John Hatfield

John Hatfield (1758?–1803) was a notorious English forger, bigamist and imposter. Early life Born at Mottram in Longendale, Cheshire, before 1759, Hatfield became traveller to a linendraper in the North of England about 1772, and paid his addresses to a natural daughter of Lord Robert Manners, who was to receive a dowry if she married with her father's approval. Lord Robert, taken in by Hatfield, assented to his proposal of marriage, and presented him at his wedding with £1,500. Hatfield soon went to London, described himself as a near relation of the Rutland family, and lived in luxury. When the money was spent he disappeared, abandoning his wife (who shortly died) and three daughters. Debtor and second marriage After several years' absence Hatfield returned to London in 1782. His career was cut short by his committal to the King's Bench prison for debt. Here he induced a clergyman to lay his case before the Duke of Rutland, who secured his release. When the duke became lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1784, Hatfield went to Dublin, and by claiming relationship with the viceroy lived for a time on credit. He was soon committed to The Marshalsea, Dublin, when the duke again paid his debts and sent him out of the country. Hatfield continued a career of imposture until arrested for an hotel bill at Scarborough on 25 April 1792. He remained in the Scarborough gaol for more than seven years, but eventually managed to excite the pity of Miss Nation, a Devonshire lady, who lived with her mother in a house opposite the prison. She paid his debts, and, though she is said never to have spoken to him till he left the gaol, married him next morning (14 September 1800). The pair went to Dulverton in Somersetshire, where by fraudulent representations Hatfield obtained both money and credit. He lived in London once again in magnificent style, and canvassed : Members of Parliament had immunity from arrest. Pressed by his creditors, he procured a few hundred pounds and disappeared, leaving his second wife and her young child in Somerset.