June 29th 1612

Lord Sanquhar's revenge

The title and lands eventually passed to Robert Crichton, the sixth Lord Sanquhar who succeeded to the title while still a very young man and lived in a large house in the Speygate of Perth. He was very proud with a malicious and unforgiving temperament but for all that he enjoyed the friendship of James 6th. When the King ascended the English throne, Robert followed him to England. While there he became interested in the comparatively new accomplishment of fighting with rapier and dagger. It was a dangerous pastime resulting in a number of fatalities and it was certainly sensible to receive expert tuition in the craft before putting one’s abilities to the test.

Lord Sanquhar, while in Oxfordshire, met a John Turner who was a well known Master of Fence and as he was but a beginner, he agreed to a course of tuition. As he said later, “I protested to him that I played but as a scholar and not as one that would contend with a master in his own profession.”  Be that as it may, the outcome was that John Turner ran his point into Sanquhar’s eye blinding it and in fact nearly encompassing his death. Sanquhar himself believed that the injury was caused, “willingly and of set purpose” , though it is difficult to believe that such could have been the case.

It was as a consequence of this occurrence that Robert developed an obsessive hostility towards John Turner. He spent a number of years abroad but in 1612, seven years after losing his eye, Sanquhar returned to London, still obsessed by his injury and determined to kill Turner.

He took into his confidence one of his servants, a Scotsman called Richard Carliel. Calriel seemed quite happy to help in the enterprise and engaged another man, Gilbert Gray, to assist him. The two took lodgings in Whitefriars to watch Turner’s movements. Originally the idea had been for Sanquhar himself to commit the crime but this proved difficult and it was agreed that Carliel and Gray should perform the deed. It was at this stage that Gilbert Gray suddenly fled from the scene, allegedly seized by a fit of conscience. Two days later Carliel engaged another Scot, James Irvine, and that same evening they approached the tavern where Turner normally stopped on his way home. They were delighted to find him sitting at a table near to the door. They approached him, “accosted him in friendly terms”  but when Turner invited them to sit and have a drink, Carliel drew a pistol from under his doublet and fired at Turner. “Lord have mercy upon me, I am killed,”  were supposed to have been the last words spoken by Turner. He was certainly killed and the two conspirators rushed off pursued by an angry crowd. Irvine lost his way and finished up in a blind alley and was captured. Carliel escaped and made his way back to Scotland. Sanquhar also left London hurriedly.

The murder created an instant sensation, the more so as it was committed by a Scotsman against an Englishman. Scotsmen were already pretty unpopular in London. King James himself offered £1,000 reward for the capture of Sanquhar, Carliel and Gray. For a time nothing was heard of the three and Sanquhar, believing the other two were safely beyond the reach of the law, came out of hiding. His confidence was misplaced and a few days later both Carliel and Gray were captured. Both made full confessions though later Gray was released as having had no hand in the murder.

Irvine and Carliel were condemned to death and were hung on June 27th 1612. The same day Sanquhar was arraigned at the bar of the King’s Bench in Westminster Hall. He made a long carefully prepared speech. He finished by asking the Judges, “in charity that you will consider these few circumstances, to move you to pity. First, the indignity I suffered from so mean a man. Secondly, that it was done willingly, for I have been informed that he bragged of it after it was done. Thirdly, the perpetual loss of mine eye. Fourthly, the want of law received thereby. Fifthly, the continued blemish I received thereby. Lastly, I add my voluntary and free confession.”  Their lordships were not impressed and Robert Crichton, Lord Sanquhar was condemned to death.

On Monday June 29th , Lord Sanquhar was hung. While on the ladder he spoke to the crowds. “He asked God, and the world for forgiveness, protesting his detestation thereof, now that he understood the foulness of it, affirming that till he first was brought to his trial the Devil had so far blinded his understanding that he could not apprehend that he had done amiss, or otherwise than was fitting for a man of his rank and quality having been trained up in the wars and lived the life of a soldier, which sort of man stood more on points of honour than religion. He humbly thanked God that He had opened his eyes and given him the grace to see his offence.”  All this went down very well with the crowd but his remark that, “he professed himself to die a Roman Catholic”  was not so well received. Thus died Robert Crichton, Lord Sanquhar. He left no children and the title went to a cousin.

Eventually, the lands at Kinnoull and the Barony passed to the Kinnoull family and the connection of the Crichtons of Sanquhar with Perth and Perthshire ceased.