Blandy, Mary, 1720-1752 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Murder) -- Great Britain; Trials (Poisoning) -- Great Britain
Mr. Lane, the husband of the last witness, is then called, and tells
you that he went into the room before his wife; that the prisoner rose
and met him, told him he was a stranger to her, but, as he appeared
like a gentleman, she asked him what they would do with her; that he
told her she would be committed to the county gaol, and tried at the
assizes; if her innocence appeared she would be acquitted, if not, she
would suffer accordingly. Upon which she stamped with her foot and
said, "O that damned villain! But why do I blame him? I am more to
blame"; that then Mr. Littleton came in, which took off his attention;
that he did not hear what followed so as to be able to give an account
of it.
The letter from the prisoner to Captain Cranstoun, without any date to
it, which was opened by Littleton, has, then, been read to you, and
with that the counsel for the Crown conclude their evidence.
The prisoner in her defence complains of hard usage she has met with,
denies her ever speaking ill of her father, owns herself to be
passionate, and complains that words of heat upon family affairs have
been misconstrued and applied to an ill intention in her; that she was
not in her senses when she lost her father, nor in a proper dress to
make her escape when she went over Henley Bridge; that she was taken
in at the Angel by the woman of the house out of more compassion, and
was then desirous to put herself under the protection of the town
sergeant; that, during her confinement, she was not suffered to have
decent attendance for a woman; that she was affronted by her own
servants, cruelly traduced, and heavily ironed, without any reasonable
cause; that she thought the powder innocent, and never had a thought
of hurting her father; but her own ruin is effected by such an
imputation upon her, and her appearance here, without her being
convicted. She then calls her witnesses, and the first is Ann James,
who tells you she lives at Henley, and used to wash at Mr. Blandy's
house; that she remembers that some time before Mr. Blandy's illness
there was a difference between the prisoner and Elizabeth Binfield,
and that the latter was to go away; and that she has heard Elizabeth
Binfield curse the prisoner and damn her for a bitch, and say she
would not stay; that since this affair happened she heard her say
(speaking of the prisoner), "Damn her for a black bitch; she should be
glad to see her go up the ladder and swing." She tells you that, when
this conversation happened, the prisoner was gone to gaol, that it was
in Mr. Blandy's kitchen, and that Nurse Edwards, Mary Seymour, and
Mary Banks were present.
Elizabeth Binfield is then called up again, and absolutely denies the
words she is charged with; she says she never acquainted the witness
with any quarrel she had had, to the best of her remembrance, but that
she had some few words of difference with the prisoner, who had said
that she was to go away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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