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Smith and Son, the Book and News Agents to the Railways, NEXT WELLINGTON STREET, WATERLOO BRIDGE. 172 6 190 No. LXII.] WILLIS'S CURRENT NOTES. "Takes note of what is done- GREAT OYER OF POISONING. SIR THOMAS OVERBURY, KNIGHT, ETAT. XXXII. At a period when the public attention is arrested by the numerous accusations against individuals for having insidiously exercised their skill in dispensing deadly poisons to their kindred and wives; the case of Sir Thomas Overbury occurs to excite our most particular The Trial of the Earl of Somerset, for the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury; edited by Andrew Amos, Esq., late member of the Supreme Council of India; Recorder of Nottingham, Oxford, and Banbury; Auditor and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, etc., with portraits, 8vo., pp. 552. The work recently published by Mr. Bentley, at FOURTEEN SHILLINGS, having become the property of Messrs. Willis and Sotheran, has been by them reduced in price to FOUR SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE. The woodcut is from a print engraved by Reginald Elstracke, shortly after Sir Thomas Overbury's death; it is of such extreme rarity, that at General Dowdeswell's sale, Sir Mark M. Sykes purchased an impression for fifty pounds. On the dispersion of the Sykes' collection, Woodburn was the buyer at seventy-four guineas. VOL. VI. [FEBRUARY, 1856. observation, seeing that of all others, from the position of the murderers, the distinction of their characters, the malevolence of the conspiracy, and the range it was in purpose to have taken, it has no equal in history, neither before or since the perpetration of that diabolical deed. The volume bearing the above title, embodies much that has not hitherto been printed, nor have the original papers been perused, or used by the historians of the reign of James the First, who seems to have been the presiding spirit of every bad quality, and by the subserviency of men, whose education should have embued them with more independence of character, many most disgraceful traits occur, simply from the reason to court his favour, and impose upon his weakness. The Howards of that day appear to have largely partaken of the royal patronage, and to have been utterly unworthy. The marriage of Lady Frances Howard with Robert D'Evreux, Earl of Essex; the bridegroom but fourteen years of age, and the bride not more than thirteen, has been celebrated in history by Ben Jonson's highly poetical espousal drama, the Masque of Hymen. This was the first characteristical event in a long series of incidents, all tending to an unexampled career of guilty enjoyment, magnificence, crime, and degradation. Her intrigues, young as she was, were continued in such a reckless course, that she seemed to be abandoned to all sense of shame. She intrigued with Prince Henry, and her general wantonness became so flagrant, that even he retired from her in disgust. As a woman thwarted in her object she appears to have breathed revenge, and according to the admission of Anne Turthe Prince was deprived of affording the Countess of ner, whose conduct was more memorable subsequently, Essex further provocation, by poisoned grapes at Wood stock. the favourite of the monarch, and disgusting as in all Robert Carr, a countryman of King James, became particulars that connexion appears to have been, the Countess, and her uncle, Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, recognised in him the means of their further advancement, no matter by what crimes it was achie ed, and these conspiracies would seem to have been contrived at the now Northumberland House, in the Strand. When the widow of Sir Walter Raleigh supplicated the king's mercy, and implored him to restore to her and her children Raleigh's forfeited estate of Sherborne Castle, with brutish feeling he denied her the boon, exclaiming"I mun have it for Carr." If this fact cannot pass in the present day without exciting indignation, what must have been the feeling produced by this atrocious act on the contemporaries of Raleigh and Carr? C * It was proposed to sue for a divorce between the Countess and the Earl of Essex, and to effect a marriage between her and this satellite of kingly adoption-King James not only sanctioned the proceedings, but impatiently urged them on, and dictated their final conclusion. The Countess, notwithstanding the flagrancy of her conduct, protested her innocence, and the jury of matrons who were employed on the occasion were deluded by the substitution of the daughter of Sir Thomas Mounson, who being thickly veiled eluded the detection of her identity. The divorce took place, but Overbury, who knew her infamous bearings, and appears to have been the successful director of Carr in his onward course, and to have really entertained a true friendship for him, endeavoured in every possible way to prevent the marriage-nocently made the tool of the parties by commending one that has no equal on record, as having been followed by consequences in which morality, law, and religion were so greatly outraged for the indulgence of guilty and impetuous passions. Overbury was, by all the parties, considered as an impediment to the marriage-how to get rid of him was the subject of many consultations. It was proposed to involve him in a quarrel with one of the courtiers, and thus obtain his imprisonment. There were none who would quarrel with him, and the scheme failed. Sir Davie Wood, in some proceeding, had sought Carr's interest, and he consented, provided Overbury should be a sharer with him; this failed, and Sir Davie imbibed a hatred of Overbury, who he considered was the sole cause of his non-success. The Countess, aware of this ill-feeling, sought, under the promise of one thousand pounds, to induce Wood to effect Overbury's assassination. Sir Davie accepted the terms, but required a surety from Lord Rochester of a pardon from the king for the act; but as Carr could not ensure that instrument, Wood prudently declined proceeding. To poison Overbury was next determined, but the depriving him of liberty was essential to its accomplishment. Overbury was, by Carr's instigation, appointed to a ministerial appointment abroad; and he treacherously induced Overbury to refuse it; for this, the latter was on April 21, 1613, committed "for contempt" to the Tower. Sir William Waad, the governor, was dismissed under the pretext of unfitness, by having permitted the Lady Arabella Stuart a key to enlarge the limits of her range in the Tower; and succeeded by Sir Gervase Elwes, who "bled" to the tune of 20001. for the place, besides a compliance with conduct required of him; and the gaoler, who had the care of Sir Thomas Overbury, was also moved to make way for Richard Weston, who had been by the Countess specially commended to that appointment. All this was accomplished in the brief space of fifteen days, and the poisoning was commenced on the 9th of May; all intercourse was denied to the unhappy victim of their vengeance, and the particulars detailed in the volume are most appalling. The poison was supplied by James Franklin, a physician, "then dwelling on the back side of the Exchange," and taken to the Countess by Anne Turner, the widow of "a Dr. Turner." From the Countess they passed to Weston, by the hands of Mrs. Turner, with the positive knowledge of Lord Rochester, and the connivance of the Governor Elwes. These poisons, however, operated but slowly, and Rochester, in his frequent visits to the Countess of Essex at her lodgings in Whitehall, having access thereto by a straight long gallery from-St. James's Park, frequently complained of the delay, and expressed doubts whether Weston was not playing the knave, and forgetting to execute his part? The eight several poisons which were administered to Overbury, were first given as a powder to renovate his health, and afterwards introduced in jellies and tarts. Mayerne, the king's physician, was induced to send Overbury medicine, being then, as stated, in a consumption, and to have been inas medical attendant, one Paul de Lobell, an apothecary dwelling in Lime-street, near the Tower. This latter, for the sum of twenty pounds, administered a clyster, on Sept. 14th, that ended all anxieties on the part of the persons involved in the guilty transaction. Sir Thomas Overbury, already prostrated by the frequent appliance of the poison, which Weston affirmed to have been sufficient to destroy twenty other men, was a mass of sores, and reduced to skin and bone, expired about five o'clock in the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1613, and was buried in the body of the choir of the church within the Tower, between three and four p.m. on that day. Rochester was created Earl of Somerset in November following, and their marriage took place on St. Stephen's day, with unexampled pomp. Murder may for a time be hidden from mortal ken, but some unforeseen circumstance generally uplifts the veil, and discloses the villainy. The assertion that Sir Thomas Overbury had been poisoned obtained sufficient notice, that the individuals concerned were at length charged with criminality, but not till after the death of the Earl of Northampton, he who had been the main contriver, and possibly suggested the poisons, and their mode of application. He died June 15, 1614, and escaped a deservedly ignominious fate. Weston was charged in the indictment with having administered to Overbury certain poisons severally named, between May 9 and September 14; this last was not proved, but Weston, Franklin, Elwes, and Anne Turner, all perished by the hand of the hangman; their trials are embodied in this volume, and divulge astounding facts Through this same "straight long gallery" Charles the First passed to Whitehall on the morning of his execution, January 30, 1649. The charge, though urged against Weston, was not established, nor did Lobell, a Frenchman, appear in the affair; the clyster was administered by Lobell's assistant, William Reeve, who was sent to Paris immediately afterwards, by Lobell, senior, to be out of reach of enquiry, and the fact transpired years after, on the confession of Reeve. Their satiety in Overbury's blood was not sufficient for their resentment. Franklin and Turner, both spoke of other persons who were to have been poisoned by the instigation of the Earl and Countess; among them were the Princess Elizabeth and the Palsgrave Frederic. |