taken them loaded away, and secreted several sacks of wheat in a wood a
little from the turnpike road, and about three miles from the house. We
had filled our sacks a second time, and got them upon the horses, having
previously placed everything in the granary as we found it, or as nearly
so as we could. I had just thrown my legs over my horse, then standing
near the steps of the granary, I being the last of the party, when I
heard the gentleman's voice, which I at once knew, for neither his early
habit of rising nor the tone of his voice were unknown to me. It was
quite dark, and I proceeded with great care on the way towards the high
road till I reached a gate about seventy or eighty yards from his house.
By some mismanagement on my part, I had no sooner passed through the
gate than I fell back into its place with considerable noise. I again
heard his voice, but I made the best of my way with my load, and I felt
no little relief when I found myself in the Market-Weighton turnpike
road. Though I had no very great opinion of the gentleman's courage, I
felt quite sure he would have used every endeavour to make out the
charge against me had his suspicions of what had taken place been once
roused. As to his following me alone at that moment I had not the most
distant fear, for I knew well the care he always took of himself.
However, the whole affair passed over. I never heard that he missed what
we took away, and the reason probably was, that he at that very time had
a large stock of wheat on hand for the purpose of speculation, as I
afterwards learned. I remember this wheat was of such singularly good
quality that I sold it for the great sum of one guinea and ninepence the
bushel, a price I scarcely ever remember to have equalled.
"The next thing that occurs to me worthy of remark, and which I had good
cause to remember, nearly terminated fatally for myself. I expected a
good booty from the information I had previously received. This was an
attack upon the property of two bachelors who resided in the same house,
in a village about a mile and a half from Howden. The house was very
near the river Ouse, and we had prepared a boat to carry the gains of
the night down the river as far as Swinefleet, this being considered,
for many reasons, the readiest mode of moving it from the premises, and
I had some friends in that place in whom I placed the greatest
confidence. Between one and two o'clock we arrived at the house, and
were preparing all things in readiness for the business in hand. I was
crossing from the bank of the river over a garden, and so on to the back
of the premises. In my way I came to a piece of dead fence, over which I
was passing, and which gave a crackling sound under my tread. At that
moment I heard a dog bark, and instantly after a shot was fired from the
upper part of the eastern end of the house. I had my face at the time
rather turned away from the place whence the shot proceeded, and I
received the whole of the contents in my back and shoulders. I instantly
fell; and I well remember that I thought all was over with me, as I lay
for some time with my head in the ditch and my feet upon the dead thorns
over which I had just passed, and to which I attributed my mishap; for
the night was so dark I could not be seen, and the shot must have been
directed by the noise I made in getting over the fence. As I lay there I
could distinctly hear a whispering from a small door in the end of the
house, and I greatly feared lest the inmates should sally forth and take
me in my defenceless state. With my head laid upon the ground, the
sensation produced upon me by the striking of two o'clock by the church
of Howden, I well remember. All was now calm, quiet, and dark; and I
actually felt the earth vibrate under my ear as the hollow bell threw
over the land its sullen sound. I have understood, since I came here,
that the savages in America always resort to this mode of listening for
the approach of a friend or an enemy. But to return to myself again.
"I at length contrived with great difficulty to get upon my feet; and,
with still greater exertion and much loss of blood, I reached the boat,
where I found my men in great consternation and alarm. One of them
pushed the boat adrift, and the tide soon carried it away with the
waters. They then supported me at a slow pace to Howden, where I arrived
almost in a state of insensibility, from the combined effects of pain
and loss of blood. By my desire they took me to the house of a medical
man of my acquaintance, and knocked at his door. He soon came down, and
without asking a single question, stripped me; and during the night he
extracted no fewer than thirty-eight large shot corns from my back and
shoulders.
"I cannot even now recall the agony I suffered without a shudder; and my
general health and strength never recovered from the shock I received.
I remained secluded for a considerable time, but thanks to the attentive
care of my wife, and my own sober habits, for I never was an habitual
drunkard, I speedily was able to get out again. In all my night
excursions after this adventure I employed the greatest circumspection.
"My inward disposition was accurately betokened by my countenance and
outward appearance. I was tall and large-limbed, but neither clumsily
nor powerfully made, I speak now of forty years of age; for sufferings,
mental and bodily, have entirely changed my face and figure. My hair was
light, my eyes a bluish grey, my countenance round and somewhat florid.
In my looks I always fancied that I resembled two men of no little
celebrity--I mean Sir Walter Scott and William Cobbett, who certainly
bear a considerable resemblance to each other. But this may be my
vanity, for the best of us are not free from it.
"In my manners I was boisterous, and in tone familiar with all, and
overbearing with most. However, my general appearance promised anything
but cruelty and dishonesty; and, thank God, no one can charge me with
the former, whatever may be said of the latter.
"I must, however, plead guilty to one or two acts of apparent cruelty,
towards my horses, but which rather rose from the necessity of
self-preservation than from any other cause. It has often happened to
me, for the purpose of reaching a given place by a certain hour of the
night, to be compelled to strain my horse to the full extent of his
speed. I knew so well the general opinion entertained towards me, that I
felt I must find the greatest difficulty in clearing myself from
anything like a reasonable suspicion of crime.
"I distinctly remember once having upon me a considerable sum of money,
and I was riding at full speed upon a narrow strip of green sward by the
road side, which was nearly covered by the extended branches of the
trees. The moon was shining beautifully through them, and in
contemplating her I felt a soothing calmness spread over my soul, which
I cannot well account for or explain the cause of. My musings were
suddenly cut short by a deep-drawn sigh from my horse, then a slight
shudder, and the next moment he was dead under me. I cried like a child.
I raised his head, but all in vain, no trace of life remained.
"By the moon's rays, which at that instant shot through an opening in a
dark Scots fir immediately over his head, I saw the film of death
rapidly spread over his eyes, and felt his limbs stiffen under my grasp.
I had to travel several miles on foot, pretty well loaded, and through a
very lonely and suspicious-looking part of the country. However, I
reached the house of one of my friends towards morning, to his no small
astonishment, he thinking me fifty miles distant in a different
direction.
"My horse was soon recognised; and had any robbery been perpetrated
within a reasonable distance of the place where he fell, of course it
must have been done by me. The common question of the whole
neighbourhood was, 'What had I been doing?' However, this never
transpired. I ever afterwards tied a piece of raw beef round the bit of
my bridle when about to make hard use of my horse, and I always thought
that it afforded him considerable help. I need not observe that this was
done in imitation of poor Dick Turpin, whose history is infinitely
better known than mine can ever pretend to be.
"On the night of the 25th of October, 1812, I felt a presentiment that
something sinister was about to happen to me. Few men have passed
through life, particularly those of an excitable temperament, who have
not felt some boding of this kind. I was seated in my chair by the fire,
taking my accustomed pipe--an indulgence I never omitted the last thing
at night--when this sudden impression came over me. My wife observed
that something was the matter, and questioned me on the subject.
However, as I knew she would only laugh at me, I did not tell her the
cause.
"In the middle of the forenoon, whilst I was listening to my daughter
Rose, who was my favourite, she suddenly looked up and said, in a
hurried tone, 'Father, there are several men coming to the house.' It
instantly occurred to me that something had happened during the past
night, and that my forebodings would not prove vain. However, as my
whole family knew that I had not stirred out during the night, I had
little fear; and this circumstance even led me to suppose that it might
be some mistake.
"By this time the party had arrived at the door of the cottage, and one
of them gave me to understand that he had a justice's search-warrant,
and that I was their prisoner. I submitted at once to be taken into
custody, and I was immediately secured. Some of the party then began to
rummage every drawer and corner of the house, amidst the very voluble
abuse of my wife. They, however, found nothing they came to search for,
which, as I soon learned, was some wheat stolen during the last night
from a neighbouring farmer.
"On this information I felt considerable relief, conscious of my
innocence; but my wife became perfectly outrageous when the constable
refused to take her word that I had never stirred over my threshold
since six o'clock of the preceding evening. She, poor woman, swore she
would take the law of them threatened writs, indictments, justices, and
I know not what; and I verily believed she would have inflicted summary
vengeance on the head of the constable with the poker, so furious had
she become, from a consciousness that the accusation was without
foundation.
"However, in spite of all her threats and rage, I was speedily conveyed
before the justice who granted the warrant, and on the oath of a person,
who swore that he was going along a road near my house and towards the
farm-house in question, about two o'clock in the morning, that he saw a
horse and two men returning from it, and that he was quite sure I was
one of them, my commitment was made out for the House of Correction at
Beverley.
"All this took so short a time that I scarcely attempted to defend
myself; and indeed I scarcely even know now how I could effectually have
done so. For I could only bring the members of my own family to prove
that I had not been out of my cottage, and of course they would not have
been believed against the positive evidence of the witness who swore to
my person, though he was, according to his own statement, fifty yards
distant from me--in addition to this, at two o'clock in the morning."
The prosecutor of Snowden Dunhill was Mr. Barnard Clarkson, of Holme, at
that time a partner in the Howden Bank.
The consciousness that her husband was ignorant of the robbery imputed
to him caused Sally Dunhill to regard him as a martyr. Her Ranting
enthusiasm was excited, and she wrote a long letter to the prosecutor,
denouncing him, in Biblical terms, as one who "compassed about" the
righteous man "with words of hatred, and fought against him without a
cause"; and announced to him that she had given herself up to prayer
against him (Clarkson), and invoked the malediction of heaven upon his
head--"Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generations following
let their name be blotted out." And she concluded this strange epistle
with the words of the Psalmist: "Let them curse, but bless thou: when
they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice. Let mine
enemies be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their
own confusion as with a mantle. I will greatly praise the Lord with my
mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude, for he shall stand at
the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his
soul."
Snowden Dunhill continues in his Autobiography:--
"I now, for the first time, became an inmate of a prison, an event I had
always held in the greatest horror. As it was well known that I had
plenty of money, I had very soon the proffered and apparently
disinterested assistance of an attorney. My situation was maturely
considered, and it was soon determined that a writ of habeas corpus
should be put in, for the purpose of taking my trial at the approaching
Assizes at York, in preference to Beverley.
"I was in consequence taken up to London in custody, after the writ was
obtained, and my trial was appointed to take place at York, principally
on this ground, as urged by counsel, that my character was so notorious
in the East Riding of Yorkshire that no unprejudiced jury could there be
impannelled. The reader may be sure that all this was done at no slight
expense; but perhaps he will not believe me when I assure him that by
the time my counsel had received his fee for the approaching defence I
had scarcely a shilling left in the world.
"The March Assizes of 1813 at length arrived, when I gave myself up to
the gaoler of the Castle, and I was soon placed in the dock. My eyes
were cast on the ground, and I for a time felt stupefied. However, I at
last raised them to the objects before me, and the first that caught
them was the judge himself, then the counsel, and then the immense crowd
of spectators who had assembled to hear my trial. I soon was calm enough
to discover in the gallery the faces of many persons I knew, and I
endeavoured to put on a forced courage by nodding familiarly at them,
and by appearing to be utterly careless of what was going forward.
"The indictment was read over to me, and I was called upon to hold up my
hand and plead guilty or not guilty; though I uttered the latter with a
loud voice, it was with a full conviction that my doom was sealed. I
felt--and I suppose all persons similarly circumstanced feel the
same--that not only the assembled people, but that the whole world had
combined to destroy me.
"The facts above narrated were stated shortly to the jury. The witness
swore to my person, and accounted for his being there at that hour,
naturally enough, by stating that he had been to visit his sweetheart.
The farmer swore to having missed the corn on the night in question.
Though my counsel tried to confound the first witness by fierce looks
and bullying questions, and by dwelling upon the impossibility of his
being able to swear to a person at the distance of fifty yards and at
two in the morning, yet he stuck to his oath immovably. I was asked what
I wished to say, and all that I could state was that I was innocent;
that I was in bed at the time, and that all the family knew this to be
the fact. My wife was anxious to speak for me, but my counsel insisted
upon her holding her tongue, which she at last consented to do on his
assuring her that she would do my case more harm than good. The jury
without the slightest hesitation found me guilty, and the judge at once
sentenced me to seven years' transportation.
"I was immediately conveyed back to my cell, and a few days afterwards I
was forwarded to the hulks. In this miserable banishment I passed six
years, embittered by the most dreadful account of my family, every
member of it, even in the remotest degree, having transgressed the laws
of his country, and was then undergoing for his offences the punishment
awarded to him. Could hope under any form have presented herself to me,
I felt that I might yet be a reclaimed man, but I could not catch the
most distant glimpse of her. My years passed on in the midst of misery
the most distressing, till they at last came to an end. I obtained my
discharge or pardon a short time before the expiration of my full term,
for I had been guilty of no violence, or insolence, or excess, since my
arrival.
"I left this abode of vice and misery without a friend on the face of
the earth, and unconscious where to find even a momentary place of
refuge. There are many unfortunate individuals who, had they a house or
employment to fly to after having undergone their periods of punishment,
would be glad to betake themselves to habits of honesty and industry.
But, unluckily for them, they are turned out without a refuge to resort
to, and necessity, and not inclination, drives them to the commission of
fresh crimes.
"As to myself, I returned to Spaldington, but the change which my
worldly prospects and circumstances had undergone was in the extreme
overwhelming. Some of these misfortunes I well knew, but to others I was
an entire stranger, and I cannot at this day lay blame to anyone but
myself for them. My evil example pointed out the way of lawless
depredation to my children, in characters so legible that they could not
fail to read and study them.
"The farmers of the village had thought it right to clear my cottage of
every one connected with me in name, relationship, or blood.
"I felt at a great loss where to fix, or to what object to turn myself
for a livelihood and bare subsistence. As to my children and
connections, they were scattered in every direction, and for the most
part undergoing the punishment due to their crimes.
"My daughter, my favourite daughter, Rose, had been committed, and
sentenced to confinement in York Castle. During her imprisonment she
was delivered of a bastard-child; what its fate may be, heaven alone can
tell! She was visited in the Castle by a gentleman from Howden, for the
purpose of proffering her some assistance in her necessitous situation.
This I have understood she indignantly refused. Holding up her new-born
babe to his gaze, she said, 'See! he has hands to help himself, and if
ever there was a true-born rogue, here he is!' Thus, like Hannibal
towards Rome, was this poor child devoted from its earliest infancy to
war against all the settled institutions of society.
"After her release from York the reader will readily imagine from this
anecdote of her, that she would speedily fall into another scrape. This
soon happened. She was committed to Wakefield House of Correction, again
tried and found guilty, and I have never since heard of her. She had
cohabited with two different men, both of whom passed as her husband.
Their names were M'Dowel and Connor, and they both have been
transported.
"My daughter, Sarah Dunhill, after having been confined in York Castle,
was tried at the East Riding Sessions at Beverley, and imprisoned one
year. She was subsequently tried at the Borough Sessions at Beverley for
picking the pocket of a gentleman named Scholfield, and stealing from
him a considerable sum of money.
"During her trial she made a moving appeal to the barristers present,
stating that she had always found them her best friends; that their
ingenuity had often assisted her in the hour of need, and she yet
reposed faith in their kindness, and proudly left her honesty and honour
in their keeping. The Recorder, startled into momentary confusion at the
nature of this appeal, speedily recovered his dignity, and inflicted on
her the doom of the law. She was at this time residing at Hull, and had
come over to Beverley fair that morning for the purpose of depredation.
For this offence she was transported for seven years. She had three
husbands, named James Stanhope, William Rhodes, and James Crossland, all
of whom were severally transported, one after the other.
"My son, William Dunhill, was transported at the York Assizes for the
term of fourteen years. He, poor fellow, died immediately on his arrival
in New South Wales. He was the most promising of my family, and with
different examples before him, and good advice, would probably have
proved an ornament to society.
"Robert Taylor, son of my wife by a former husband, and who lived under
the same roof with us for several years, was also transported.
"I think I omitted to state that my wife at the time I married her was a
widow, and her name was Taylor. Her husband was shot in attempting to
commit a robbery shortly before I married her, a circumstance which was
not known to me, and which she never mentioned.
"As to my wife, she was also transported, after having contrived
innumerable depredations, and been the cause of those fatal events which
befel herself, myself, and the rest of the family.
"A robbery committed at Howden was readily traced home to the inmates of
our house; suspicion fell at once upon them, and the furniture, watches,
coins, and many other stolen articles were found on my premises. But as
this and many other things happened during my absence, and as I never
again saw several members of my family, I am the less particular in
narrating them, from my great anxiety that nothing should appear in this
history of myself for which I cannot vouch the truth."
Snowden returned to Spaldington, found his family dispersed, his cottage
occupied by other tenants, and no one in the village disposed to receive
him with open arms. The farmers naturally viewed his return with alarm,
and he found none in the neighbourhood disposed to give him work, had he
cared to take it. But steady work was distasteful to him. Had he sought
it in other parts of Yorkshire he might readily have found it. Instead
of this he loafed about, sulky and angry with society. By degrees he
formed new connections, in Hull and Lincolnshire, and resumed his former
dishonest practices in concert with them.
"I had heard much of the easy lives led by the convicts in New South
Wales; and, moreover, some members of my family were already there, and
I felt impelled to make an endeavour to join them.
"I had not long to wait for the gratification of this wish, for I was
soon traced to the commission of a paltry crime. I was apprehended,
tried, and convicted; my character did the rest, and readily procured
for me that banishment from England on which I had set my heart. My
trial took place at a district Quarter sessions in the north of
Lincolnshire, in the gaol of which I was only detained a few days when,
with several others, I was transmitted, pinioned and loaded with irons,
to London, there to await a ship to convey me to Botany Bay.
"It was a cold, bleak morning when I was put upon the coach in the
court-yard of the prison, before daylight, with the rain and sleet
falling in abundance. The coach remained half-an-hour or more in the
yard of the prison till all was in readiness, when the gates were thrown
open and we commenced our inauspicious journey. I cannot at all describe
the feelings of loneliness and of heartrending distress which came over
me at this moment, in which I felt that I was rushing from certain
misery to something that might be even still worse, and yet in my
despair I felt a clinging to existence. I have never met with--nay, I
have never heard of--a bad man who could look death unflinchingly in
the face. On ascending the first rise of the ground in our journey
towards London a breeze from the north suddenly sprung up, which
scattered the loaded clouds, and the sun burst forth in all its glory.
There appeared before me, as if a veil had been taken off the earth by
magic power, a wide-spread picture. The Humber, glorying in its Scythian
name, rolling to the ocean its mass of waters; and in the distance the
winding Trent and Ouse, stealing onward like two wily serpents; and I
could just discover the broad expanse where they became united.
"The beautiful Lincolnshire hills on my left, and the still more
beautiful hills, dales, and woods of my own native Yorkshire to the
north, lent their charms to form a landscape I never saw equalled, and
in casting my last lingering gaze upon it I felt that the inanimate
beauties of creation must now to me for ever be a blank. I strained my
eyes to catch as much of it as I could, feeling the prospect, as it
were, a part of myself, and necessary to my very existence, for there it
had commenced, and little at one time did I think at how great a
distance I was doomed to end it.
"Arrived at Botany Bay, I was soon disposed of, and commenced in good
earnest the life of a slave. Hard-worked, half-starved, ill-fed, and
worse clothed, such is the fate of the hapless convict."
Whilst in confinement, Snowden Dunhill wrote his Autobiography, and much
wished to send it to his native village that it might be printed there
for circulation. But it was some time before an opportunity presented
itself.