A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and CornwallBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England)
"The Judge's daughter was attached to George Stanwich, a young
man of Tavistock, lieutenant of a man-of-war, whose letters,
the father disapproving of the attachment, were intercepted. An
old miser of Plymouth, of the name of Page, wishing to have an
heir to disappoint his relatives, who perhaps were too confident
in calculating upon sharing his wealth, availed himself of
this apparent neglect of the young sailor, and settling on
her a good jointure, obtained her hand. She took with her a
maidservant from Tavistock, but her husband was so penurious
that he dismissed all the other servants, and caused his wife
and her maid to do all the work themselves. On an interview
subsequently taking place between her and Stanwich, she accused
him of neglecting to write to her, and then discovered that
his letters had been intercepted. The maid advised them to get
rid of the old gentleman, and Stanwich at length, with great
reluctance, consented to their putting an end to him. Page
lived in what was afterwards the Mayoralty House (at Plymouth),
and a woman who lived opposite hearing at night some sand thrown
against a window, thinking it was her own, arose, and looking
out, saw a young gentleman near Page's window, and heard him
say, 'For God's sake stay your hand!' A female replied, ''Tis
too late; the deed is done.' On the following morning it was
given out that Page had died suddenly in the night, and as soon
as possible he was buried. On the testimony, however, of his
neighbour, the body was taken up again, and it appearing that he
had been strangled, his wife, Stanwich, and the maid were tried
and executed. It is current among the common people here that
Judge Glanville, her own father, pronounced the sentence."
That sentence would be one for petty treason, burning alive. It
was not till 1790 that the law requiring women to be burnt alive
for putting to death their husbands or their masters was repealed.
A woman was so burnt in 1789. A poor girl of fifteen was burnt
at Heavitree, near Exeter, on July 29th, 1782, for poisoning her
master. Eulalia Page and her servant were actually executed at
Barnstaple and George Stanwich was hanged. All that is certain.
But the question about which a difficulty arises is--Was Eulalia a
daughter of Judge Glanville?
There is a contemporary tract that contains an account of the
transaction, which was reprinted by Payne Collier.[31] From this
we learn that Mrs. Page having failed in an attempt to poison her
husband, prevailed on one of her servants, named Robert Priddis
(Prideaux), to assist her, and on the other side Strangwich
(Standwich) hired one Tom Stone to assist in the murder.
[31] _Bibliographical Catalogue of Early English Literature_, 1865,
ii. pp. 83-6.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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