DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70301#0291
tiFE of Mary bateman.
261
fortune-tellers lay claim, must proceed directly from God;
and can it be supposed, by any person possessing common
sense, that he will bestow such powers, not upon good men
nor upon good women, (for good people never pretend to
dive into futurity, or to foretell future events), but upon bad
men and bad women?
Mary Bateman was born at Aisenby, in the parish of
Topcliffe, near Thirsk, in the North Riding of Yorkshire,
in the year 1768. Her maiden name was Harker, and her
parents, small farmers at that place, have always maintained
a reputable character.
So early as at five years of age, Mary Bateman began to
display a knavish and vicious disposition. At that age she
stole a pair of morocco shoes, and secreted them for some
months in her father’s barn; at length she brought them out
and pretended she had found them, but on inquiry proved
that this was only one of those fraudulent devices which so
strongly marked her future life.
At so early an age she forfeited the confidence of her
friends, and her subsequent behaviour was not calculated to
regain it. Many were the frauds and falsehoods which she
practised in her juvenile years; but we pass them over to
hasten to those flagrant acts of fraud, artifice, and cruelty,
which, in her more advanced life, have rendered her so no-
torious.
About the year 1780, she left her father’s house, and be-
came a servant in Thirsk. In that town and neighbourhood
she lived in various places, and quitted them under very-
suspicious circumstances. About the year 1787 she left
Thirsk for York, and lived near a year in that city as a do-
mestic servant; at length she was detected in some pilfering
tricks, and left her place in disgrace, leaving behind her both
her clothes and wages. From York she went to Leeds;
this was in the year 1788.
During the time she had been in service, she had lived
261
fortune-tellers lay claim, must proceed directly from God;
and can it be supposed, by any person possessing common
sense, that he will bestow such powers, not upon good men
nor upon good women, (for good people never pretend to
dive into futurity, or to foretell future events), but upon bad
men and bad women?
Mary Bateman was born at Aisenby, in the parish of
Topcliffe, near Thirsk, in the North Riding of Yorkshire,
in the year 1768. Her maiden name was Harker, and her
parents, small farmers at that place, have always maintained
a reputable character.
So early as at five years of age, Mary Bateman began to
display a knavish and vicious disposition. At that age she
stole a pair of morocco shoes, and secreted them for some
months in her father’s barn; at length she brought them out
and pretended she had found them, but on inquiry proved
that this was only one of those fraudulent devices which so
strongly marked her future life.
At so early an age she forfeited the confidence of her
friends, and her subsequent behaviour was not calculated to
regain it. Many were the frauds and falsehoods which she
practised in her juvenile years; but we pass them over to
hasten to those flagrant acts of fraud, artifice, and cruelty,
which, in her more advanced life, have rendered her so no-
torious.
About the year 1780, she left her father’s house, and be-
came a servant in Thirsk. In that town and neighbourhood
she lived in various places, and quitted them under very-
suspicious circumstances. About the year 1787 she left
Thirsk for York, and lived near a year in that city as a do-
mestic servant; at length she was detected in some pilfering
tricks, and left her place in disgrace, leaving behind her both
her clothes and wages. From York she went to Leeds;
this was in the year 1788.
During the time she had been in service, she had lived