Trial of Mary Blandy by William Roughead

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Let us put innocence and guilt in the scale together, and observe to
which side the prisoner's actions are most applicable. Innocence,
celestial virgin, always has her guard about her; she dares look the
frowns, the resentments, and the persecutions of the world in the
face; is able to stand the test of the strictest inquiry; and the more
we behold her, still the more shall we be in love with her charms. But
it is not so with guilt. The baneful fiend makes use of unjustifiable
means to conceal her wicked designs and prevent discovery. Artifice
and cunning are her supporters, bribery and corruption the defenders
of her cause; she flies before the face of law and justice, and shuns
the probation of a candid and impartial inquiry. Upon the whole
matter, you, gentlemen, are to judge; and judge as favourably as you
can for the prisoner.

If this were not sufficient to convince us of the prisoner's guilt, I
think the last transaction of all will leave not the least room to
doubt. When in discourse with persons that came to her at the house
where she had taken shelter, what but self-conviction could have drawn
such expressions from her? In her discourse with Mr. Fisher about
Cranstoun you will find she declared she had letters and papers that
would have hanged that villain; and, again, says, "My honour, Mr.
Fisher, to that villain has brought me to destruction"; and, again, in
her inquiry of Mr. Lane, what they would do with her, she bursts out
into this bitter exclamation, "Oh, that damned villain!" Then after a
short pause, "But why should I blame him? I am more to blame than he
is, for I gave it him." How could she be to blame for giving it if she
knew not what it was? And, as it is said, went yet farther, and
declared, "That she knew the consequence." If she did know it, she
must expect to suffer the consequence of it too.

Thus, gentlemen, have I endeavoured to lay before you some observations
upon this transaction, and I hope you will think them not unworthy of
your consideration. I trust I have said nothing that relates to the
fact that is not in my instructions; should it be otherwise, I assure
you it was not with design. And whatever is not supported by legal
evidence you will totally disregard.

If any other interpretation than what I have offered can be put upon
these several transactions, and the circumstances attending them, I
doubt not but you will always incline on the merciful side where there
is room for so doing.

We shall now proceed to call our evidence.

The other gentlemen, of counsel for the King, were Mr. Hayes, Mr.
Wares, and Mr. Ambler.

The counsel for the prisoner were Mr. Ford, Mr. Morton, and Mr.
Aston.[5]

Evidence for the Prosecution.

[Sidenote: Dr. Addington]

Dr. ANTHONY ADDINGTON[6] examined--I attended Mr. Blandy in his last
illness.

When were you called to him the first time?--On Saturday evening,
August the 10th.

In what condition did you find him?--He was in bed, and told me that,
after drinking some gruel on Monday night, August the 5th, he had
perceived an extraordinary grittiness in his mouth, attended with a
very painful burning and pricking in his tongue, throat, stomach, and
bowels, and with sickness and gripings, which symptoms had been
relieved by fits of vomiting and purging.

Were those fits owing to any physic he had taken or to the gruel?--Not
to any physic; they came on very soon after drinking the gruel.

Had he taken no physic that day?--No.

Did he make any further complaints?--He said that, after drinking more
gruel on Tuesday night, August the 6th, he had felt the grittiness in
his mouth again, and that the burning and pricking in his tongue,
throat, stomach, and bowels had returned with double violence, and had
been aggravated by a prodigious swelling of his belly, and exquisite
pains and prickings in every external as well as internal part of his
body, which prickings he compared to an infinite number of needles
darting into him all at once.

How soon after drinking the gruel?--Almost immediately. He told me
likewise that at the same time he had had cold sweats, hiccup, extreme
restlessness and anxiety, but that then, viz., on Saturday night,
August the 10th, having had a great many stools, and some bloody ones,
he was pretty easy everywhere, except in his mouth, lips, nose, eyes,
and fundament, and except some transient gripings in his bowels. I
asked him to what he imputed those uneasy sensations in his mouth,
lips, nose, and eyes? He said, to the fumes of something that he had
taken in his gruel on Monday night, August the 5th, and Tuesday night,
August the 6th. On inspection I found his tongue swelled and his
throat slightly inflamed and excoriated. His lips, especially the
upper one, were dry and rough, and had angry pimples on them. The
inside of his nostrils was in the same condition. His eyes were a
little bloodshot. Besides these appearances, I observed that he had a
low, trembling, intermitting pulse; a difficult, unequal respiration;
a yellowish complexion; a difficulty in the utterance of his words;
and an inability of swallowing even a teaspoonful of the thinnest
liquor at a time. As I suspected that these appearances and symptoms
were the effect of poison, I asked Miss Blandy whether Mr. Blandy had
lately given offence to either of his servants or clients, or any
other person? She answered, "That he was at peace with all the world,
and that all the world was at peace with him." I then asked her
whether he had ever been subject to complaints of this kind before?
She said that he had often been subject to the colic and heartburn,
and that she supposed this was only a fit of that sort, and would soon
go off, as usual. I told Mr. Blandy that I asked these questions
because I suspected that by some means or other he had taken poison.
He replied, "It might be so," or in words to that effect; but Miss
Blandy said, "It was impossible." On Sunday morning, August the 11th,
he seemed much relieved; his pulse, breath, complexion, and power of
swallowing were greatly mended. He had had several stools in the night
without any blood in them. The complaints which he had made of his
mouth, lips, nose, and eyes were lessened; but he said the pain in his
fundament continued, and that he still felt some pinchings in his
bowels. On viewing his fundament, I found it almost surrounded with
gleety excoriations and ulcers. About eight o'clock that morning I
took my leave of him; but before I quitted his room Miss Blandy
desired I would visit him again the next day. When I got downstairs
one of the maids put a paper into my hands, which she said Miss Blandy
had thrown into the kitchen fire. Several holes were burnt in the
paper, but not a letter of the superscription was effaced. The
superscription was "The powder to clean the pebbles with."

What is the maid's name that gave you that paper?--I cannot recollect
which of the maids it was that gave it me. I opened the paper very
carefully, and found in it a whiteish powder, like white arsenic in
taste, but slightly discoloured by a little burnt paper mixed with it.
I cannot swear this powder was arsenic, or any other poison, because
the quantity was too small to make any experiment with that could be
depended on.

What do you really suspect it to be?--I really suspect it to be white
arsenic.

Please to proceed, sir.--As soon as the maid had left me, Mr. Norton,
the apothecary, produced a powder that, he said, had been found at the
bottom of that mess of gruel, which, as was supposed, had poisoned Mr.
Blandy. He gave me some of this powder, and I examined it at my
leisure, and believed it to be white arsenic. On Monday morning,
August the 12th, I found Mr. Blandy much worse than I had left him the
day before. His complexion was very bad, his pulse intermitted, and he
breathed and swallowed with great difficulty. He complained more of
his fundament than he had done before. His bowels were still in pain.
I now desired that another physician might be called in, as I
apprehended Mr. Blandy to be in the utmost danger, and that this
affair might come before a Court of judicature. Dr. Lewis was then
sent for from Oxford. I stayed with Mr. Blandy all this day. I asked
him more than once whether he really thought he had taken poison? He
answered each time that he believed he had. I asked him whether he
thought he had taken poison often? He answered in the affirmative. His
reasons for thinking so were because some of his teeth had decayed
much faster than was natural, and because he had frequently for some
months past, especially after his daughter had received a present of
Scotch pebbles from Mr. Cranstoun, been affected with very violent and
unaccountable prickings and heats in his tongue and throat, and with
almost intolerable burnings and pains in his stomach and bowels, which
used to go off in vomitings and purgings. I asked him whom he
suspected to be the giver of the poison? The tears stood in his eyes,
yet 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 about eight o'clock in the evening. Before he
came Mr. Blandy's complexion, pulse, breath, and faculty of swallowing
were much better again; but he complained more of pain in his
fundament. This evening Miss Blandy was confined to her chamber, a
guard was placed over her, and her keys, papers, and all instruments
wherewith she could hurt either herself or any other person were taken
from her.

How came that?--I proposed it to Dr. Lewis, and we both thought it
proper, because we had great reason to suspect her as the author of
Mr. Blandy's illness, and because this suspicion was not yet publicly
known, and therefore no magistrate had Dr. Addington taken any notice
of her.

Please to go on, Dr. Addington, with your account of Mr. Blandy.

On Tuesday morning, August the 13th, we found him worse again, His
countenance, pulse, breath, and power of swallowing were extremely
bad. He was excessively weak. His hands trembled. Both they and his
face were cold and clammy. The pain was entirely gone from his bowels,
but not from his fundament. He was now and then a little delirious. He
had frequently a short cough and a very extraordinary elevation of his
chest in fetching his breath, on which occasions an ulcerous matter
generally issued from his fundament. Yet in his sensible intervals he
was cheerful and jocose; he said, "he was like a person bit by a mad
dog; for that he should be glad to drink, but could not swallow."
About noon this day his speech faltered more and more. He was
sometimes very restless, at others very sleepy. His face was quite
ghastly. This night was a terrible one. On Wednesday morning, August
the 14th, he recovered his senses for an hour or more. He told me he
would make his will in two or three days; but he soon grew delirious
again, and sinking every moment, died about two o'clock in the
afternoon.

Upon the whole, did you then think, from the symptoms you have
described and the observations you made, that Mr. Blandy died by
poison?--Indeed I did.

And is it your present opinion?--It is; and I have never had the least
occasion to alter it. His case was so particular, that he had not a
symptom of any consequence but what other persons have had who have
taken white arsenic, and after death had no appearance in his body but
what other persons have had who have been destroyed by white
arsenic.[7]

When was his body opened?--On Thursday, in the afternoon, August the
15th.

What appeared on opening it?--I committed the appearances to writing,
and should be glad to read them, if the Court will give me leave.

[Then the doctor, on leave given by the Court, read as follows:--]

"Mr. Blandy's back and the hinder part of his arms, thighs, and legs
were livid. That fat which lay on the muscles of his belly was of a
loose texture, inclining to a state of fluidity. The muscles of his
belly were very pale and flaccid. The cawl was yellower than is
natural, and the side next the stomach and intestines looked
brownish. The heart was variegated with purple spots. There was no
water in the pericardium. The lungs resembled bladders half filled
with air, and blotted in some places with pale, but in most with
black, ink. The liver and spleen were much discoloured; the former
looked as if it had been boiled, but that part of it which covered
the stomach was particularly dark. 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 all over stained with livid
spots. The stomach and bowels were inflated, and appeared before
any incision was made into them as if they had been pinched, and
extravasated blood had stagnated between their membranes. They
contained nothing, as far as we examined, but a slimy bloody froth.
Their coats were remarkably smooth, thin, and flabby. The wrinkles
of the stomach were totally obliterated. The internal coat of the
stomach and duodenum, especially about the orifices of the former,
was prodigiously inflamed and excoriated. The redness of the white
of the eye in a violent inflammation of that part, or rather the
white of the eye just brushed and bleeding with the beards of
barley, may serve to give some idea how this coat had been wounded.
There was no schirrus in any gland of the abdomen, no adhesion of
the lungs to the pleura, nor indeed the least trace of a natural
decay in any part whatever."

[Sidenote: Dr. Lewis]

Dr. WILLIAM LEWIS[8] examined--Did you, Dr. Lewis, observe that Mr.
Blandy had the symptoms which Dr. Addington has mentioned?--I did.

Did you observe that there were the same appearances on opening his
body which Dr. Addington has described?--I observed and remember them
all, except the spots on his heart.

Is it your real opinion that those symptoms and those appearances were
owing to poison?--Yes.

And that he died of poison?--Absolutely.

[Sidenote: Dr. Addington]

Dr. ADDINGTON, cross-examined--Did you first intimate to Mr. Blandy,
or he to you, that he had been poisoned?--He first intimated it to me.

Did you ask him whether he was certain that he had been poisoned by
the gruel that he took on Monday night, August the 5th, and on Tuesday
night, August the 6th?--I do not recollect that I did.

Are you sure that he said he was disordered after drinking the gruel
on Monday night, the 5th of August?--Yes.

Did you over ask him why he drank more gruel on Tuesday night, August
the 6th?--I believe I did not.

When did you make experiments on the powder delivered to you by Mr.
Norton?--I made some the next day; but many more some time afterwards.

How long afterwards?--I cannot just say; it might be a month or more.

How often had you powder given you?--Twice.

Did you make experiments with both parcels?--Yes; but I gave the
greatest part of the first to Mr. King, an experienced chemist in
Reading, and desired that he would examine it, which he did, and he
told me that it was white arsenic. The second parcel was used in
trials made by myself.

Who had the second parcel in keeping till you tried it?--I had it, and
kept it either in my pocket or under lock and key.

Did you never show it to anybody?--Yes, to several persons; but
trusted nobody with it out of my sight.

Why do you believe it to be white arsenic?--For the following
reasons:--(1) This powder has a milky whiteness; so has white arsenic.
(2) This is gritty and almost insipid; so is white arsenic. (3) Part
of it swims on the surface of cold water, like a pale sulphurous film,
but the greatest part sinks to the bottom, and remains there
undissolved; the same is true of white arsenic. (4) This thrown on
red-hot iron does not flame, but rises entirely in thick white fumes,
which have the stench of garlic, and cover cold iron held just over
them with white flowers; white arsenic does the same. (5) I boiled 10
grains of this powder in 4 ounces of clean water, and then, passing
the decoction through a filter, divided it into five equal parts,
which were put into as many glasses--into one glass I poured a few
drops of spirit of sal ammoniac, into another some of the lixivium of
tartar, into the third some strong spirit of vitriol, into the fourth
some spirit of salt, and into the last some syrup of violets. The
spirit of sal ammoniac threw down a few particles of pale sediment.
The lixivium of tartar gave a white cloud, which hung a little above
the middle of the glass. The spirits of vitriol and salt made a
considerable precipitation of lightish coloured substance, which, in
the former hardened into glittering crystals, sticking to the sides
and bottom of the glass. Syrup of violets produced a beautiful pale
green tincture. Having washed the sauce pan, funnel, and glasses used
in the foregoing experiments very clean, and provided a fresh filter,
I boiled 10 grains of white arsenic, bought of Mr. Wilcock, druggist
in Reading, in 4 ounces of clean water, and, filtering and dividing it
into five equal parts, proceeded with them just as I had done with the
former decoctions. There was an exact similitude between the
experiments made on the two decoctions. They corresponded so nicely in
each trial that I declare I never saw any two things in Nature more
alike the decoction made with the powder found in Mr. Blandy's gruel
and that made with white arsenic. From these experiments, and others
which I am ready to produce if desired, I believe that powder to be
white arsenic.

Did any person make these experiments with you?--No, but Mr. Wilcock,
the druggist, was present while I made them; and he weighed both the
powder and the white arsenic.

When did Mr. Blandy first take medicines by your order?--As soon as he
could swallow, on Saturday night, the 10th August. Before that time he
was under the care of Mr. Norton.

[Sidenote: B. Norton]

BENJAMIN NORTON, examined--I live at Henley; I remember being sent for
to Mrs. Mounteney's, in Henley, on Thursday, the 8th August, in order
to show me the powder. There was with her Susan Gunnell, the servant
maid. She brought in a pan. I looked at it and endeavoured to take it
out that I might give a better account of it, for as it lay it was
not possible to see what it was; then I laid it on white paper and
delivered it to Mrs. Mounteney to take care of till it dried. She kept
it till Sunday morning, then I had it to show to Dr. Addington. I saw
the doctor try it once at my house upon a red-hot poker, upon which I
did imagine it was of the arsenic kind.

Did you attend the deceased while he was ill?--I did. I went on the
6th of August. He told me he was ill, as he imagined, of a fit of the
colic. He complained of a violent pain in his stomach, attended with
great reachings, and swelled, and a great purging. I carried him
physic, which he took on the Wednesday morning; he was then better. On
the Thursday morning, as I was going, I met the maid. She told me he
was not up, so I went about twelve. He was then with a client in the
study. He told me the physic had done him a great deal of service, and
desired more. I sent him some to take on Friday morning; I was not
with him after Thursday.[9]

Had you used to attend him?--I had for several years. The last illness
he had before was in July, 1750. I used to attend him.

Did you ever hear Miss Blandy talk of music?--I did. She said she had
heard it in the house, and she feared something would happen in the
family. She did not say anything particular, because I made very light
of it.

Did she say anything of apparitions?--She said Mr. Cranstoun saw her
father's apparition one night.

How long before his death was it that she talked about music?--It
might be about three or four months before.

Was the powder you delivered to Dr. Addington the self-same powder you
received of Mrs. Mounteney?--It was the very same; it had not been out
of my custody.

Should you know it again?--I have some of the same now in my pocket.
[He produces a paper sealed up with the Earl of Macclesfield's and
Lord Cadogan's seals upon it.] This is some of the same that I
delivered to Dr. Addington.

Cross-examined--Who sent for you to the house?--I cannot tell that.

When you came, did you see Miss Blandy?--I did. She and Mr. Blandy
were both together.

What conversation had you then?--I asked Mr. Blandy whether or no he
had eaten anything that he thought disagreed with him? Miss Blandy
made answer, and said her papa had had nothing that she knew of except
some peas on the Saturday night before.

Did you hear anything of water gruel?--I knew nothing of that till it
was brought to me.

Had you any suspicion of poison then?--I had not, nor Mr. Blandy had
not mentioned anything of being poisoned by having taken water gruel.

What did Miss Blandy say to you?--She desired me to be careful of her
father in his illness.

Did she show any dislike to his having physic?--No, none at all. She
desired, when I saw any danger, I would let her know it, that she
might have the advice of a physician.

When was this?--This was on Saturday, the 10th.

When he grew worse, did she advise a physician might be called
in?--Yes, she did, after I said he was worse. She then begged that Dr.
Addington might be sent for. Mr. Blandy was for deferring it till next
day, but when I came down she asked if I thought him in danger. I
said, "He is," then she said, "Though he seems to be against it, I
will send for a doctor directly," and sent away a man unknown to him.

Was he for delaying?--He was, till the next morning.

How had she behaved to him in any other illness of her father's?--I
never saw but at such times she behaved with true affection and
regard.

Had she used to be much with him?--She used to be backwards and
forwards with him in the room.

Did you give any intimation to Miss Blandy after the powder was
tried?--I did not, but went up to acquaint her uncle. He was so
affected he could not come down to apprise Mr. Blandy of it.

When did she first know that you knew of it?--I never knew she knew of
it till the Monday.

How came you to suspect that at the bottom of the pan to be poison?--I
found it very gritty, and had no smell. When I went down and saw the
old washerwoman, that she had tasted of the water gruel and was
affected with the same symptoms as Mr. Blandy, I then suspected he was
poisoned, and said I was afraid Mr. Blandy had had foul play; but I
did not tell either him or Miss Blandy so, because I found by the maid
that Miss Blandy was suspected.

Whom did you suspect might do it?--I had suspicion it was Miss Blandy.

KING'S COUNSEL--When was Dr. Addington sent for?--On the Saturday
night.

[Sidenote: Mrs. Mary Mounteney]

Mrs. MARY MOUNTENEY[10] examined--Susan Gunnell brought a pan to my
house on the 8th of August with water gruel in it and powder at the
bottom, and desired me to look at it. I sent for Mr. Norton. He took
the powder out on a piece of white paper which I gave him. He
delivered the same powder to me, and I took care of it and locked it
up.

Cross-examined--Did you ever see any behaviour of Miss Blandy
otherwise than that of an affectionate daughter?--I never did. She was
always dutiful to her father, as far as I saw, when her father was
present.

To whom did you first mention that this powder was put into the
paper?--To the best of my remembrance, I never made mention of it to
anybody till Mr. Norton fetched it away, which was on the 11th of
August, the Sunday morning after, to be shown to Dr. Addington.

Between the time of its being brought to your house and the time it
was fetched away, were you ever at Mr. Blandy's house?--No, I was not
in that time, but was there on Sunday in the afternoon.

Had you not showed it at any other place during that time?--I had not,
sir.

Did you, on the Sunday, in the afternoon, mention it to Mr. or Miss
Blandy?--No, not to either of them.

[Sidenote: S. Gunnell]

SUSANNAH GUNNELL, examined--I carried the water gruel in a pan to Mrs.
Mounteney's house.

Whose use was it made for?--It was made for Mr. Blandy's use, on the
Sunday seven-night before his death.

Who made it?--I made it.

Where did you put it after you had made it?--I put it into the common
pantry, where all the family used to go.

Did you observe any particular person busy about there
afterwards?--No, nobody; Miss Blandy told me on the Monday she had
been in the pantry (I did not see her) stirring her father's water
gruel, and eating the oatmeal out of the bottom of it.

What time of the Monday was this?--This was some time about the middle
of the day.

Did Mr. Blandy take any of that water gruel?--I gave him a half-pint
mug of it on Monday evening for him to take before he went to bed.

Did you observe anybody meddle with that half-pint mug afterwards?--I
saw Miss Blandy take the teaspoon that was in the mug and stir the
water gruel, and after put her finger to the spoon, and then rubbed
her fingers.

Did Mr. Blandy drink any of that water gruel?--Mr. Blandy drank some
of it, and on the Tuesday morning, when he came downstairs, he did not
come through the kitchen as usual, but went the back way into his
study.

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