ut
on his being cast before the Lords of Session in Scotland, in the
cause concerning the validity of his marriage, which was confirmed,
L50 out of the L75 was ordered by their lordships to be paid the wife
annually for the support of her and the child, which she received, and
has lived ever since with some of her relations in Hexham
aforementioned. It was further said that before he died he declared
that he and Miss Blandy were privately married before the death of her
mother, which was near two years before Mr. Blandy was poisoned.

APPENDIX XI.

LETTER FROM JOHN RIDDELL, THE SCOTS GENEALOGIST, TO JAMES MAIDMENT,
REGARDING THE DESCENDANTS OF CRANSTOUN.

(From the original MS. in the possession of Mr. John A. Fairley.)

Edinburgh, April 16th, 1843. 57 Melville Street,

My Dear Sir,--I herewith return your Blandy and Cranstoun
collections, with many thanks.

I certainly understood from the late James Rutherford, Esqr., of the
Customs, Edinburgh, a cadet of the Rutherfords of Edgerston, and
through his mother, a female descendant--one of the nearest--of the
Edmonstones of Corehouse, that it was in consequence of the great
exertions of an Edmonstone of Corehouse that the guilty Cranston was
first concealed, and afterwards enabled to escape abroad. I think he
said that the Edmonstones of Corehouse were descended, or relatives,
of the Cranstons, but that the latter were not descended of the
former, or could be in any respect their heirs.

A greater intimacy, however, subsequently arose between the two
families, owing to the friendly exertions of the Edmonstone as
above, that ended in a superannuated lady, the late Miss Edmonstone
of Corehouse, entailing or settling her estate upon the present
George Cranstoun of Corehouse,[34] nephew of the poisoner, to the
exclusion of the late Roger Ayton, and her other heirs at law. In
this manner the Cranston family may be said to have benefitted by
his atrocity, and advantage to have resulted from evil; the
friendship or kindness of the Edmonstones having been rivetted and
increased towards the relatives of him they had rescued, and whom,
on that account, they additionally cherished--this I learnt from the
previous authority referred to. Nay, the old lady wished above all
things that the _ci-devant_ judge should marry and continue his
line, a thing that for some special reason he did not desire, and
found it difficu