Trial of Mary Blandy | Page 7

Southampton, when he set out for London. During this visit, says Mary,
her father was sometimes "very rude" to his guest, which, in the
circumstances, is not surprising.
Meanwhile, on 1st March, 1748, the Commissary Court had decreed
William Henry Cranstoun and Anne Murray to be man and wife and
the child of the marriage to be their lawful issue, and had decerned the
captain to pay the lady an annuity of £40 sterling for her own aliment
and £10 for their daughter's, so long as she should be maintained by her
mother, and further had found him liable in expenses, amounting to
£100. The proceedings disclose a very ugly incident. Shortly after
leaving his wife, as before narrated, Cranstoun wrote to her that his sole
chance of promotion in the Army depended on his appearing unmarried,
and with much persuasion he at length prevailed upon her to copy a
letter, framed by him, to the effect that she had never been his wife.
Once possessed of this document in her handwriting, the little
scoundrel sent copies of it to his own and his wife's relatives in
Scotland, whereby she suffered much obloquy and neglect, and when
that unhappy lady raised her action of declarator, with peculiar
baseness he lodged the letter in process. Fortunately, she had preserved
the original draft, together with her faithless husband's letters
thereanent. This judgment was, for the gallant defender, now on
half-pay, a veritable _débâcle_, and we may be sure that the confiding
Blandys would have heard no word of it from him; but Mrs. Cranstoun,
having learned something of the game her spouse was playing at
Henley, herself wrote to Mr. Blandy, announcing the decision of the
Commissaries and sending for his information a copy of the decree in

her favour. This, surely, should have opened the eyes even of a
provincial attorney, but Cranstoun, while admitting the fact, induced
him to believe, the wish being father to the thought, that the Court of
first instance, as was not unprecedented, had erred, and that he was
advised, with good hope of success, to appeal against the judgment to
the Court of Session. Finally to dispose of the captain's legal business,
it may now be said that the appeal was in due course of time dismissed,
and the decision of the Commissaries affirmed. Thus the marriage was
as valid as Scots law could make it. True, as is pointed out by one of
his biographers, he might have appealed to the House of Lords, "but did
not, as it seldom happens that they reverse a decree of the Lords of
Session!" Nowadays, we may assume, Cranstoun would have taken the
risk. The result of this protracted litigation was never known to Mr.
Blandy.
In the spring of 1749, "a few months" after Cranstoun's departure, Miss
Blandy and her mother went to London for the purpose of taking
medical advice as to the old lady's health, which was still unsatisfactory.
They lived while in town with Mrs. Blandy's brother, Henry Stevens,
the Serjeant, in Doctors' Commons. Cranstoun, with whom Mary had
been in constant correspondence, waited upon the ladies the morning
after their arrival, and came daily during their visit. On one occasion,
Mary states, he brought his elder brother, the reigning baron, to call
upon them. This gentleman was James, sixth Lord Cranstoun, who had
succeeded to the title on the death of his father in 1727. What was his
lordship's attitude regarding the "perplexing affair" in Scotland she
does not inform us; but Mr. Serjeant Stevens refused to countenance
the attentions of the entangled captain. Mrs. Blandy wept because her
brother would not invite Cranstoun to dinner, and it was arranged that,
to avoid "affronts," she should receive the captain's visits in her own
room. But her friend Mrs. Pocock of Turville Court had a house in St.
James's Square. "Hither Mr. Cranstoun perpetually came," says Mary,
"when he understood that I was there;" so they were able to dispense
with the Serjeant's hospitality. One day she and her mother were bidden
to dine at Mrs. Pocock's, to meet my Lord Garnock (the future Lord
Crauford). Cranstoun and their hostess called for them in a coach, and
in the Strand whom should the party encounter but Mr. Blandy, come

to town on business. "For God's sake, Mrs. Pocock, what do you with
this rubbish?" cried the attorney, stopping the coach. "Rubbish!" quoth
the lady, "Your wife, your daughter, and one who may be your son?"
"Ay," replied the old man, "They are very well matched; 'tis a pity they
should ever be asunder!" "God grant they never may," simpered the
ugly lover; "don't you say amen, papa?" But amen, as appears, stuck in
Mr. Blandy's throat: he declined Mrs. Pocock's invitation to join them,
and