Читать книгу The Fatal Cup: Thomas Griffiths Wainewright and the strange deaths of his relations - John Price Williams - Страница 14

the first of many people close to him who were to die suddenly.

The Gentleman’s Magazine noted her death in its Obituary of Notable Persons:

She is greatly regretted on account of her amiable disposition and uncommon accomplishments. She is supposed to have understood the writings of Mr.Locke as well as, perhaps, any person of either sex now living.

Uncommon indeed in Georgian England for a woman of 21 to be a recognised authority on the works of a philosopher, but being brought up at table with the cream of literary London she would have had a rare and unusual grasp of such matters and had her father’s huge library at her disposal.

The baby was left to be brought up by his grandparents and his father – a lawyer, one of the 12 children of a prosperous solicitor of Hatton Garden. Like his wife, he too, died young, a few years later, leaving the young Thomas an orphan, but in the care of his wealthy but aged grandparents.

It was before he was nine, for in Dr. Griffiths’ will, dated June 1803, the boy’s father is referred to as “the late”. It was a very strange will that Dr. Griffiths made in June that year, four months before his own death at the age of 83.

IN THE PREROGATIVE COURT OF CANTERBURY

This is the last Will and Testament of me, Ralph Griffiths, of Turnham Green, in the

THE FATAL CUP

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