MAGNIFICENT HOAXER

Shannon News, 1 May 1928, Page 4

MAGNIFICENT HOAXER

VANITY CAUSJ3S DOWNFALL

RELICS OP SHAKESPEARE AND GRAY.

Colossal vanitv and inordin&te pxs h'<.v for rotoriet/ —as well ;is a touch o' e%nrk:e- —we o lesponsibie for the exploits which resulted in Hunter Charles Rogers being sent for 12 months to' the Bucks County Prison.

He had forged relics of the poets Gray, Shakespeare and Milton, which he pretended he had found in a secret draw. In addition he "found" some paintings signed by the master. Hoppner, and so impressed a man at Stratford-on-Avon that he obtained a i sum of £16,000 from him. But the meanest of .the frauds concorned Mr Pratt, of Esher. Surrey. Rogers.had informed Mr Pratt that he was a descendant of the poet Rogers, and that he had inherited a number of valuable paintings and documents which were hidden in Cornwall. Dupe Who Died. Mr Pratt advanced him money to reach Cornwall, and on his return Rogers brought with him a number of pictures which he claimed to have come from the brush of an old maSer. Mr Pratt gave him £1,234 for them—and immediately afterwards Rogers disappeared. The man who had been deluded into buying them had them valued, and discovered that he had been deceived. Shortly afterwars he died from heart failure, and when his widow sold the pictures they only realised £'S. The story of Roger's life was detailed by the detective-Inspector who was in charge of the case. The perpetrator of this amazing series of hoaxes had received a fair education. When he was 16 years of age he was apprenticed to farming. He took the full course of instruction, and then emigrated to New Zealand. He soon returned, however, and showed his pluck in working his passage, home, as he had done outwards. Spent £I,OOO Legacy. On the death of his father, he found himself with a legacy of £I,OOO. With this he removed to Ashford, in Middlesex, and there, with a view to what he regarded as the spectacular, he posed as a private detective. But very soon his legacy was all spent, and then he had to seek parish relief

According to the records read out by the detective, it was at this time that he committed his first crime. He bought some jewellery and insured it for £1,216. Then he made a claim against the insurance company, asserting that he had lost the jewellery while travelling from Leicester to London. He was bound over.

The resource and ingenuity of this champion hoaxer were astounding. He had among his treasures an ancient earth-stained lamp, which he announced the poet Gray used while wandering around the churchyard at Stoke Poges by night.

He explained the source of his "finds" in ways that were startling. In a secret drawer, so he declared, he discovered a poem by Milton. In another drawer there was a plan v\ Inch directed his attention to a field at Compton Wynyates, the Marquess of Northampton's Warwickshire estates. "I went there and dug," said Rogers, "and unearthed a number-of Shakespeare's relics. One of these was a Bible printed 'in 1577 with Shakespeare's signature, as well as 'a survey of lands in his writing/ "

Pictures from the brushes of Opie, Hoppner, Morland, an*d Constable were bequeathed to him by an aunt in Cornwall, asserted Rogers. , Each canvas bore some signature, and all were forgeries—clumsy ones at that. At one time Rogers took a house in Whitstable, where he proudly, displayed his "relics" with a view to attracting customers. He actually offered the Shakespeare forgeries to the librarian of the museum at Stratford-on-Avon, but the latter, of course, immediately pronounced them as worthless. Then Rogers, with characteristic audacity, actually went to America, and offered his finds to collectors there. He met with no success, however, and returned to England with the whole of his collection. Thomas Chatterton. Allusion was made in court to previous literary forgeries which, however, were much more serious and which deluded more people. One of the names mentioned was that of Thomas Chatterton, "the marvellous boy—the sleepless soul who perished in his pride." Chatter,ton, while still a youth, conceived the. idea of forging poems and manuscripts which he declared he discovered in an old chest, in the parish church at Bristol, where his father was sexton. He even invented the name "Thomas Rowley," and turned out reams of poetry which he attributed to him. One of the most astounding of his efforts was an ae-

count of "Ye monkes passing over Blackfriars Bridge."

With a piece of yellow ochre, some parchment and pen and ink, this 15-year-old boy puzzled all the learned antiquaries of England. And it was only after the Prime Minister had ordered an inquiry that his work was pronounced as a forgery.

Chatterton came to London, but no one would help him, and' he died from poison in a Drury Lane garret.

Reference was also made to William Henry .Ireland, an older man whose forgeries showed even greater ingenuity and skill. He went to Stratford-on-Avon and came away with sheaves of documents which bore what purported to be the signature of William Shakespeare.