Trial of Mary Blandy | Page 5

candid," declined to renew his pretensions, and the
affair fell through. Whether or not he had heard anything of the
Cranstoun business does not appear.
According to Miss Blandy's Own Account, it was not until their second
meeting at Lord Mark Kerr's in the summer of 1747 that the patrician
but unattractive Cranstoun declared his passion. She also states that in
doing so he referred to an illicit entanglement with a Scottish lady,
falsely claiming to be his wedded wife, and that she (Mary) accepted
him provisionally, "till the invalidity of the pretended marriage
appeared to the whole world." But here, as we shall presently see, the
fair authoress rather antedates the fact. Next day Cranstoun, formally
proposing to the old folks for their daughter's hand, was received by
them literally with open arms, henceforth to be treated as a son; and
when, after a six weeks' visit to Bath in company with his gouty
kinsman, the captain returned to Henley, it was as the guest of his
future father-in-law, of whose "pious fraud" in the matter of the
£10,000 dowry; despite his shrewdness, he was unaware. Though the
sycophantic attorney would probably as lief have housed a monkey of
lineage so distinguished, old Mrs. Blandy seems really to have adored
the foxy little captain for his beaux yeux. Doubtless he fooled the dame
to the top of her bent. For a time things went pleasantly enough in the
old house by the bridge. The town-clerk boasted of his noble quarry,
the mother enjoyed for the first time the company and conversation of a
man of fashion, and Mary renewed amid the Henley meadows those
paradisiacal experiences which formerly she had shared with faithless

Captain D----. But once more her happiness received an unexpected
check. Lord Mark Kerr, a soldier and a gentleman, becoming aware of
the footing upon which his graceless grand-nephew was enjoying the
Blandys' hospitality, wrote to the attorney the amazing news that his
daughter's lover already had a wife and child living in Scotland.
The facts, so far as we know them, were these. On 22nd May, 1744,
William Henry Cranstoun was privately married at Edinburgh to Anne,
daughter of David Murray, merchant in Leith, a son of the late Sir
David Murray of Stanhope, Baronet. As the lady and her family were
Jacobite and Roman Catholic, the fact of the marriage was not
published at the time for fear of prejudicing the gallant bridegroom's
chances of promotion. The couple lived together "in a private manner"
for some months, and in November the bride returned to her family,
while the captain went to London to resume his regimental duties. They
corresponded regularly by letter. Cranstoun wrote to his own and the
lady's relatives, acknowledging that she had been his wife since May,
but insisting that the marriage should still be kept secret; and on
learning that he was likely to become a father, he communicated this
fact to my Lord, his brother. Lady Cranstoun invited her
daughter-in-law to Nether Crailing, the family seat in Roxburghshire,
there to await the interesting event, but the young wife, fearing that
Presbyterian influences would be brought to bear upon her,
unfortunately declined, which gave offence to Lady Cranstoun and
aroused some suspicion regarding the fact of the marriage. At
Edinburgh, on 19th February, 1745, Mrs. Cranstoun gave birth to a
daughter, who was baptised by a minister of the kirk in Newbattle,
according to one account, in presence of members of both parents'
families; and, by the father's request, one of his brothers held her during
the ceremony. In view of these facts it must have required no common
effrontery on the part of Cranstoun to disown his wife and child, as he
did in the following year. The country being then in the throes of the
last Jacobite rising, and his wife's family having cast in their lot with
Prince Charlie, our gallant captain perceived in these circumstances a
unique opportunity for ridding himself of his marital ties. The lady was
a niece of John Murray of Broughton, the Prince's secretary who served
the cause so ill; her brother, the reigning baronet, was taken prisoner at

Culloden, tried at Carlisle, and sentenced to death, but owing to his
youth, was reprieved and transported instead; so Cranstoun thought the
course comparatively clear. His position was that Miss Murray had
been his mistress, and that although he had promised to marry her if she
would change her religion for his own purer Presbyterian faith, and as
the lady refused to do so, he was entirely freed from his engagement.
With cynical impudence he explained his previous admission of the
marriage as due to a desire to "amuse" her relatives and save her
honour. In October, 1746, his wife, by the advice of her