Seth Wyman, a Life of Crime ~ Part III

I was bound securely hand and foot. . .and arrived at Amherst at about dark, on the first day of February, 1807. ~ Seth Wyman

In this post we continue the story of our bad boy cousin Seth Wyman (6C5X)

Seth and Wealthy both return home

While Seth languished in jail, his paramour Wealthy (7C5X) was suffering harrassment at the hands of Seth's nemesis Cilly. It was finally decided that she should go and stay with her uncle in Chichester, NH.

With "too much leisure and not enough room," Seth decided it was time to try another breakout. He was "particulary anxious" to get out because his trial was coming up and he didn't feel that his prospects of beating the rap looked bright. In the midst of working on that project with some of his cellmates, Seth was suddenly released from jail. It seems that during the Grand Jury hearing, Cilly "had neglected to bring a certificate of Mrs. Chandler's marriage" and the case was dropped.

Seth returned home and Wealthy and the baby joined him shortly afterwards. Since Cilly had vowed never to give up on his desire for revenge, the couple thought it best to skip town, destination Bangor, Maine. Seth had one last caper to get funds for the trip and they set out for Newburyport. There were many opportunites for Seth to ply his trade on the way so they wanted for nothing. The couple met Wealthy's family in Newburyport and the lot of them took off for Maine.

Seth found work immediately on Major Hogdon's farm and mill. Better yet, he found that the major had owned a store, now closed, that still contained a lot of goods. It was an easy matter for the master burglar to break into the store periodically, "as often as I could dispose of my plunder."

comeuppance of a sort

Seth began Chapter XVI of his book with this revery:

Did my readers ever imagine that a man could go on in an unceasing course of licentiosness or vise in any form and go unpunished. Have they ever thought that a villain, however successful his villany might be, was a man of happiness? That peace and quiet reigned in his breast. . . that he was happier with his ill-gotten riches, than the man who has obeyed the laws of God in all his dealing. . . If so, let me tell them, from my own experience, that "the way of the transgressor is hard" -- that man, when in the paths of vice, is out of his natural element. . .he can never know one moment of true enjoyement, can never feel that peace and quiet that the honest man, however poor he may be, must ever enjoy.

.. .this I was yet to learn as I became sunk lower and lower in the path of crime.

Seth was soon to feel at least one consequence of his life of crime. Hogdon heard of his escapades and summarily fired him. To add insult to injury, the Major was supposed to meet Seth to pay him for his labors but turned out to be a no show.

Seth ironically wrote that he was "rather provoked at his dishonesty" but had to admit that if he took into account what he had stolen from the Major's store it would have been a wash. Since he and Wealthy had decided to leave for Boston, Seth was forced to rob a store in Bangor to get enough "plunder" to see them through the trip.

In Boston, Seth stole $70 from his neighbors in the boarding house they were staying in. Shortly afterward, however, the constant pull of his hometown got the best of him and he and Wealthy skedaddled back to Goffstown. There, Seth hunkered down to work with his father, ever mindful that Cilly still had it out for him.

After haying season, Seth got a job hauling logs down the river. He described a foolhardy "daring rash feat" that he had attempted many times while on the river.

This was to let the current carry the boat nearly half way over a dam, and then pull it back by a strong tug at the oars. . .I then let the boat settle down over the edge, until Coggin, who was in the rear of the boat, hung out clear from the dam. I immediatley sprang upon the oars, but his wieght and the current proved too much for me. . .Although unexpected and unprepared for, this mishap did not for a moment cause me to lose my presence of mind.

Over the falls they went, landing underneath the boat. Luckily, men on the shore saw their predicament and started up the river to rescue them.

They then had to paddle up against a rapid current, but they were nearly up to us when we cleared ourselves from the boat. . .from this, they judged that we had been under the water fifteen minutes. The reader will recollect that a person can live much longer in water that is lashed into a foam than in still water, because there is a good deal of air contained in the bubbles of the former. . .I felt the water flow into me twice distinctly, which if it had happened a third time, would have ended my life.

As Seth attempted to swim to shore, he felt Coggin's "firm hold" on his shoulder "clutching it like a vice."

. . .I reached round my left hand, and threw him off so that I could swim clear of him. I was then ignorant that he could not swim, or I would have attempted to hold him up; but he was continually pulling my head under water, and. . .I felt stangled. As soon as I had dropt him, I struck out for a neighboring rock, which. . .I soon succeeded in reaching.

Coggin sunk immediately after I left him and before the boat could reach him -- sunk to rise no more, his body remaining in the water until the next day. The jury that was to set on him after his corpse was discovered, brought in a verdict of accidental drowning, as I had run an equal risk with him. . .but I am also aware and probaly so is the reader by this time, that I was the cause of his drowning, for I was venturesome and rash.

another imprisonment

Seth had a lot of plunder "secreted away in a storehouse in Boston" and he resolved to go and get it. Whie collecting his "own" stolen goods, he couldn't resist the draw of the other items that lay all around him.

A few days after arriving back in Goffstown with his stolen goods, he came across a wagon loaded with rum. With the aid of a farmer in the area he transferred the rum into barrels on the farmer's wagon. Then he went into town to Mr. M's store, always an easy source of goods. He managed to get three hundred dollars worth of stuff and had the added bonus of having another man suspected of the theft.

Darker days, however, loomed ahead. One night, Seth was walking through the woods on his way to steal some boards to make sleighs.

I had got about half way through these woods, when the trees and everything around me were suddenly illuminated as brightly as the noon of the lightest day. . .alarmed at this phenomenon. . .my attention was riveted by a large ball of fire. . .which, after floating in the air with a startling brilliancy for a few moments, suddenly disappeared.

The "ball of fire" appeared and disappeared twice more. Seth was sufficiently spooked and superstitious enough to believe that "ill-fortune was portended to me by the singular and unaccountable appearance just described." Future events would prove his belief to be correct.

A few months later, Seth stole about $70 in cash from a store in town. He went home and expected the requisite visit from the sheriff in town. This time, however, Seth wasn't so lucky. As it turned out, one of the coins he had stolen had a special mark on it. The sheriff took himself straightaway to Butterfield's Tavern where the judge ordered him to Amherst jail without bail. Seth was left at the tavern with only two keepers while the other men went to figure out how he had gotten into the store. Devious Seth managed to get his two keepers to drinking and managed to escape. Freedom, unluckily, was short lived. He was pursued and summarily caught.

I was taken back to the tavern in triumph, amidst the jeers and scoffings of the men and boys, and when we had reached the tavern, I was bound securely hand and foot. . .and arrived at Amherst at about dark, on the first day of February, 1807.

Below is a picture of the old Amherst Jail as it might have looked when Seth was a prisoner there:

The jail was freezing cold and Seth beleived that "the whole art of man could not have contrived a place where a person would be more utterly miserable than in this prison. . .I knew that it would not be safe for me to sleep for an instant, as the intense cold would have soon placed me beyond the reach of relief.

Seth immediately commenced his favorite jail time activity: digging. His goal was not necessarily to escape, but simply to keep himself warm and possibly provide himself with more space. When the rocks in his room were discovered, he was moved to another cell which he found somewhat more comfortable as their was no snow in that one. Then, his main problem became the lack of food which caused him to be "continually in the most intense pain."

A neighbor's friendly gesture, however, almost ended Seth's life. Worried about the freezing conditions in the jail, this man sent Seth a load of coal which he used to kindle a small fire. He lay next to it and fell asleep.

. . .when I awoke, I felt an excruciating pain in my head. Drowsiness soon came over me, and I sank back on my hard bed, failing fast in consciousness. . .I was slowly aroused from my lethrgy by some sound. . .which I soon found was the voice of a man calling to me from the window. . .the moment that I had got on my knees, I pitched forward to the floor, striking my head severly against the stones.

The man at the window could see there was something wrong and ran for aid. The problem turned out to be coal poisoning. The cell keeper took the coal from the room saying to Seth "It was nothing but the hand of Providence that saved your unworthy life --- d---d if it was ---and you must look out for yourself in future."

Seth wrote to Wealthy who was again pregnant, asking for her to come see him in prison. She was "shocked at the alteration in my appearance, and soundly berated the jailer. . ."

I was indeed a miserable sight to behold; I had nothing left but skin and bones, and my clothes hung about me like an old farmer's frock on a pole. . .and to add the little that could be added to my already over-flowing cup of misery, in a few days after. . .was taken sick with dysentery. . .discharging nothing but fresh blood, and suffering as much pain as could possibly be endured and lived through by any human being.

Seth was moved to another cell where he and his cellmates were allowed a little fire (with no coal) and he took salt for his dysentery. As soon as he had recovered a little strength, he resloved to try another breakout with his cellmates. They had been working on this plan for a few days when one of the men turned traitor and ratted on them. The jailer said to Seth, "it appears that you have been breaking again."

"Yes," I answered; "and you may thank your friend Hall for telling you and he may thank you for taking him out just as you did, before I knew that he had become a traitor. If I had found it out before, you would have had the pleasure of carrying out your dear, honest friend."

Seth and the non-traitor cell mate were sentenced to the lower dungeon for six weeks Shortly after his time in the dungeon, Seth's court date finally came around. He was going to be going to be sent to Hopkinton for trial. True to nature, he accordingly sent out for rum and tied one one with his cell mate. Their "severely intoxicated state" led to an extremly drawn out bloody fight between the two of them in which Seth eventually got the upper hand.

I have not the slightest doubt that I should have killed him, if the jailer. . .had not happened to pass along. . .and pulled me from Garven, who was now lying senseless on the floor. . .I was besprinkled with blood, also. . .The floor and walls around us were covered in blood. . .it was a horrid sight.

The next day he arrieved in Hopkinton for his trial.

The jury returned a verdict of "Guilty." The sentence prounouced that I should pay a fine of fity dollars and costs of court, to be remanded back to prison, until the law was satisfied; and this I expect would be sometime. . .

fugitive

On the way back to Amherst Seth was ever on the lookout for a way to escape. Though handcuffed, he fell back when going around a mud hole and slipped off his horse. It took a while for them to discover that he was missing and the hunt was on.

Seth managed to break the links of his handcuffs with a rock and a small stone. Further on toward home, he found a friend who managed to break the rest of the cuffs off of his wrists.

When he returned to Goffstown, he found that his parents had "driven my wife, or more

properly my mistress, from their house." He found her at the house of one of the town's selectmen. Seth wrote that he and Wealthy "once more met in heart and hand, although surrounded, as usual, by enemies and opposition on every side." He convinced his parents to welecome her back into their home.

This arrangement was short-lived as Seth found that an advertisement had been taken out in the local papers "offering a handsome reward for my apprehension. . ." He decided to leave the state but Wealthy could not come with him as she was expecting their baby any day. Before he left, he went on a burgling spree to steal whatever he thought Wealthy might need while he was gone.

Seth's destination was Massachusetts and the parting from Wealthy was "as painful to me as my own selfish nature would permit me.

The fact was, that a continued participation in, and a constant familiarity with, vice and the vicious, had not only effectually deadened every feeling of respect for honor and honesty, but it had also as effectually banished from my heart every kindly sympathy. . .So it was also with Mrs. Chandler; as has been before stated, she was a virtuous as any young female of her age, but her unhallowed intercourse with me and the scene of profligacy she had witnessed took away all noble feminine shame, and made her a fit companion for me.

The grand finale to Seth and Worthy's story will take place in our next post.