John Selby Watson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Reverend John Selby Watson (April 1804[1] – 6 July 1884)[2] was a British classical translator and murderer. He was sentenced to death in 1872 for killing his wife, but a public outcry led to his sentence being reduced to life imprisonment. The case is notable for Watson's use of a plea of insanity as his defence, bringing "the insanity defense into perhaps its greatest prominence since M'Naghten."[3]
Watson was born at Crayford.[4] He was educated by an uncle and graduated from Trinity College, Dublin in 1838.[5] He was ordained Deacon by the Bishop of Ely in 1839 and married Anne Armstrong in January 1845 at St. Marks, Dublin.[6] Due to his poverty Watson had been engaged to Anne for quite a number of years before they could marry.[5] He moved to London in 1844[7] where he became the headmaster of Stockwell Grammar School.[3][8] Because of falling pupil numbers he was laid off in 1870.[7] But during his long career as headmaster, Watson had made a reputation for himself as a scholar and translator, publishing translations of the classics for Bohn's Classical Library that subsequently became volumes in the popular Everyman's Library series. He also wrote biographies, religious books, and a volume Reasoning Power in Animals. Still with all his learning and activities he made a very small income. When the Board of the Stockwell School fired him, they refused to give him any pension.
Crime
A few weeks after finishing his four-volume History of the Papacy to the Reformation,[3] on 8 October 1871 Watson was found unconscious by his servant, Ellen Pyne, having taken prussic acid. Two notes were found: one addressed to Pyne contained her wages. The other was to his doctor. It said "I have killed my wife in a fit of rage to which she provoked me".[3] His wife's body was found in a bedroom, having been battered to death with the butt of his pistol[7] two days earlier.[3]
