The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-07 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY HISTORY OF AN

IMPOSTOR.

(From the Glasgow Morning Journal.)
Henry Thornton Hay is at present incarcerated
in the North Prison of Glasgow, undergoing six
months' imprisonment for uttering forged orders
for provisions on more than one shopkeeper in Cow-
caddens. He is about 35 years of age, middle-size
in height, speaks with a slight English accent, and
is a most plausible fellow. There is reason to be-
lieve that he is a poor English curate's son, and one
of those who are a grief to their parents. He re-
ceived a tolerably good education, but was never in
Cambridge University, and therefore we may with-
out hesitation throw his tragic love story out of
sight as the "baseless fabric of a vision." He did
enlist, under the name of Thomas Watkins, and
went with the regiment to the West Indies, where
he deserted, and entered the 3d West India Regi-
ment. He was recaptured, punished, and permitted
' to join the 71st Regiment, which came to Glasgow
in 1847, and heliv is the first time that he appeared
in public in the western metropolis. He seems
always to have had a forte for preaching; and in
Glasgow he first attracted notice as a preacher of
the Gospel. It may be in the remembrance of a num-
ber of our readers that about thirteen years ago, a
deserter was found preaching in Greenhead Quoad
Sacra Church, and that after the forenoon service
he was marched off to the barracks a prisoner. That
man was Thornton Hay. In the end of 1847, the
pulpit of Greenhead Church was vacant, and ac-
-cordingly Hay having ingratiated himself with a
female manager of the church, who kept the keys—
through life he seems to have readily captivated the
fair sex—he preached four consecutive Sabbaths
under the name of the Rev. Mr. Bertram ; but whe-
ther " with acceptance" or not we cannot say.
Having been at that time absent from his regiment
five days, two sergeants from the 71st Foot waited
upon him until he left the pulpit, when they con-
veyed him to durance vile in the barracks, where at
that time his wife resided. He was tried by court-
martial, and sentenced to a period of imprisonment,
his former desertion being also brought up against
him. After his discharge from the army, he re-
turned to Glasgow and obtained a situation at the
Theatre Royal, where he continued for four months.
He now sought and gained employment in a
cooperage as journeyman, where he continued for a
few months, and next transferred his coopering
services to Kilsyth.
After a sojourn of a few months there, he re-
turned to Glasgow, and resumed coopering and
something else. He procured an introduction to
one or two Free Church ministers, told his wonder-
ful tale, and on Hogmanay, 1854, being invited to
a church sdiree, he sat upon the platform with the
other guests and speakers, and delivered an address.
He then regularly attended a Free Church in the
city, pretended great holiness of life, counterfeited
the Christian character, and made a profession which
paled the greaterlights around him. By this pseudo
sanctity he imposed upon many, chiefly the " weaker
vessels ; ' and the consequences were wounded feel-
ings, destroyed prospects, and illegitimate children.
To show the cool audacity of the scoundrel, we may
state that on one occasion he invited two respect-
able women, to whom he was at the same time pay-
ing his addresses, to his lodgings to tea, and then
introduced the one to the other as his sweetheart !
He likewise went so far as to take a house in Port-
land-street, and had it furnished by one of the rela-
tions of the person he was about to marry. Hap-
pily he was discovered in time, and had to beat a
hasty retreat. He next turned up near London,
and palmed himself off in a Roman Catholic family
as a greatly persecuted poor Roman Catholic priest.
Here he lived for some six weeks, but discovering
that the Roman Catholic bishop of the diocese was
about to visit his dupes, he decamped. Of course he
repaired to London, and under the garb and pro-
fession of a clergyman from Scotland, he succeeded
in defrauding several people out of considerable
sums, for which he was duly sentenced to twelve
months' imprisonment.
Being discharged from gaol in August, 1856, he
succeeded by some means in raising as much money
as carried him to Glasgow again. Here he arrived
as a pretended agent of the London Missionary,
Society, just returned from India. In this charac-
ter he traversed the city and neighbourhood,
addressing meetings here and there; but although
his speeches were quite barren of new facts, and
indeed disappointed the most unsuspecting, still,
by his great holiness of life and uprightness of cha-
racter, he insinuated himself most astonishingly
into the confidence of many good people. He
had, therefore, no difficulty in getting a
loan of money, especially as he was just expect-
ing his annual salary from the Missionary So-
ciety, along with his travelling expenses. By
these means he made a pretty large haul in Glas-
gow ; he had now, however, uninterrupted suc-
cess. In the east end of the city there is a large
Sabbath class, composed of about 100 young men
and women. To one of the young men of that
class, of his own name, he got introduced ; and
by his plausible speeches, his ministerial appear-
ance, and frankness of manner, completely de-
ceived him. He was in due course invited to the
adult class. The scoundrel was more successful
in that quarter than he ought to have been.
He got introduced to one of the young women;
who belongs to a most respectable family resid-
ing on the south side of the river, and -she ac-
cepted him as an acknowledged suitor, his saintly,
appearance much aiding his purpose. In Decem-
ber, 1856, he was introduced by Miss to
her minister, a highly respectable U. P. clergyman
on the south side of the .river. About that time
their congregational soirée was to be held, and
" the missionary" was announced as a speaker.
The speech was delivered, but the general feeling
in regard. to " the missionary" was, that the Lon-
don Missionary Society had not much to brag of
in him. Having been invited to dine by the
worthy minister, it was wound up by the guest
obtaining the loan of £3. About the same time
he got £.,5 from the manager of a mill near
Rutherglen-bridge. Having strong suspicions, the
United Presbyterian minister made a few inqui-
ries, which resulted in the discovery that there
was no such agent of the London Missionary
Society as Thornton Hay, and that doubtless he
was an impostor. Information was accordingly
conveyed to the police, but " the missionary " suc-
ceeded in getting off to Liverpool. He was not
again heard of by the Glasgow authorities until
about the middle of 1857, and until he had passed
through many remarkable vicissitudes of fortune.
At the beginning of that year, on his arrival in
Liverpool, he gained the good opinion of several of
the Established Church clergy there, who opened
to him their pulpits; and by this means he was
enabled to fleece a number of people to the tune of
upwards of £lOO. • He next repaired to Edinburgh ;
and here he came out as a clergyman of the Angli- I
can Church, " taking a survey of the state of the
Episcopal Church in Scotland."..
lire do not know under what name he then passed,
and although we are not certain, yet it is very pro-
bable that he ran out of cash here also, and required
a loan or two. He preached at the castle to the
soldiers, and in other places in Edinburgh. He
subsequently repaired to London, and in coming
back to Liverpool he scraped acquaintance with a
Glasgow gentleman. Desirous of making capital
of this acquaintanceship, he came to Glasgow ; but
was baulked thii time, and had to make a hasty
journey to Edinburgh, where he did not remain
long. Passing through Haddington, he sought out
and imposed upon some of the descendants of the
great Scripture commentator of that town, ob-
taining money which conveyed him to Sunderland.
Here he succeeded, by delivering a forged letter
from a friend in Glasgow, in getting £5 from
a female member of the Society of Friends; but
her husband at once detected the forgery, and,
getting a policeman, they caught the fellow at the
railway station as he was about to start for New-
castle. When he saw he was detected, he hurriedly
tore up into a hundred pieces two letters that he
had upon him, strewing the station with the frag-
ments. These were all carefully gathered up mid
put together, when it was found that they purported
to be letters of introduction from two U.P. mini-
sters in Glasgow to a U.P. minister in Newcastle,
written in high-flown language, such as " The
bearer is an esteemed brother, and a great acquisi-
tion to the cause of dissent in England." Unfortu-
nately, by some flaw in the evidence, he was ac-
quitted at Sunderland; but the authorities at Had-
dington were in waiting to receive him, and thither
he was taken and sentenced to five weeks' impri-
sonment. As soon as his term of incarceration at
Haddington was ever he was brought to Glasgow,
and before the sheriff and a jury he was convicted
of obtaining money under false pretences, and
lodged in the North -prison for six months. Dur-
ing the year 1859, and after he came out of prison,
he returned to his employment as a cooper; and
towards the end of the year got again into trouble
by forging his employer's name to some orders for
provisions on various dealers in Cowcaddens. For
that offence he was sentenced to six months' im-
prisonment, and at present he is undergoing that
punishment. He will shortly be liberated.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA .—The dates from,South Aus-
tralia by the present mail are to Adelaide, Feb. 18. Business
continued dull. The revenue of the colony for the year end-
ing Dee. 31, 1859, amounted to £505,870, showing a net in-
crease upon the year of £51,039. The pastoral districts had
suffered severely through the dry season, and the mortality
among the cattle had been considerable. Respecting the
progress of mining, the South Australian Advertiser of
Feb. 18 remarks :—" The mineral wealth of the colony con-
tinues to afford proofs of its extreme richness." Burra
Burra shares have advanced to £l5B. Copper remained firm
and in demand, at XlOO per ton. Drafts on;Londou at 60
days' eight at 1 per cent. Vern,