broke open a cupboard in search of food, but found it empty; and on
another day, being parched with thirst, she tore down some boards in
order to procure a draught of water. These acts of what were deemed
daring atrocity by her inhuman mistress, immediately pointed her out as
a proper mark for the most rigorous treatment; and, having been stripped
to the skin, she was kept naked during the whole day, and repeatedly
beaten with the but-end of a whip. In the course of this barbarous
conduct Mrs. Brownrigg fastened a jack-chain round her neck so tight as
almost to strangle her, and confined her by its means to the yard-door,
in order to prevent her escape, in case of her mistress' strength
reviving, so as to enable her to renew the severities which she was
inflicting on her; and a day having passed in the exercise of these most
atrocious cruelties, the miserable girl was remanded to her cellar, her
hands being tied behind her, and the chain being still round her neck,
to be ready for a renewal of the cruelties on the following day.
Determined then upon pursuing the wretched girl still further, Mrs.
Brownrigg tied her hands together with a cord, and fixing a rope to her
wrists, she drew her up to a water-pipe, which ran across the kitchen
ceiling, and commenced a most unmerciful castigation, but the pipe
giving way in the midst of it, she caused her husband to fix a hook in
the beam, and then again hoisting up her miserable victim, she
horsewhipped her until she was weary, the blood flowing at nearly every
stroke. Nor was Mrs. Brownrigg the only tormentor of this wretched
being, for her elder son having one day ordered her to put up a
half-tester bedstead, her strength was so far gone that she was unable
to obey him, on which he whipped her until she sunk insensible under the
lash.
At length the unhappy girl, being unable any longer to bear these
unheard-of cruelties, complained to a French lady who lodged in the
house, and entreated her interference to procure some remission of the
frightful barbarities which had been practised upon her. The
good-natured foreigner appealed to Mrs. Brownrigg, showing to her the
inhumanity of her behaviour; but the only effect produced was a volley
of abuse levelled at the person who interposed, and an attempt, on the
part of the monster, to cut out the tongue of her apprentice with a pair
of scissors, in the course of which she wounded her in two places.
The close of this prolonged tragedy, however, now approached, when the
disgusting barbarity of Mrs. Brownrigg, at which the heart recoils and
sickens, was to be discovered and punished. In the month of July, the
step-mother of Clifford, who had been living out of town, came to London
for the purpose of inquiring after her daughter; and, learning from the
parish-officers that she was in the service of Mrs. Brownrigg, she
immediately proceeded to her house, and requested to be allowed to see
her. She was, however, refused admittance by Mr. Brownrigg, who even
threatened to carry her before the lord mayor if she came there to make
further disturbances; and upon this she was going away, when Mrs.
Deacon, wife of Mr. Deacon, baker, at the adjoining house, called her
in, and informed her that she and her family had often heard moanings
and groans issue from Brownrigg's house, and that she suspected the
apprentices were treated with unwarrantable severity.
The suspicions of the neighbourhood having thus been raised, every means
was employed to procure the unravelment of the truth, and the
proceedings of the guilty parties themselves obtained the discovery of
all their wickedness.
At this juncture Mr. Brownrigg, going to Hampstead on business, bought a
hog, which he sent home; and the animal being put into a covered yard,
having a skylight, it was thought necessary to remove the window, in
order to give to it air.
As soon as it was known that the sky-light was removed, Mr. Deacon
ordered his servants to watch, in order, if possible, to discover the
girls: accordingly one of the maids, looking from a window, saw one of
them stooping down. She immediately called her mistress, who procured
the attendance of some of the neighbours, and having all of them been
witnesses to the shocking scene which presented itself, some men got
upon the leads, and dropped bits of dirt, in order to induce the girl to
speak to them; but she seemed wholly incapable. Mrs. Deacon then sent to
Clifford's mother-in-law, who immediately called upon Mr. Grundy, one of
the overseers of St. Dunstan's, and represented the case. Mr. Grundy and
the rest of the overseers, with the women, went and demanded a sight of
Mary Clifford; but Brownrigg, who had nicknamed her Nan, told them that
he knew no such person; but, if they wanted to see Mary (meaning Mary
Mitchell), they might, and she accordingly produced her. Upon this Mr.
Deacon's servant declared that Mary Mitchell was not the girl they
wanted, and Mr. Grundy now sent for a constable to search the house. An
examination took place, but, the girl being concealed, she was not
found; and the officers, notwithstanding the threats of Brownrigg, took
Mitchell away. On their arriving at the workhouse, she was found to be
in a most wretched state. Her body was covered with ulcerated sores; and
on her taking off her leathern boddice, it stuck so fast to her wounds
that she shrieked with the pain; but, on being treated with great
humanity, and told that she should not be sent back to Brownrigg's, she
gave an account of the cruelties which she had undergone, which she
described as even more terrible than we have ventured to paint them. She
also stated that she had met her fellow-apprentice on the stairs
immediately before the parish officers entered the house, and added that
Mrs. Brownrigg had concealed her, so that she should not be found. Upon
this Mr. Grundy and the others went back to Brownrigg's, and in spite of
his threats of prosecution, proceeded to take him into custody. He then
promised to produce the girl if he were allowed his liberty, and this
being consented to, she was brought out of a cupboard, under a beaufet
in the dining-room.
Words cannot adequately describe the condition of misery in which the
unfortunate girl was found to be on her being examined. Medical
assistance was immediately obtained, and she was pronounced to be in
considerable danger; and Brownrigg was in consequence taken into
custody, and conveyed to Wood-street Compter. His wife and son, alarmed
at this proceeding, absconded, carrying with them some articles of value
for their support; and Brownrigg subsequently being carried before Mr.
Alderman Crossby, was fully committed for trial, upon the charge of
having been guilty of violent assaults. The melancholy death of the girl
Clifford, however, which took place in St. Bartholomew's Hospital a few
days afterwards, altered the complexion of the offence; and a Coroner's
Inquest having been summoned, a verdict of wilful murder was returned
against the three Brownriggs, father, mother, and son.
The two latter, in the meantime, had shifted about from place to place
in London, and had taken every means in their power to disguise
themselves; but at length they removed to Wandsworth, determined to
await there the result of the trial of their relation. It so happened,
however, that they took lodging in the house of a Mr. Dunbar, a
chandler, and that person having some suspicion of his guests, watched
them narrowly; and seeing an advertisement which described their persons
exactly, as being participators in the murder which had been committed,
he caused their apprehension.
At the ensuing session at the Old Bailey the three prisoners were
brought to trial; and, after an investigation of eleven hours' duration,
Mrs. Brownrigg was capitally convicted; but her husband and son were
found not guilty of the offence imputed to them. Mrs. Brownrigg was
immediately sentenced to undergo the extreme penalty of the law, while
the participators in her guilt were detained for trial on the minor
charge of misdemeanor, of which they were eventually convicted, and were
sentenced to six months' imprisonment.
After sentence had been pronounced, the unfortunate woman addressed
herself to the Almighty; and, being attended by the ordinary of the
jail, she confessed to him the enormity of her guilt, and that the
punishment which awaited her was a just one. The parting between her and
her husband and son is described to have been one which exhibited the
strongest affection to exist, and which appeared to call up all those
better feelings of the heart in the breast of this wretched woman, which
must have lain dormant during the whole course of the maltreatment to
which she subjected her wretched apprentices. On her way to the scaffold
she was assailed by the mob, who expressed the most unmitigated disgust
for her crime; and, before the termination of her existence, she
appeared to be fully sensible of the awful situation in which she stood,
and prayed the ordinary to acquaint the people that she confessed her
crime, and acknowledged the justice of her sentence.
After her execution, which took place at Tyburn, September the 14th,
1767, her body was put into a hackney-coach, and conveyed to Surgeons'
Hall, where it was dissected, and her skeleton hung up.
JOHN WILLIAMSON.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.
The case of this criminal is a fit companion for that of the wretched
being whose fate we last described.
Williamson was the son of people in but indifferent circumstances, who
put him apprentice to a shoemaker. When he came to be a journeyman he
pursued his business with industry; and in a short time he married an
honest and sober woman, by whom he had three children. His wife dying,
he continued some time a widower, maintaining himself and his children
in a decent manner.
At length he contracted an acquaintance with a young woman deficient in
point of intellect, to whom he made proposals of marriage, in the
anticipation of receiving a small sum of money, which her relations had
left her for her maintenance. The woman was nothing loth, and
notwithstanding the opposition of her guardians, Williamson having
procured a licence, the marriage was solemnized; and he in consequence
received the money which he expected.
Within three weeks after the marriage, his ill-treatment of his unhappy
wife commenced; and having frequently beaten her in the most barbarous
manner, he at length fastened the miserable creature's hands behind her
with handcuffs; and, by means of a rope passed through a staple in the
ceiling of a closet where she was confined, drew them so tight above her
head, that only the tips of her toes touched the ground. On one side of
the closet was now and then put a small piece of bread-and-butter, so
that she could just touch it with her mouth; and she was daily allowed a
small portion of water. She once remained a whole month without being
released from this miserable condition; but during that time she
occasionally received assistance from a female lodger in the house, and
a little girl, Williamson's daughter by his former wife. The girl having
once released the poor sufferer, the inhuman villain beat her with great
severity; but when the father was abroad, the child frequently gave the
unhappy woman a stool to stand upon, by which means her pain was in some
degree abated.
On the Sunday preceding the day on which she died, Williamson released
his wife; and at dinner-time cut her some meat, of which, however, she
ate only a very small quantity. Her hands being greatly swelled through
the coldness of the weather and the pain occasioned by the handcuffs,
she begged to be permitted to go near the fire; and the daughter joining
in her request, Williamson complied; but when she had sat a few minutes,
her husband, observing her throwing the vermin that swarmed upon her
clothes into the fire, ordered her to "return to her kennel." She
immediately went back to the closet, the door of which was locked till
the next day, and she was then found to be in a delirious state, in
which she continued till the time of her death, which happened about two
o'clock on the Tuesday morning.
The coroner's jury being summoned to sit on the body, Mr. Barton, a
surgeon, of Redcross-street, who had opened it, declared that he was of
opinion that the deceased had perished through the want of the common
necessaries of life; and other evidence being adduced to criminate
Williamson, he was committed to Newgate.
At the ensuing sessions at the Old Bailey he was brought to trial before
Lord Chief Baron Parker; and the principal witnesses against him were
his daughter, Mrs. Cole, and Mr. Barton, the surgeon who opened the body
of the deceased.
The prisoner's defence was exceedingly frivolous. He said his wife had
provoked him by treading upon a kitten, and killing it, and then turning
up the whites of her eyes. He had the effrontery also to declare to the
Court that he had not abridged his wife of any of the necessaries of
life; and after sentence of death was pronounced, he reflected upon his
daughter as being the cause of his destruction.
Being put into the cells, he sent for a clergyman, and acknowledged that
he had treated his wife in the cruel manner represented upon the trial;
adding, however, that he had no design of depriving her of life: and he
afterwards behaved in a decent and penitent manner.
He was conveyed to the place of execution in a cart, attended by two
clergymen and a methodist preacher. The gallows was placed on the rising
ground opposite Chiswell-street, in Moorfields; and after he had sung a
psalm, and prayed some time with an appearance of great devotion, he was
turned off, January 19th, 1767, amidst an amazing concourse of people.
His body was conveyed to Surgeons' Hali for dissection, and his children
were placed in Cripplegate workhouse.
SARAH METYARD AND SARAH MORGAN METYARD.
EXECUTED FOR THE MURDERS OF PARISH APPRENTICES.
A single year had not elapsed since the public example made of Elizabeth
Brownrigg, to which the public indignation was yet alive, when these
two, if possible, more cruel women, were found guilty of torturing their
apprentices to death.
Sarah Metyard was a milliner, and her daughter her assistant, in
Bruton-street, Hanover-square, London.
In the year 1758 the mother had five apprentice girls bound to her from
different parish workhouses, among whom were Anne Naylor and her sister.
Anne Naylor, being of a sickly constitution, was not able to do so much
work as the other apprentices, and she therefore became the more
immediate object of the fury of her mistress. The ill-treatment which
she experienced at length induced the unhappy girl to abscond; but being
pursued, she was brought back and confined in an upper apartment, where
her food consisted of a small piece of bread and a draught of water only
each day. Seizing an opportunity, she again attempted to escape; but her
young mistress was in time to see her run out, and, following her and
seizing her by the neck, she brought her back, and with great violence
thrust her into an upper room. The old woman then interfered, and
catching the girl, she threw her on the bed, while her daughter beat her
unmercifully with a hearth-brush. This done, they put her into a back
room, and fixing a cord round her waist, they tied her hands behind her,
and fastened her to the handle of the door so as to prevent her sitting
or lying down; and in order that the example of her punishment might
intimidate her fellow-apprentices, they were ordered to work in the
adjoining apartment, strict injunctions, however, being given to them to
afford the prisoner no relief whatever.
In this condition, without the smallest nourishment of any kind, the
wretched girl remained for three days and two nights, when having been
let loose, in order that she might go to bed, she crept up to the garret
in a state of the greatest exhaustion. On the fourth day she faltered in
her speech, but was nevertheless again conveyed to what was worse than
her condemned cell, and there, in the course of a very short time, she
expired, her body being suspended by the cords which had been again
placed round her person. The other girls, seeing that her whole weight
was thus supported, cried out that she did not move; and the younger
Metyard coming up, said, "If she does not move soon, I'll make her," and
immediately beat her on the head with the heel of a shoe; but finding
that in truth she was senseless, she sent for her mother to come and
assist her. The body was then released from its bonds, and efforts were
made to restore animation, but without effect; and Mrs. Metyard being
convinced that the child was dead, removed her remains into the garret.
On the return of the other children, who had been sent out of the way,
they were informed that the girl had been in a fit, but was perfectly
recovered; and it was added that she was now locked in a garret, in
order that she should not run away: and to strengthen the effect of this
story, a plate of meat was sent up to the room where the body lay in the
middle of the day for her dinner.
On the fourth day, a design was formed to follow up the tale which had
been related; and the body of the deceased having been locked in a box,
the garret-door and the street-door were left open, and one of the
apprentices was desired to call Nanny down to dinner, and to tell her
that if she would promise to behave well in future, she would be no
longer confined. Upon the return of the child, she said Nanny was not
above stairs; and after a great parade in searching every part of the
house, the Metyards reflected upon her as being of an untractable
disposition, and pretended that she had run away.
The sister of the deceased, who was apprenticed to the same mistress,
mentioned to a lodger in the house that she was persuaded her sister was
dead; observing, that it was not probable she had gone away, since her
shoes, shift, and other parts of her apparel still remained in the
garret; and the suspicions of this girl coming to the knowledge of the
inhuman wretches, they, with a view of preventing a discovery, cruelly
murdered her, and secreted the body.
The body of Anne remained in the box two months, during which time the
garret-door was kept locked, lest the offensive smell should lead to a
discovery; but the stench at length becoming very powerful, they judged
it prudent to remove the remains of the unhappy victim of their
barbarity; and, therefore, in the evening of the 25th of December, they
cut the body in pieces, and tied the head and trunk up in one cloth, and
the limbs in another, excepting one hand, a finger belonging to which
had been amputated before death, which they resolved to burn.
When the apprentices were gone to bed, the old woman put the hand into
the fire, saying, "The fire tells no tales;" but fearing that the
consumption of the whole body would create an unpleasant smell, they
determined to dispose of its parts by throwing them into the common
sewer in Chick-lane. Being unable to effect this, however, they left
them among the mud and water that was collected before the grate of the
sewer; and some pieces of the body being discovered about twelve o'clock
by the watchman, he mentioned the circumstance to the constable of the
night. The constable applied to one of the overseers of the parish, by
whose direction the parts of the body were collected and taken to the
watch-house. On the following day the matter was communicated to Mr.
Umfreville, the coroner, who examined the pieces found by the watchman;
but, supposing them to be parts of a corpse taken from a churchyard for
the use of some surgeon, he declined summoning a jury.
Four years elapsed before the discovery of these horrid murders; but at
length the dissensions which frequently occurred between their wretched
perpetrators procured their apprehension and conviction. It appears that
the mother was in the habit of treating her daughter with a brutality
almost equal to that which she had exhibited to her apprentices, and
about two years after the murders a gentleman of the name of Rooker took
lodgings in the house of Metyard, where he lived about three months,
during which time he had frequent opportunities of observing the
severity which she suffered.
He afterwards hired a house in Hill-street, and, influenced by
compassion for her sufferings, and being desirous of relieving her from
the tyranny of her mother, he invited the girl to live in his family in
the capacity of a servant; which offer she cheerfully embraced, though
her mother had many times violently opposed her desire of going to
service. The girl had no sooner removed to Mr. Rooker's house than the
old woman became perfectly outrageous; and it was almost her daily
practice to create disturbances in Mr. Rooker's neighbourhood, by
venting the most bitter execrations against the girl, and branding her
with the most opprobrious epithets. Mr. Rooker subsequently removed to
Ealing, to reside on a little estate bequeathed him by a relation; and
having by this time seduced the girl, she accompanied him, and lived
with him professedly in the character of his mistress.
The old woman's visits were not less frequent at Ealing than they had
been at Mr. Rooker's house in London; nor was her behaviour less
outrageous.
On the 9th of June 1768, being admitted to the house, she beat her
daughter in a terrible manner; and during the contention many
expressions were uttered by both parties that gave great uneasiness to
Mr. Rooker. The mother called Mr. Rooker "the old perfumed tea-dog;" and
the girl retorted by saying, "Remember, mother, you are the perfumer;
you are the Chick-lane ghost."
The mother having retired, Mr. Rooker urged the girl to explain what was
meant to be insinuated by the indirect accusations introduced by both
parties in the course of the dispute; and, bursting into tears, she
confessed the particulars of the murders, begging that a secret so
materially affecting her mother might never be divulged.
Mr. Rooker imagined that the daughter could not be rendered amenable to
the law, as she performed her share in the murders by the direction of
her mother, and he wrote to the overseers of the parish of Tottenham,
acquainting them with what he had learned. The elder Metyard was in
consequence taken into custody; and the evidence against her being
conclusive, she was fully committed for trial. Some circumstances,
however, having come out which served to criminate her daughter, she
also was secured, and with her mother was sent to Newgate to abide her
trial.
When arraigned upon the indictment preferred against them at the ensuing
Old Bailey Sessions, they bitterly reproached one another with the part
each had taken in the affair; and if any evidence of their guilt had
been wanting, their own declarations at this time would have been
sufficient to secure their conviction. The jury immediately found them
guilty, and they were sentenced to undergo the severest penalty of the
law. The younger prisoner pleaded that she was pregnant, on being called
up to receive judgment; but a jury of matrons being assembled, they
declared her plea false, and she was sentenced immediately.
On the day fixed for their execution, the elder prisoner was found to be
in a state of utter insensibility, and in that condition she was carried
to the scaffold, and, all efforts to restore her having failed, was
turned off. Her daughter prayed for a few minutes with the ordinary who
attended her, but was in almost as melancholy a condition as her mother.
They were executed at Tyburn on the 19th July 1768, and their bodies
were afterwards dissected at Surgeons' Hall.
FREDERIC, LORD BALTIMORE; ELIZABETH GRIFFENBURG; AND ANNE HARVEY.
TRIED FOR THE COMMISSION OF A RAPE, THE FEMALES AS ACCESSORIES BEFORE
THE FACT.
Although the trial of these persons was not followed by a conviction,
the extraordinary nature of the transactions described by the
prosecutrix in the case renders it our duty to state the facts alleged
as they appeared at the trial.
The title which was inherited by Lord Baltimore, who was a peer of
Ireland, was originally granted by James I. to Mr. Calvert, from whom he
was lineally descended, together with a large tract of land in America,
now called Maryland. His lordship is related to have exhibited a taste
for knowledge in early life, and was sent from Epsom, where he was born,
to Eton, where he soon gained a considerable acquaintance with the
classics. His father dying before he was of age, left him an ample
fortune; and he is said to have shown at this time the existence of that
passion which subsequently brought him into the difficulty from which he
was compelled to extricate himself before a jury of his country.