there was a Snake in the Grass and tho' he seemed to give Credit to my
Protestations, that the Cause would quickly be decided, yet I could
easily perceive a Coldness in his Behaviour, which was an evident
Proof to me that I had lost ground in his favour; nor was I less
sensible that the event of my Trial in Scotland, would not contribute
anything to replace me in his good Opinion. I found myself in such a
situation, that I must very shortly, either lose my Mistress, and,
what was more valuable to me, her Fortune, or make one desperate Push
to recover both. Several schemes for this purpose were offered to my
Thoughts; but none seemed so feasible as dispatching the Old Man into
the other World: For if he was but once Dead, I was well assured I
should soon be in Possession of his Estate. I had however, one
Difficulty to surmount, which was, to make my Mistress a Party
concerned in the Execution of my Project. I knew she was greatly
provoked at her Father's late unkind Behaviour to me; which I took
care to aggravate all I could, which produced the Effects I desired;
and she declared she was ready to embrace any scheme I could propose
to release us from our Embarrassments; nay, I convinced her, that we
should never have her Father's consent, and therefore it would be in
vain to wait for it. And, in order to fix her entirely in my Interest,
I used all my Rhetorick to persuade her to a private Marriage, which
however for good Reasons she did not think proper to agree to; yet she
gave me her solemn Vow, that no other Man but myself should call her
Wife, and that in the mean Time, she should reckon herself in Duty
bound to have the utmost Regard to my Will & Pleasure.
What I now speak of, was after Judgment was given against me in
Scotland, and a Decree, confirming the Validity of my Marriage, had
been pronounced. This Decree, I assured Mr. Blandy, his Wife and
Daughter, I should be able to vacate by an Appeal to the next
Sessions. After several pretended Delays in the Proceedings, finding
Mr. Blandy's temper very much soured against me, I thought it
necessary to hasten my Project to a Conclusion. To this end I had
several private conferences with my Mistress; wherein I observed to
her the visible decay of her Father's Affections to me, and the
Improbability of his ever giving his consent to our marriage, and
therefore that other measures must be taken to accomplish our
Happiness, which otherwise would be very precarious. I told her I was
possessed of a Drug, produced no where but in Scotland, of such rare
Qualities, that by a proper Application, it would procure Love where
there never was any, or restore it when absolutely lost and gone. Of
this Drug, or Powder, I would give some to her Father, and she would
soon be convinced of its Efficacy by its benevolent Effects.
Accordingly I mixed some with his Tea several times, But in such small
quantities as I knew would not immediately effect him; and I assured
her, that tho' it did not produce a visible Alteration at present, its
Operations being slow and internal, yet in the end it would
effectually do its Work.
I likewise pretended there was an absolute Necessity for my going into
Scotland in order to bring on the Appeal, but in reality to carry on
my Design against old Blandy with the greater secrecy and security.
But before I went, I took care to infuse such notions into her Head as
tended to lessen the Guilt of destroying the Life of a Father, who
obstructed the Happiness of his only Child; and strenuously argued,
that the froward humours of old Age ought not to put a restraint on
the Pleasures of Youth, and that when they did so, there was no sin in
removing the Obstacle out of the way.
But to prevail with her to come more heartily into my Measures, I
played another Stratagem upon her.... Having thus persuaded her into a
Belief of an Event, which I had good Grounds to be assured would
certainly happen, I found no great difficulty in bringing her to use
the Means to accomplish it. I told her I was then going to Scotland,
for the Purposes she knew; that I would thence send her a Quantity of
the Powder; and to prevent a Discovery, would send her a Parcel of
Scots Pebbles, with Directions to use it in cleaning them, but really
in the Manner as she had seen me use it, & as often as she had
Opportunity.
Miss, I find, in the Narrative she has published of her Case, solemnly
declares, she was perfectly ignorant of the noxious Quality of the
Powder: but had she suffered the Publick to have seen my Letters, the
World would have known that she was privy to the Design, and equally
concerned in the Plot, as I can convince you even to Demonstration by
her Answers to my Letters, under her own Hand, which I will show you
when we return to our Lodgings. However, I do not blame her for
denying it, because it was the only means she had left of persuading
the World to believe her innocent.
Perhaps, Gentlemen, you will suppose I am guilty of a great deal of
Vanity, in imagining myself capable of so grossly imposing on the
Understanding of a Lady of such refined sense as Miss Blandy was
acknowledged to be. In answer to which I can only say, that when Love
has taken possession of the Heart, it leaves but very little Room for
Reflection. That this was Miss Blandy's case, I will give you some few
instances of the violence of her Passion, and then leave you to judge
to what extravagant Lengths that might carry her.
As my small Income afforded me but slender Supplies, I was frequently
in Debt, and as often at a loss how to come off with Honour. Miss was
my constant Friend on such Occasions; and when her own Purse could not
do it, she had recourse to her Servant, Susan Gunnel, who having
scraped together about 90l. Miss borrowed near 80l. of it for the
relief of my Wants.
Again; at the Death of the Prince of Wales,[30] her Father gave her
twenty Guineas to buy her Mourning, of which she laid out about 51.
for that Purpose, and the Remainder she remitted to me, being then in
Scotland.
Another Instance of the Extravagance of her Passion was this: You must
know, that during the Course of our mutual Love and Tenderness, some
envious female Sprite whispered in her Ear, that I had at that very
time a Bastard, and was obliged to maintain both Mother and Child. To
this Charge I pleaded guilty, but told her, that it was a piece of
Gallantry that was never imputed to a Soldier as a Crime, and hoped I
might plead the general Practice in Excuse. In short, she not only
forgave me, but contributed all in her Power to the Support of both.
Miss however, was not so easily pacified on another Occasion, when she
happened to spring a Mine that had like to have blown up all my works.
When I lodged in the House, some Occasion or other calling me suddenly
into the Town, I forgot to take out the Key of my Trunk. Miss coming
into the Room soon afterwards, sees the Key, and opens the Repository,
when the first thing she cast her Eyes upon, was a Letter, which I had
lately received from a Mistress I kept in _Petto_. This opened such a
scene of Ingratitude and Perfidy, that when she charged me with it, I
was scarce able to stand the Shock, and was so thunderstruck, that for
some time I had not a word to say for myself. But when I had a little
recollected my scattered Spirits, I had Address enough to pacify her
Wrath, even in an Instance of such a notorious Breach of my Fidelity.
These you will allow, were uncommon Instances of Affection for a Man
so circumstanced as I was; after which, can you suppose her capable of
denying me anything within the Compass of her Power? Can you any
longer wonder that she should join with me in compassing the Death of
her Father, when I had convinced her that our Happiness could no
otherwise be accomplished?
In this manner the Captain entertained his Companions on their Journey
to Paris. Where being arrived, they took a Lodging in a By-street....
Every day for a fortnight, they spent in visiting the most remarkable
places in Paris.... But finding their Exchequer pretty near exhausted,
they began seriously to think of returning home to their good
Landlady. Accordingly they set out on their journey and on the third
day reached Furnes, where they again met with a kind reception. Mr.
Ross, their Landlord, was likewise then just returned from England,
where the Captain had sent him to receive Money for a Bill of 60l.
which was the only Remittance that was sent him from his Arrival in
France to the Time of his Death.
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 £60 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 £200, for which he
gave the Gentleman of Brussels a pretended Bill for £321 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 £60 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.