From the police notice for Hatfield’s arrest, 5 November 1802, reprinted in Knapp and Baldwin’s Newgate Calendar and Mary Robinson’s discovery of Hatfield’s deception, from The Life of Mary Robinson (1803)
In 1792, Captain Budworth described in A Fortnight’s Ramble in the Lakes the beautiful fourteen-year-old Mary Robinson, daughter of a local innkeeper, whom he encountered on his walking tour of the Lake District. ‘Her hair was thick and long, of a dark brown… her face was a fine oval with full eyes and lips as red as vermilion… She looked an angel.’ The Beauty of Buttermere, as Mary came to be known, was, eight years later, just as beautiful and, according to the poet William Wordsworth, unspoiled by the attention lavished on her since the publication of Budworth’s book. For the Romantics – including Thomas de Quincey and Samuel Coleridge as well as William and Dorothy Wordsworth – she came to represent Nature, Beauty and Innocence.
It was his connection with the Beauty of Buttermere that catapulted the forty-three-year-old John Hatfield into the public eye in 1802. He had enjoyed a long career of opportunism, petty swindling and avoiding unpaid bills. Posing as Colonel Alexander Hope, brother of the Earl of Hopetoun, and an MP, Hatfield was in the Lake District trying to marry an heiress (her wedding clothes had been bought but no date was set), when he met and befriended Mary Robinson. He seems genuinely to have fallen in love with her, and at length persuaded her to elope with him to Scotland. When his deception was discovered, Hatfield ran away, deserting his bride to avoid arrest. Eventually caught and tried, his misfortune almost destroyed Mary. She bore Hatfield a son in June 1803, just before his trial, and was so anxious about her husband that her milk dried up and she could not suckle the newborn, who died of pneumonia aged only three weeks old. Hatfield protested to the end that he had never meant to harm anyone, and died proudly, calm, pale and collected, showing no signs of either levity or insensibility.
Fifty Pounds Reward
NOTORIOUS IMPOSTOR, SWINDLER AND FELON
JOHN HATFIELD
Who lately married a young woman, commonly called
THE BEAUTY OF BUTTERMERE
under an assumed name.
Height about 5’ 10”, age about 44, full face, bright eyes, thick eyebrows, strong but light beard, good complexion with some colour, thick but not very prominent nose, smiling countenance, fine teeth, a scar on one of his cheeks near the chin, very long, thick, light hair, with a great deal of it grey, done up in a club, stout, square-shouldered, full breast and chest, rather corpulent and stout-limbed but very active, and has rather a spring in his gait, with apparently a little hitch in bringing up one leg; the two middle fingers of his left hand are stiff from an old wound and he frequently has the custom of pulling them straight with his right; has something of the Irish brogue in his speech, fluent and elegant in his language, great command of words, frequently puts his hand to his heart, very fond of compliments and generally addressing himself to persons most distinguished by rank or situation, attentive in the extreme to females, and likely to insinuate himself where there are young ladies; he was in America during the War, is fond of talking of his wounds and exploits there and on military subjects, as well as of Hatfield Hall, and his estates in Derbyshire and Chester, of the antiquity of his family, which he pretends to trace to the Plantagenets; all which are shameful falsehoods, thrown out to deceive. He makes a boast of having often been engaged in duels; he has been a great traveller also (by his own account) and talks of Egypt, Turkey, Italy, and in short has a general knowledge of subjects which, together with his engaging manner, is well calculated to impose on the credulous.
He was seven years confined in Scarborough gaol, from when he married, and removed into Devonshire, where he has basely deserted an amiable wife and a young family.
He had art enough to connect himself with some very respectable merchants in Devonshire as a partner in business, but having swindled them out of large sums of money he was made a separate bankrupt in June last, and has never surrendered to his commission, by which means he is guilty of a felony.
He cloaks his deceptions under the mask of religion, appears fond of religious conversation, and makes a point of attending divine service and popular preachers.
To consummate his villainies, he has lately, under the very respectable name of the Honourable Colonel Hope, betrayed an innocent but unfortunate young woman near the Lake of Buttermere.
He was on the 25th October last, at Ravenglass, in Cumberland, wrapped in a sailor’s greatcoat and disguised, and is supposed to be now secreted in Liverpool, or some adjacent port, with a view to leave the country.
Whoever will apprehend him, and give information to MR TAUNTON, no 4, PUMP COURT, TEMPLE, so that he may be safely lodged in one of his Majesty’s gaols, shall receive Fifty pounds reward.
November 5th, 1802
―
The pretended Colonel’s second arrival at Buttermere was some time in the last ten days of August 1802. He attempted without delay, and by every artifice of looks and language, to conciliate the affections of the young woman; and in the beginning of September, if not before, he offered to make her his wife, if she would go off with him and be married in Scotland. She gave a positive refusal, assigning as her reason the short period of his acquaintance with her, which rendered it impossible that his attachment for her should have been founded on any rational esteem for her; and the utter disproportion of the match. Her natural good sense informed her, that strange events are seldom happy events.
About this time he contrived to commence an acquaintance with an Irish gentleman, a member of the late Irish Parliament, who had been resident for some months at Keswick, with his wife and part of his family. With this gentleman, and under his immediate protection, there was likewise a young lady of family and fortune, and of great personal attraction. This gentleman, in an excursion with his party to Buttermere, had, at the request of the landlord of the Queen’s Head Inn, permitted his servant to convey a small package of wine to the gentleman staying at the Char public house. In a cottage, where there is only one small sitting room, persons of pleasant manners, who happen to come at the same time, as naturally form a slight acquaintance as in the cabin of a packet[-ship]. One of the means which the adventurer used to introduce himself to this respectable family was the following: – Understanding that the gentleman had been a military man, he took an army list from his pocket and pointed to his assumed name, the Honourable Alexander Augustus Hope, Lieutenant Colonel of the 14th regiment of foot. I have thought it no waste of time to mention these minute circumstances, they may possibly be useful in the detection of some other rogue. This new acquaintance daily gained strength, and he shortly paid his addresses to the daughter of the above gentleman, and obtained her consent. The wedding clothes were bought; but, previously to the wedding-day being fixed, she insisted that the pretended Colonel Hope should introduce the subject formally to her friends. He was hourly expected to do so; and the gentleman was prepared to have required, that ‘Colonel Hope’s enthusiasm should not seduce him into an impropriety. They were strangers to each other. He must beg that Col. Hope would write to certain noblemen and gentlemen both in England and Ireland, whose names and addresses he would furnish him with, and obtain from them every necessary information respecting himself and the young lady under his protection. As some days would elapse before the answer could be received, he proposed to employ that time in a trip to Lord Hopetoun’s seat,’ etc. It was this circumstance which expedited his marriage with Mary of Buttermere; and, feigning a pretence for his absence, he married the Beauty of Buttermere.
From this time he played a double game: it seems to have been a maxim with him to leave as few white interspaces as possible in the crouded map of his villanies. His visits to Keswick became frequent, and his suit to the young lady assiduous and fervent. Still however, both at Keswick and Buttermere, he was somewhat shy of appearing in public. He was sure to be engaged in a fishing expedition on the day on which any company was expected at the public house at Buttermere; and he never attended the church at Keswick but once. The former circumstance could not excite any reasonable suspicion; it is assuredly not necessary to be an impostor, in order to avoid as carefully as possible a crowd of strange faces in a small public house: the latter circumstance appeared more extraordinary, as great and continued pretensions to religion, and to religious exercises, formed an outstanding part of his character. He himself once assigned a frivolous and foolish excuse for his continued absence from the church, but the people of Keswick, those few at least who had noticed the circumstance, candidly attributed this neglect to his being of a Scottish family and education.
A week or two after poor Mary’s refusal to go off with him to Scotland, he renewed his entreaties, and gave her a written promise of marriage, which she returned to him, persevering in her former opinion, and determined at all events not to do any thing which she could not do openly, and in the face of all among whom she was born and had lived. This in a woman of her situation, must surely be considered as a great proof of virtue and uncommon good sense, if we reflect that she had no doubt of his being the man he pretended to be. Nor can there be a doubt that when the whole particulars of this unfortunate connexion are made known, her former character for modesty, virtue and good sense, will be fully established in the eyes of the world. How could she suspect him, knowing him to be received into the intimacy of persons of undoubted rank, respectability and consequent knowledge of the world? It is probable he would have desisted from this pursuit, if he could have induced the young lady before mentioned to have consented to a private marriage.
Our adventurer finding his schemes baffled to obtain this young lady and her fortune, applied himself wholly to gain possession of Mary Robinson. He made the most minute enquiries among the neighbours into every circumstance relating to her and her family, and declared his resolution to marry her publickly at her parish church by a license. Mary told him, that she was not ignorant that he had paid his addresses to Miss —, a match every way more proportionate. This he treated as a mere venial artifice to excite her jealousy, in part perhaps an effect of despair, in consequence of Mary’s repeated refusal. The conclusion is already well known. The pretended Colonel Hope, in company with the clergyman, procured a license on the 1st of October, and they were publickly married in the church of Lorton, on Saturday, October the 2d. Is there on earth that prude or that bigot who can blame poor Mary? She had given her lover the best reason to esteem her, and had earned a rational love by innocent and wise conduct. Nor can it be doubted that the man had really and deeply engaged her affections. He seems to have fascinated every one, in all ranks of society; and if Mary had remained an exception, it would have detracted more from her sensibility than it would have added to her prudence.
On the day previous to his marriage, our adventurer wrote to Mr —, informing him, that he was under the necessity of being absent for ten days on a journey into Scotland, and sent him a draft for thirty pounds, drawn on Mr Crump, of Liverpool, desiring him to cash it and pay some small debts in Keswick with it, and send him over the balance, as he feared he might be short of cash on the road, this Mr —, immediately did, and sent him ten guineas in addition to the balance. On the Saturday, Wood, the landlord of the Queen’s Head, returned from Lorton with the public intelligence, that Colonel Hope had married the Beauty of Buttermere. As it was clear, whoever he was, that he had acted unworthily and dishonourably, Mr —’s suspicions were of course awakened. He instantly remitted the draft to Mr Crump, who immediately accepted it; and at last ninety-nine in a hundred of the people at Keswick were fully persuaded that he was a true man, and no cheat. Mr M—, the friend of the young lady whom he first paid his addresses to, immediately on this, wrote to the Earl of Hopetoun. Before the answer arrived, the pretended Honourable returned with his wife to Buttermere. He went only as far as Longtown. He had bought Mary no clothes, pretending that on his arrival at the first large town they might be all procured in a few hours. A pair of gloves was the only present he made her.
At Longtown he received two letters, seemed much troubled that some friends whom he expected had not arrived there, stayed three days and then told his wife that he would again go back to Buttermere. From this time she was seized with fears and suspicions. They returned however, and their return was made known at Keswick. A Mr Harding, a Welsh judge, and a very singular man, passing through Keswick heard of this adventurer, and sent his servant over to Buttermere with a note to the supposed Colonel Hope, who observed, ‘that it was a mistake, and that the note was for a brother of his’. However, he sent for four horses, and came over to Keswick, drew another draft on Mr Crump for 20 l. which the landlord at the Queen’s Head had the courage to cash. Of this sum he immediately sent the ten guineas to Mr —, who came and introduced him to the judge, as his old friend Colonel Hope. Our adventurer made a blank denial that he had ever assumed the name. He had said his name was Hope, but not that he was the honourable member for Linlithgow, etc. etc. and one who had been his frequent companion, his intimate at Buttermere gave evidence to the same purpose.
On the pretender’s return to Buttermere he found poor Mary in tears; she had received a letter from a gentleman at Keswick, informing her that her husband was an impostor; she gave it to him and he chid her for believing such false suggestions, threatening to call the writer to account, with whom he afterwards had an interview, and insisted on receiving satisfaction for this injury of his character. The next morning was appointed for a meeting, but the pretended Colonel took his leave before the appointed hour.
In spite however of his impudent assertions, and those of his associate, the evidence against him was decisive. – A warrant was given by Sir Frederick Vane, on the clear proof of his having forged and received several franks as the member for Linlithgow, and he was committed to the care of the constable. The constable, as may be well supposed, was little used to business of this kind. Our adventurer affected to make light of the affair, laughed and threatened by turns, and ordered a dinner at the Queen’s Head at three o’clock. In the mean time he should amuse himself on the lake, which the constable unsuspiciously permitted. He went out in a boat, accompanied by his old friend the fishing tackler; and a little before three o’clock, a considerable number of the inhabitants assembled at the foot of the lake, waiting anxiously for his return, and by far the greater part disposed to lead him back in triumph. ‘If he was not this great man, they were sure that he would prove to be some other great man’; but the dusk came on; neither the great man nor his guide appeared. Burkitt had led him through the Gorge of Borrowdale, up through Rosthwait and so across the Stake, the fearful Alpine Pass, which leads over Glaramara into Langdale, and left him at Langdale Chapel – a tremendous journey in the dusk! but his neck was probably predestined to a less romantic fate.
It will hardly be believed, how obstinately almost all classes at Keswick were infatuated in his favour, and how indignantly they spoke of the gentleman who had taken such prudent and prompt measures to bring the impostor to detection. The truth is, the good people of the vales had as little heard, and possessed as little notion of the existence of this sort of wickedness, as of the abominations of Tiberius1 at Capua. –‘What motive could he have to marry poor Mary? Would a sharper marry a poor girl without fortune or connexion? If he had married the Irish young lady, there would be something to say for it, etc.’ It was no doubt delightful to the people of the vales, that so great a man, that a man so generous, so condescending, so affable, so very good, should have married one of their own class, and that to a young woman who had been so long their pride, and so much and deservedly beloved by them. Their reasonings in the impostor’s favour were, to be sure, very insufficient to counteract the evidence against him; yet of themselves they were not unplausible. It is a common blunder with those who know more of the world than the inhabitants of the secluded vales among the mountains can be supposed to know, to admit of no other passion, as the motive of crimes, except the love of money or of power.
Our adventurer in his rapid flight from Keswick, left behind him his carriage, which was taken possession of by the landlord, as a pledge for his 20l.; and in it were found all his plate and linen, as well as a very costly dressing box, which in a few days was opened by virtue of an order from a neighbouring magistrate. It contained a very elegant pair of pistols, and complete assortment of toilet trinkets, all silver. The whole value of the box could not be less than 80l. There were discovered only one letter, a cash book, a list of several cities in Italy and a couple of names attached to each. From the cash book, nothing could be learned but that he had vested divers considerable sums (some stated to be on his own account) in the house of Baron Dimsdale and Co. of London; but on examining the box more narrowly, poor Mary found that it had a double bottom, and in the interspace were a number of letters addressed to him from his wife and children, under the name of Hatfield. For some days nothing else was discovered but a bill for 100 l. drawn on a Devonshire bank, which he had left behind him with Mary’s father and mother; and with which they were to have paid off a mortgage on this little property, but this proved to be an old bill that had been long paid, and on his own bank.
Among the other villanous schemes of this hardened wretch, it is said that he had attempted to persuade the old people to sell their little estate, to place the money in his own hands, and to go with him into Scotland: it is not improbable that if he had not been so soon detected, he might have prevailed upon the good old people to listen to his advice, and thus would they have been completely ruined.