Читать книгу The Fatal Cup: Thomas Griffiths Wainewright and the strange deaths of his relations - John Price Williams - Страница 57

CHAPTER 6

SUDDEN DEATHS AT LINDEN HOUSE

Uncle George had sold the Monthly Review in 1825 and retired to potter in the grounds of Linden House and tend his beloved gardens, but his retirement was short-lived once the Wainewrights had arrived. He died in convulsive agony in January 1828 and was buried on the 24th at Turnham Green. He was only 56. His death had been witnessed by the doctor’s old servant, and Wainewright’s nurse, Sarah Handcocks, who was to tell of it later as coincidences began to mount.

Some sources put the date of George’s death as January 16th; if so it was an extraordinary day at Linden House. For Eliza, after nearly 10 years of marriage, had given birth to a boy on the same day. He was called Griffiths - named after his mother, grandfather and great-uncle.

The birth date appears in the records of St Nicholas Church, Chiswick, but young Griffiths was a long time being christened. It was nearly six months later, on June 4, that the ceremony took place. The delay was unusual and so possibly was the parentage itself.

Wainewright was to write in one of his several petitions for clemency that in 1823, when the first forgeries took place, after six years of marriage, he…”neither had or (sic) was likely to have Children”.

Suddenly he had a son. Many years later there was gossip, mainly fomented by his erstwhile

JOHN PRICE WILLIAMS

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