Mr. Hackman had held a commission in the 68th Foot, and while employed on the recruiting service at Huntingdon, had been hospitably received at Hinchingbroke, the seat of Lord Sandwich. At that time a Miss Reay resided there under the protection of his lordship, by whom she had had nine children. Hackman fell desperately in love with Miss Reay, and the lady did not altogether reject his attentions. A correspondence between them, which bears every appearance of authenticity, was published after the murder under the title of ‘Love and Madness,’ and the letters on both sides are full of ardent protestations. Hackman continued to serve for some time, but the exile from the sight of his beloved became so intolerable that he sold out, took orders, and entered the Church, obtaining eventually the living of Wiverton in Norfolk. He had determined to marry Miss Reay if she would accept him, and one of the last letters of the correspondence above quoted proves that the marriage arrangements were all but completed. On the 1st March, 1779, he writes,--“In a month or six weeks at farthest from this time I might certainly call you mine. Only remember that my character now I have taken orders renders expedition necessary. By to-night’s past I shall write into Norfolk about the alterations at _our_ parsonage.” But within a few weeks a cloud overshadowed his life. It is only vaguely indicated in a letter to a friend, dated the 20th March, in which he hints at a rupture between Miss Reay and himself. “What I shall do I know not--without her I do not think I can exist.” A few days later he wrote to the same friend: “Despair goads me on--death only can relieve me.... What then have I to do, who only lived when she loved me, but cease to live now she ceases to love?”