Trial of Mary Blandy by William Roughead

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Not long after his return to Fumes he was taken with a severe Fit of
Illness, from which however he recovered.... In this miserable
condition he languished till he bethought himself that possibly he
might receive some spiritual Belief from a Father famed for his Piety
in a neighbouring Convent. To him he addresses himself and entreats
his assistance & advice. The good Father having probed the wounds of
his Conscience, and brought him to a due sense of his Sins, applyed
the healing remedy of Absolution, on the Penitent's declaring himself
reconciled to the Church of Rome.

After this, Cranstoun seemed to be pretty easy in his mind, but e'er
long was seized with a terrible desease in his body, which was swoln
to that Degree that it was apprehended he would have burst, & felt
such Torments in every Limb & Joint, as made him wish for Death for
some days before he died, which was Nov. 30, 1752.... After the
Funeral was over, a Letter was sent to his Mother, the Lady Dowager
Cranstoun; to which an answer was soon returned with an Order, to
secure & seal up all his Papers of every kind, & transmit them to his
Brother the Lord Cranstoun in Scotland and his cloathes, consisting
chiefly of Laced & Embroidered Waistcoats, to be sold for the
Discharge of his Debts; All this was punctually complied with.

I shall only add, that by the Captain's Death, his wife came to enjoy
the 75l. a year, the Interest of the 1500l. which was his Paternal
Fortune; and by his Will, Heir to the Principal, to support her and
her Daughter; which was some Recompense for the Troubles and Vexations
he had occasioned her.

_II.--Captain Cranstoun's Account of the Poisoning of the Late Mr.
Francis Blandy._

(No. 20 of Bibliography, Appendix XII.)

PREFACE TO THE PUBLICK.

As the Publick are in great Doubts concerning the Truth of the cruel,
and almost unparalleled Murder of the late Mr. Blandy, of HENLEY UPON
THAMES, in Oxfordshire, by Reason of the mysterious Accounts published
as the Confession of his Daughter, who was executed for that cruel
Parricide, and which were done by her own Desire and Direction: the
following Pages are thought necessary to be made publick, by which the
World may be satisfied concerning that tragical Affair: which is from
the Words of Captain WILLIAM-HENRY CRANSTOUN, hitherto supposed, but
now out of Doubt, to have been concerned with her in that black Crime:
and also from original Letters of hers, and papers found immediately
after his Decease, in his Portmanteau-Trunk in his Room in the House
of Mons. MAULSET, the Sign of the BURGUNDY CROSS, in the Town of
FURNES, in the AUSTRIAN NETHERLANDS, where he died on THURSDAY, the
30th of NOVEMBER last, and was buried in the Cathedral Church there,
in great Funeral Pomp, on the second of DECEMBER.

It is thought needless to premise any more, only to assure the Publick
that what is contained in the following short Tract is authentick, and
gives an account of the Vicissitudes of Fortune, which attended
Captain CRANSTOUN, from the Time of his absconding for Prevention of
his being apprehended, to the Time of his Death, which was attended
with great Torments.

Miss Mary Blandy, being suspected of poisoning her Father, Mr.
Francis Blandy, who died in great Agonies, on the 14th of August,
1751, was examined by the Mayor and Coroner of Henley upon Thames:
and there appearing, upon the Oaths of the Servants to the Deceased,
and others, sufficient Grounds to think that Miss Blandy, with the
Assistance and Advice of Capt. William Henry Cranstoun, was the
Parracide, she was accordingly committed to Oxford Castle: and a
proper Warrant and Messenger was sent, in order to apprehend the
said Capt. Cranstoun, who was then supposed to be either in
Northumberland or Scotland, with his Mother: but the Affair being in
the News-Papers, it reached the Knowledge of a certain Person of
Distinction, who was a relation of the Captain's, before the
Messenger and Warrant got down, who informed him thereof: upon which
the Captain thought it most advisable to abscond: And being secreted
from that Time, in England, till the Beginning of March, 1752, when
Miss was tried at Oxford Assizes, and found guilty, it was then
thought proper for him to get out of the Kingdom: as upon her Trial
it appeared, beyond all Doubt, that he was principally concerned in
that Murder, and furnished her with the Powders that compleated the
vile Deed.

On the eighteenth Day of March, at which Time she lay under Sentence
of Death, he embarked in a Vessel for Bologne in France, and went by
the name of Dunbar, a Female distant relation of his, of that name,
being there at the time: who was married to one R----[31], and who
was there on Account of some Debts he had contracted in Great
Britain.

Cranstoun arrived at Bologne on the 27th Day of the Month of March,
which soon being known, he was obliged to be kept secret in that
Town; as some of the Relations of his Wife who were Officers in one
of the Scotch Regiments in the French Service, upon hearing of his
being there, declared they would destroy him, not only for his cruel
and villainous Usage to his Wife and Child, but also as being a
Murderer: and went purposely to Bologne.

He continued at Bologne in Secret till the 20th of July last, when
he absconded privately in the Morning early, with the said R----,
and his Wife who were obliged to fly, on Account of an Arret of the
Parliament of Paris, which had ordered him to pay 1000 Livres, and
Cost of a Law-Suit, to the famous or, more properly, infamous
Captain P-----w,[32] so well known here: And as that Affair was
something remarkable, I shall here give the reader a brief Relation
of it, notwithstanding it is foreign to Mr. Cranstoun's Affair,
which, as it will take up but little Room, I am almost persuaded
will not be disagreeable to the Reader.

A certain Irish Nobleman being at Bologna, on Account of Debts he
owed in England, Capt. P----w being there at the same Time, got
acquainted with the above-named Irish Lord. At this Time Mr. R----,
who was married to Mr. Cranstoun's Relation, as above-named, was a
Merchant in that Town, and who, together with many more of the
Merchants of the Place, was taken in very considerably by the said
Irish Lord.

The above-nam'd Lord having got as deep in Debt as he possibly
could, and his being so intimately acquainted with the Captain, who
lived very profusely with my Lord, on the Money he had got upon
Credit: this R----, with the Rest of that Nobleman's Creditors,
began to press his Lordship for their Money, and his Lordship
finding it impossible to weather the Storm off much longer, having
told them, from Time to Time, that he was to have great Remittances
from his Steward: and P----w puffing his Lordship off greatly to the
Creditors, his Lordship secretly got away from Bologne, in a Vessel
that was bound for Ireland.

His Lordship being gone, the Creditors all agreed (affirming that
P----w was concerned in facilitating his Escape, and cheating them)
to apply to the Magistrates of the City of Bologne for a Process
against P----w, for their several Debts due to them from his
Lordship, as he was not only concerned in helping him to make his
Escape, but had partaken largely of the Money.

Upon their application P----w was arrested, and cast by the
Magistrates of Bologne afterwards in the Law-Suit: who appealing to
the Parliament of Paris, against the Decree and Judgment of the
Magistrates of Bologne: they on hearing the Cause on both sides,
reversed the Decree of the Magistrates of Bologne, and issued in May
last an Arret, that his Lordship's Creditors should pay to the
Captain, as Damages for his false Imprisonment, Costs and Scandal he
had sustained by the Prosecution of their Suit, 3000 Livres, besides
all his costs in both Courts, and also that they should be at the
Expence of Printing and Paper, for 1500 Copies of the said Arret,
which were to be stuck up on the Exchanges, and other Publick
Places, in the several Cities and great Towns in France; which was
accordingly done, the latter End of the said Month of May, pursuant
to the said Arret.

Mr. Cranstoun about this time received a Bill of L60 from Scotland,
payable in London, which Mr. R---- went privately to London with,
and got the Money for: which was all the Remittances Cranstoun ever
had to the Time of his Death, from Great Britain.

Mr. R---- being returned to Bologne with the Cash in July, and not
being able to satisfy his Part of the Arret of the Parliament of
Paris, to the Captain, and dreading the fatal Consequence thereof,
privately absconded, as is related before, with his Wife and
Cranstoun, to Ostend in the Queen of Hungary's Territories, as a
Sanctuary from the Arret of the French Parliament: where they
continued only about fourteen Days, and then removed to Furnes, and
took up their Abode at the House known by the Sign of the Burgundy
Cross, where Mr. R---- died in September, and Cranstoun the 30th of
November following.

During the Time of his living at Furnes, he always went by the Name
of Dunbar, and first Cousin to Mrs. R----.

Capt. P----w, on the Credit of this Arret of Parliament, put up for
a great Man: who being known too well at Bologne to live there,
either with Respect or Honour, removed to a Town in France, call'd
Somers, nine Miles from Bologne, in the Road to Paris, where he took
the grandest House in the Place: but his Fortune being only outside
Shew, as it was when in England, in September he absconded from
thence: and was obliged to fly into the Queen of Hungary's Country
for Protection, having contracted large Debts in France.

The Captain now began his old Tricks; for at Brussels, going for a
London Merchant, he obtained a Parcel of fine Lace, some Pieces of
Velvets, and other Things, to the Amount of near L200, for which he
gave the Gentleman of Brussels a pretended Bill for L321 8s. 6d. of
a Banker's in London: and on the Payment of the said Bill, he was to
have another large Parcel of Goods.

The Bill was sent to England for Payment, but the Captain had fled
before the Return of a Letter, which informed the Tradesman that it
was a counterfeit Bill: whereupon they pursued him, and soon found
that the Goods he had obtained were shipped on Board a Vessel for
England, at Flushing, a Sea-Port in Zealand, belonging to the States
of Holland, from which Place the Captain had been gone three Days:
that was the last Account that Mrs. R---- and Cranstoun ever heard
of him.

I shall now proceed to the Account given by Captain Cranstoun,
concerning the poisoning of Mr. Blandy: in which I shall insert
three Letters, bearing Date the 30th of June, the 16th of July, and
the 18th of August, 1751: all directed for the Honourable William
Henry Cranstoun, Esq., which were found among his Papers at his
Death: all being judged by the near Similitude of the Writings to
have been wrote by one Person: and tho' no Name was subscribed at
the Bottom of either, yet, by their Contents, they plainly shew from
whom they were sent.

Mr. Cranstoun, at his first Coming into France, talked very little
concerning the Affair of Mr. Blandy's Death: but some Time after,
having read the Account published in London (by the Divine that
attended Miss Blandy in her Confinement) as her own Confession, and
at her desire: which was brought him by Mr. R----, when he came from
London, from receiving the L60 Bill before-mentioned, he began to be
more open upon that Head to Mr. R----, particularly in vindicating
himself, and blaming her for Ingratitude, for he said, she was as
much the Occasion of the unfortunate Deed as himself: which will
more fully appear from the following Relation which he gave of it
himself.

That they having contracted so great a Friendship and mutual Love,
which was absolutely strengthened by a private Marriage of her own
proposing, lest he should prove ungrateful to her (which he said
were her own Words) after so material an Intimacy, and leave her,
and go and live with his real Wife, and her Mother being dead, she
and he, the first Time they met after her Mother's Decease (which he
believed was about 9 or 10 months before Mr. Blandy died, and which
was the last Time he was at Henley) began to consult how they should
get the old Gentleman out of the Way, she proposing, as soon as they
could get Possession of the Effects of the Father, to go both into
Northumberland, and live upon it with his Mother: That he did
propose the Method that was afterwards put in Practice, and she very
readily came into it, and the whole Affair was settled between them,
when he left Henley the last Time, and never before.

He frequently declared, that he believed her Mother was a very
virtuous Woman, and blamed her much, for giving such a ludicrous, as
well as foreign Account, of some Transactions between him and her
Mother, in her Narrative: and hoped, he said, that what was
published as her solemn Declaration, That she did not know (_sic_)
that the Powder which he had sent her, with some Peebles, and which
she had administered to her Father, were of a poisonous Quality, was
a falsehood, and published without her Knowledge, as it appeared to
him the same was not done till after she was dead: for that she was
sensible of what Quality they were, and for what purpose sent, and
particularly by the effect they had on a Woman, who was a Servant in
her Father's Family, sometime before, as she had wrote him Word.

It will not be improper, in this Place, to insert the Letters, as
they tend to the Confirmation of what Mr. Cranstoun had declared.

LETTER I.

Dear Willy,--These, I hope, will find you in Health, as they leave
me, but not in so much Perplexity: for I have endeavoured to do as
directed by yours, with the Contents of your Presents, and they
will not mix properly.

The old Woman that chars sometimes in the House, having drank a
little Liquor in which I had put some is very bad: and I am
conscious of the Affair being discovered, without you can put me
into some better, or more proper Method of using them. When you
write, let it be as mystically as you please, lest an Interception
should happen to your Letter, for I shall easily understand it.
When I think of the Affair in Hand, I am in great Distress of
Mind, and endeavour to bear up under it as well as I can: but
should be glad if you was near me, to help to support my fleeting
Spirits: But why should I say so, or desire any such Thing, when I
consider your cogent Reasons for being at a Distance: as it might,
as soon as the Affair is compleated, be the Occasion of a bad
Consequence to us both.

I have nothing more to add, but only desire you would not be long
before you send me your Answer.

Yours affectionately, &c.

June 30, 1751.

(The superscription of this letter, and the next following, was
almost rubbed out, so could not be exactly seen: but as the word
Berwick was quite plain, as well as his name, it is supposed they
were directed as the third letter was.)

LETTER. II.

Dear Willy,--I received yours safe on the 11th Instant, and I am
glad to hear you are well. I particularly understand what you
mean, and I'll polish, the Peebles as well as I can, for there
shall not be wanting any Thing in my Power, to do the Business
effectually. They begin to come brighter by the new Method I have
taken: and as soon as I find the good Effects of the Scheme, you
shall have Intelligence with all convenient Speed. Adieu, for this
Time, my Spirits damping much: but pray God keep us in Health,
till we have the Happiness of seeing each other.

Yours affectionately, &c.

July 16, 1751.

LETTER III.

Dear Willy,--I have been in great Anxiety of Mind since last
Post-Day, by not hearing from you. Your letter of the 24th of last
Month, I received safe Yesterday, and am somewhat enlivened in my
Spirits by understanding you are well. I am going forward with all
convenient Speed in the Business: and have not only a fatiguing
Time of it, but am sometimes in the greatest Frights, there being
constantly about me so many to be kept insensible of the Affair.
You may expect to hear again from me soon: and rest yourself
assured, that tho' I suffer more Horrors of Mind than I do at this
Time, which I think is impossible, I will pursue that, which is
the only Method, I am sensible, left, of ever being happy
together. I hope, by my next, to inform you that the Business is
compleated.

Yours affectionately, &c.

August 1, 1751.

Directed for the Honourable Mr. William Henry Cranstoun, to be left
at the Post-House, at Berwick.

By these Letters, and the account which Cranstoun himself had given,
it plainly appears that the Murder of Mr. Blandy had been consulted
some Time: and that it must be supposed that the Powders had been
attempted, if not absolutely given him in his Victuals, or Liquor,
before the Time they were put into his Gruel, as was discovered by
the Maid-Servant, and which proved the Cause of his Death.

Also by these Letters it is most reasonable to believe that what was
meant in the last by the words, "Tho' I suffer more Horrors of Mind
than I do at this Time, I will pursue": that it came from the
unfortunate and infatuated Miss Blandy, and that poisoning her
Father was then fully resolved on by her: which reasonable
Supposition is much strengthened by the subsequent Words in the same
Letter, viz., "I hope in my next to inform you that the Business is
compleated." And I really think it can admit of no Doubt, as the
administring the Powders to him in his Water-Gruel, which was the
Cause of his Death, was but four days after the Date of this Letter,
for it appears by its Date to be sent on Thursday the first of
August, and Monday the fifth of the same Month, she acknowledged she
put the Powders into the Gruel: which was proved by Dr. Addington
and Dr. Lewis, on her Trial, to be the Cause of Mr. Blandy's Death,
who languished till the 14th of the same Month, when he expired.

That other Part of the same Letter, where 'tis said, "I am going
forward with, all convenient Speed in the Business, and have not
only a fatiguing Time of it, but am sometimes in the greatest
Fright: there being so many constantly about me, to be kept
insensible of the Affair," is plain enough meant that when she
thought of the wicked Deed she was about to perform, it brought her
Conscience to fly in her Face, as she advanced: and that the
Servants of the House were the great Obstacles in her Way.

I shall not takes up the Reader's Time any longer, in making
Observations on the Letters, only observe in general that they all
shew that the Writer was sensibly touched, at such Times as they
were endeavouring to practice the hellish Device, to destroy the old
Gentleman; and also, that sometimes their Consciences led them to
think of what the Consequences of such an enormous Crime must be.

I shall now return to Mr. Cranstoun. While he was at Furnes he was
very thoughtful, and was never observed to be once in a merry
Humour: frequently staying in his Room all Day, except Meal-Times:
and praying very devoutly.

On his finding himself once very ill, tho' it was six Weeks before
he died (for he recovered and went abroad after that Illness), he
made a Will, all which he wrote with his own Hand: in which he left,
after paying his Debts, at Furnes, to M. Malsot, where he lived, and
his Funeral Charges, all his paternal Fortune, of L1500, to his
Daughter by his Wife, who lives with her Relations, at Hexham, in
Northumberland.

This L1500 which he left in his Will to his Child, was what was left
him on the Death of his Father: and the Estate of his elder Brother,
the Lord Cranstoun, was charged with the Payment of it: and he
received L75 per Annum, in Lieu of the Principal Sum, L50 per Annum
of which was settled by Order of the Lords of Sessions, in Scotland,
on his Wife, at the Time when he had Villainy sufficient to bring a
Cause before the Court of Sessions, to set aside his Marriage: and
from that Time she has received it, for the Support of her and her
Child.

The Gentlewoman he had married, and was wicked enough to deny,[33]
was the Daughter of the late Sir David Murray, Baronet, and Sister
of the present Sir David Murray, who is now in the Service of the
King of France, in the East Indies: This young Gentleman was
unfortunate enough to take Part with the young Pretender in the late
Rebellion, being Nephew to Mr. Murray, of Broughton, the Pretender's
then Secretary: and after the Battle of Culloden was taken Prisoner,
and tried at Carlisle, where he received Sentence of Death as a
Rebel: but for his Youth, not being then above eighteen Years of
Age, he was reprieved and transported.

One Circumstance that appeared on the Trial of the Legality of his
Marriage with Miss Murray was very particular, as he had the Folly,
as well as the Wickedness, to deny the same: and that was, a
Marriage-Settlement of L50 per Annum, which he had made on her in
his own Hand-Writing, was produced and proved: which was confirmed
by the Lords of Sessions.

After the Burial of Mr. Cranstoun, at Furnes, a Letter was sent to
his Wife, at Hexham, to inform her of it, and another was sent to
the Lady Dowager Cranstoun, his Mother: to the last of which an
Answer was soon returned, which was to desire, that all his Papers
and Will might be sealed up, and sent to his Brother, Lord
Cranstoun, in Scotland, with an Account of what was owing, and to
whom, in Order for their being paid, but his Cloaths, which
consisted of some very rich Waistcoats, were desired to be sold at
Furnes: which was done accordingly.

He frequently declared his Life was a Burthen to him, and in his
Death he suffered great Torments: for his body was so much swoln,
that it was expected he would have bursted for several Days before
he died.

As Miss Blandy had given an Account in her Narrative, that it was
him who first proposed a private Marriage with each other, he
solemnly declared, just before he died, that he could not be
positive which of them proposed it first: but that he was certain,
that it was Miss Blandy that desired and insisted it should be so,
and was very pressing till it was done: And he often called upon God
Almighty to forgive both his Crimes, and those of Miss Blandy,
particularly, he said hers, as she had died with asserting so many
enormous Falsities contained in that Account, said to be published
by her Orders and Inspection.

APPENDIX X.

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM DUNKIRK ANENT THE DEATH OF CRANSTOUN.

(From the _London Magazine_, February, 1753.)

On Dec. 2 last died at the sign of the Burgundy-cross in Furness, a
town belonging to the Queen of Hungary, about 15 English miles East of
this place, Capt. William Henry Cranstoun, aged forty-six. His illness
did not continue above 9 days, but the last three his pains were so
very great, and he was swelled to such a degree, that it was thought
by the physician and apothecary that attended him, that he would have
burst, and by the great agonies he expired in, he was thought to be
raving mad. As he had just before his death embraced the Roman
Catholick religion, he was buried in great solemnity, the corporation
attending the funeral, and a grand mass was said over the corpse in
the cathedral church, which was finely illuminated, and in which he
was buried. Some little time before he died he made a will, which was
sealed up in the presence of one Mrs. Ross (whose maiden name was
Dunbar, and which name he went by) and two other persons who were also
his acquaintance. The will he signed with his own name, and gave all
his fortune which was in his brother's hands to his child, who is now
living at Hexham in Northumberland, with her mother, to whom he had so
villainously denied being married, and for which he often said, a
curse had attended him for injuring the character of so good a wife.
When he was asked concerning Mr. Blandy's murder, he often reflected
on himself greatly, yet said, that Miss Blandy ought not to have
blamed him so much as she did, but the particulars of which he said
should never be known till his death. He first made his escape out of
England the latter end of last February to Bologne; but as soon as he
was known to be there, was obliged to be kept concealed by Mrs. Ross,
some relations of his wife's, who were in that country, threatening
revenge for his base usage to her; so that Miss Ross and he were
obliged at last to fly from Bologne by night, which was on the 26th of
July last, and lived in Furnes from that time. The fortune in his
Brother's hands, which he has left to his child, by his will, is
L1500, his patrimony which he formerly received 5 per cent. for, but
on his being cast before the Lords of Session in Scotland, in the
cause concerning the validity of his marriage, which was confirmed,
L50 out of the L75 was ordered by their lordships to be paid the wife
annually for the support of her and the child, which she received, and
has lived ever since with some of her relations in Hexham
aforementioned. It was further said that before he died he declared
that he and Miss Blandy were privately married before the death of her
mother, which was near two years before Mr. Blandy was poisoned.

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