The Damnation of John Donellan (20 page)

This is not a patient in recovery or good health.

A swelling in the lymph nodes of the groin is a sign of the secondary stage of syphilis, and no amount of laxative would cure it.

‘Weigh not so much what men assert, as what they prove.'

Philip Sidney

HOWARTH OPENED THE QUESTIONING
of Anna Maria Boughton in a simple manner: what was Theodosius's age, and his expected fortune? Who would inherit the money if he died before he reached his majority? How long had Donellan lived at Lawford Hall, and for how much of that time had Theodosius also lived there?

Anna Maria answered the questions accurately, although she did not say that Donellan and Theodosia had come to live at Lawford at her invitation. She estimated Theodosius's fortune at £2,000 (£125,000) a year. What she omitted to add – and was not asked about – was that there was a mortgage on the estate of some £7,000 (£440,000). This is footnoted in Donellan's published
Defence
by his solicitors. They added that John Donellan was in full expectation of the livings of Newbold and Great Harborough, for which he had been studying theology for the past two years, and which were worth £500 (£31,400) a year, and were in the gift of Theodosius. They added, ‘the estate … was not actually worth as much as the livings.'

A letter from Theodosia's grandson, Edward Allesley Boughton
Ward-Boughton-Leigh, to Sir Charles Rouse-Boughton in 1882 confirms this picture. Having described the estate, he concludes: ‘I have mentioned this subject to show that there was not more than trifling pecuniary inducements to commit murder on Donellan's part as Donellan might – and probably would have been – very comfortably circumstanced on the death of Lady Boughton.' Edward was not, however, in court to speak up for Donellan. His defence came a hundred years too late.

Anna Maria was not asked about the exact nature of the estate in cross-examination by Donellan's lawyers. This information would have removed the primary motive attributed to Donellan by Howarth in his opening statement – that he had committed the crime to obtain his share in an ‘opulent' and ‘considerable' fortune. And it would have drawn attention to the point that, if Donellan had killed Theodosius, he would have murdered the very person who could have provided him with a comfortable income once he came of age.

Anna Maria was then asked if she had spoken to Donellan about her son's health; she replied that she had, and that Donellan had warned her against leaving Lawford Hall because ‘something or other may happen; he is in a very bad state of health'.

Questioning then passed on to the visit of Fonnereau, Theodosius's friend. Anna Maria confirmed that he had arrived at Lawford after Theodosius died, but that the original plan had been for him to stay for a week and then for him and Theodosius to go back to Northampton.

Q: Was he going to stay a long or short time there?

A: He did not say how long.

This answer contradicts Howarth's opening speech, in which he suggested that Donellan had to poison Theodosius quickly before the boy went to stay with Fonnereau, because he was going to be away for eleven months: ‘Sir Theodosius … proposing to stay with him until he came of age called for immediate execution of the prisoner's plan.'

In his
Defenc
e, Donellan has something to say about this misrepresentation of time:

It has been said, and spread about the country, that Sir Theodosius wanted no more than a month or two of being of age, and that Mr Donellan had suspicions of his marrying a Miss Fonnereau, and that as he, Sir Theodosius, had invited the young lady's brother to Lawford the week of Sir Theodosius's death, and was to return with him when he went back, he perpetrated the horrid deed ascribed to him under the idea that he should have no opportunity of doing it while Mr Fonnereau was at Lawford and that if Sir Theodosius returned with him, he would be of age, and would marry Miss Fonnereau before he came back, and then that the chance of his possessing his estate would be quite gone … The fact was, that he wanted eleven months [of being of ageLondon; and in regard to the other matter of his marrying Miss Fonnereau, no one except Lady Boughton ever entertained the least suspicion of the kind.

And he could not resist adding:

Her ladyship indeed frequently expressed apprehensions of it (as she did of almost every young lady he had the least acquaintance with).

The prosecution brief notes that ‘Fonnereau had a sister who Captain Donellan seemed apprehensive Sir Theodosius should think of marrying.' So both sides wanted to bring this unnamed woman into the frame as a motive, but neither could furnish direct proof of Fonnereau's sister being any kind of real marriage prospect.

Next Anna Maria explained that Powell had supplied a bottle of physic, that Donellan knew of this, and that he had encouraged Theodosius to keep it in an unlocked outer room.

She was then asked how many menservants had accompanied Theodosius fishing on the night before he died, to which she
replied, ‘Samuel Frost was the only one.' Again this is a direct contradiction of her own lawyer's opening speech: Howarth had said that ‘About five o'clock that evening, Sir Theodosius, taking with him most of the menservants, went to the river fishing.' It is also a contradiction of the notes in the prosecution brief, which claimed, ‘Sir Theodosius had two or three servants with him at the time.'

Howarth added, ‘Where the prisoner was at that time I believe cannot be explained to you.'

In fact, Donellan did provide a very detailed explanation of where he had been that evening, but had not put it in his prepared statement for the court: it only came to light later in the
Defence
. That afternoon, Donellan claimed to have walked for some time in the fields beyond the garden with his daughter and then returned to see Anna Maria in the garden, where he helped her pick fruit. At about five o'clock, they saw Theodosius ride past to go fishing. Donellan left the garden only briefly to ask Samuel Frost to bring a ladder to help them reach the higher fruit on the trees; he was gone a very short space of time, during which the servants had sight of his movements.

Afterwards Donellan said that he walked to Hewitt's mill to discuss repair work with a carpenter called Matthews. He arranged for Anna Maria to meet Matthews, with himself, at the Hall at six o'clock; Sarah Blundell had come into the garden to say that the visitors, Matthew and a Mr Dand, were there; and both Donellan and Anna Maria had walked into the Hall and discussed various business with them for about ten minutes. Afterwards, Donellan went to the mill with Matthews and walked to the flood gates with him, and did not return until just after nine o'clock in the evening.

Donellan's lawyers did not call either Dand or Matthews to give evidence. A footnote in Donellan's posthumous account says: ‘Dand and Matthews were subpoenaed; but Mr Newnham thought it would be impossible to account for Mr Donellan's time' – surely a most peculiar decision by a defending lawyer? It was left open for Anna Maria's team to be able to say, ‘Where the prisoner was I believe cannot be explained to you' – the implication being that Donellan was in Theodosius's bedroom pouring laurel water into
his physic. It should be noted that it was never proved that the bottle of physic was actually in the bedroom at this time, however. Samuel Frost testified that he had given the medicine directly into Theodosius's hands in the company of Mrs Donellan, and that Theodosius had put it into his pocket.

In her replies to the next few questions, Anna Maria denied seeing Donellan for over two hours after about five o'clock. She said that Donellan had come back to the house at about seven and told her that he had seen Theodosius fishing, and had tried to persuade him to come home in case he caught cold. (The prosecution brief said that ‘after walking in the garden some time they all came in together'.) Anna Maria then testified that her son came back about nine o'clock, ‘seemed very well', asked if he could use a servant to go on an errand for him the next day and went straight to bed.

This contradicts the notes in the prosecution brief gleaned from Anna Maria previously, which state: ‘He went fishing about 4 o'clock and returned about 8.'

In her cross-examination by Mr Newnham, Anna Maria said that Donellan had already gone to bed by the time Theodosius returned at about nine o'clock. In his
Defence
Donellan emphasises the crucial nature of the timing and the geography of the house to show that he could not have had access to Theodosius's room to tamper with the medicine. He accounted for his time until 9 p.m. He then said that he went into the parlour and spoke to Anna Maria. She said that she was angry with her son for staying out so late because it meant that she would have to light candles, but ‘expressed no other concern'.

Donellan's and Theodosia's bedrooms were directly above the parlour; Theodosius's and his mother's were in the other wing of the house. Donellan made the case that if he had returned downstairs Anna Maria would have seen or heard him from the parlour; he would then have walked down an 80-yard passage and up another staircase to Theodosius's bedroom. In order to do this, he would have needed a candle; the light would have been seen.

This ended Anna Maria's evidence on the events of 29 August.

The next questions concerned the following morning, the morning of Theodosius's death.

Q: At what time did you see him [your sonLondon the next morning?

A: About seven o'clock.

Q: At that time of the morning, how did he appear in his health?

A: He appeared then to be very well. [Anna Maria had been asked this three times out of the last seven questions. She answered each question in exactly the same words, as if by rote.]

Q: Did you go into his room at that time?

A: He had desired me … to give him his physic … I asked him where the bottle was; he said, ‘It stood there upon the shelf.' First of all, he desired me to get him a bit of cheese in order to take the taste out of his mouth … he desired me to read the label … there was written upon it, ‘Purging draught for Sir Theodosius Boughton' … as he was taking it, he observed that it smelt and tasted very nauseous, upon which I said, ‘I think it smells very strongly like bitter almonds' … he laid down.

Anna Maria here omits what she had told her lawyers for their brief: that the bottle had stood next to an empty bottle that contained the medicine which Theodosius had taken on Monday.

An absolutely vital difference that the prosecution did not reveal here was that, for the brief, Anna Maria had said that the mixture had the colour and smell of rhubarb as well as bitter almonds. The conclusion is that, if laurel water had been given, it had been added to the rhubarb medicine. Therefore it was not a neat mixture. Testimonies in court implied that Anna Maria unwittingly handed her son a phial of laurel water, nothing else; whereas, in fact, it had enough of the original mixture in it both to colour it and give it a rhubarb taste.

In court now, Anna Maria was given two bottles to smell: the
first contained a draught of the mixture which Powell said he had prepared; the second contained laurel water. She identified the smell of the second as ‘very like the smell of the medicine which I gave him'.

In the prosecution brief, but not mentioned at the trial, great attention was paid to the fact that Powell had said that ‘he pushed in the cork very tight' of the medicine bottle, but Anna Maria had said that she ‘took out the cork, which came out very loose'. Perhaps this omission at the trial was because it could be argued that Theodosius himself had opened the bottle already.

Q: What was the first observation your ladyship made of any appearance upon Sir Theodosius after taking the medicine?

A: In two minutes he struggled very much; it appeared to me as if it was to keep it down, and made a prodigious rattling in his stomach, and guggling; and he appeared to me to make very great efforts to keep it down.

It is at this point, interestingly, that the court transcript notes that the following questions were asked not by Anna Maria's lawyer, but by ‘Court' – presumably Sir Justice Buller. (Such an interruption, sometimes stopping or manipulating evidence, would have been accepted practice at that time; fifty years beforehand, a judge would have asked
every
question, as lawyers did not routinely come to court.)

COURT: How long did you observe these symptoms continue?

A: About ten minutes; he then seemed as if he was going to sleep, or inclined to doze. Perceiving him composed, I went out of the room.

This places Anna Maria's departure from the room at about 7.15 a.m. or 7.20 a.m.

I returned in about five minutes after … I found him with his
eyes fixed upwards, his teeth clenched, and froth running out of each corner of his mouth … I ran downstairs, and told the servant to take the first horse he could get, and go immediately for Mr Powell.

The timings are a little awry compared to the prosecution brief, which said that the convulsions ceased after six or seven minutes and that Anna Maria returned after six or eight minutes. This differs from the trial evidence by five to eight minutes.

On cross-examination, the defence counsel Newnham asked Anna Maria if she had planned to go riding with Donellan that morning. She agreed that she had; they were to go to ‘the wells' that is, Newnham Wells, approximately three-quarters of a mile away. Newnham then asked if she had seen Donellan before he came up to Theodosius's bedroom. She said that she had: he had been standing waiting in the yard –she had seen him from a window – and she had called down to him that she was going to put her riding things on and would be ready in fifteen minutes.

Q: This was after you left your son's room, when you thought he was going to sleep?

A: Yes.

Q: How happened it, after your son had had these convulsive appearances, and had frightened your ladyship so much, that you did not disclose to Mr Donellan that he was in that condition, and you could not ride out?