Obsession 

Law Report from Sporting Magazine June 1803 at 125-126.

INFATUATION AND OUTRAGE

Old Bailey, Thursday, May 25.

Mr. John Grant was brought to the bar, to be tried for maliciously shooting at George Spencer Townsend, Esq., with intent to kill him on the 18th of April last, between four and five in the afternoon, in Cleveland-court, St. James’s.

Mr. G.S. Townsend deposed, that on the evening of the day above mentioned, he was coming home to his house before specified, when the prisoner at the bar started out from behind the posts opposite Lord Carrington’s house, with his arms traverse, and a pistol in each hand; one of the pistols was presented with the muzzle, and the other with the butt end towards the prosecutor. Mr. Grant called out “Here, here;” upon which the prosecutor lifted up his stick, with intent to strike the prisoner’s wrist, and make him drop the pistols; but Mr. G. by lowering his hand, defeated his intention. The prosecutor then called out to some persons, who he knew lived in St James’s-place, and at the same time turned his back and stooped. He immediately heard a shot fired, and felt, as he thought, some shot strike his back. Upon that he endeavoured to run out of the court, but fell by the way. The prisoner came up, and fired at him lying down; some of the shot hit him, and left three or four marks on his thigh and ham. A number of persons gathered round; the prisoner was secured and taken to Bow-street immediately. He had known the prisoner upwards of four years, and he had twenty times threatened to shoot him. The reason which he had supposed, and which indeed the prisoner had avowed was, that he being agent to the family of Miss Ward, the daughter of the late Lord Dudley, had refused to introduce that gentleman to the company of Miss Ward, and also to sign a paper, recommending him as a fit and proper person to be the husband of that lady. Sir W. Burnaby, a post captain, had lodged at the house of the prisoner’s mother, in Sloane-street, where the lady and her friends sometimes visited. The prisoner there saw, and became violently enamoured of the lady, though he never had an opportunity of speaking to her. He had conceived an idea that the prosecutor was his rival, frequently talked of duels and sent him a letter to that purport on the 25th of March; upon which the prosecutor had him taken to Bow-street, but did not think it worth his while to bind him to keep the peace, and suffered him to be discharged.

John Montgomery, a boy servant to Mr. M’Carthy of St.James’s-place, about half past two, saw the prisoner near Lord Carrington’s door. About an hour and a half after, he heard the report of a pistol, and ran to see what was the matter. Just as he turned round the corner of Cleveland-court, he saw the other pistol discharged by the prisoner towards Mr. T., then lying on the ground. His fellow servant, Peter, seized hold of the prisoner, and, with the assistance of some others, took him into custody. He afterwards found some grains of shot fixed in the ground, about the spot where Mr. T. lay, one of which he gave to the sister of Mr. T. and the others he saved, and produced in Court.

Susan Broderick, a milkwoman, in Hopkins-street, St. James’s, saw the prisoner as if waiting behind the posts, and as she came past, he rushed out with such violence, as to drive her off the curb stone, and shortly after she heard a shot.

James Cross, Mr. T. 's servant, said that when the prisoner was apprehended he said, “Take me to Bow-street; Oh, take me to Bow-street!”

Mr. W. Wybrow, the surgeon, deposed, that there were three distinct marks, as if grazed by shot, from a pistol, on the sinews of Mr. T.’s ham.

Moss, a Bow-street officer, found a little loose powder, a turnkey, and some other trifling articles, in the prisoner’s pocket; but he did not appear to him to be deranged.

The prisoner in his defense said, that “his was not a moral case; it was a case of the heart; and the decision of the jury could not possibly be half so agonizing to his feelings as the refusal or the coolness of that young lady towards him!”

He here wept bitterly, and seemed so overpowered by the agitation of his mind, as scarcely to have power to speak. After a short pause, he requested the court to take particular notice, that there was no material injury done by either pistol; that he had presented the butt towards Mr. T., and declared in a solemn manner that it was not his intention to take any advantage of that gentleman, or any other person.

Mr. Bond, a gunsmith, deposed that if the pistols had been properly loaded, in his opinion, much more serious consequences must have ensued.

A great number of very respectable witnesses declared their opinion of the prisoner’s insane state of mind whenever he entertained any idea of that unfortunate attachment. Mr. Gregson, a solicitor, said that he would cry like a child that was whipped, at such times as that circumstance was mentioned, and thought the prisoner would be as likely to shoot him or even himself, as Mr. T. during the influence of such paroxysms. Mr. Gardner said that he kept a leopard on the top of the house, fed him with entrails of beasts before him, and let the animal loose, as if to oblige him.

Mr. Baron Graham delivered a most excellent charge to the jury, in which he explained the law passed in the 29th year of his present Majesty, by which shooting with intent to kill is punishable the same as murder, and described the different degrees of madness which affect the human understanding. He left the jury to decide which was the prisoner’s case.

They retired a quarter of an hour, and returned a verdict–Guilty–Death.