Trial of Mary Blandy by William Roughead

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When was it that he said so?--It was on the 10th of August, saying he
was once at the coffee-house or the Lion, and he and two other
gentlemen had like to have been poisoned by what they had drank. Miss
Blandy said, "Sir, I remember it very well." She said it was at one of
those places, and he said no, it was the other. He said, "One of the
gentlemen died immediately, the other is dead now, and I have survived
them both; but it is my fortune to be poisoned at last." He looked
very hard at her during the time he was talking.

What did he say was put into the wine?--I remember he said it was
white arsenic.

When he looked hard at her how did she look?--She looked in great
confusion and all in a tremble.

Did you sit up with Miss Blandy the night after her father died?--I
did till three o'clock. She went to bed about one. She said to me,
"Betty, will you go away with me? If you will go to the Lion or the
Bell and hire a post-chaise I will give you fifteen guineas when you
get into it and ten guineas more when we came to London." I said,
"Where will you go then? Into the north?" She said, "I shall go into
the west of England." I said, "Shall you go by sea?" She said, "I
believe some part of the way." I said, "I will not go." Then she burst
into laughter, and said, "I was only in a joke. Did you think I was in
earnest?" "Yes," said I. "No," said she, "I was only joking."

Did you ever hear Miss Blandy tell Dr. Addington that she had given
your master some of that powder?--I heard Miss Blandy tell the doctor
she had given my master some of that powder before in a dish of tea,
which, she said, he did not drink, and she threw it into the street
out of the window, fearing she should be discovered, and filled the
cup again, and that Susan Gunnell drank it, and was ill for a week
after.

When was this?--This was on the Monday before my master died.

Do you remember what happened on Monday, the 5th of August?--Yes. On
that day I and two washerwomen were in the wash-house. Miss Blandy
came in, and said, "Betty, I have been in the pantry eating some of
the oatmeal out of your master's water gruel." I took no notice of it,
but the same day, in the afternoon, I went into the pantry, and Miss
Blandy followed me, and took a spoon and stirred the water gruel, and,
taking some up in the spoon, put it between her fingers and rubbed it.

What was it in?--It was in a pan. When my master was taken ill on the
Tuesday in the afternoon Miss Blandy came into the kitchen, and said,
"Betty, if one thing should happen, will you go with me to Scotland?"
I said, "Madam, I do not know." "What," says she, "you are unwilling
to leave your friends?" Said I, "If I should go there, and not like
it, it will be expensive travelling back again."

Did she say, "If one thing should happen"? What thing?--I took no
further notice of it then, but those were the words. On the Monday
morning before he died she said to me, "Betty, go up to your master
and give my duty to him, and tell him I beg to speak one word with
him." I did. She went up. I met her when she came out of the room from
him. She clasped me round the neck, and burst out a-crying, and said,
"Susan and you are the two honestest servants in the world; you ought
to be imaged in gold for your honesty; half my fortune will not make
you amends for your honesty to my father."

Cross-examined--Had Mr. Blandy at any time, and when, previous to the
5th of August been ill?--About a twelvemonth before he had been ill
some time, but I cannot tell how long.

What was his illness?--He had a great cold.

Did he take any physic?--I believe he did once or twice.

Can you tell the time?--I believe it was the latter end of July or
beginning of August.

Who made the whey and broth that were sent to the washerwoman?--My
fellow-servant made the whey; I made the broth.

Was she a kind mistress to the washerwoman?--She was. She had a
greater regard for her than any other woman that came about the house.

About this music, who did she say heard it?--She mostly mentioned
herself hearing that.

Was this talk when Cranstoun was there?--I heard her talk so when he
was there and in his absence.

Was it when she was in an angry temper only that she used those words
to her father?--I have heard her in the best of times curse her
father.

Was Susan Gunnell very ill after drinking that tea?--She was, and
continued so for a week.

KING'S COUNSEL--Was it at the time Susan was ill from drinking of the
tea that Miss Blandy asked you about her taking the gruel and said it
would do for her? And did she say anything else?--Miss Blandy said she
poured it out for my master, but he went to church and left it.

PRISONER'S COUNSEL--Have you had any ill-will against her?--I always
told her I wished her very well.

Did you ever say, "Damn her for a black bitch; I should be glad to see
her go up the ladder and be hanged"?--No, sir, I never did in my life.

KING'S COUNSEL--Did you and the rest of the family observe that Mr.
Blandy's looks were as well the last six months as before?--Miss
Blandy has said to me, "Don't you think my father looks faint?"
Sometimes I have said, "He is," sometimes not. I never observed any
alteration at all.

[Here Dr. Addington is appealed to by the counsel for the prisoner.]

PRISONER'S COUNSEL--Do you, Dr. Addington, remember Miss Blandy
telling you on Monday night, the 12th August, that she had on a Sunday
morning, about six weeks before, when her father was absent from the
parlour, mixed a powder with his tea, and that Susan Gunnell had drank
that tea?--I remember her telling me that Monday night that she had on
a Sunday morning, about six weeks before, when her father was absent
from the parlour, mixed a powder with his tea, but do not remember her
saying that Susan Gunnell had drank that tea. I have several times
heard Susan Gunnell say that she was sure she had been poisoned by
drinking tea out of Mr. Blandy's cup that Sunday morning.

Did not Miss Blandy declare to you that she had always thought the
powder innocent?--Yes.

Did she not always declare the same?--Yes.

[The KING'S COUNSEL then interposed, and said that he had not intended
to mention what had passed in discourse between the prisoner and Dr.
Addington; but that now, as her own counsel had been pleased to call
for part of it, he desired the whole might be laid before the Court.]

[Sidenote: Dr. Addington]

Dr. ADDINGTON--On Monday night, the 12th August, after Miss Blandy had
been secured, and her papers, keys, &c., taken from her, she threw
herself on the bed and groaned, then raised herself and wrung her
hands, and said that it was impossible for any words to describe the
horrors and agonies in her breast; that Mr. Cranstoun had ruined her;
that she had ever, till now, believed him a man of the strictest
honour; that she had mixed a powder with the gruel, which her father
had drank on the foregoing Monday and Tuesday nights; that she was the
cause of his death, and that she desired life for no end but to go
through a painful penance for her sin. She protested at the same time
that she had never mixed the powder with anything else that he had
swallowed, and that she did not know it to be poison till she had seen
its effects. She said that she had received the powder from Mr.
Cranstoun with a present of Scotch pebbles; that he had written on the
paper that held it, "The powder to clean the pebbles with"; that he
had assured her it was harmless; that he had often taken it himself;
that if she would give her father some of it now and then, a little
and a little at a time, in any liquid, it would make him kind to him
and her; that accordingly, about six weeks before, at breakfast-time,
her father being out of the room, she had put a little of it into his
cup of tea, but that he never drank it; that, part of the powder
swimming at top of the tea, and part sinking to the bottom, she had
poured it out of the window and filled up the cup with fresh tea; that
then she wrote to Mr. Cranstoun to let him know that she could not
give it in tea without being discovered; and that in his answer he had
advised her to give it in water gruel for the future, or in any other
thickish fluid. I asked her whether she would endeavour to bring Mr.
Cranstoun to justice. After a short pause she answered that she was
fully conscious of her own guilt, and was unwilling to add guilt to
guilt, which she thought she should do if she took any step to the
prejudice of Mr. Cranstoun, whom she considered as her husband though
the ceremony had not passed between them.

KING'S COUNSEL--Was anything more said by the prisoner or you?--I
asked her whether she had been so weak as to believe the powder that
she had put into her father's tea and gruel so harmless as Mr.
Cranstoun had represented it; why Mr. Cranstoun had called it a powder
to clean pebbles if it was intended only to make Mr. Blandy kind; why
she had not tried it on herself before she ventured to try it on her
father; why she had flung it into the fire; why, if she had really
thought it innocent, she had been fearful of a discovery when part of
it swam on the top of the tea; why, when she had found it hurtful to
her father, she had neglected so many days to call proper assistance
to him; and why, when I was called at last, she had endeavoured to
keep me in the dark and hide the true cause of his illness.

What answers did she make to these questions?--I cannot justly say,
but very well remember that they were not such as gave me any
satisfaction.

PRISONER'S COUNSEL--She said then that she was entirely ignorant of
the effects of the powder.

She said that she did not know it to be poison till she had seen its
effects.

Let me ask you, Dr. Addington, this single question, whether the
horrors and agonies which Miss Blandy was in at this time were not, in
your opinion, owing solely to a hearty concern for her father?--I beg,
sir, that you will excuse my giving an answer to this question. It is
not easy, you know, to form a true judgment of the heart, and I hope a
witness need not deliver his opinion of it.

I do not speak of the heart; you are only desired to say whether those
agitations of body and mind which Miss Blandy showed at this time did
not seem to you to arise entirely from a tender concern for her
father?--Since you oblige me, sir, to speak to this particular, I must
say that all the agitation of body and mind which Miss Blandy showed
at this time, or any other, when I was with her, seemed to me to arise
more from the apprehension of unhappy consequences to herself than
from a tender and hearty concern for her father.

Did you never, then, observe in her any evident tokens of grief for
her father?--I never thought I did.

Did she never wish for his recovery?--Often.

Did not you think that those wishes implied a concern for him?--I did
not, because I had before told her that if he died soon she would
inevitably be ruined.

When did you tell her this?--On Sunday morning, the 11th August, just
before I left Henley.

Did not she desire you that morning, before you quitted his room, to
visit him again the next day?--Yes.

And was she not very solicitous that you should do him all the service
in your power?--I cannot say that I discovered any solicitude in her
on this score till Monday night, the 12th August, after she was
confined, and her keys and other things had been taken from her.

KING'S COUNSEL--Did you, Dr. Addington, attend Susan Gunnell in her
illness?--Yes, sir, but I took no minutes of her case.

Did her symptoms agree with Mr. Blandy's?--They differed from his in
some respects, but the most material were manifestly of the same kind
with his, though in a much less degree.

Did you think them owing to poison?--Yes.

Did you attend Ann Emmet?--Yes, sir.

To what cause did you ascribe her disorder?--To poison, for she told
me that, on Wednesday morning, the 7th August, very soon after
drinking some gruel at Mr. Blandy's, she had been seized with
prickings and burnings in her tongue, throat, and stomach, which had
been followed by severe fits of vomiting and purging; and I observed
that she had many other symptoms which agreed with Mr. Blandy's.

Did she say that she thought she had ever taken poison before?--On my
telling her that I ascribed her complaints to poison, which she had
taken in gruel at Mr. Blandy's on the 7th August, she said that, if
she had been poisoned by drinking that gruel at Mr. Blandy's, she was
sure that she had been poisoned there the haytime before by drinking
something else.

[Sidenote: Alice Emmet]

ALICE EMMET, examined--My mother is now very ill, and cannot attend;
she was charwoman at Mr. Blandy's in June last; she was taken very ill
in the night with a vomiting and reaching, upwards and downwards. I
went to Miss Blandy in the morning, by her desire, to see if she would
send her something, as she wanted something to drink, saying she was
very dry. Miss said she would send something, which she did in about
two hours.

Did you tell her what your mother had ate or drank?--No, I did not,
only said my mother was very ill and very dry, and desired something
to drink.

[Sidenote: R. Littleton]

ROBERT LITTLETON, examined--I was clerk to Mr. Blandy almost two
years. The latter end of July last I went to my father's, in
Warwickshire, and returned again on the 9th August, and breakfasted
with Mr. Blandy and his daughter the next morning, which was on a
Saturday. He was in great agony, and complained very much. He had a
particular dish to drink his tea in. He tasted his tea, and did not
drink it, saying it had a gritty, bad taste, and asked Miss whether
she had not put too much of the black stuff in it, meaning Bohea tea.
She answered it was as usual. He tasted it again and said it had a bad
taste. She seemed to be in some sort of a tremor. He looked particular
at her, and she looked very much confused and hurried, and went out of
the room. Soon after my master poured it out into the cat's basin, and
set it to be filled again. After this, when he was not there, Miss
asked me what he did with the tea. I said he had not drunk it, but put
it into the cat's basin in the window; then she looked a good deal
confused and flurried. The next day Mr. Blandy, of Kingston, came
about half an hour after nine in the morning. They walked into the
parlour, and left me to breakfast by myself in the kitchen. I went to
church. When I returned, the prisoner desired me to walk with her
cousin into the garden; she delivered a letter to me, and desired me
to seal and direct it as usual, and put it into the post.

Had you ever directed any letter for her before?--I have, a great
many. I used to direct her letters to Mr. Cranstoun. [He is shown a
letter.] This is one.

Did you put it into the post?--I did not. I opened it, having just
before heard Mr. Blandy was poisoned by his own daughter. I
transcribed it, and took it to Mr. Norton, the apothecary at Henley,
and after that I showed it and read it to Mr. Blandy.

What did he say?--He said very little. He smiled and said, "Poor,
love-sick girl! What won't a girl do for a man she loves?" (or to that
effect).

Have you ever seen her write?--I have, very often.

Look at this letter; is it her own handwriting?--I cannot tell. It is
written worse than she used to write, but it is the same she gave me.

Do you remember Mr. Cranstoun coming there in August, 1750?--I do. It
was either the latter end of July or the beginning of August.

Did you hear any talk about music about that time?--After he was gone
I heard the prisoner say she heard music in the house; this I heard
her say very often, and that it denoted a death in the family.
Sometimes she said she believed it would be herself; at other times it
might be her father, by reason of his being so much broken. I heard
her say once she thought she heard her mother.

Did she say when that death would happen?--She said that death would
happen before October, meaning the death of her father, seeming to me.

Have you heard her curse her father?--I have heard her several times,
for a rogue, a villain, a toothless old dog.

How long was this before her father's death?--I cannot justly tell
that, but I have heard her a great many times within two months of his
death, and a great while before. I used to tell her he was much broken
latterly, and would not live long. She would say she thought so too,
and that the music portended his death.

Cross-examined--When you breakfasted with them in the parlour who was
there first?--She was.

Did you see the tea made?--No, sir.

Did you see it poured out?--No; but he desired me to taste the tea. I
did mine, and said I fancied his mouth was out of taste.

Did not this hurry you say Miss Blandy was in arise from the
displeasure of her father because the tea was not made to his mind?--I
cannot say that, or what it was from.

What became of that he threw into the cat's basin?--He left it there.

[Sidenote: R. Harman]

ROBERT HARMAN, examined--I was servant to Mr. Blandy at the time of
his death. That night he died the prisoner asked me where I should
live next. I said I did not know. She asked me to go with her. I asked
her where she was going? She said it would be L500 in my way, and no
hurt to me if I would. I told her I did not choose to go.

Did she tell you to what place she was going?--She did not.

Did she want to go away at that time of night?--Then, immediately.

Cross-examined--Did she give any reason why she desired to go
away?--No, she gave none.

How long had you lived there?--A twelvemonth.

What has been her general behaviour to her father during the time you
were there?--She behaved very well, so far as ever I saw, and to all
the family.

Did you ever hear her swear about her father?--No, I never did.

[Sidenote: R. Fisher]

RICHARD FISHER, examined--I was one of the jury on the coroner's
inquest that sat on Mr. Blandy's body on Thursday, 15th of August. As
I was going up street to go to market I was told Miss Blandy was gone
over the bridge. I went and found her at the sign of the Angel, on the
other side of the bridge. I told her I was very sorry for her
misfortune, and asked her what she could think of herself to come from
home, and if she would be glad to go home again? She said, "Yes, but
what must I do to get there for the mob?" I said I would endeavour to
get a close post-chaise and carry her home. I went out through the mob
and got one, and carried her home. She asked me whether she was to go
to Oxford that night or not. I said I believed not. When I came to her
father's house I delivered her up to the constables. When we were upon
the inquiry before the coroner a gentleman was asking for some letters
which came in the time of Mr. Blandy's illness. I went to her uncle,
Stevens, to see for them. She then asked me again what the gentlemen
intended to do with her, or how it would go. I said I was afraid very
hard, unless she could produce some letters to bring Mr. Cranstoun to
justice. She said, "Dear Mr. Fisher, I am afraid I have burnt some
that would have brought him to justice." She took a key out of her
pocket, and said, "Take this key and see if you can find such letters
in such a drawer." There was one Mrs. Minn stood by. I desired her to
go with the key, which she did. But no letters were found there. Then
Miss Blandy said, "My honour to him will prove my ruin."

What did she mean by the word "him"?--Mr. Cranstoun--when she found
there were no letters of consequence to be found.

[Sidenote: Mrs. Lane]

Mrs. LANE, examined--I was with my husband at Henley at the sign of
the Angel on the other side of the bridge. There was Miss Blandy. The
first word I heard Mr. Lane, my husband, say was, if she was found
guilty she would suffer according to law, upon which she stamped her
foot upon the ground, and said, "O that damned villain!" then paused a
little, and said "But why should I blame him, for I am more to blame
than he, for I gave it him, and knew the consequence?"

Did she say I knew or I know?--I really cannot say, sir, for I did not
expect to be called for to be examined here, and will not take upon me
to swear positively to a word. She was in a sort of agony, in a very
great fright.

[Sidenote: Mr. Lane]

Mr. LANE, examined--I went into the room where the prisoner was before
my wife the day after Mr. Blandy's death. She arose from her chair,
and met me, and looked hard at me. She said, "Sir, I have not the
pleasure of knowing you." Said I, "No, I am a stranger to you." She
said, "Sir, you look like a gentleman. What do you think they will do
with me?" Said I, "You will be committed to the county gaol, and be
tried at the assizes, and if your innocence appears you will be
acquitted; if not, you will suffer accordingly." She stamped with her
foot, and said, "O! that damned villain! But why do I blame him? I am
more to blame." Then Mr. Littleton came in, which took off my
attention from her that I did not hear so as to give an account of the
whole.

[The letter which Littleton opened, read in Court.] Directed to the
hon. William Henry Cranstoun, Esq.--

Dear Willy,--My father is so bad, that I have only time to tell you,
that if you do not hear from me soon again, do not be frightened.
I am better myself; and lest any accident should happen to your
letters take care what you write. My sincere compliments. I am ever,
yours.

The Prisoner's Defence.[12]

[Sidenote: Mary Blandy]

My lords, it is morally impossible for me to lay down the hardships I
have received--I have been aspersed in my character. In the first
place, it has been said that I have spoken ill of my father, that I
have cursed him, and wished him at hell, which is extremely false.
Sometimes little family affairs have happened, and he did not speak to
me so kind as I could wish. I own I am passionate, my lords, and in
those passions some hasty expressions might have dropped; but great
care has been taken to recollect every word I have spoken at different
times, and to apply them to such particular purposes as my enemies
knew would do me the greatest injury. These are hardships, my lords,
extreme hardships, such as you yourselves must allow to be so. It is
said, too, my lords, that I endeavoured to make my escape. Your
lordships will judge from the difficulties I laboured under. I had
lost my father--I was accused of being his murderer--I was not
permitted to go near him--I was forsaken by my friends--affronted by
the mob--insulted by my servants. Although I begged to have the
liberty to listen at the door where he died I was not allowed it. My
keys were taken from me, my shoe buckles and garters, too--to prevent
me from making away with myself, as though I was the most abandoned
creature. What could I do, my lords? I verily believe I must have been
out of my senses. When I heard my father was dead, and the door open,
I ran out of the house and over the bridge, and had nothing on but a
half-sack and petticoat without a hoop--my petticoats hanging about
me--the mob gathered about me. Was this a condition, my lords, to make
my escape in? A good woman beyond the bridge seeing me in this
distress desired me to walk in till the mob was dispersed. The town
serjeant was there. I begged he would take me under his protection to
have me home. The woman said it was not proper; the mob was very
great, and that I had better stay a little. When I came home they said
I used the constable ill. I was locked up for fifteen hours, with only
an odd servant of the family to attend me. I was not allowed a maid
for the common decencies of my sex. I was sent to gaol, and was in
hopes there, at least, this usage would have ended. But was told it
was reported I was frequently drunk; that I attempted to make my
escape; that I never attended the chapel. A more abstemious woman, my
lords, I believe does not live.

Upon the report of my making my escape the gentleman who was High
Sheriff last year (not the present) came and told me, by order of the
higher powers, he must put an iron on me. I submitted, as I always do
to the higher powers. Some time after he came again, and said he must
put a heavier upon me, which I have worn, my lords, till I came
hither. I asked the Sheriff why I was so ironed. He said he did it by
the command of some noble peer on his hearing that I intended to make
my escape. I told them I never had such a thought, and I would bear it
with the other cruel usage I had received on my character. The Rev.
Mr. Swinton, the worthy clergyman who attended me in prison, can
testify that I was very regular at the chapel whenever I was well.
Sometimes I really was not able to come out, and then he attended me
in my room. They likewise have published papers and depositions which
ought not to have been published in order to represent me as the most
abandoned of my sex and to prejudice the world against me. I submit
myself to your lordships and to the worthy jury. I can assure your
lordships, as I am to answer it before that grand tribunal, where I
must appear, I am as innocent as the child unborn of the death of my
father. I would not endeavour to save my life at the expense of truth.
I really thought the powder an innocent, inoffensive thing, and I gave
it to procure his love. It has been mentioned, I should say I was
ruined. My lords, when a young woman loses her character is not that
her ruin? Why, then, should this expression be construed in so wide a
sense? Is it not ruining my character to have such a thing laid to my
charge? And whatever may be the event of this trial I am ruined most
effectually.

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