The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-08-18 00:00:00

wINTERBC6TONIfS I)ANNAMPI

has ever occurred in the town of Steel

't which

has csige4 so great a sensation as the insolvency of this un-
fortunate gentleman, and his disappearance from the'place
under !circumstances and charges of so giave and appalling 'a

description.
It is by no means our intention on the present occasion to
enter into any formal or laboured defence of ATV.. Winter-
bottom's conduct, especially before the real circumstances of
the case have had leisure to transpire. What wee propose to
ourselves, is merely to suggest .a few of those extenuating
circumstances which may not be generally known, and of
which it well becomes every one, conscious as he must be, of
the frailties of our common nature, to allow him the full
benefit in judging of his conduct.

Mr. Winterbottorn's case is one amongst ten thousand
proofs of the same kind, that " moral courage" is one of the
rarest qualities with which any human being can be endowed.
Ten thousand men may be found who will confront death and
physical suffering, in their most appalling forms, for one who
has the " moral courage" to avow in time the embarrassed
state of his circumstances—to resign the luxuries and con-
veniences which custom has rendered necessary to him—and,
what is infinitely more difficult, to descend 'voluntarily from
that station in society in which he has been accustomed to
move, and exchange, whilst it was in his power to enjoy
them a little longer, the respect and smiles and blandish-
ments which are lavished upon the rich and prosperous, for
the cold courtesies which await the acknowledged bankrupt.
Considerations like._ these must have great weight in every
country under heaveli ; but in th 4 great, rich, and commer-
cial community, where wealth is literally everything, they
become almost irresistible.
We believe, in our hearts, that this has been the cause
which has reduced Mr. Winterbottom to his present most
unfortunate situation. This has been the true reason of his
most equivocal uctiods—even until it comes to those in
which if we are to believe the current reports, misfortune has
deepened into crime. In addition to these circumstances
Mr. Winterbottom has suffered severely in his pecuniary re-
sources by the political aspect of the times. We have not
the remotest intention, on\the present occasion, to touch the
angry subject of party-politics ; but it cannot be denied that
Mr. Winterbottom was an ardent admirer of the constitu-
tion of his country, both in church and state, and, in com-
mon with every person so situated, has suffered deeply for his
conscientious attachment to his principles. In the short
space of seven or eight years, he has been deprived of at least
three official or public situations by the mere operation of
political causes alone, and consequently has had to contend
against aggravated burdens with diminished resources.
It would be wholly unnecessary, so far at least as our
Stockport friends and readers are concerned, to enlarge upon
the excellent character which Mr. Winterbottom has hitherto
borne amongst his townmen, both in his public and private
capacity. Entering life with no advantages of birth or for-
tune, by the force of his own talents, industry, and persever-
ance alone, he had attained the situation of principal in the
highly-respectable office in which he served his clerkship,
whilst to his friends and fellow-townsmen he was endeared
by his professional talents, his generosity, and social and
oonvivial qualities. As a son, a brother, a parent, and a

husband, his conduct has been most exemplary, and the poor
and destitute have lost a friend to whose generosity they
never appealed in vain.
It is deeply to be regretted that Mr. Winterbottom did
not make known the embarrassed state of his circumstances
a year or two ago, as it is obvious from the deep symp:zthy
expressed for him in all quarters, that almost unlimited in-
dulgence would have been allowed by his creditors ; and we
know, from good authority, that he might have commanded
the pecuniary resources of his friends to almost any extent
that might have been necessary.
We abstained last week from noticing any of the rumours
afloat until they assumed some definite form, and we now
approach the painful subject with the greatest reluctance.
Sufferers though we are by his misfortunes to some extent,
we acknowledge with pride and pleasure the many favours
we have formerly received at his hands, and the extenuating
circumstances with which his case is attended. Few men,
probably, in the same situation, would have had the moral
courage and resolution to have acted differently, erring and
culpable as his conduct may have been.
We attribute the moderate and subdued tone in which the
newspaper press has spoken of his misfortunes to the general
feeling of respect for his character. We hope we should be
the last persons on earth to deny the merits of a political
opponent, and we shall conclude by saying that if our con-
temporary in Bridge-street had always shown the same con-
sideration for the sacred claims of misfortune which they
evinced last week, much of the angry recrimination which
has passed between us on some former occasions, might have
been avoided.—Stockport Advertiser.

(From the Stockport Chronicle.)
Some years ago the late John Isherwood, Esq. of Marple,
towards whom Mr. Winterbottom acted in the capacity of
agent, effected a policy of insurance on his life, to the amount
of £B,OOO, in two companies, £3,000 in the Royal Exchange
and £5,000 in the Pelican, both London offices, but having
agencies, the former in this town, the latter in Manchester.
The amount so insured. Mr. Isherwood made payable to his
daughters, after his death, from the time of which event some
twelve months and upwards have now elapsed. About Febru-
ary last, Mr. Winterbottom, under pretence of instructions
from head-quarters, made formal application to the officers
of each company for the amount, which he received as here-
after mentioned, as the duly authorised agent of the parties.
Ws needless to add, however, that not a farthing of this
money was ever received by them, and that the whole turns
out to be a complete instance of forgery. Indeed, it would
appea that Mrs. Isherwood was altogether in ignorance of
the imposition played upon her until very recently. The
case brought by the Pelican assurance office is particularly
striking, as evidencing the deep cunning used in the perpe-
tration of the fraud. In all cases of a like description it is
customary for the claimant to draw upon the company for
the amount at a certain date, the draft being accepted by
them. In this case a bill of exchange for the £5,000, pay-
able at seven days sight, was drawn on the company by Mr.
Winterbottom, and this document purported to bear endorse-
ment in the handwriting of Mrs. Isherwood, her two maiden
daughters, and Mrs. Bellairs, all of which are very ingenious
forgeries. The case of the Royal Exchange Co. is somewhat
different. The agent drew out the usual draft, but subsequently
at the request of Mr. Winterbottom, a receipt only was given
by him for the amount of £3,000, as agent for the parties.
The case then against him, in this instance, amounts not to
forgery, but to fraud only ; it proves, at the same time how
much influence he at one time posseseed, and how little he
was thought capable of committing such an action. We un-
derstand that, on hearing Mr. Winterbottom had received
the £BOOO. on her account, Mrs. Isherwood made personal
application that it might he refunded, even so recently as
Friday week, or two days before he decamped, when she was
assured of its perfect safety, and that it would be placed to
her credit with the bank without delay. On Saturday, the
lady and her daughters attended before the mayor and other
magistrates, at the residence of the Rev. Edward Hawell,
Heaton Norris, when her deposition was taken, and upon
that a warrant for the apprehension of the defaulter was is-
sued. During this inquirY, the forged document was pro-
duced by Mr. Tate, the agent for the Pelican Office at Man-
chester. Although the indorsements were executed with a
good deal of nicety and correctness, still the ordinary hand-
writing of the forger was perceptible throughout the whole.
Another instance of breach of trust, equally hard and unjus-
tifiable, is to be found in the case of Sir Salusbury Daven-
port, of Braman Hall, who is reported to be a loser of some
£16,000. by the affair, Mr. Winterbottom was agent for Sir
Sainsbury, and in the year 1829, he received £6OOO. to pay off
the principal of a mortgage. on sonic property in the posses-
sion of the latter. Instead, however of compliance with this
direction, the money was appropriated, and the interest
has since been regularly paid. Sir Salusbury was in igno-
rance of this fresh act of duplicity until called on for the in-
terest one day last week. As his agent, Mr. Winterbottom
had also very recently received £l,OOO from the directors of
the Manchester and Birmingham Railway Company, as com-
pensation for damage done by carrying their works through
his (Sir Salusbury's) estate at Braman ; this, with the othei
sum, is of course lost. A considerable amount had also beer
received by Mr. Winterbottom as rent, making Sir Salus•
bury's losses, in all, somewhere about what we have stated
We might enter into numerous other cases of a similar de.
scription, but that the detail would occupy too much o
our space. We have one instance in which £B5O were
placed in Mr. Winterbottom's hands for a few days, from
the fear that the confiding party, who lives in the country,
and had been attending a sale in town, might be robbed on
his way home ;—this is of course gone. Indeed the num-
ber and amount of losses by private parties, public companies,
road trusts, &c. &c., is almost incredible. Landlords and
tenants are alike affected. Mr. Wiuterbottom's professional
connections throughout this and the adjoining counties
were of the very first order, and on the guarantee of his
general respectability and previously unimpeachable cha-
racter, many parties made him the sole depository of their
surplus funds, Hence the multitude of sufferers. On the
whole, it must be clear, to all, from the facts that have
now transpired, that Mr. Winterbottom must have been bad,
in a commercial sense, for some years. By one stratagem
and another, he bad been enabled to stave off the evil day
from time to time ; but his difficulties becoming daily more
complicated, he has at last been compelled to abdicate. On
a rough calculation of the several sums he is known to have
received during the last six months, it is now generally sup-
. posed that Mr. Winterbottom must have amassed a vast
amount of money (it is reported £20,000), with which he has
absconded. This supposition is interesting to all parties,
and forms, as it we, e, a double object in his capture. Since
writing the above, we have heard it stated, as a reason for
Mr. Winterbottom's returning to Stockport, that, on his ar-
rival in Liverpool, lie discovered that he was recognized by
the captain of the President, and therefore did not embark,
but made his way out of that town as speedily as possible.
There can be no doubt that he went from thence to London,
although we observe it asserted by a Manchester contempo-
rary that he left in the Acadia steam-ship, for Halifax, Nova
Scotia, on the following Tuesday. We do not, however, at-
tach any credit to this statement, as his appearance in Liver-
pool on the day named must have proved a certain means of
detection.—[Later information induces us to believe that
Mr. Winterbottom did proceed to London, as here stated.—
Ed. Guard.]