The Damnation of John Donellan (21 page)

A: I thought he appeared as if he was going to sleep …

We therefore have Anna Maria returning to Theodosius's room at about 7.20 a.m. in her first testimony and calling for Powell to be brought at the same time; under cross-examination she says that she was getting ready to ride. Did she return, then, after five minutes or fifteen minutes, or later still? Donellan was standing in the courtyard with the horses ready; but had anyone else gone into Theodosius's room while Anna Maria was getting ready or, alternatively, in the five minutes' absence that she first testified to?
Neither question was asked.

We return to Anna Maria's questioning by the ‘Court'.

COURT: When did you first see Mr Donellan after that [i.e. after she had run downstairs and sent a servant for Powell]?

A: I saw him in less than five minutes [that is, about 7.25 a.m.]. He came up to the bedchamber and asked me, ‘What do you want?'

Here, Donellan's posthumous account and Anna Maria's differ enormously, particularly as regards timing.

Donellan wrote that he had risen at 6 a.m., because Anna Maria had wanted to ride out to visit ‘a person's house to make some enquiries respecting a servant girl'. He waited ‘a considerable time', walking about the yard and the garden, but when his mother-in-law did not appear he stood under her window and called her. For a while she did not reply; then she appeared at ‘a window at the stair-head between Sir Theodosius's room and her Ladyship's' and told him that she would not be ready for some time. So far this agrees with Anna Maria's version: the conversation was the one she reported to have happened at 7.20 a.m., although in her evidence she had said that she would be ready in fifteen minutes.

Donellan then wrote that, growing impatient, he:

… thought he might take a ride to Newnham Wells, distant about three-quarters of a mile from Lawford Hall, to take the waters there [which he usually did] … observing William Frost, the coachman, standing in the yard with the horses, he went to him, and, taking the little bay mare out of his hand, bade him put Lady Boughton's horse in the stable … William Frost swears that he desired him to pull out his watch, which is a matter so absurd … Mr Donellan returned in less than three-quarters of an hour and was met by William Frost … Sir Theodosius was taken ill and he was going for Mr Powell, and said that Lady Boughton desired him to take the mare as she would go fastest …

So, if we are to take Anna Maria's testimony and Donellan's word together, Donellan returned at about
eight
o'clock from Newnham Wells, not 7.20, when he met the servant who had just been told to fetch Powell. This also ties in with Powell's testimony: if William Frost left at 8 a.m., he would have returned with Powell about 9 a.m. – the timing is much more believable.

This either means that Anna Maria gave Theodosius his medicine at about 7.45 a.m., not 7 a.m.; or that she did indeed give him his medicine at seven, but had been absent from his room from 7.15 a.m. until just before eight o'clock. If the first is correct, why did she swear that it was earlier? If the second is correct, she had left her son for far longer than ‘five minutes'. The only logical explanation, if what Donellan says is true, is that Anna Maria gave Theodosius the medicine at 7.15 a.m., left the room, saw Donellan and told him that she would be some time, and only went back to the room just before eight, having got ready for her morning ride.

In that case, she checked on Theodosius after three-quarters of an hour, not the five minutes she testified to. Why did she not say so? Did it seem careless to leave the boy for so long after he had complained at the medicine? Was she trying to show how stringently she had looked after him, by checking again after only five minutes? How could she be so sure that Powell's testified timescale would not contradict her?

This subject is returned to later in Anna Maria's testimony by her own counsel.

When asked by Howarth what happened after Theodosius died, she says that some time afterwards she was in the downstairs parlour and Donellan returned to the subject of the bottles.

Q: What passed further on that?

A: I turned away from him to the window and made no answer upon it; upon which he repeated the same.

Q: What happened then?

A: He desir'd his wife to ring the bell to call up a servant. When the servant came, he ordered the servant to send in Will, the coachman.

Q: Relate what happened between Mr Donellan and the coachman.

A: When the coachman came, Mr Donellan said, ‘Will, don't you remember that I set out this morning about seven o'clock?' ‘yes sir,' said he. ‘You remember that, don't you?' ‘yes sir.' ‘And that was the first time of my going out. I have never been on the other side of the house this morning. You remember that I set out there at seven o'clock this morning, and asked for a horse to go to the Wells?' ‘yes sir.' Mr Donellan said, ‘Then you are my evidence.'

Donellan was already anxious about Anna Maria's attitude: the significance of her objecting to his washing out the bottles had not been lost on him. He asked for ‘evidence' that he was out of the house when Theodosius took his physic.

But it is to be noted that Donellan rode away at, or near to, seven o'clock. If he did so, then he had already had his conversation with Anna Maria at the open window. Yet Anna Maria testified that this was
after
she had given Theodosius his medicine. So if Donellan is correct, and William Frost is correct, and we compare their versions to Anna Maria's testimony that she gave the physic to her son before speaking to Donellan, then Anna Maria administered the medicine fifteen minutes before 7 a.m., at 6.45 a.m. However, just to complicate matters, Donellan's account contradicts this. He wrote that ‘Lady Boughton hastily told him that soon after she spoke to him out of the window, she gave Sir Theodosius his physic.'

Why did Anna Maria say this if she had in fact, as she testified in court, given the physic
before
speaking to Donellan? (A: I said, ‘I shall be ready in about a quarter of an hour, I am going to put my things on …' Q: That is after you left your son's room, when you thought he was going to sleep? A: Yes.) Did Donellan get it wrong? Was Anna Maria simply confused as to which came first? Or was she trying to obscure the fact that a whole hour had passed when Theodosius had been left alone, dying on his bed?

Now came the really damning part of Anna Maria's testimony.

She was asked what happened when Donellan came into Theodosius's bedroom.

A: I said, I wanted to inform him what a terrible thing had happened; that it was an unaccountable thing in the doctor to send such a medicine, for, if it had been taken by a dog, it would have killed him; and I did not think my son would live. Then he asked me where the physic bottle was. I showed him the two draughts. He took up one of the bottles … poured some water out of the water bottle, which was just by, into the phial, shook it, and then emptied it out into some dirty water which was in a washhand basin.

Q: Did you make any observation upon that conduct?

A: After he had thrown the contents of the first bottle into the washhand basin of dirty water, I observed that he ought not to do that. I said, ‘What are you at? You should not meddle with the bottle.' Upon that, he snatched up the other bottle, and poured water into it, and shook it; then he put his finger to it and tasted it …

Q: Had he tasted the first bottle?

A: No.

Compare this to Anna Maria's depositions to the coroner. In her first deposition, she had said that Donellan had put water into the bottle and poured the contents out and tasted it. In her second deposition, she said that he put water into the bottle, swilled it around and
threw it on the ground
; he then did the same with another bottle.

Donellan's counsel took up the theme in his cross-examination.

Q: Did your ladyship ever mention, when examined by the Coroner, this fact, that Mr Donellan said, ‘I should not have known what I should have done, if I had not thought of saying that I did it to put my finger in to taste?'

A: I did mention this before the Coroner …

Q: I asked your ladyship whether you disclosed before the Coroner that Mr Donellan told Mrs Donellan in your hearing that if he had not thought of saying that he did it to put his finger in to taste, he should not have known what to have done. Did you mention that circumstance before the Coroner?

A: Yes.

Q: And swear it?

A: Yes.

Q: I believe you was examined a second time; was it upon the first or second examination?

A: I am not certain.

Q: Was your examination read over to you before you signed it?

A: Yes.

Q: I wish to ask your ladyship again whether this circumstance was disclosed in your evidence?

A: I said he told me that he did it to taste.

Q: Your examination was read. There is
no such thing
as that contained in it.

Newnham was right. There was no such thing in Anna Maria's second deposition. But he failed to follow this up. He also failed to emphasise that, as well as Donellan's tasting the mixture not being mentioned, an extra damning piece of information was added – that Donellan ‘threw the medicine and water upon the ground'. Tasting the mixture is the action of an innocent man who does not know what it contains. Throwing the mixture on the ground is the action of a guilty man who knows very well what it contains and is anxious to dispose of it.

But Newnham did not make this point to the jury. Instead, he went on to question Anna Maria about which horse was taken to Powell – but again without picking up on the disparity of reported timings.

Anna Maria was also asked if a servant was in Theodosius's bedroom when Donellan was there. Yes, she replied, Sarah
Blundell, and added that Donellan had told Sarah to take away ‘the basin, the dirty things, and the bottles' and that he put the bottles into her hand. However, Anna Maria had objected, and taken the bottles from Sarah and told her to leave everything alone.

Sarah Blundell had died in the winter of 1780–81, within a fortnight of giving birth to an illegitimate child, so the following evidence was based on the word of Anna Maria alone (as indeed it was for everything that occurred when Theodosius took the physic).

A: He then desired that the room be cleaned and the clothes thrown into an inner room. I opened the door of the inner room … while my back was turned [he] put the bottles into her hand again, and bid her take them down; and was angry she had not done it at first.

The questioning determines that Anna Maria did not see the bottles actually being taken out; in fact, she was not certain if they had been taken out before she herself left the room after Theodosius died.

It is extraordinary to note that, according to his mother, all this conversation was going on while Theodosius was dying. Anna Maria was not at his bedside comforting him; she testifies that a maid was wiping the froth from his mouth. Catharine Amos later testified that she was the maid in question; that Theodosius was ‘motionless' but that ‘the stomach heaved very much' and ‘he gurgled at the throat'; and that after she had wiped Theodosius's mouth four or five times she left the room because ‘my work lay below stairs'. As Catharine was giving evidence, Mr Newnham, Donellan's counsel, suddenly asked Anna Maria a question. Did Sir Theodosius speak after he had taken the medicine? ‘Not at all,' she replied.

It was an inappropriate moment: Catharine Amos was answering on another topic at the time. Why did he interrupt her? Did Newnham think that Theodosius had spoken? If so, was it on the subject that Catharine was being questioned about: which still was Donellan supposed to have distilled the laurel water in? Was this
something that Theodosius had, in fact, known something about? Did he refer to it as he lay dying? Had he used it himself to distil something? Did he confess as much? Anna Maria's reply was short – ‘No, not at all' – but Newnham's interruption is so unusual that it should be noted.

But let us return to Anna Maria's contention that Theodosius was still alive when the argument about the bottles took place. To recap:

Q: When all this happened, the washing the bottles and removing the clothes, was Sir Theodosius dead?

A: He was nearly dead.

Compare this to Donellan's account:

On entering his room he found Sir Theodosius in the agonies of death, his eyes being fix'd, his teeth set, and foaming at the mouth. He looked upon the sad spectacle with horror and amazement for some little time, and then Sir Theodosius went off.

Presumably, this means that Theodosius died; and he died, according to Donellan,
before
the bottles were washed.

Donellan's account of what happened directly after is as follows:

Mr Donellan took the bottle from the chimney-piece, and held it up to the window in order to see more fully whether there were any dregs or not, and which he found then to be quite clean and dry; but thinking that it was perhaps probable, by putting a little water into the bottle, he might be able to get something off the sides and by that means discover what the medicine was, he put about a teaspoon of water into the first phial bottle and after rinsing it well poured the same out into a small white basin on the table, and dipping his finger in it, tasted the same several times, after which he told Lady Boughton that he could not … taste exactly what the medicine was, but that what little he could taste of it, was, he thought, rather nauseous.

He also addressed the issue of the bottles being cleared away. Contradicting Anna Maria, Donellan said that she began to clear the room, putting Theodosius's belongings into an adjoining one. ‘He thought it was intended that there would be a general clearing of the room,' he went on, ‘and therefore desired Sarah Blundell to help her ladyship … seeing Sarah coming to take away the bottles, he put some of them into her apron, which was all the assistance he gave …'