From the Dublin Intelligence, 28 March 1710:

“Francis Eustace, Junior, formerly of Castlemore in the County of Catherlough, now of the City of Dublin, aged 25 or 26 years, a middle size slender Man, an oval face, a ruddy Complexion, a down Look, of few Words in Conversation, being of a dark sullen Temper, wears a Wig, his Hair (if any) dark-brown, his Eye-Brows of the same colour, his Eyes appear little when he Laughs, his Hands usually cold and clammy, has on him a dark gray Drugget Coat and Waistcoat trimmed with Black, his Britches of a light coloured Cloth, with red Puffs at the Knees; He barbarously Murder’d his Wife the Daughter of Mr Bartholomew Wybrandts, in the Bishop of Rapho’s House in Smithfield, on Sunday the 26th of this Inst. March, about 11 a Clock at Night in her Bed, giving her 7 or 8 Stabs with a Sword, of which she presently dyed,and being fled for the same; Whoever shall seize and secure him, so he may be Apprehended and brought to Justice, shall Receive 100l reward, Pursuant to a Proclamation from their Excellencies the Lords Justices of this Kingdom.”

As if the story were not sad enough, Gilbert’s Calendar of the Ancient Records of Dublin states that the subsequent attempt of a legal official to arrest Francis resulted in the deaths of both.

Anne Eustace was, according to Gilbert, ‘young, beautiful and accomplished’; her murder by her husband, ‘for some trivial cause.’ caused great scandal; not only were the Eustaces of Castlemore an important Irish family, but Anne’s relations, the Wybrandts, were active at the highest levels of Dublin civic and political life.

An article by Sir Richard Steele, in the Tatler (image above, via archive.org), details the triviality which led to the Eustace murder. There had been a dispute between Mrs Eustace and her sister, in which Mr Eustace had taken her sister’s side. Mrs Eustace reproached him for doing so, as a result of which he was angered enough to kill her later.

Smithfield had been heavily promoted by the Duke of Ormonde as Dublin’s premier residential area, so that it was the height of fashion to have one’s home there in 1710. Steele describes the murder as having taken place in a country house, maybe this is an error, or Smithfield was deemed ‘the country’ at this time.

A copy of the advertisement for the apprehension of Mr Eustace in the form in which it appeared, below.

Image Credit: Old Book Illustrations