Blandy, Mary, 1720-1752 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Murder) -- Great Britain; Trials (Poisoning) -- Great Britain
The next witness is Susan Gunnell, who tells you that she carried the
pan of water gruel to Mrs. Mounteney's from Mr. Blandy's, which had
been made at his house the Sunday seven-night before his death by
himself; that she set it in the common pantry, where all the family
used to go, and observed nobody to be busy there afterwards; but on
Monday the prisoner told her she had been stirring her papa's water
gruel and eating the oatmeal out of the bottom; that she gave him a
half-pint mug of it that Monday night before he went to bed; that she
saw the prisoner take the teaspoon that was in the mug, stir it about,
and then put her fingers to the spoon, and rub them together, and then
he drank some part of it; that on Tuesday morning she did not see him
when first he came downstairs, and the first time she saw him was
between nine and ten o'clock, when Miss Blandy and he were together;
that he then said he was not well, and going to lie down; that on
Tuesday evening Robert Harman bid her warm her master some water
gruel, for he was in haste for supper; that she warmed him some of
the same, which Miss Blandy carried into the parlour, and she believes
he ate of it, for there was about half left in the morning; that she
met him that night, after the water gruel, as he was going up to bed;
as soon as he got into the room he called for a basin to reach, and
seemed to be very sick by reaching several times; the next morning
about six o'clock she carries him up his physic, when he told her he
had had a pretty good night, and was better; but he had vomited in the
night, as she judges by the basin, which she had left clean, and was
then about half-full; that on Wednesday the prisoner came into the
kitchen and said to her that as her master had taken physic he might
want water gruel, therefore she might give him the same again, and not
leave her work to make fresh, as she was busy ironing; to which she
answered that it was stale, if there was enough of it; that it would
not take much time, and she would make fresh, and accordingly did so;
that she had the evening before taken up the pan, and disliked the
taste, and thought it stale, but was now willing to taste it again;
that she put the pan to her mouth and drank some of it, and then
observed some whiteness at the bottom, and told Betty Binfield that
she never saw any oatmeal settlement so white before, whereupon Betty
Binfield looked at it, and said "Oatmeal this! I think it looks as
white as flour"; she then took it out of doors, where there was more
light, and putting her finger to the bottom of the pan, found it
gritty, upon which she recollected that she had heard that poison was
white and gritty, which made her fear this might be poison; she
therefore locked it up in a closet, and on Thursday morning carried it
to Mrs. Mounteney's, where Mr. Norton saw it. She tells you that about
six weeks before Mr. Blandy's death she was not very well herself, and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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