Trial of Mary Blandy by William Roughead
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William Roughead >> Trial of Mary Blandy
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Evidence for the Defence.
[Sidenote: Ann James]
ANN JAMES, examined--I live at Henley, and had use to wash for Mr.
Blandy. I remember the time Mr. Blandy grew ill. Before he was ill
there was a difference between Elizabeth Binfield and Miss Blandy, and
Binfield was to go away.
How long before Mr. Blandy's death?--It might be pretty near a quarter
of a year before. I have heard her curse Miss Blandy, and damn her for
a bitch, and said she would not stay. Since this affair happened I
heard her say, "Damn her for a black bitch. I shall be glad to see her
go up the ladder and swing."
How long after?--It was after Miss Blandy was sent away to gaol.
Cross-examined--What was this quarrel about?--I do not know. I heard
her say she had a quarrel, and was to go away several times.
Who was by at this time?--Mary Banks was by, and Nurse Edwards, and
Mary Seymour, and I am not sure whether Robert Harman was there or
not.
How was it introduced?--It happened in Mr. Blandy's kitchen; she was
always talking about Miss.
Were you there on the 5th of August?--I cannot say I was.
Do you remember the prisoner's coming into the washhouse and saying
she had been doing something with her father's water gruel?--No, I do
not remember it.
[Sidenote: E. Binfield]
ELIZABETH BINFIELD, recalled--Did you, Elizabeth Binfield, ever make
use of such an expression as this witness has mentioned?--I never said
such words.
Did you ever tell this witness Miss and you had quarrelled?--To the
best of my knowledge, I never told her about a quarrel.
Have you ever had a quarrel?--We had a little quarrel sometime before.
Did you ever declare you were to go away?--I did.
[Sidenote: Mary Banks]
MARY BANKS, examined--I remember being in Mr. Blandy's kitchen in
company with Ann James.
COUNSEL--Who was in company?--I do not remember.
Do you remember a conversation between Elizabeth Binfield and Ann
James?--I do not remember anything of it.
Do you remember her aspersing Miss Blandy's character?--I do not
recollect.
Did you hear her say, "She should be glad to see the black bitch go up
the ladder to be hanged"?--She did say, "She should be glad to see the
black bitch go up the ladder to be hanged."
When was this?--It was the night Mr. Blandy was opened.
Are you sure it was that day?--I am sure it was.
Where was Miss Blandy then?--She was then in the house.
[Sidenote: E. Herne]
EDWARD HERNE, examined--I formerly was a servant in Mr. Blandy's
family; I went there eighteen years ago, and left them about twelve
years ago last November, but have been frequently at the house ever
since, that is, may be once, twice, thrice, or four times in a week.
What was Miss's general behaviour to her father and in the
family?--She behaved, according to what I always observed, as well to
her father and the family as anybody could do, an affectionate,
dutiful daughter.
Did you see her during the time of Mr. Blandy's illness?--I did. The
first time I went into the room she was not able to speak to me nor I
to her for ten minutes.
What was that owing to?--It was owing to the greatness of her grief.
When was this?--It was the 12th of August, at night.
How did her father seem to be satisfied with her behaviour and
conduct?--She was put into my custody that night; when I went into the
room (upon hearing the groans of her father) she said, at my return,
"Pray, Ned, how does he do?"
Did you ever hear her speak ill of her father?--I never heard her
swear an oath all the time I have known her, or speak a disrespectful
word of her father.
Cross-examined--What are you?--I am sexton of the parish.
On what night did Mr. Blandy die?--On the Wednesday night.
How came you, as she was put under your care, to let her get away?--I
was gone to dig a grave, and was sent for home; they told me she was
gone over the bridge.
Had you any talk with her about this affair?--She declared to me that
Captain Cranstoun put some powder into tea one morning for Mr. Blandy,
and she turned herself about he was stirring it in the cup.
When did she tell you this?--In August, 1750.
Have you seen her since she has been in Oxford Gaol?--I have. When the
report was spread that the captain was taken I was with her in the
gaol; a gentleman came in and said he was taken; she wrung her hands
and said, "I hope in God it is true, that he may be brought to justice
as well as I, and that he may suffer the punishment due to his crime
as she should do for hers."
PRISONER--Give me leave to ask the last witness some questions.
COURT--You had better tell your questions to your counsel, for you may
do yourself harm by asking questions.
PRISONER'S COUNSEL--Did not the prisoner at the same time declare that
as to herself she was totally innocent, and had no design to hurt her
father?--At that time she declared that when Cranstoun put the powder
into the tea, upon which no damage at all came, and when she put
powder afterwards herself, she apprehended no damage could come to her
father.
When she spoke of her own suffering did she not mean the same
misfortune that she then laboured under?--She said she should be glad
Cranstoun should be taken and brought to justice; she thought it would
bring the whole to light, he being the occasion of it all, for she
suffered (by being in prison) and was innocent, and knew nothing that
it was poison no more than I or any one person in the house.
[Sidenote: T. Cawley]
THOMAS CAWLEY, examined--I have known Miss Blandy twenty years and
upwards, and her father likewise; I was intimate in the family, and
have frequently drunk tea there.
What was her behaviour to her father during your knowledge of her?--I
never saw any other than dutiful.
[Sidenote: T. Staverton]
THOMAS STAVERTON, examined--I have lived near them five or six and
twenty years and upwards, and was always intimate with them; I always
thought they were two happy people, he happy in a daughter and she in
a father, as any in the world. The last time she was at our house she
expressed her father had had many wives laid out for him, but she was
satisfied he never would marry till she was settled.
Cross-examined--Did you observe for the last three or four months
before his death that he declined in his health?--I observed he did; I
do not say as to his health, but he seemed to shrink, and I have often
told my wife my old friend Blandy was going.
Had he lost any teeth latterly?--I do not know as to that; he was a
good-looking man.
PRISONER'S COUNSEL--How old was he?--I think he was sixty-two.
[Sidenote: Mary Davis]
MARY DAVIS, examined--I live at the Angel at Henley Bridge; I remember
Miss Blandy coming over the bridge the day that Mr. Blandy was opened;
she was walking along, and a great crowd of people after her. I,
seeing that, went and asked what was the matter; I asked her where she
was going? She said, "To take a walk for a little air, for they were
going to open her father, and she could not bear the house." The mob
followed her so fast was the reason I asked her to go to my house,
which she accepted.
Did she walk fast or slowly?--She was walking as softly as foot could
be laid to the ground; it had not the least appearance of her going to
make her escape.
[Sidenote: R. Stoke]
ROBERT STOKE, examined--I saw the prisoner with Mrs. Davis the day her
father was opened; I told her I had orders from the Mayor to detain
her. She said she was very glad, because the mob was about.
Did you think, from her dress and behaviour, she was about to attempt
to make her escape?--No, it did not appear to me at all.
Cross-examined--Were you there when Mr. and Mrs. Lane came in?--I was.
Did you hear the words she said to Mr. Lane?--I heard nothing at all.
[Sidenote: Mr. Ford]
Mr. FORD--As very unjustifiable and illegal methods have been used to
prejudice the world against Miss Blandy, such as it is to be hoped, no
man will have the boldness to repeat--I mean the printing and
publishing the examination of witnesses before her trial--and as very
scandalous reports have been spread concerning her behaviour ever
since her imprisonment, it is desired that the reverend gentleman who
has attended her as a clergyman may give an account of her conduct
whilst in gaol, that she may at least be delivered of some of the
infamy she at present lies under.
To which he was answered by the Court that it was needless to call a
witness to that, as the jury was only to regard what was deposed in
Court, and entirely to disregard what papers had been printed and
spread about, or any report whatsoever.
[Sidenote: Mr. Bathurst]
Mr. BATHURST--Your lordships will, I hope, indulge me in a very few
words by way of reply, and after the length of evidence which has been
laid before the jury I will take up but little of your lordships'
time.
Gentlemen, you observe it has been proved to a demonstration that Mr.
Francis Blandy did die of poison. It is as clearly proved that he died
of the poison put into his water gruel upon the 5th of August, and
that the prisoner at the bar put it in. For so much appears, not only
from her own confession, but from a variety of other evidence. The
single question, therefore, for your consideration is, whether she did
it knowingly or ignorantly?
[Illustration: Miss Molly Blandy, taken from the life in Oxford Castle
(_From an Engraving in the Collection of Mr. A.M. Broadley_.)]
I admit that in some of the conversations which she has had at
different times with different persons she has said she did it without
knowing it to be poison, or believing it to be so. At the same time I
beg leave to observe (as you will find when their lordships sum up the
evidence to you) that she did not always make the same pretence.
Examine then, gentlemen, whether it is possible she could do it
ignorantly.
It has appeared in evidence that she owned she saw Mr. Cranstoun put
some powder into her father's tea in the month of August preceding,
that she had herself afterwards done the same; but she said she saw no
ill-effect from it, and therefore concluded it was not hurtful. Her
own witness, Thomas Staverton, says that for the past year Mr. Blandy
used to shrink in his clothes, that he made the observation to his
wife and told her his friend Blandy was going. Our witnesses have said
that she herself made the same observation, told them her father
looked very ill, as though he would not live, and said he would not
live till October.
And here let me observe one thing. She says she gave her father this
powder to make him love her. After having heard the great affection
with which the poor dying man behaved towards her, can you think she
wanted any charm for that purpose? After having heard what her own
witnesses have said of the father's fondness for the daughter, can you
believe she had occasion for any love powder?
But one thing more. She knew her father had taken this powder in his
water gruel upon the Monday night, and upon the Tuesday night; saw how
violently he was affected by it, and yet would have had more of the
same gruel given to him upon the Wednesday.
Yet one thing more. When she must have been fully satisfied that it
was poison, and that it would probably be the occasion of his death,
she endeavoured to burn the paper in which the rest of the powder was
contained, without ever acquainting the physicians what she had given
him, which might have been the means for them to have prescribed what
was proper for his relief.
Still one thing more. She is accused upon the Saturday; she attempts to
burn the powder upon the Saturday; and yet upon the Sunday she stays
from church in order to write a letter to Mr. Cranstoun. In that
letter she styles him her "dear Willy," acquaints him her father is so
bad that he must not be frightened if he does not soon hear from her
again; says she is herself better; then cautions him to take care what
he writes lest his letters should fall into a wrong hand. Was this
such a letter as she would have wrote if she had been innocent? if she
had not known the quality of the powder? if she had been imposed upon
by Mr. Cranstoun?
I will only make one other observation, which is that of all our
witnesses she has attempted to discredit only one. She called two
persons to contradict Elizabeth Binfield in regard to a scandalous
expression (which she was charged with, but which she positively
denied ever to have made use of) in saying "she should be glad to see
the prisoner go up the ladder and swing." They first called Ann James;
she swore to the expression, and said it was after Miss Blandy was
sent to Oxford gaol. The next witness, Mary Banks, who at first did
not remember the conversation, and at last did not remember who were
present, said (upon being asked about the time) that she was sure the
conversation happened upon the Thursday night on which Mr. Blandy was
opened, and during the time that Miss Blandy was in the house. These
two witnesses, therefore, grossly contradict one another, consequently
ought not to take away the credit of Elizabeth Binfield. And let me
observe that Elizabeth Binfield proved nothing (besides some few
expressions used by Miss Blandy) but what was confirmed by the other
maidservant, Susan Gunnell.
I will, in justice to the prisoner, add (what has already been
observed by Mr. Ford) that the printing which was given in evidence
before the coroner, drawing odious comparisons between her and former
parricides, and spreading scandalous reports in regard to her manner
of demeaning herself in prison, was a shameful behaviour towards her,
and a gross offence against public justice. But you, gentlemen, are
men of sense, and upon your oaths; you will therefore totally
disregard whatever you have heard out of this place. You are sworn to
give a true verdict between the king and the prisoner at the bar,
according to the evidence now laid before you. It is upon that we (who
appear for the public) rest our cause. If, upon that evidence, she
appears to be innocent, in God's name let her be acquitted; but if,
upon that evidence, she appears to be guilty, I am sure you will do
justice to the public, and acquit your own consciences.
PRISONER--It is said I gave it my father to make him fond of me. There
was no occasion for that--but to make him fond of Cranstoun.
Charge to the Jury.
[Sidenote: Mr. Baron Legge]
MR. BARON LEGGE[13]--Gentlemen of the jury, Mary Blandy, the prisoner
at the bar, stands indicted before you for the murder of Francis
Blandy, her late father, by mixing poison in tea and water gruel,
which she had prepared for him, to which she has pleaded that she is
not guilty.
In the first place, gentlemen, I would take notice to you of a very
improper and a very scandalous behaviour towards the prisoner by
certain people who have taken upon themselves very unjustifiably to
publish in print what they call depositions, taken before the coroner,
in relation to this very affair which is now brought before you to
determine. I hope you have not seen them; but if you have, I must tell
you, as you are men of sense and probity, that you must divest
yourselves of every prejudice that can arise from thence and attend
merely to the evidence that has now been given before you in Court,
which I shall endeavour to repeat to you as exactly as I am able after
so great a length of examination.
In support of the indictment, the counsel for the Crown have called a
great number of witnesses. In order to establish, in the first place,
the fact that Mr. Blandy died of poison, they begin with Dr.
Addington, who tells you that he did attend Mr. Blandy in his last
illness; that he was first called in upon Saturday evening, the 10th
of August last; that the deceased complained that after drinking some
water gruel on Monday night, the 5th of August, he perceived a
grittiness in his mouth, attended with a pricking-burning, especially
about his tongue and throat; that he had a pricking and burning in his
stomach, accompanied with sickness; a pricking and griping in his
bowels; but that afterwards he purged and vomited a good deal, which
had lessened those symptoms he had complained of; that on Tuesday
night, the 6th of August, he took more gruel, and had immediately a
return of the same symptoms, but more aggravated; that he had besides
hiccups, cold sweats, great anxieties, prickings in every external as
well as internal part of his body, which he compared to so many
needles darting at the same time into all parts of him; but the doctor
tells you at the time he saw him he said he was easy, except in his
mouth, his nose, lips, eyes, and fundament, and some transient
pinchings in his bowels, which the doctor then imputed to the purgings
and vomitings, for he had had some bloody stools; that he imputed the
sensations upwards to the fumes of something he had taken the Monday
and Tuesday before; that he inspected the parts affected, and found
his tongue swelled, his throat excoriated and a little swelled, his
lips dry, and pimples on them, pimples on the inside of his nostrils,
and his eyes bloodshot; that next morning he examined his fundament,
which he found surrounded with ulcers; his pulse trembled and
intermitted, his breath was interrupted and laborious, his complexion
yellowish, and he could not without the greatest difficulty swallow a
teaspoonful of the thinnest liquid; that he then asked him if he had
given offence to any person whatever. His daughter the prisoner was
then present, and she made answer that her father was at peace with
all the world, and all the world with him. He then asked if he had
been subject to this kind of complaint before. The prisoner said that
he was subject to the heartburn and colic, and she supposed this would
go off as it used to do; that he then told them that he suspected that
by some means or other he had taken poison, to which the deceased
replied he did not know but he might, or words to that effect; but the
prisoner said it was impossible. He returned to visit him on Sunday
morning, and found him something relieved; that he had some stools,
but none bloody, which he took for a spasm; that afterwards Norton,
the apothecary, gave him some powder, which he said had been taken out
of gruel, which the deceased had drank on Monday and Tuesday; this
powder he examined at leisure, and believed it to be white arsenic;
that the same morning a paper was put into his hands by one of the
maids, which she said had been taken out of the fire, and which she
saw Miss Blandy throw in. There was a superscription on the paper,
"powder to clean the pebbles." There was so little of it that he
cannot say positively what it was, but suspects it to be arsenic, for
he put it on his tongue and it felt like arsenic, but some burnt paper
mixed with it had discoloured and softened it. He tells you that on
Monday morning the deceased was worse; all the symptoms returned, and
he complained more of his fundament than before. He then desired the
assistance of some skilful physician, because he looked upon him to be
in the utmost danger, and apprehended this affair might come before a
court of judicature. He asked the deceased if he really thought he was
poisoned, to which he answered that he really believed so, and thought
he had taken it often, because his teeth rotted faster than usual; he
had frequent prickings and burnings in his tongue and throat, violent
heartburn, and frequent stools, that carried it off again by
unaccountable fits of vomiting and purging; that he had had these
symptoms, especially after his daughter had received a present of
Scotch pebbles from Mr. Cranstoun. He then asked the deceased who he
suspected had given the poison to him; the tears then stood in his
eyes, but he forced a smile and said, "A poor love-sick girl! I
forgive her; I always thought there was mischief in those cursed
Scotch pebbles."
Dr. Lewis came that evening, and Miss Blandy was sent into her
chamber, under a guard, and all papers in her pocket, and all
instruments with which she might hurt herself, or any other person,
and her keys, were taken from her, that nothing might be secreted; for
it was not then publicly known that Mr. Blandy was poisoned, and they
thought themselves accountable for her forthcoming. On Monday night
the deceased mended again, and grew better and worse, unaccountably,
as long as he lived. On Tuesday morning everything growing worse, he
became excessively weak, rambled in his discourse, and grew delirious,
had cold, clammy sweats, short cough, and a deep way of fetching his
breath; and he observed upon these occasions that an ulcerous matter
issued from his fundament. In the midst of all this, whenever he
recovered his senses he said he was better, and seemed quite serene,
and told him he thought himself like a man bit by a mad dog. "I should
be glad to drink, but I can't swallow." About noon his speech faltered
more than before; he grew ghastly, was a shocking sight, and had a
very bad night. On Wednesday morning he recovered his senses a little
and said he would make his will in a few days; but soon grew delirious
again, sunk every minute, and about two in the afternoon he died.
The doctor tells you he then thought, and still thinks, that he died
of poison; that he had no symptoms while he lived, nor after he was
dead, but what are common in people who have taken white arsenic. He
then read some observations which he had made on the appearances of
his body after he was dead; that his back and the parts he lay on were
livid; the fat on the muscles of his belly was loose in texture and,
approached fluidity; the muscles of the belly were pale and flaccid;
the cawl yellower than natural; the side next the stomach and
intestines brownish; the heart variegated with purple spots; there was
no water in the pericardium; the lungs resembled bladders filled with
air, blotted with black, like ink; the liver and spleen were
discoloured, and the former looked as if it had been boiled; a stone
was found in the gall-bladder; the bile was very fluid and of a dirty
yellow colour inclining to red; the kidneys were stained with livid
spots; the stomach and bowels were inflated, and looked liked they had
been pinched, and blood stagnated in the membranes; they contained
slimy, bloody froth; their coats were thin, smooth, and flabby; the
inside of the stomach was quite smooth, and, about the orifices,
inflamed, and appeared stabbed and wounded, like the white of an eye
just brushed by the beards of barley; that there was no appearance of
any natural decay at all in him, and therefore he has no doubt of his
dying by poison; and believes that poison to have been white arsenic;
that the deceased never gave him any reason why he took the same sort
of gruel a second time, nor did he ask him. He tells you, as to the
powder that was given him by Norton, he made some experiments with it
the next day, and some part of it he gave to Mr. King, an experienced
chemist in Reading, who, upon trial, found it to be arsenic, as he
told him; that he twice had powder from Norton, and that what he had
the second time he kept entirely in his own custody and made
experiments with it a month afterwards; that he never was out of the
room while those experiments were making, and he observed them to
tally exactly with other arsenic which he tried at the same time. I
need not mis-spend your time in repeating the several experiments
which the doctor has told you he made of it; he has been very minute
and particular in his account of them, and, upon the whole, concludes
the same to have been arsenic.
Dr. Lewis, the other physician, who has likewise been sworn, stood by
all the while, and confirms Dr. Addington's evidence, tells you he
observed the same symptoms, and gives it absolutely as his opinion
that Mr. Blandy died by poison, of which he has not the least doubt.
The next witness that is called on the part of the Crown is Benjamin
Norton, who is an apothecary at Henley. He tells you he was sent for
to Mrs. Mounteney's, in Henley, on Thursday morning, the 8th of
August; that there was a pan brought thither by Susan Gunnel, Mr.
Blandy's maidservant, with some water gruel in it; that he was asked
what that powder was in the bottom of the pan, to which he replied
that it was impossible to say whilst it was wet in the gruel, but that
he would take it out; that accordingly he did take it out and laid it
upon paper, and gave it to Mrs. Mounteney to keep, which she did till
the Sunday following, when it was delivered to him, and he showed it
to Dr. Addington, to whom he gave some of it twice, and, by the
experiment made upon it with a hot poker, he apprehended it to be of
the arsenic kind; that the powder he gave Dr. Addington was the same
that he received from Mrs. Mounteney; that he has some of it still by
him, which, he now produces in Court. He tells you that he was sent
for to Mr. Blandy on Tuesday, the 6th of August; that he was very ill,
as he imagined, of colic, and complained of a violent pain in his
stomach, attended with reaching and purging and swelling of the
bowels; that he took physic on Wednesday morning, from which he found
himself better; that on Thursday he went there in the morning, but did
not then see him, but went again about twelve o'clock, and then saw
him; he desired to have more physic, which he sent him to take on the
Friday morning; that he has been used to attend Mr. Blandy, but that
he never saw him thus out of order; that the last illness that he had
had was thirteen months before. He tells you that he has heard the
prisoner say that she had heard music in the house, which portended
something, and that Cranstoun had seen her father's apparition, and
this was some months before her father's death; he says that he cannot
tell who it was sent for him, but that when he came he found Mr.
Blandy and the prisoner together; that he asked if he had eaten
anything that had disagreed with him, to which the prisoner made
answer, nothing that she knew of, except some peas on the Saturday
night before; that at that time he did not apprehend anything of
poison, nor did Mr. Blandy mention anything of taking the gruel to
him; that on Saturday the prisoner desired he would take care of her
father, and if there were any danger, call for help; he told her he
thought he was in great danger, and then she begged Dr. Addington
might be sent for. Mr. Blandy himself would have deferred it till the
next day, but she, notwithstanding, sent for him immediately. He tells
you that as to the powder he found it to be gritty, and had no smell;
at first he could not tell what it was till he took notice of the old
woman's symptoms to be the same as Mr. Blandy's; then he suspected
foul play, and from what he heard in the family suspected Miss Blandy.
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