John Selby Watson

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.

[3] After deliberating for an hour and a half, the jury found him guilty of murder but with a recommendation that mercy be shown because of his age and previous character.

Byles then changed his mind and told the Home Secretary that the medical evidence presented at the trial suggested that "this is not a case in which the sentence should be carried out.

"[3] After more investigation the Home Office decided that some "imprecise mental unsoundness"[3] had been present and commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.

Due to no obvious signs of madness, however, he was not sent to Broadmoor Hospital,[3] instead he served his time in Parkhurst prison where he died twelve years later, aged 80, on 6 July 1884.

[9] In the words of Martin J. Wiener, "the incongruity of the offense and the lack of any lesser defense pushed the system to a controversial finding of "temporary" insanity to prevent the unedifying spectacle of the hanging of a clergyman of the Church of England.