Hi my name's Kevin Hicks, welcome to the History
Squad, now this video is all about the brutal and sadistic murder of a 14-year-old girl Mary
Clifford. She was murdered by a midwife Elizabeth Brownrigg. This murder was so sadistic and brutal
that even the hardened Londoners at the time were horrified at what had gone on, so before we go
into the actual murder which took place 1767 in the heart of London, the city of London, I'd like
to just explain what it was like. For a start off, coal fires, open wood fires, oil lamps in
the street, it was very smoky, very murky, also the pollution from other sources was
disgusting from the sewers, open sewers and then something you might be familiar with from
some of my other videos is open graves, where in the center of London they had these cemeteries
for the poor where they dug holes five coffins wide and they kept them open until they'd filled
the hole and then grave robbers. So there was this disgusting stench of pollution around this part of
London at the time. So we're not looking at a nice Oliver Twist Hollywood London, we're looking at a
gray, murky, almost lawless part of the world. So in amongst all of this pollution and poverty
surrounding this area you have the Brownrigg family. Now James Brownrigg lived in Fetter Lane
in the city of London, he was a plumber and house painter so he had the two trades, he took in
apprentices. He lived with his wife Elizabeth Brownrigg and their son John. They had another son
and a daughter, in fact Elizabeth had given birth to 16 children but only three had survived so this
put her in good stead for her trade as a midwife and also a layer out of the dead. So if somebody
died in your family, you called out Elizabeth, she'd come along and she would lay out the corpse
and clean it and all that kind of stuff. Now their house was quite prosperous, it was a large house
and in the upper story they rented out rooms, so they took in lodgers. They also had their own male
apprentices to help James Brownrigg in his work. Elizabeth Brownrigg she could take in apprentices
but the apprentices that she could take in were foundling children from the workhouse. Now the
workhouse, they were quite small establishments except for one which was not far away which was
Bridewell. Bridewell was both prison, hospital and workhouse and what had happened here was there
had been a bit of a disagreement some years before where the authorities were saying 'Are we over
educating these foundlings? Are we teaching them too much? Surely they should have a different
kind of education and vocational where they can learn to be like a maid or something?' So they
come up with the idea that you could apprentice a foundling boy or girl and you took them on a
month's approval and if they were suitable you then signed the documents and you had them for two
years. You're teaching them a trade, and this is where it leads to the horrendous treatment of Mary
Jones, Mary Mitchell and finally the murder of Mary Clifford at the hands of Elizabeth Brownrigg.
Now as I've mentioned the Brownrigg family were becoming quite prosperous, in fact the description
is they'd earned enough money to have country lodgings at the village of Islington at the north
of London where they could retire of a weekend and take the country air, escape the smoky air and the
pollution of London. Now Elizabeth Brownrigg was doing very well too, she was very busy with her
midwife business, so she had taken on first one then two foundling apprentices. They were taken
on as apprentice domestic servants, both girls being very young I think 14 years of age. Now for
the first month as they were taken on for approval they were both treated fairly well, allowed to
wear their own clothes, they were fed, watered and not worked too hard but once they were accepted as
these domestic apprentices things changed and they changed dramatically for the worse. Now these two
young apprentice girls from the workhouse you have Mary Jones and Mary Mitchell, now don't forget
how young they are around about 14 years of age, probably illiterate and under strength, they are
now at the mercy of the Brownrigg family. They are fed scraps off the plates of the Brownriggs
when they have finished their main meal they kept in filthy conditions and they worked quite
hard but it's what happens to Mary Jones that we have to focus on you see James Brownrigg and his
son John they bully her and as a result of this she is slapped and punched by Elizabeth Brownrigg
and called a filthy [ __ ]. She now, Mary Jones, receives the full attention of Elizabeth
Brownrigg. She is stripped of her own clothes put into lice-ridden rags and worked doing domestic
chores for 18 hours a day and then only given a mat on the kitchen floor, the cold kitchen floor,
to sleep upon. What's happening to this young girl is disgraceful, but the worst is yet to come. Now
Mary Jones, when she incurred the displeasure of Elizabeth Brownrigg, she'd be beaten and beaten
quite savagely so she tried to escape several times and each time she was captured, stripped
naked, placed across two chairs and then beaten with a whip. She was beaten so much it only
stopped when Elizabeth Brownrigg needed a rest. Now it was at this time that the they discovered
that Mary Jones was afraid of water so Elizabeth Brownrigg would actually plunge her head into a
pail of water and hold her head down almost to the point of drowning and then lifted it up. This a
little bit later on became a favorite pastime not only of hers but of her husband's James and their
son John who apparently these two men abused poor old Mary in other ways too. It doesn't go into
detail but it just mentions that they abused her in other ways, and one of their fun things to
do was when poor old Mary was on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor, they would pull her
legs from behind her, creeping up on her pulling her legs and then plunging her head into the pail
of filthy disgusting water and holding it there to the point of drowning. Their favorite pastime.
But this young girl Mary Jones, she was tough, and she made several attempts to escape but she was
learning each time, the windows were barred, the doors were locked, she was forced to sleep under
a dresser actually in the Brownrigg’s bedroom, but very early one morning she crept downstairs,
she knew where they hung the key to the front door she unlocked it and slipped out. The problem
she had, she didn't know where she was. She'd only been from the foundling hospital to the
Brownrigg’s house once. She begged passers by to help her and a pedlar took her to the foundling
hospital where she was examined by the surgeon. When Mary Jones was examined by the surgeon at the
foundling hospital she was found to be covered all over her body with cuts and bruises and in one
of her eyes she was blind. What had happened, as her head would been jammed into a bucket,
it had cut the eye which had then been left untreated and had become infected and she was
now blind. The governors of the hospital were informed of her injuries and what had taken place,
they then informed their solicitor, Mr Plumtree, to write a letter, it was 24th of July 1765
demanding to know the cause of the injuries and threatening prosecution but the Brownriggs
simply ignored the letter. No further action was taken except to notify them that Mary Jones’
apprenticeship had been terminated. Poor old Mary Mitchell now has been left in the Brownrigg
household where she suffered persistent cruelty not just from Elizabeth Brownrigg the mother but
also her husband James and her son John but after about a year she managed to escape, but of course
these girls didn't quite know where they were and she was seen on the street by the Brownrigg’s
youngest son Billy who took hold of her and dragged her back to the house. In view of this
now they tightened up security, she was confined to the house and severely beaten for trying to
escape. Ironically on the 18th of February 1766, Mary Clifford was allocated to the Brownrigg
household as an apprentice a domestic servant, this was by the overseers of the Whitefriars
Precinct. Now at first she was treated quite well, we would call this period like a month or two
months approval, probationary period. In those days it was called upon liking, so after a
month if you liked her you then signed her on as an apprentice. Now at first Mary was treated
quite nicely but as soon as she was accepted, upon liking, then the insults rain down on her,
she was beaten regularly, stripped naked of her clothes, starved and then kept short of water.
She began to wet the bed basically, now I can understand that the shock of what she's now going
through must have been awful for the poor lass, so she was not allowed to sleep on a bed, she was
forced to sleep in the coal hole and it must have been terrible for her. But at one stage she was
so desperate for water that she broke a plank that covered the water butt, so I understand to try and
get a drink, for this she was severely punished. The cruelty towards Mary Clifford increases
and it wasn't just the beatings, Elizabeth Brownrigg fastens a chain around the neck of young
Mary which is then fastened to the yard door, it's almost strangling her. She's got work to do
in the yard but they have to extend the chain so she could actually pull forward, it was literally
almost strangling her. Now that night when she's thrown into the ball hole and locked in the chain
was still fastened heavily around her neck and her hands were fastened behind her back. Now both
Marys at one stage were suspended by a rope from a water pipe that ran across the ceiling of the
skullery and they were beaten mercilessly, but Elizabeth who was doing the beatings was concerned
that the water pipe they were fastened to might fracture so she had a her husband screw in a hook
into a wooden beam that ran across the ceiling of the skullery not too close to the walls, it
was so the girls were suspended freely and just hanging by their own body weight so they could
be beaten. Now the son, the eldest son John, he would actually take over the beatings of the girls
from the mother when Elizabeth became exhausted but there was another cruel streak in John when
he used to pick on Mary Clifford he wanted a tester bed which is quite a heavy half-sized bed
moved and he got Mary Clifford to do it but she was so malnourished so weak she couldn't move
it so he beat her, kicked her, pushed her and abused her trying to move this bed this just goes
to show that both the husband James and the son were complicit in the torture of these poor girls.
The cruelty inflicted on Mary Clifford continues, but you know that young lass managed to tell one
of the lodgers what was happening to her. This lodger was a French lady but Mary was so terrified
that she made the lodger, this French lady, we don't know her name, promised that she would
not say anything to Elizabeth Brownrigg. However later there was a blazing row between the French
woman and Elizabeth Brownrigg and the French woman blurted out ‘we know what you're doing to
your servant girls’. Well in revenge Elizabeth Brownrigg fetches a pair of scissors and she
shouts ‘I'll stop your tattling’ and then pulls her tongue out and cuts it twice. Can you imagine
the pain? Have you ever bitten your tongue, how painful it is? Now this poor lass has got two
actual cuts into her tongue and then it's followed up and she says ‘you do that again I'll cut your
entire tongue out’. Then on the 13th of July 1767 in the presence of Mary Mitchell, Elizabeth
Brownrigg suspended Mary Clifford from the ceiling stripping her naked and then beat her so bad that
blood dripped down her body off her toes and began to pool on the floor. Mary Mitchell describes how
she saw scabs from previous wounds being opened up. These beatings were repeated five times that
day. The day before these terrible beatings of Mary Clifford, her stepmother is at Whitefriars
making inquiries as to the whereabouts of her stepdaughter. She's directed to the Brownrigg’s
house and she speaks to James Brownrigg. ‘Where's my stepdaughter?’ He denies all knowledge of
the whereabouts of poor Mary and then he becomes abusive when he's pressed, when he's questioned,
so the stepmother as she's leaving is taken to one side by Mrs Deakin the next door neighbour, she's
the wife of the baker there who tells her ‘Listen, we've heard groaning and screaming coming
from next door so what we'll do for you, both my husband and I, we will keep an eye
out an ear out and if we spot anything here anything we'll be in touch.” So addresses were
exchanged and away the stepmother goes. After the confrontation with Mary Clifford's stepmother,
James Brownrigg makes his way to Hamstead and buys what was known as the Christmas Pig. You buy
it a few months before Christmas fatten it up, it’s slaughtered, that's for your Christmas Feast.
Now what they used to do with these pigs they would have a pig pen in the backyard it would be
totally enclosed but the Brownriggs had taken the skylight off the top to allow the stench to escape
and it was the next door neighbours the Deakin’s servant who was William Clipson, he had seen a
crumpled heap inside the pig pen. The alarm is raised but the Deakins asked the servant, can he
crawl out onto the roof, can he get a better look? And he does this and he can see clearly there
is a person. He throws some mortar, some bits of stone down, trying to see if the person would
move. Eventually piece hits the head of the girl, she turns her head painfully up and just groans.
The alarm now truly is raised. Now the neighbour of the Brownriggs, Mrs Deakin, fetches Mary
Clifford's stepmother and together they go and see the overseers of St Dunstan’s parish, that's
a Mr Grundy, and they explain what's happening. So the three of them now go down to the Brownrigg’s
house, along the way they must have collected the servant boy from next door because what happens
now is brilliant, because James Brownrigg is belligerent, he is really angry, he's delaying.
He goes in and he fetches out the wrong Mary, Mary Mitchell but William Clipson, the young
servant from next door says ‘No that's not the girl that was in the pig pen, she had short red
hair”. Immediately a constable was called and together with the constable, Mr Grundy made a
search of the Brownrigg’s house but they failed to find the girl, she was so well concealed, and
even though James Brownrigg was so angry Mr Grundy took control of Mary Mitchell, she was removed
from the scene. The overseers at the workhouse, they began to see the extent of her injuries. Now
when Mary began to remove, remove herself, remove her tattered leather bodice she actually really
did scream out. It was then they saw the seeping lacerations that were sticking to the inside
of her bodice that were making her scream. They reassured Mary, they promised that she would not
be returning to the Brownrigg’s house, when she heard this she relaxed a little bit and she began
to tell the overseers the extent of what had been going on at the Brownrigg’s house. She confirmed
that Mary Clifford had been kept in the pig pen but had been removed just before the search began
because she had seen her on the stairs. Determined to rescue Mary Clifford Mr Grundy fetched
reinforcements and confronted James Brownrigg that they were going to make a thorough search of the
house and they then summoned a coach, because they were going to arrest Mr Brownrigg on suspicion
of murder. When he heard that he may be taken to the lock up, he says ‘Look just give me half
an hour and I will produce the girl’. Which they did. Now notice that, give me half an hour, these
are delaying tactics. Eventually Mary Clifford was produced. She'd been hidden in a cupboard under
a cabinet in the dining room. When they saw her appalling state, the bruises, the fresh bleeding,
the lacerations and the septic wounds, they were horrified. Immediately John Brownrigg was arrested
and taken to jail, but whilst he'd been stalling the authorities, Elizabeth and her son John
Brownrigg had actually made good their escape. Meanwhile both girls were examined by a doctor
at the workhouse after which they were conveyed to the Guildhall where the Lord Mayor wanted to
question them. Now Mary Clifford was so weak, she couldn't walk the short distance to see the
Lord Mayor, so she was conveyed in a sedan chair. After this they were taken to St Bartholomew's
hospital for treatment. Unfortunately on the 9th of August 1767 Mary Clifford would die from her
injuries. A coroners court was then summoned and there was a verdict that Mary Clifford had been
willfully murdered and charges were laid against James and Elizabeth Brownrigg and their son
John. So Elizabeth and her son John Brownrigg had actually had it on their toes, they had escaped,
but they'd gone via Petticoat Lane where they purchased some different clothing, they disguised
themselves, they took lodgings down in Wandsworth, they got a room upstairs in this lodging house.
Now the landlord recognized John when he came downstairs for a light for the candle, he saw
him full length, he had seen a picture of them in the local newspaper so he reported it to
the constables. The constables come down, they go upstairs and they make the arrest. Now
when they went into the room Elizabeth was sat by the bed and her son John was walking up and down
in the room. She was well disguised, had a straw hat and all different kinds of stuff, he, John
was wearing a livery coat. Not even the neighbors, who saw them come out of the lodging house, said
we wouldn't have recognized them they were so well disguised. But now we have James, Elizabeth and
John they have all been arrested. So the news was out, crowds were now gathering outside the Mansion
House because they' heard that Elizabeth Brownrigg and her son John were due there to be questioned
by the Lord Mayor, but however what happened was, all Sunday night and into Monday Elizabeth
Brownrigg was having convulsions and couldn't be questioned, so the Lord Mayor obtained a
warrant from the coroner's court and Elizabeth was actually incarcerated in Newgate Prison. Her son
John however was sent to a different jail. So the trial was held at the Old Bailey in London on the
11th September 1767. All three of the Brownriggs, Elizabeth, her husband James and her son John,
pleaded not guilty to the vicious murder of poor old Mary Clifford. Now the main witness for the
prosecution was Mary Mitchell, and she was a brave girl. She stood there in the middle of that court,
the Old Bailey don't forget, in front of a bench of her betters and the vicious glare of Elizabeth
Brownrigg and she gave evidence. She described the treatment to both her and her friend poor old
Mary Clifford, how the hook had been put into the beam to hang them both so they could be whipped
and they had no support. They would actually be whipped and would swing under their own body
weight. She described all of the proceedings, what they were actually whipped with, sticks, whips
and the horse whip that belonged to James that was fetched from the stables, to be used both as
a whip and as the other end as a kind of a cudgel. She also described how one day Elizabeth Brownrigg
got so angry with Mary herself, Mary Mitchell, that she grasped her head in her hands and then
pushed her thumbs into Mary's eyes and then pulled the eyelids down across her cheeks so viciously,
that her eyes actually bled. Both doctors and the coroner gave evidence at the trial and the doctor
recounted how he couldn't count the amount of wounds that she had on her body, some of them were
old and were festering, he could tell that a thin whip had been used to lash around Mary Clifford's
legs. But the worst wound was upon her hip and it was as wide as the palm of your hand it was open
and untreated, her head had six wounds in it, her throat was extremely swollen. Now that had been
from when the chain had been wrapped around her neck. Now both girls were described as emaciated
and starving. Amazingly at the trial many people came forward to give positive character
references with regard to the Brownriggs, and they denied the charges all the way through
the trial and they gave alternative reasons as to why things happened. One of those was that poor
old Mary Clifford volunteered to sleep in the coal hole because of her bed wetting habits, however
an extra witness was called. He was an apprentice to James Brownrigg, that's George Benham, and he
was witness to Mary Clifford actually been beaten by Elizabeth Brownrigg with the horse whip. He
gave evidence as to how he was ordered to take Mary Clifford down into the coal hole and lock
her up. He describes how she was naked except for stockings and shoes upon her feet. As he
was about to lock her up she turned to him and said ‘Could you get me some of my old clothes to
cover up?’ And he said “You know where they are?" and she said yes, so he allowed her to nip out
quickly and she found an old bit of carpet and a bit of blanket so she got something to sleep on
and some to cover her body. Now I'm going to go to the evidence that this young apprentice actually
gave. I'm going to read it out, and it says it really did make his heart ache to lock her up with
this nakedness. And he was asked “Did you see her back?” and he said “No, I turned my head away and
would not look at her.” And they says, they said, “Why did you do that?” He said “I thought she'd
have some cuts from the beating, my heart really ached”. After 11 hours of hearing all of the
evidence the jury deliberated for only 15 minutes and they found Elizabeth Brownrigg guilty of
willful murder, she will hang at Tyburn Gallows. However her husband James Brownrigg and their son
John were acquitted, but they were remanded in custody and they were found guilty of assaulting
Mary Mitchell and they were each given a custodial sentence, in other words they were sent to prison
for six months and they were fined one shilling. I did read that this may have been because it
was an all-male jury and they reckoned as these two men were not present at the final beating
of Mary Clifford they were not guilty of the murder. Even at the very end Elizabeth Brownrigg
did not consider herself guilty of the murder of Mary Clifford, but she was executed at Tyburn on
the 14th of September 1767. The crowds that lined the three mile route from Newgate to Tyburn were
vicious, they hated her. Everybody knew what she had done, they hurled abuse and other things at
her. She went to her death and everybody cheered hooray hooray as she dangled there. But due to
the murder Act of 1751 her body was to be taken from her place of execution to the dissecting
tables, where tickets to watch her body being cut from flesh down to bone were like gold dust. Her
skeleton was placed in a niche at Surgeon's Hall. But what gets me is this is an infamous murder
and Elizabeth Brownrigg is remembered for it and I feel that it's unjust, because her victims Mary
Clifford, Mary Mitchell and Mary Jones are largely forgotten in history. Well I hope you found that
video interesting. If you did, like, share and subscribe and if you'd like to support the channel
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