Bibliography of the Hadfield Case
I. Contemporary Tracts, etc.
1. Report of the Proceedings on the Trial of John Hatfield, London. Printed for A. H. Nairne and B. Mace. Sold by Crosby and Company price 6d. 1803. Brit. Mus.
Although always spoken of as John Hatfield, the proper name of the ‘Keswick Impostor’ if the register of his baptism is an authority, was Hadfield.
2. The Life of Mary Robinson, the celebrated Beauty of Buttermere, Embellished with an elegant coloured Print. London. Printed by John Rhynd, 21 Ray Street, Cold Bath Fields. Sold by Crosby and Company, Paternoster Row. Price 1/. 1803. Brit. Mus.
3. The Life of John Hatfield, Printed and Published by Scott and Benson. Keswick. James Ivison, Market Place 1846. Brit. Mus.
II. Contemporary Newspapers and Magazines
| 1. | The Times, | Oct., Nov., Dec. 1802; | Jan., Aug., Sept. 1803. |
| 2. | The Morning Post, | do. | do. |
| 3. | The St James’s Chronicle, | do. | do. |
| 4. | The Morning Herald, | do. | do. |
| 5. | The Morning Chronicle, | do. | do. |
| 6. | The True Briton, | do. | do. |
| 7. | Lloyd’s Evening Post, | do. | do. |
| 8. | The Carlisle Journal, | do. | do. |
| 9. | The Leeds Mercury, | do. | do. |
| 10. | The Gentleman’s Magazine, part ii. 1792, pp. 1114-16; part i. 1800, p. 18-24; part ii. 1802, pp. 1013, 1062, 1063, 1157; part ii. 1803, pp. 779, 876, 983. | ||
| 11. | The European Magazine, part ii. 1792, p. 436; part ii. 1802, pp. 316, 477; part ii. 1803, pp. 157, 242. | ||
Coleridge and the “Morning Post.”
Three accounts from the pen of Coleridge, which appeared in the Morning Post of October 11, October 22, and November 5 respectively, under the titles “Romantic Marriage” and “The Fraudulent Marriage,” find a place in Coleridge’s “Essays on His Own Times,” edited by his daughter. The late Mr H. D. Traill, in his monograph in the “English Men of Letters” series, has pointed out (note, p. 80) that “it is impossible to believe that this collection, forming as it does but two small volumes, and a portion of a third, is anything like complete.” It is not an unwarrantable assumption that two subsequent articles in the Morning Post, which appeared on November 20 and December 31, were written from Greta Hall, and that Coleridge therefore was responsible for the sobriquet “The Keswick Impostor.”
Sir Alexander Hope, brother of the third Earl Hopetoun, whom Hadfield impersonated, was not (as stated in the Dic. Nat. Biog.) the second but the eighth son of the second earl (vide Gentleman’s Magazine, 1837, part ii. p. 423).
Notes
Note I.—A Fortnight’s Ramble to the Lakes in Westmorland, Lancashire and Cumberland.
This book is reviewed at full length in the Gentleman’s Magazine, December 1792, pt. ii. pp. 1114-16, and in the European Magazine, December 1892, pt. ii. p. 436. The author, Joseph Budworth, who afterwards adopted his wife’s surname, Palmer, was a contributor to the former journal. Mary Robinson is described under the pseudonym ‘Sally of Buttermere’ The second edition of the Fortnight’s Ramble is reviewed in Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. lxvi. pt. i. p. 132, February 1796.
Note II.—A Revisit to Buttermere. Letter from a rambler to ‘Mr. Urban’ dated Buttermere, January 2 (vide Gentleman’s Magazine, January 1800, pp. 18-24).
This account was inserted in the third edition of A Fortnight’s Ramble, published in 1810. Joseph Budworth tells us that his second visit to Buttermere took place in January 1798.
Note III.—The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet’s Mind, by Wm. Wordsworth. Commenced 1799, finished 1805, published 1850. The Centenary edition of the works of Wm. Wordsworth. Six vols. Edited by E. Moxon, 1870.
Book VII., “Residence in London,” contains the famous reference to Mary of Buttermere and her story. Describing various dramas he has seen at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, the poet mentions one written around the story of Mary of Buttermere. Notes and Queries, Tenth Series, i. pp. 7, 70, 96.
Note IV.—The Collected Writings of Thomas De Quincey. Edited by David Masson. A. & C. Black (1889-90); vide Literary Reminiscences, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, vol. ii. pp. 138-225.
The description of ‘The Hadfield Affair’ occupies pp. 174-184, and its numerous errors were the subject of a smart attack by a correspondent in Notes and Queries (First Series, vol. viii. p. 26), July 9, 1853.
Note V.—The Tourist’s New Guide. By William Green. In two volumes. Kendal (1819), vol. ii. pp. 180-5, 221. Seventy-eight Studies from Nature. By William Green. Longman (1809) p. 7.
The various descriptions of Mary Robinson are so conflicting that it is difficult, until one reads the impressions recorded from year to year by Wm. Green, to form an estimate of her personal appearance. It has been shown that Joseph Budworth, who first saw her in 1792, when she was fourteen, raves of her charms, and his second visit to Buttermere six years later did not disillusionise him. De Quincey, however, denies that she was beautiful, and does not praise even her figure. Yet he seems to be unconscious that he is describing, not the world-renowned ‘Maiden of Buttermere’ but a matron of thirty-five, who was now the wife of a prosperous farmer, and who had drank deeply of life’s sorrows. Mr Frederick Reed of Hassness, Buttermere, writing in August 1874 (Notes and Queries, Fifth Series, ii. 175), thirty-seven years after her death, states that “she was not the beauty she is represented to have been. She carried herself well, but got to be coarse-featured.” Still, as it is improbable that Mr Reed saw her till she was past her prime, his criticism is of little value. Sara Nelson, too, who was born during the year of Mary’s great trouble, did not meet her till her good looks had vanished. The Morning Post of October 11, 1802, contains the following description from the pen of Coleridge:—“To beauty in the strict sense of the word she has small pretensions, being rather gap-toothed and somewhat pock-fretten. But her face is very expressive, and the expression extremely interesting, and her figure and movements are graceful to a miracle. She ought indeed to be called the Grace of Buttermere rather than the Beauty.”
William Green tells us that he first saw Mary Robinson in 1791, the year before she was noticed by Captain Budworth. “At that time,” says he, “she was thirteen; and to an open, honest, and pleasant-looking face, then in the bloom of health, was added the promise of a good figure. Her garb, though neat, was rustic; but through it, even while so young, appeared indications of that mild dignity which was afterwards so peculiarly attractive.” He saw her next in 1794. “The infantine prettiness of thirteen was now matured into beauty; her countenance beamed with an indescribable sweetness, and the commanding graces of her fine person were equalled only by her innate good sense and excellent disposition.” After remarking that Captain Budworth’s panegyric seemed to have had no ill effect upon her mind, he proceeds: “Like some other mountain rustics, observed by the writer during his residence amongst these thinly populated wilds, Mary’s beauty was ripened at an early period; for this was, probably, the period of its perfection.” Green did not see her again till 1801. “She was then twenty-three, and though greatly admired for her general appearance and deportment, was on the whole infinitely less interesting than seven years before that time.” In 1805, the date of his next visit to Buttermere, he noted a further change. “Her features were pervaded by a melancholy meekness, but her beauty was fled, and with it, that peculiar elegance of person, for which she was formerly celebrated.” The next time the artist saw her was in 1810. “She was no longer the Beauty of Buttermere, but Mrs. Harrison, the bulky wife of a farmer, blessed with much good humour, and a ready utterance.” This was about the time when De Quincey saw her. Gillray’s sketch, November 15, 1802, corroborates Green’s description.
The Dictionary of National Biography gives the date of publication of The Tourist’s Guide as 1822. This is an error. It was published in 1819. The same monograph does not mention Green’s Survey of Manchester.
Note VI.—East Cheshire. By J. P. Earwaker, 1880, vol. ii. p. 136.
Gives the following extract from the register of baptisms at the parish church of Mottram-in-Longdendale:—
“1759. May 24, John, son of William Hadfield, and Betty, his Wife.” The church register confirms this reference.
John Hadfield’s father, who lived at Crodenbrook or Craddenbrook, Longden, must have been a man of means, for in 1760 he gave £20 to the poor.
Note VII.—Dic. Nat. Biog. This excellent sketch is only marred by the misspelling of Hadfield’s name, and the error in the date of his birth.