Murder on Barnes Terrace
On the 22 July 1812, 27 Barnes Terrace was the scene of a gruesome murder: Louis-Alexandre de Launay, Count d’Antraigues and his wife Countess Antoinette, a celebrated soprano, were brutally stabbed with a stiletto and a pistol. A coroner’s inquest concluded that they had been murdered by their disgruntled servant Lorenzo, possibly in the aftermath of being dismissed or due to Lady Antoinette’s renown mistreatment of servants. This was a logical conclusion as Lorenzo was found in the house dead, believed to have committed suicide and was duly buried at the cross roads at Mill Hill on Barnes Common with a stake through his heart, following traditional practice of preventing suiciders from returning as ghosts.
However, some historians have speculated the murder may have been orchestrated, as the count had been described as "the central figure in the counter-revolutionary espionage network in Europe."
Initially an enthusiast for the French Revolution, the count turned a Bourbon supporter when an angry mob stormed Versailles in 1789, threatening the Queen Marie Antoinette. Exiled in London he acted as a spy for the British as tensions built up against Napoleonic France, actively encouraging them to declare war on France.
