ndeed, as it has been observed,
"notwithstanding the many strange circumstances of her story, none is
so strange as that it should not be discovered in so many years where
she had concealed herself during the time she had invariably declared
she was at the house of Mother Wells."[48]

Another curious disappearance is recorded by Sir John Coleridge,
forming a strange story of romance. It seems there lived in Cornwall,
a highly respectable family, named Robinson, consisting of two
sons--William and Nicholas--and two daughters. The property was
settled on the two sons and their male issue, and in case of death on
the two daughters. Nicholas was placed with an eminent attorney of St.
Austen as his clerk, with a prospect of being one day admitted into
partnership. But his legal studies were somewhat interrupted by his
falling in love with a milliner's apprentice; the result being that he
was sent to London to qualify himself as an attorney. But he had no
sooner been admitted an attorney of the Queen's Bench and Common
Pleas than he disappeared, and thenceforward he was never seen by any
member of his family or former friends, all search for him proving
fruitless.

In course of time the father died, and William, the elder son,
succeeded to the property, dying unmarried in May, 1802. As nothing
was heard of Nicholas, the two sisters became entitled to the
property, of which they held possession for twenty years, no claim
being made to disturb their possession of it.

But in the year 1783, a young man, whose looks and manners were above
his means and situation, had made his appearance as a stranger at
Liverpool, going by the name of Nathaniel Richardson--the same
initials as Nicholas Robinson. He bought a cab and horse, and plied
for hire in the streets of Liverpool--and being "a civil, sober, and
prudent man," he soon became prosperous, and drove a coach between
London and Liverpool. He married, had children, and gradually acquired
considerable wealth. Having gone to Wales, however, in the year 1802,
to purchase some horses, he was accidentally drowned in the Mersey.
Many years after his death, it was rumoured in 1821 that this
Nathaniel Richardson was no other than Nicholas Robinson, and his
eldest son claimed the property, which was then inherited by the two
daughters. An action was accordingly tried in Cornwall to recover the
property. The strange part of the proceedings was that nearly forty
years had elapsed since any