John Hatfield (forger)

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.

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 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.

He lived in London once again in magnificent style, and canvassed Queenborough: 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.

[1] In August 1801 Hatfield arrived at Keswick, Cumberland, in a carriage, and impersonated Alexander Augustus Hope, M.P.

Mary Robinson and her false lover were the subject at the time of novels, verses, dramas, and tales.

[1] At the time, Samuel Taylor Coleridge gave wide publicity to the elopement of John and Mary, in five articles for The Morning Post.