The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1882-03-19
A LIVING LIE.

Scarcely due attention has been paid by
American chroniclers to the extraordinary ease
+" the Birmingham adventures. q" Miss Fearneaux,
who during twelve fourteen years has been pursu
Ing OF systematic imposture that broughther
In an uncertain amount cI5 500, TO the complete
ruin of many Of the innocent victims who furnished
1t, and who has Just been fully brought to justice
although In 1871 she served year In prison for
minor discovory--Nithout, however, checking her
Triumphant career of fraud. The police reports of
the English provincial papers In various parts of the
Kingdom bring full particulars. II seems that the
mother OF the adventures, who is still alive and
pleads that she completely duped as any one
else, was q great-granddaughter of Hon. John But
Ter, brother OF tho Earl Of Lanesboro', and also
maternal niece OF the late Gen. Bowes. who left the
family q small annuity, for which Mr.. Colerldge,
barrister, was for time the trustee. Mrs Fear
neaux's father. however, merely lieutenant In
the army; AMI she contracted mGsaliiance with a
clerk In the London custom house, who subsequently
declined to tho place of "a policeman In Wolverhamp-
ton On this slender basis OF fact which 5 necessary
to explain what follows, the young woman built up
her prodiglous superstruciure. When the annuity
stopped In 1865, Miss Fearneaux persuaded first her
mother and then others that the Fearneauxs were
titled TO vasi aud uncertain amounts from the Butler
Lanesboro' estates, that Mr.. Coieridge other
than the now Lord Coleridge, Chief Justice of Eng
land ana that he SIN looking out FOR their lights
when lie was barrister. To back this up, she
began series of audacous orgeIies which perhaps
as striking any record, and entities her to rank
with Chatteiton young Ireland, any other of the
literary coiners and faslaerS known TO fame. She
began to exhibit, and then to receive through the post
as her adroltness Increased, letters With the command
Ing sign manual of ''Coleridge,'' Lord Cole
sid
her as "My dear client addressed to various of
her acquaintance aud supporters circumstances re-
quired. These We're backed up at a later date by
series OF eplses purpoitlng to emanate from Mr.,
Cross, the late Home Secretary, from Justices Dem
man and Williams, of the High Court of Judicature,
and as lmpudence grew with success for
reviewing The whole history at glance) documents
were received signed with the august name, ''Yic-
torla r., rs well rs ''AIbert Edward "Gran-
Vile, ~ Sir Thomas Biddulph' and host of lesser
umlnares Then cfme journeys and flying trips TO
parts unknown, but alleged by the mpostor to be 10y
Invitation to visit Lord Coeridge, the Batter family
residence, and Windsor and Osborne. She
worked with SYSTEM for copies OF every of these
as well OF all other letters written by her
found at heT lodgings 10y the police the number of
uncouneh thousands, all showing the most carefully
studied differences In penmanship that Ii al
the hand Peculiar!tles of paper and writing
materials were counterfeited. After the death
of the late Chief Justice Cockburn ''Tord Cole
ridges ~ letters heavily fringed with black.
Others of his notes hastily scribbed on the backs
Of court blanks assignment lists If dashed off In
the midst Of session-one like this, being nearly
illegible scrawl in lead-pencil: "Lonion, 9Th Janu
ary, 1852. My dear madam, you must send j. r.
Bishop at once the sum OF e. registered letter, and
your mother might let you have the same at once,
think 1t might be as well OF you to return home and
explain all this to your mother, and then return
to- morrow hy the most early train, arriving at this
place at eleven. am sorry to have SO hard work fog
you to do. Much of her stationery, that bearing
the royal arms ETC.. was or less ceveIIy fegned
like the writing but the forms of the Queen Bench
division, ii. G. j., are genuine, aud are the only
suggestion of any accompce throughout this long
fight against truth and fact. The suspicion is
strengthened by the statement of OF her dupes that
he visited Lincoln's Inn some years ago and saw
parsonage who represented himself as Lord Colerige
and confirmed the woman S statements to him.
Suchwas the machinery, and the results effected
equally marvellous. Many mposures of this sort
begin In Vicious practical Joke, spirit of mic-
chief and are continued merely because they add to
the impostoI apparent importance besides delight
Ing him or her with consciousness power and skill
But Miss FearneauN, though evidently "badly
cranked'' in many particulars, like Gulteau and
other great criminals, had keen scent for the prac
teal and plundered her dupes of money as grandly
| as remorseessy. She was like Guiteau also In her
deep rooted religious hypocrisy, which she carried
on in the midst OF her other games--tough where she
once gave guinea to charity 1t is recorded that she
borrowed back aeveral pounds from the unfortunate
clergyman in charge. 1t is said TO be stl uncertain
whether she has squandered the large sums obtained
has them secretly invested to live upon when she
gets out of prison, IL she does. Her aoduS
operdndf was to settle down almost at random In any
part OF the country, for she naturally grew quite con-
| hdent OF finding prey anywhere, begin By spending
the proceeds of previous roguery manner to beget
| confidence and gratitude, and then set in with her
wonderful mythic correspondence with "Iord
Colerldge, and afterwards with royalty when
this gllded bait began to take with those around who
were generally OF the humber classes and therefore
peculiarly open to an appeal TO the innate British
snoDDishness ana hunkeyism, she opened her tale of
| suffering. She was noble claimant resembling in
this particular her kindred fraud OF Tchborne noto-
risty) TO vast estates and property County Cayan
| Ireland, ST. Johns Wood, London, LoughbOrough,
and Scotland and whatever else her fertile inyen-
| ton could supply. She was held out by important
| political legal and family complications, which she
was sure speedily to overcome, or lin other cases)
fugitive from Justice, expecting q speedy pardon fol-
some youthful indiscretonto prove all of which she
exhibited her youmlnons correspondence documents
ETC., constantly produced to order by what must have
been unremitting toll with her pen. Ia the mean
| time, would those with whom she was living please
accommodate her with some little loans, TO provide
for immediate necessities and get rid of previous
creditorsY-from whom, With characteristics audaclty
she exhibited appealing letters that were only too
| gauulua RamarEalIa aq ma IN uuIAa
remember similar instances In this country, hard
headed business men who had made fortunes as
brewers, or shopkeepers, Wen families living
upon scanty savings OF trade flung open their pocket
| books TO her, mortgaged their homes, made them
selves paupers, bankrnpts, and almost criminals to
serve this remorseess Lood-spoking leech. She re-
paid them with smiles OF quite plain ana unpre-
possessing cOuntenanoe, with her conversation which
| Is reported as brilliant aud amusing, with lavish
promises OF great returns well social reoOgnI-
on hereafter and with notes from her - Lord Cole
RIDGE ItwOuld be unfair to conceal however, that
her plots were not only laNd with a boldness that
seems almost insane, but they were carried with
consummate adroitness. one poor dupe was played
against another, so that the confidence displayed by
each confirmed tho other ana they fought forand bid
| high for Miss de Fearneaux, - her chief intimacy
| and favor.
But the most extraordinary feature of all is still to
| be related. Possessed OF but few feminine charms
Fearneaux had taste for masquerading In male at
tire, wearing fashionable clothes or the uniform OF
her grandfather service sporting false mustaehe
smoking expensive cigars, and the like. She soon
found this useful in varying her tricks, and to large
circle OF dupes for a number OF years was no other
than = Lord Arthur Pelham Clinton. with an en-
tlrely new set Of claims and adventures having no
relation TO her real SELF but maintained with tho
| anna ali and uaa