Walter Bates

“ God, he said, made man out of the dust of the earth, but he had made man out of the wood of the earth.
He had now been in my custody more than a year, and almost every day developed some new feature of his character, or produced some fresh effort of his genius. I had had much trouble with him, and my patience often severely tried; but now I viewed him rather as an object of commiseration, and I could not think of turning him out of the gaol naked, destitute and friendless. In such a situation he must starve or steal, so that his pardon and release must become rather a curse than a blessing. ”

“ He made no resistance, nor took any notice of the Court, and, as usual, acted the fool or the madman, snapping his fingers and patting his hands; he hem’d and ha’d, took off his shoes and socks, tore his shirt. Every eye was fixed on him with wonder and astonishment. After the Attorney General had read his indictment, the Judge asked him how he pleaded to that indictment, guilty or not guilty. ”

“ Finding this, I determined to confine him more closely than ever, and so put a chain from his feet round his neck, stapled to the floor, securing the handcuffs to the middle of the chain. He had already given such mysterious and astonishing proofs of his strength and invention, that I feared he would finally baffle all my ingenuity to prevent his escape. The twisting of the iron collar from his neck and drawing the staple from the timber, was a feat that filled every one with wonder. The collar was made of a flat bar of iron, an inch and a half wide, with the edges rounded. ”

“ All acknowledged with me, that it exceeds anything they ever saw or imagined. His whole conduct from the first has been, and is, one continued scene of mystery.
He has never shown any idea or knowledge of his trial or present situation; he seems happy; his irons and chains are no apparent inconvenience; contented like a dog or monkey broke to his chain; shows no more idea of anything past, than if he had no recollection. ”

“ John, willing to afford what relief he could to the dying man, ran in great haste from the gaol through the passage round the stairway that led to the kitchen, where was a large fire of coals, into which he cast the brick, waited but a few minutes, and returned with the heated brick to the prison; but to his indiscribable astonishment, and almost unwilling to believe the evidence of his senses, the dying man had disappeared, and could not be found!!! John ran with the tidings to his father and the Rev. Mr. Scovil, who were sitting in a room which the prisoner must have passed in his escape. ”

“ After his arrival in the Southern States, we are again able to glean something of his life and history. While he was yet in the gaol at King’s county, it will be remembered that he said he had been a preacher, and that he should preach again, and would gain proselytes; and now his prediction is brought about, for under a new name, that of Henry Hopkins, he appeared in the character of a preacher in the Southern States! And what wonder? For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. ”

“ We cannot expect forgiveness except we repent and forgive our enemies. The word of God is plain; except you forgive your brother his trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you when you ask of him. All men are sinners before God; watch, therefore, and pray that ye enter not into temptation. I watch here and pray with my family night and day; they cannot pray for themselves. But I shall not stay long; he could go to sea as supercargo of some vessel, or he could get his living with his family as a show in any country but England, and he had never seen such a show in England ”

“ John, 5th April, 1815—Dear Sir,—I have received your letter detailing the very extraordinary conduct of the culprit in your custody. There is certainly a mystery in this man’s means and character, which is unfathomable, and I fear there will be considerable difficulty with him on the trial. Your vigilance and exertions of course cannot be relaxed. As the best thing to be done, I dispatched your letter, without delay, to the Attorney General, that they might adopt, at Head Quarters, any such measures as they might think expedient for the further safeguard and security of the prisoner. ”

“ But the most extraordinary, the most wonderful and mysterious of all, is that in this time he has prepared, undiscovered, and at once exhibited the most striking picture of genius, art, taste, and invention, that ever was, and I presume ever will be produced by any human being placed in his situation, in a dark room, chained and handcuffed, under sentence of death, without so much as a nail of any kind to work with but his hands, and naked. The exhibition is far beyond my power to describe. ”

“ On being informed by the messenger that “Smith was gone,” “Ah poor fellow,” he exclaimed, “I expected it.” “What time did he die?” “But he is gone clear off.” “It is impossible,” rejoined the Sheriff, “that he can be far from his sick bed.” “Why,” replied the messenger, “they were all about the gaol looking for him, and no one could tell which way he had gone.” “Unparalleled and abominable deception!” replied the sheriff. “How did he get out of gaol!” He believed John Dibble left the door open while he ran to beat a brick, and then Smith made his escape. ”

“ After Patterson had gone into his house he perceived that the traveller had retired from the barrack by the window and was making towards the woods. Upon perceiving this, the idea of his being a deserter instantly presented himself to his mind and calling for assistance, he soon made the stranger a prisoner, which was easily affected, as he did not make much effort to escape. It was soon discovered that their prisoner was no less a person than the far-famed Henry More Smith, and no time was lost in committing him to Fredericton gaol. ”

“ Walter Dibble, a man of learning and talents, who for several years had been afflicted with a painful disease, so that for a great part of the time, he was confined to the house, and frequently to his room, in the County Court House, where he taught a school, by which means, together with the fees and perquisites of the jail and court house, afforded him a comfortable living for himself and family, consisting of his wife and daughter, and one son named John, about nineteen years of age, who constantly attended his father. ”

“ Beware of a Villain!—One of the most accomplished villains that disgraces our country, broke from the jail in this city on Friday evening last, between the hours of five and six o’clock, and succeeded in making his escape. The fellow calls himself Newman, and was bound over for trial at the sitting of the next Supreme Court, on the charge of burglary, having robbed the house of Mr. Butler, of plate, money, etc. He is supposed to be an Englishman, and is undoubtedly a most profound adept in the arts of knavery and deception. ”

“ The public mind was strongly prejudiced against us, unwilling to believe the real circumstances of his elopement; and the Court assembled under the strongest impressions that his escape was connived at. The Honorable Judge Chipman presided on the occasion.
The Court was now ready for business, but no prisoner; yet high expectations were cherished that every hour would bring tidings of his apprehension, as he was pursued in every direction. The Grand Jury was empannelled, and the Court adjourned till next day at eleven o’clock, waiting anxiously for the proceeds of the intermediate time. ”

“ All these performances are vouched for by Sheriff Bates and Gaoler Dibble, in whose custody he was, and attested by many of the most prominent residents of Kingston a century ago.
The marionettes he made while feigning insanity, after he had been sentenced to death, were the wonder of hundreds who not only saw them, but were present in his cell when he made them perform. It was not so much the puppet show, which caused astonishment, as that the puppets could be made by a man whose only materials at hand were the straw in his bed and strips torn from his clothing ”

“ After the prisoner had made his will, he was, for a short time, left alone, with the probability that he would shortly be seized by another fit, which he was not expected to survive. About 6 o’clock in the evening, the Rev. Mr. Scovil observed to his family, that it was then about the same hour of the day at which Smith had had his fit on the day preceding; that he thought he would die suddenly; he would therefore walk over to the Court House and be ready there at the time, as it must be unpleasant for Mr. Dibble to be alone. ”

“ Saint John, November 14, 1814—Dear Sir,—I received your letter of yesterday relating to the new attempts of H. M. Smith to escape. I have forwarded the same to Fredericton, and presume that a court will be ordered for his trial as soon as may be practicable for the state of the travelling, and the necessity of procuring the witness from 70Nova Scotia; though I should suppose not before the ice makes. In the mean time the utmost vigilance and precaution must be made use of to secure him; you will be justified in any measures of severity that you may find it necessary to adopt for this purpose. ”

“ My hair shall not be shorn, nor my nails cut, till I grow as strong as Sampson, then will I be revenged of all my enemies. Help, help, O Lord help me to destroy these tormentors, murderers of man, tormenting me in chains and darkness;” shouting, “darkness, darkness, O darkness—not light to read the Word of God,—not one word of comfort from any. ”

“ Dibble, the jailor, with several others. It was then the evening, and we carried with us two or three candles. On opening the door, we found him lying in his berth, chained just as I had left him. I said to him, “Smith, you have not got out yet;” he answered, “no, not quite.” I then examined every bar of the grates as closely as possible, as also did every one present again and again, until we were all satisfied that the cause of the alarm was only imaginary. Smith all the time lying quiet, answering readily any and every question that was put to him. ”

“ Having been more successful than perhaps he expected, he rode back through the town to the place of concealment, deposited his booty, and gave his horse, after his travel, a generous allowance of hay. This generosity to his horse led to his detection, for Patterson happening to perceive that his hay was lying in an unusual manner out of the window of his barrack immediately formed an opinion that some person had taken up lodgings in the hay, and in this he was not mistaken; for on coming to the spot, he found Smith lying in the hay, with a white comforter about his neck. ”

“ E. Scovil is situated, with various other houses in different directions; the land clear all around to a considerable distance, affording no hiding place. From a prison thus situated and surrounded with dwelling-houses, did our hero escape, without any eye having seen him, and leaving no mark nor track behind which could direct in the pursuit of him. Finding ourselves unable to pursue in any certain direction, our conclusions were that he must either have taken the road to Saint John or that leading to Nova Scotia the way by which he came, and the only road he was known to be acquainted with. ”

“ It is impossible to conceive or describe the feeling of astonishment with which every one about the house was filled, when they found that the man, who 36had been groaning and agonizing under the pain of an accumulation of diseases, which night after night, seemed to have been wasting his strength, and bringing him nearer the close of his unhappy life—had, in a moment, and the very moment which was thought to be his last, seized the opportunity of his prison door being open, and rushed from his confinement, leaving not a vestige of his moveables behind him. ”

“ He is of middling stature, slender and active, and appears to possess an astonishing variety of genius. He is sick or well, grave or gay, silent or loquacious, and can fence, box, fight, run, sing, dance, play, whistle, or talk, as occasion suits. He amused himself while in prison, by making and managing a puppet show, which he performed apparently with such means as 139to excite the wonder of the credulous, having a piece of an old horse-shoe, whetted on the wall of his dungeon, as the only instrument of his mechanism, and complaining only of the scarcity of timber to complete his group. ”

“ Already in possession of saddle and bridle, he spent most of the night in fruitless efforts to take the mare, which was running at large in the pasture. Abandoning this part of his plan as hopeless, and turning his horse-stealing genius in another direction, he recollected to have seen a fine horse feeding in a field near the highway as he passed through the Parish of Norton, about thirty miles on, on his journey. Upon this fresh scheme, he set off on foot, with the bridle and saddle in the form of a pack on his back, passing along all the succeeding day in the character of a pedlar. ”

“ After my return from Saint John I informed the prisoner, Smith, of what happened by the way; he appeared exceedingly elated with the idea of his being the man that had sold him the horse, and said that if he had money or friends he could have him taken and brought to justice, and would soon be restored to liberty again himself; but that if he were suffered to make his escape out of the country, his own case would be deplorable indeed, though he 23was innocent. ”

“ Pursuit was immediately made in quest of the horse, and the circumstance of the robber having put him up at the barn proved the means of restoring the horse to his owner, and committing the robber to custody; for there, at Mr. Fairweather’s, information was given which directed the pursuit in the direct track. Mr. Knox, through means of obtaining fresh horses on the way, pursued him, without loss of time, through the Province of Nova Scotia, as far as Pictou, a distance of one hundred and seventy miles, which the thief had performed with the stolen horse in the space of three days. ”

“ Nathaniel Golding’s tavern, in Hampton; and while placing our horses under his shed, we perceived a man mounting a horse in great haste, that was standing at the steps of the door, who immediately rode off with all possible speed, as though he were in fear of being overtaken. On inquiring who he was, we were informed by Mrs. Golding that he was a stranger who had called there once or twice before, and that she believed his name was Chuman or Churman. I observed to the Doctor that that was the name of the man from whom the prisoner, Smith, said he purchased the horse ”

“ Having learned a lesson by former experience, we maintained the most unbending strictness, suffering no intercourse with the prisoner whatever. In this manner secured, we put on his right leg an iron chain no more than long enough to allow him to reach the necessary, and take his provision at the wicket door. The end of the chain was fastened to the timber of the floor by a strong staple, near the partition wall, so that he could not reach the grated window by five or six feet. He was provided with a bunk, straw and blankets, as a bed ”