The Damnation of John Donellan (44 page)

10.
Eton schoolyard,
c
. 1820. ‘Lady Boughton allowed her son 18 pence a week when first there and half a crown thereafter … an allowance not suitable to his birth and fortune' noted John Donellan in his
Defence
.

11.
The Pump Room in Bath with traders selling their wares,
c
. 1800. Donellan is reputed to have met Theodosia Boughton at Bath in the 1770s.

12.
Edward Boughton (1742–94), who inherited the baronetcy on Theodosius's death. Although he never married, he had five children by a serving maid, Sally Davis. He left his fortune to his daughters, his sons having died as infants.

13.
John Donellan, his kindly expression here is in contrast to images published in newspapers at the time.

14.
The Pantheon, London. It has been conjectured that Donellan is the figure on the far left; but in this print the figure on the far right, slight in stature and with a profile similar to other Donellan images, seems just as likely to be Donellan.

15.
Exterior of the London Pantheon,
c
. 1780. The building has long since been demolished and a large retail store now stands on the site.

16.
The ravishingly pretty Theodosia – Theodosius's sister – aged seventeen.

17.
Mrs Elizabeth Hartley, a possible contender as Donellan's mistress, who was described by Garrick as having a ‘slovenly good nature that renders her prodigiously vulgar'.

18.
Nancy Parsons, perhaps a more likely contender as Donellan's mistress; this career companion of famous men eventually married the Second Viscount Maynard. She died near Paris in her eightieth year.

19.
View along Northgate Street in Warwick. The court building is to the right and St Mary's Church is in the distance.

20.
The interior of Warwick Crown Court, a new building in Donellan's day. (Court business moved to new premises in 2011.)

21.
John Hunter (1728–93), the famous anatomist, was the only medical witness in John Donellan's defence. ‘A poor devil was lately hanged at Warwick,' he told his students later, ‘upon no other testimony than that of physical men whose first experiments were made upon this occasion.'

22.
‘Judge Thumb', or ‘Patent Sticks for Family Correction', cartoon showing Sir Francis Buller (1746–1800). The sobriquet pursued the illustrious judge for the remainder of his life.