author
Walter Bates
A Loyalist settler in colonial New Brunswick, he is best remembered for turning a real local mystery into one of early Canada’s most enduring true-crime stories. His writing mixes eyewitness detail, community memory, and a plainspoken sense of drama.
1 Audiobook
Henry More Smith: The Mysterious Stranger
by Walter Bates
About the author
Born in Connecticut in 1760, Walter Bates was raised on a farm and remained a committed Loyalist during the American Revolution. After the war, he settled in New Brunswick, where he built a life as a farmer, public official, and later sheriff.
He is best known as the author of The Mysterious Stranger, an account of the notorious Henry More Smith case. The book became widely read because it told a sensational story through the eyes of someone close to the events, blending crime narrative with the texture of everyday life in the Maritimes.
Bates also wrote about Loyalist history and early settlement in New Brunswick, helping preserve memories of the people and places around him. Though he was not a literary celebrity, his work has lasted because it offers a vivid window into early Canadian life and the stories that captured its imagination.