Aged about forty, admitted November 8th 1816. This man formerly moved
in a very respectable rank of life: having however committed a forgery
for a very considerable amount, he was tried capitally at the Old
Bailey; but found to be disordered in his intellects, and he was sent
hither from Newgate on the day above named.
This man assumes a very important and consequential character. He
is said to have been a man of great cleverness, and a good scholar,
versed in learned languages, and well acquainted with general business.
He is very suspicious, watchful as a lynx, meddling, obtrusive,
and continually writing upon every thing inscribable he can get;
all kinds of paper, book-covers, old letter-backs, &c. &c.; and no
transaction, whether trivial or important, passes his observation
without a written note. Perhaps, from his admission to the present
hour, not the minutest circumstance has escaped his pen. He seems to
consider himself a sort of secret inspector-general: nothing eludes
his prying observation; he abounds with complaints; has written
numerous letters to the Committee of Governors, and other persons in
authority, on various subjects of pretended grievance. Amongst others
he addressed a letter to the late Sheriff Parkins, which brought that
municipal gentleman here to inquire into the case complained of; and
he afterwards waited on Lord Sidmouth, then Secretary of State for the
Home Department, to make a representation; but nothing farther has been
since heard on the subject.
Though so extremely vigilant and attentive to all matters not
concerning him, his memory seems quite void of recollection as to the
cause that brought him here, or the footing on which he is allowed to
remain; and the indulgence he has enjoyed teaches him to consider his
confinement as a business of mere temporary sojournment, and that he is
entitled to peculiar attentions and deference. His keeper he affects to
consider as a kind of _valet de place_, quite at his disposal; tells
him “he is not the sort of servant he wanted; that his predecessor was
as good a servant as he would wish to have, but that the present keeper
was not civil nor attentive enough for him, and he would certainly
have him removed unless he altered his conduct much for the better, and
that very soon.”
In fact, the only ostensible symptoms of this man’s insanity, if
such they may be considered, that now appear, are his addiction to
prying and meddling; his _morbus scribendi_, which keeps his fingers
in constant occupation, and the nonsensical tenour of his notes;
otherwise, he appears cool and collected, and well aware of what he
does and says.