A note by Henry Crabb Robinson, dated June 1833, concerning a Mr Graham.

     The Mr Graham here mentioned was not an Englishman but a North American. He committed forgery when a very young man And was convicted He for a time swept the streets of New York chained; but being well connected, obtained a pardon on the condition of leaving the country. Arrived in England, he was reduced to extreme poverty, from which he was relieved, by obtaining employed^ment^ as the Emanuensis of a Gentleman, a Mr [    ] who became so attached to him that by will he gave him a large sum (some say £300) and G: became a Law student in London – here he formed literary connections And acquired a certain eclát among Templars, the members of the Academies &c &c &c

     His money being in his own hands, he went on the Continent where at the Gaming table he spent all he had It was on his return that we met him. [He] had met with Mr Sparkes, at whose expence he travelled – When in Paris he borrowed £15 of Mr Monkhouse which he promised repay me for M:  He gave me an address where no one knew him – And made all sorts of evasions – But I had already learned his character – Soon after my return, he sunk into poverty. He became a newspaper reporter – he edited the Somerset-house Gazette he translated Göthes memoirs from the French, pretending to translate from the German – I not knowing him to be the workman exposed the imposture & fraud in the Westminster Review – The book amounted to literary swindling – But he soon after was detected in frauds of a more perilous character – he quarrelled with Ugo Foscolo who repressed his challenge on the ground of the infamy of his character And the excuse was allowed by professed duelists – At length he narrowly escaped the gallows by flying to America, a forged bill of exchange being traced to him And on his flight being attended to Liverpool by a poor Irish reporter, a friend he treacherously cheated his generous friend by imposing on him a second forged <–> bill – Soon after his return to America, he was killed in a duel – his early history was known to Price the Manager of Drury Lane Theatre, who had promised to keep his secret but was dr when G. had again fled Price was released from his promise

                            H. C. Robinson

Text: WWL, DCMS 90.35, Wordsworth Trust and Museum, Grasmere. Robinson exposed Graham as an imposter (Robinson excoriates his inability to translate from German into English, having relied on a French translation!) in his ‘Review of Memoirs of Goëthe, written by himself’, that appeared in the first volume of the Westminster Review (April 1824), pp. 370-382.