New Brunswick Historical Tidbits

The Master Thief Henry Smith

By Mitch Biggar

Henry More Smith was a confident man, master puppeteer, hypnotist, seer, and above all else a superlative escape artist. Chains, handcuffs, shackles, even made to fit irons collars cold not hold him. He once stole law books from Chief Justice Strange of Nova Scotia and then returned them and claimed a reward.

Once at a dinner party hosted by Attorney Thomas Wetmore he made off with fine top hats and numerous cloaks. In 1812 Smith was caught and imprisoned in a Kingston jail as a horse thief. He faked an illness so well that housewives sent special foods to his bedside, one even sent him a feather bed to die on. While the jailor and a clergymen were heating a brick for his chilled back, Smith vanished into the night.

On more then one occasion when a posse was combing the countryside for him, searchers discovered only too late that he had been a member of the posse the day before. Recaptured again and awaiting trial for horse stealing Smith pretended to be insane. In his cell they found Smith had fashioned an elaborate marionette show out of his bed straw and shreds of his clothing. There were ten characters in all and Smith would whistle a tune while a puppet clanged a tambourine and all the characters danced to the tune.

Henry More Smith's genius so deeply impressed the authorities that he received a pardon on condition he would leave New Brunswick and ever return.

This page was designed by Irene Doyle September 1999