Volume III
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OF THE EARL OF RIVERS AND THE UNNATURAL COUNTESS OF MACCLESFIELD), JAMES GREGORY, ESQ., AND WILLIAM MERCHANT, ESQ. Murderers who escaped Death gentlemen of good education, accidentally came at a late hour, much disguised in liquor, to Robinson's coffee- house, at Charing Cross, and went into a room where a Mr. Sinclair and other company were drinking. Merchant, entering first, kicked down the table; and on Savage and Gregory drawing their swords Mr Nuttal desired them to put them up, but they refused to do so. A scuffle now ensued, in which Mr Sinclair received a mortal wound, and was heard to say, " I am a dead man"; soon after which the candles were extinguished. The perpetrators of this rash action left the house, but some soldiers were sent for, by whom they were taken into custody and lodged in the roundhouse, and in the morning were carried before a magistrate, who committed them to the Gatehouse; but Mr Sinclair dying on the following day, they were sent to Newgate. The deceased was attended by a clergyman, who declared that he said he was stabbed before he had time to draw his sword; and this testimony was confirmed by that of other witnesses. When the evidence was summed up, the Court observed to the jury that as the deceased and his companions were in possession of the room, if the prisoners were the aggressors, by coming into that room, kicking down the table, and immediately thereupon drawing their swords without pro- vocation, etc., it was murder, not only in him who gave the wound, but in those who aided and abetted him. Several persons of distinction appeared on behalf of the prisoners, and gave them the character of good-natured, quiet and peaceable men. After a trial of eight hours the jury found Savage and Gregory guilty of murder, and Merchant guilty of manslaughter; in consequence of which the latter was burned in the hand and discharged. On the 11th of December, 1727, Richard Savage and James Gregory were brought to the bar with other capital convicts to receive sentence of death ; and being asked in the customary manner what they had to say why judgment should not be passed on him, Mr Savage spoke as follows :-- " It is now, my Lord, too late to offer anything by way of defence, or vindication ; nor can we expect aught from your Lordships in this court but the sentence which the law requires you, as judge, to pronounce against men of our calamitous condition. But we are also persuaded that as mere men, and out of this seat of rigorous justice, you are susceptive of the tender passions, and too humane not to commiserate the unhappy situation of those whom the law sometimes, perhaps, exacts from you to pronounce sentence upon. " No doubt you distinguish between offences which arise out of premeditation and a disposition habitual to vice or immorality, and transgressions which are the unhappy and unforeseen effects of a casual absence of reason and sudden impulse of passion ; we therefore hope you will contribute all you can to an extension of that mercy which the gentlemen of the jury have been pleased to show Mr Merchant, who (allowing facts as sworn against us by the evidence) has led us into this calamity. " I hope this will not be construed as if we meant to reflect upon that gentleman, or remove anything from us upon him, or that we repine the more at our fate because he has no participation of it: no, my Lord! for my part I declare nothing could more soften my grief than to be without any companion in so great a misfortune." The Queen having been graciously pleased to grant a pardon to Messrs Savage and Gregory, they were admitted to bail on the 20th of January, 1728, in order to their pleading that pardon ; and accordingly, on the 5th of March following, they pleaded to the said pardon, and were set at liberty. Mr Savage was at the same time one of the most ingenious and most unfortunate of the human race. He was a natural son of the Countess of Macclesfield, by Captain Savage, who was afterwards Earl of Rivers. While his mother was pregnant with him she told Lord Macclesfield that the child of which she should be delivered was not his, but that Captain Savage was the father of it. Incensed at this declaration, Lord Macclesfield preferred a bill in the House of Peers and obtained a divorce, in con- sequence of an Act passed for that purpose; but the lady's fortune, which was very considerable, was reserved to her own use. Soon after the divorce the Countess married Captain Savage ; and the unfortunate subject of this narrative was born on the 10th of January, 1697. This extraordinary affair greatly excited the attention of the polite world; but the mother of Mr Savage behaved in such a manner as will for ever entail infamy on her memory. She conceived a hatred for her child from the moment of his birth ; and, resolved that the proof of her shame should not remain in her presence, she put him out to nurse with a poor woman in the country, with positive directions that he should be brought up as her own son, and not be informed who were his real parents. This trust was faithfully dis- charged by the nurse; and when young Savage was eight years of age he was placed at the grammar school of St Albans; and though Earl Rivers made repeated inquiries after him he could not learn what had become of him, but he had taken care to have his right name registered in the parish books of St Andrew's Holborn. When Savage had attained the age of fifteen years his nurse died, and on examining her papers he came to under- stand the mystery of his birth and the contrivances that had been carried on to conceal his real origin. About this time he was advised by his mother's private directions to put himself apprentice to a shoemaker ; but this he absolutely refused to do, though he was then almost in want of the common necessaries of life. Reduced to this uncomfortable situation, it was very natural for him to apply to his mother; but though he made repeated efforts to be admitted to her presence she refused to see him ; nor would she answer any of the letters which he wrote to her. It now became absolutely necessary that he should do some- thing for his support; on which he turned his thoughts to poetry, and wrote several pieces for the newspapers and magazines. Savage being now in circumstances of distress, his friends advised him to publish his poems by subscription. Prepara- tions were made for this purpose, and he had treated his mother with great freedom in the preface to the intended volume. This circumstance being made known to the Countess, a settlement of fifty pounds a year was made on him, and the preface suppressed; but the book itself was published, and in the dedication to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is the following remarkable sentence: " Nature seems to have formed my mind as inconsistently as fortune has my conditions. She has given me a heart that is as proud as my father's, to a rank of life almost as low as the humanity of my mother! " In the year 1724 Mr Savage wrote his excellent tragedy, called Sir Thomas Overbury, which was acted at Drury Lane Theatre, himself performing the principal character with considerable applause. Mr Savage was greatly distressed the latter part of his life. He retired to Swansea, in Wales, through economy; but pursued by some unfeeling creditor, he was cast into Bristol Jail, where he dragged out the remainder of his miserable days. |