The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1828-05-14
AFFECTING NARRATIVE

V.
the house of the buxom widow was well fire..
qtented moro especially
About the middle of that year person of res
Pectable exterior arrived at st. Johns, and put
up at the house. He represented himself to be
British naval officer, OF high birth, a native Of
Ireland, and possessing large estates in that
country. During a residence there of some
months, he affected TO take great interest in the
welfare OF the widow and her family, by which
! he gained an insight into her affairs, and soon
ascertalned that she was IN possession of some
property in trust for her children, which she
was DESTROYS of laying out to the best advan-
| tage- In the month of October in that year,
the schooner Lord Nelson was brought from
Nova Scotia to the port of st. Johns, for sale
BY the recommendation of her friendly lodger,
the widow was induced to become the purchas-
er OF the vessel; her new friend kindly under
took to negotiate the business, and the sum of
E62O, was ultimately paid in his hands to con-
clude the purchase in the names of the girls,
Francis Watson and Margaret Bourke, tissue
by two former husbands,) the receipt for the
amount being also made out in the children's
names. A fresh register in the names of the
new owners now became necessary, and this
her kind friend also undertook to procure at the
Custom House of st Johns; but instead there
OF he contrived, unknown to the widow, to get
his own name endorsed upon the old register, as
and sole control of the vessel.
His attention now assumed a different char
acter friendship appeared to have ripened IN
to love-; he seemed quite enraptured with the
person OF the widow, and gained so far upon her
affections as to prevail upon her to sell off her
whole concern and accompany him On a voyage
to Ireland and cargo of timoer was accord
ngl y taken in for Sligo. When all was ready
for sailing, and the whole OF the widow effects
were on board, the enamored lover managed
to give hint to one of the widow creditors
that he was likely to lose his debt On this IN
timation she was arrested and thrown into prls-
on, while her friend, her effects, and her schoon-
er, set sail for Ireland, leaving her and her
children In the utmost distress, every thing even
to their clothes being on board. The vllainy
of the affair was quickly exposed. The creditor
Meo. had arrested her- not OqlX lherated. iv4r anu
her children in another vessel bound for Ireland
This vessel, unfortunately, however, was bound
to different quarter of that kingdom; and on
her arrival in Ireland, she found that she and
her children had to traverse the island nearly
from one side to the other, with no other means
of conveyance than nature had supplied them
with. Even this difficulty was surmounted, and
they at length succeeded in reaching Sligo
about three weeks after the arrival of her run
! away inamorato. Here she soon learned that
he was mere adventurer, that his relations
were of the lowest cast of Irish, that-he had dis
tributed her s and her childrens clothes amongst
them, and was giving balls and entertainments
with the produce of the property he had thus
surreptitiousy obtained. Her first application
| for redress was to the Magistrates, but having
no documents to satisfy them of the justice OF
her claims, and finding he. was taking in a
freight of corn for Liverpool, as last and des-
perate resource, she threw herself on board the
schooner, determined to go with it, at all haz-
ards, wherever the villain might choose to
| transport it.
In the course of the voyage, the new assum-
ed master and owner ran the vessel into port
in Ireland where he disposed of part of the
cargo, and being unable on his arrival at Liver
pool, to give satisfactory account for the def
cheney, he was arrested by the consignees, and
thrown into gaol. Her excessive agitation 81
mind. and the great fatigues she had undergone,
threw the widow at this period into violent
illness, which confined her for some length OF
time to her bed, and before she recovered, the
vessel had been put into the hands of mercan-
tile house at Liverpool, and had set sail with a
cargo consigned to London, whittier the pre-
tended owner, who had contrlved to get himself
liberated from Liverpool gaol, was also hasten
ing. By the aid of the parish, and the contri-
buttons OF several benevolent persons at Liver
pool, to whom her situation had been made
known, the widow was enabled to follow, and
she arrived with her children in London, about
the middle of the year 1920. The case was
, submitted to several professional gentlemen, but
application to lawyers was out Of the question
} No one would undertake her case gratutousy
J nor indeed, had she the necessary documents to
| establish her claims If court of law OF this
the villain who had robbed her was aware, anC
he treated her in consequence with the utmost
hu, l..fo
now pressed upon the wretched widow and hel
family, from which they were for short time
relieved by the Mendicity Society, who contn
ned their assistance much longer than theii
usual period, and even directed their solicitor
to take steps for obtaining possession OF the
schooner These were found to be Intellectual
and the Society were at length obliged to leave
them to their fate. During this period hel
false friend had obtained credit sufficient to ge
the schooner new coppered, and again at sea
He had however, been arrested for the expense
by the British Copper Company, and thrown
into the Kings Bench prison, where he remain
ed nearly two years.
The distress of the widow and her family wal
now at the extreme. They were lodged in
small howell and had not lain upon a bed-no
{ not even upon a straw-for upwards of fivt
months. They were destitute of shoes ant
stockings, and wanted even the common cloth
ing to cover their nakedness occasionally
scarcely tasting food for four days together. Ii
this forlorn situatiOn-a stranger in foreign
land-her children expiring at her feet-bereft
as it were, of all hope Of human succour-Prov
idence raised her up friend, and that in tn
person Of man moving in the humble spher
of one of the Marshalmen of the City of Lon
DON In the month of March 1922, the widow
learning that the schooner had returned to thu
port of London, went to make application to tn
} Lord Mayor at the Mansion-house Brand tn
| Marshalman, was in attendance, and to him sh
made known the nature of her application. III
soon discovered hers was not case in whic
the Magistrate could render her assistance, no
bly, undertnnk 70 do il himself and set about