![On the top half of the page is a head and shoulders right profile portrait engraving of John Hendrickson, Jr. with left hand on chin]. On the bottom half of the page is a half-length, right pose, full face engraving of Maria Hendrickson, wife of the prisoner, with her right arm resting on table.](images/hendrickson-3_28410850R-sm.jpg)
Plan of the Tea-Room, 1817
The trial of Robert Sawle Donnall, surgeon and apothecary, late of Falmouth, in the county of Cornwall, for the wilful murder, by poison, of Mrs. Elizabeth Downing, widow, his mother-in-law, at the assize at Launceston, for the county aforesaid, on Monday, March 31, 1817. 179 pp. (Falmouth Lake, England, 1817).
About the Case
In 1816 Robert Donnall was charged with the murder of Elizabeth Downing. He was deeply in debt, and Mrs. Downing, his mother-in-law, had money which he stood to inherit. At trial, it was alleged that Downing had fallen ill after a poisoning incident, and Donnall, being a doctor, attended to her. A second incident led to her death. Donnall tried to have the body immediately buried. But instead the body was autopsied and Downing’s stomach-lining was found to be nearly dissolved by a corrosive agent. The autopsists saved of the stomach contents in a bowl, which Donnall threw out. But another set of contents was saved and traces of arsenic found. Medical experts for the defense claimed that Downing could have died of cholera morbus or another gastrointestinal disease. The prosecution argued that such a death would take weeks, not hours. With the conflicting evidence, Robert Donnall was acquitted.