Arthur Crane's "The Kirkland Papers 1753-1869" (1990) tells the story of three generations of the Kirkland family of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire. It begins with Thomas Kirkland (1722-1798), a physician, who was involved in a famous murder case in 1760. Laurence Shirley, Earl Ferrers, shot his steward, John Johnson, and Kirkland was called in to attend the patient. But Johnson died the next morning and the earl was tried in the House of Lords, convicted and hanged at Tyburn. His eccentricity and violent temper were well known - his defence was based on a claim of insanity - and he had argued with Johnson because he resented his role as receiver of the earl's rents after his separation from his wife. Apparently he may also have suffered from the delusion that Johnson was carrying on an "illicit relationship" with Lady Ferrers.
After Kirkland died, the Gentleman's Magazine published, on 17 February 1798, a contribution by Richard George Robinson of Lichfield:
The death of my late worthy and ingenious friend Dr Kirkland leaves me at liberty to relate a remarkable circumstance that happened to him on 18 January 1760, the day on which a noble Earl shot his steward and probably about the time the murder was committed. The Doctor had promised to visit a friend that afternoon at Coleorton, and while he was riding over Coleorton Moor, he suddenly had the idea of being before the House of Lords giving evidence in a case of murder. He continued about five minutes, and he thought no more of it until one of the servants came to tell him at the house of his friend, that Lord [Ferrers] had sent to him to go to S[taunton] H[arold] immediately when, the recollection of it rushing into his mind, he instantly declared it to be his opinion that his lordship had shot Mr [Johnson]. Instead therefore of going directly to S[taunton] H[arold], he went to a place called the Lount, about half a mile beyond it, where Mr [Johnson] resided and where is opinion was confirmed. He has frequently told me he considered the circumstance a providential one as it put him upon his guard, the condition and temper of the unhappy Earl rendering it necessary for him to act with the greatest caution. Some years ago I asked his permission to publish it in your valuable miscellany, which he granted, but desired me to defer it till after his death.
[Crane, pp. 39, 40]
Kirkland was indeed a witness at the earl's trial by the House of Lords.
On legal advice, soon after the event Kirkland wrote a detailed account of what had happened. Understandably he doesn't refer to any premonition, but otherwise it is consistent with Robinson's account, except that it says Kirkland had gone to Coleorton to set a child's arm rather than to visit a friend, and that he called at Lount "in our way" (it lay between Coleorton and Staunton Harold, not beyond Staunton Harold). However, it also says that the messenger said Johnson had been taken ill and would soon be dead, and that the earl was with him. Knowing of the earl's reputation and his quarrel with Johnson, it's perhaps not surprising that he would have guessed the earl was responsible for the sudden "illness."
Another version of the story was recounted by Mrs Charles Bagot in "Links With the Past" (1901):
https://archive.org/details/linkswithpas.../page/n156
This is much less factually accurate and the supernatural element has certainly grown with the telling, as the claim is that at the time of the murder Kirkland had a vision of a funeral procession, including a hearse adorned with coronets and the earl's coat of arms.
After Kirkland died, the Gentleman's Magazine published, on 17 February 1798, a contribution by Richard George Robinson of Lichfield:
The death of my late worthy and ingenious friend Dr Kirkland leaves me at liberty to relate a remarkable circumstance that happened to him on 18 January 1760, the day on which a noble Earl shot his steward and probably about the time the murder was committed. The Doctor had promised to visit a friend that afternoon at Coleorton, and while he was riding over Coleorton Moor, he suddenly had the idea of being before the House of Lords giving evidence in a case of murder. He continued about five minutes, and he thought no more of it until one of the servants came to tell him at the house of his friend, that Lord [Ferrers] had sent to him to go to S[taunton] H[arold] immediately when, the recollection of it rushing into his mind, he instantly declared it to be his opinion that his lordship had shot Mr [Johnson]. Instead therefore of going directly to S[taunton] H[arold], he went to a place called the Lount, about half a mile beyond it, where Mr [Johnson] resided and where is opinion was confirmed. He has frequently told me he considered the circumstance a providential one as it put him upon his guard, the condition and temper of the unhappy Earl rendering it necessary for him to act with the greatest caution. Some years ago I asked his permission to publish it in your valuable miscellany, which he granted, but desired me to defer it till after his death.
[Crane, pp. 39, 40]
Kirkland was indeed a witness at the earl's trial by the House of Lords.
On legal advice, soon after the event Kirkland wrote a detailed account of what had happened. Understandably he doesn't refer to any premonition, but otherwise it is consistent with Robinson's account, except that it says Kirkland had gone to Coleorton to set a child's arm rather than to visit a friend, and that he called at Lount "in our way" (it lay between Coleorton and Staunton Harold, not beyond Staunton Harold). However, it also says that the messenger said Johnson had been taken ill and would soon be dead, and that the earl was with him. Knowing of the earl's reputation and his quarrel with Johnson, it's perhaps not surprising that he would have guessed the earl was responsible for the sudden "illness."
Another version of the story was recounted by Mrs Charles Bagot in "Links With the Past" (1901):
https://archive.org/details/linkswithpas.../page/n156
This is much less factually accurate and the supernatural element has certainly grown with the telling, as the claim is that at the time of the murder Kirkland had a vision of a funeral procession, including a hearse adorned with coronets and the earl's coat of arms.
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