feelings and the decencies of civilized, or even a savage state of existence. At length the mental, as well as the corporeal sufferings of Barrington, did not escape the notice of Messrs. Erskine and Duncan Campbell, the superintendents of the convicts; for, in consequence of Barrington’s good behavior, and through the interference of these gentlemen, he was again set at liberty, after sustaining nearly a twelvemonth’s severe suffering on board the hulks of Woolwich.
Still, nothing that Barrington had yet undergone was sufficient to produce any cordial repentance in his mind. He again entered into the full practice of his former profession. In less than six months after his liberation from hard labor, he was detected by one Payne, a very zealous constable in the city, in the very act of picking pockets at St. Sepulchre’s church during divine service, and being convicted upon undeniable evidence at the ensuing Old Bailey sessions, he was a second time sentenced to hard labor on board the hulks, and that for five years.
It was upon his trial on this occasion, that Barrington was first noticed in the public prints as an able speaker. He then essayed, with no small degree of artifice, to interest the feelings of the court in his behalf; but the evidences of his guilt being too forcible and repeated, and all his efforts proving abortive, he was once more removed to the hulks, about the middle of the year 1778. Being a second time in this humiliating and disgraceful situation, he found his imaginary consequence so much hurt, that, failing in a variety of plans to effect his escape, his next attempt was to destroy himself. For this purpose, he took an opportunity to be seen stabbing himself with a penknife in the breast; but as the wound, by the immediate application of medical assistance, was slowly healed, he continued to linger in this new state of wretchedness, till, happening to be seen by a gentleman who came to visit the hulks, it produced another event in his favor.
The gentleman just alluded to being most sensibly affected by the dejected and squalid appearance of Barrington, made a most successful use of his influence with government to obtain Barrington’s release, upon the condition that he should leave the kingdom. To this as Barrington gladly assented, he generously supplied him with a sum of money to defray the expense of his removal to Ireland, where it is understood this unhappy offender always persisted in stating that he had friends and relatives of credit and character. In London he did not think proper to stay longer than was needful to procure necessaries for his journey; he therefore took the Chester coach, and in the course of a week was enabled to reach the Irish capital, where his fame having arrived before, he was looked upon with such an eye of suspicion, that he was shortly apprehended for picking the pocket of an Irish nobleman of a gold watch and his money at one of the theatres, and was soon after committed to the New Gaol to be tried upon the charge, but was acquitted for want of evidence.
Though he was acquitted on this occasion, he was perfectly convinced that the Irish capital would be too warm to retain him. He quickly determined to leave Ireland, and accordingly removed to the northern parts of that kingdom, through which he took his way to Edinburgh, where he concluded that he might, for some time at least, commit his depredations with greater safety and facility than he could do either in London or Dublin.
But, in the opinion which he had formed of the character of the Scots, he soon learned by experience that he was grossly mistaken; for he was quickly observed in the capital of Scotland, where the police is more vigilant and severe than in most other parts of the British dominions. He therefore thought it prudent to depart from Edinburgh, where his gleanings were comparatively small.
However, being determined to return to London, he took Chester in his way, and it being fair-time there, he is said to have contrived to get possession of the amount of six hundred pounds in cash and bank notes, with which he got clear off.
Such are the delusions of vice and the fatal sweets of ill-gotten wealth, that, though additional danger attended his public appearance, from the infraction of the terms on which he was liberated from his confinement on board the hulks, (which were those of his leaving the kingdom and never more returning to it,) still he frequented the theatres, the Opera House, and the Pantheon, with tolerable success. But he was now too notorious to be long secure: he was closely watched and well-nigh detected at the latter of these places; at least, such strong suspicions were entertained by the magistrates of his conduct on the occasion, that he was taken into custody, and committed to Newgate.