Child cruelty

Some account of the murder of Anne Naylor, by Sarah Metyard, and her daughter Sarah Morgan Metyard.

IN the year 1758, Sarah Metyard, the mother, kept a little haberdasher's shop in Bruton-street, Hanover-square, and her daughter, then about 19 years old, lived with her; their chief business was making silk nets, purses, and mittins, and they took parish children apprentice: They had then five, Philadelphia Dowley, about 10 years old; Sarah Hinchman, about 12; Anne Nailor, about 13; Mary, her sister, about eight; and Anne Paul, whose age does not appear; but as Hinchman is said to have been the biggest girl, she was probably not more than 10.

These children were kept to work in a small slip of a room, so close that their breath, and the heat of their bodies, made it suffocating and unwholesome, and they were not only treated with unkindness and severity, but were not allowed sufficient food. As it was natural to suppose they would complain, another punishment became necessary, and they were suffered to go out of doors but once a fortnight, and then were never alone. Anne Nailor had a whitloe upon her finger, so bad, that it was obliged to be cut off, and, being besides a weak sickly child, she became particularly obnoxious to the inhumanity and avarice of the petty tyrant, of whom she was condemned to be the slave.

Being almost worn out by a long series of ill-treatment, the girl, at length, ran away, but was soon brought back; after this, she was treated with yet greater severity, and kept so short of food, that finding her strength decay, she watched for an opportunity to run away a second time; but this was now become very difficult, for the mother and daughter being apprehensive of such an attempt, and dreading the consequences of a complaint, yet more than the loss of the girl, were careful to keep the street door fast, and their unhappy victim in the upper part of the house.

It happened, however, that on the 29th of September, she watched the door's being opened for the milkman, and creeping down stairs, took the opportunity of the daughter's back being turned, to slip out; but the daughter missing her while she was yet in sight, called out to have her stopped, and the milkman, as she was running with what strength she had left, caught her in his arms. The poor child expostulated with the man, and pressed him, with a moving earnestness, to let her go; Pray milkman, says she, let me go, for I have had no victuals a long time, and if I stay here, I shall be starved to death; by this time the daughter was come up, and the milkman having no power to detain the child, and it being impossible for her to escape, she fell again into the hands of her merciless tyrants; and the daughter having dragged her into the house by the neck, slapped too the door, and then forced her up stairs into the room, where the old woman was still in bed, though she had started up, and joined in the cry, upon the first alarm. Here she was thrown upon the bed, and the old woman held her down by the head, while the daughter beat her with the handle of a hearth-broom; after this, she was forced in a two pair of stairs back room, and a string being tied round her waist, she was made fast to the door; with her hands bound behind her, so that she could neither lie nor sit down. In this manner she was kept standing without food or drink for three days, being untied only at night that she might go to bed, and the last night she was so feeble, that she was obliged to crawl up to bed upon her hands and knees; during this time, the other children were ordered to work in the room by her, that they might be deterred from attempting to escape, by seeing the punishment that was inflicted upon one who had thus offended already.

The first day, she said little, her strength failing her apace, the next day, she said nothing, but the pains of death coming on, she groaned piteously; on the third day, soon after she was tied up her strength wholly failed her, and she sunk down, hanging double in the string which bound her by the waist. The children being then frighted, ran to the top of the stairs, and called out, Miss Sally! Miss Sally! Nanny does not move; the daughter came up stairs, and found her without any appearance of sense or motion, hanging by the string with her head and her feet together; but she was so far from being touched with pity, that she cried out, If she does not move, I'll warrant I'll make her move, and immediately began to beat her with the heel of her shoe finding, however, notwithstanding the blows, which were very hard, that the poor wretch shewed no signs of sensibility, fear took the alarm, and she hastily called up her mother. When the old woman came up, she sat down upon the garret stairs, at the door where the child was still hanging, and the string being at length cut, she laid her across her lap, and sent Sally Hinchman down stairs for some drops. When the drops were brought, the girls were all sent down stairs, and the mother and daughter were soon convinced that their victim was dead.

Having consulted together, they carried the body up stairs into the fore-garret, next to that where the child used to lie, and locked the door that the other children might not see it. They pretended she had had a fit, from which she soon recovered, and for two or three days they insinuated, that she was confined in the garret to prevent her running away, having made a third attempt to escape; and the mother herself, in sight of the children, took victuals and carried it up into the garret, pretending it was Nanny's dinner.

On the fourth day, the body being stripped, was locked up in a box; and, in consequence of a plan concerted between the mother and daughter, the garret door was left open when the children were sent down to dinner, and the street door was also opened and left a-jar; when they were at dinner, the mother said to the daughter, Hark! Sally, don't you hear a noise, go and see what it is; to which the daughter, as had been agreed, replied, There is no noise, and continued at table; then said the old woman to Sally Hinchman, Go and fetch Nanny down, she shall dine below to-day;   Hinchman went up, and finding the garret door open, and the child not there, ran back frighted, and said, Madam, Nanny is not there - Run down then, said the old woman, and look below; upon this several of the children ran down, and finding the street door also open, came up, and told what they had seen - Aye, said the old woman, then she is run away at last; and it was she that I heard, when I mentioned the noise; girls, did you not hear a noise ? O! law madam, said the poor children, implicitly concurring in an opinion they did not dare to contradict, so we did.

Thus they hoped to account for the child's absence to her fellow-prentices, who were not, however, without suspicions; one of them in particular, observed, that if she had run away, she had run away without her shoes, of which she was known to have had but one pair, and they were found in the garret soon after the supposed escape; another remarked, that they had all her shifts in the wash, and that it was not likely she should escape without either shift or shoes. The old woman hearing this whispered, said, That she went without her shoes for fear of being heard to go downstairs, and that if she could but get into the street, she would not mind being barefoot; the shifts she could not so readily account for, and a person who lodged in the house, having asked what was become of Nanny, was answered by her sister, that she was dead. The lodger was satisfied with the answer, having no suspicion that her death was not natural; but the mother hearing of it, asked Molly Nailor, Who told her that her sister was dead? She replied, Philly Dowley, one of her fellow-prentices. Philly, therefore, was sharply reproved. Molly was soon after destroyed as her sister had been, and the horrid secret slept with the mother and daughter.

It became necessary, however, to keep the children out of the garret, for the body was become very offensive; they were therefore ordered not to wash their hands there as usual, but to wash them in the kitchen, and the garret door was kept locked. But, at the end of two months, the putrefaction was so great, that the whole house was infected, and it became absolutely necessary to remove the body.

The old woman, therefore, took the body out of the box, and cut it to pieces, thinking it more easy to dispose of it in parts than whole: she endeavoured to cut off the head, but could not; she therefore tied up the head and body in a piece of brown cloth, which was part of the bed furniture, and the limbs in another piece of the same, except the hand which had lost a finger, that being so remarkable, as to make particular caution necessary.

This was on the 5th of December, the depth of winter, when the nights were dark and long, and all being thus far in readiness, the children were sent to bed; the old woman then fetched down the hand which wanted the finger, and burnt it, but her fear was so little mixed with remorse or pity, that she cursed the unhappy creature she had murdered, because her bones were so long in consuming, and comforted herself at the same time, by saying, that the fire told no tales. She would have burnt the rest of the body, but was afraid of alarming the neighbours by the smell; she therefore, the same night, took the two bundles, and carried them to the great gully hole in Chick-lane, where the kennel water runs into the common shore, whence it falls into the Thames. When she came thither, she took them out of the cloths, and endeavoured to throw them piece-meal over the wall, behind which the common shore is open, but could not; she therefore threw them down in the mud and water before the grate, and returned home.

About twelve o'clock the same night, the mangled body was seen where Metyard had left it, by two watchmen, who gave notice of it to the constable, who went immediately to the overseer of the parish, St. Andrew's, Holbourn, and desired he would come and remove it; the overseer went with the constable and watchmen to the place, and all the parts of the body being collected, except the hand, it was carried to the workhouse; the next day Mr. Umfreville, the coroner, was acquainted with it, who directed the parts to be put together and washed, which being done, he came, and having taken a view of it, he gave a warrant for its burial, without summoning any jury, probably supposing it had been in the hands of some surgeon.

Thus was the child murdered, and the body disposed of without raising any suspicion; no enquiry was made or apprehended, and the murderers were in the hands only of each other.

They had, however, always lived upon very ill terms, and though the daughter was between 19 and 20 years old, the mother used frequently to beat her; the daughter, hoping to terrify the mother into better behaviour, would, when thus provoked, threaten to accuse her of the murder, and make herself an evidence to prove it, supposing that the mother's testimony would not then be admitted against her; this rendered their animosities more bitter; sometimes she urged the mother to let her go to service, and sometimes declared she would drown herself. The mother always opposed her going to service, because she found her assistance necessary in her business, and considered her talk about drowning herself, as the mere unmeaning ravings of passion, which, as soon as the passion subsided, were thought of no more.

Thus they continued to hate, to reproach, and to torment each other, till about two years after the child had been dead; when one Mr. Rooker, who appears to have been a dealer in tea, took a lodging in their house.

Rooker observed, that the daughter was very ill treated by the mother, who still continued to beat her, and, after lodging with them about three months, he took a house the upper end of Hill-street, Berkeley-square; and, when he went away, he took the daughter in mere compassion as a servant.

The old woman, upon the daughter's leaving her, became quite outrageous; she went almost every day to Rooker's, and abused both him and the girl in the most opprobrious terms, and with such clamour and vehemence as frequently to breed a riot about the door; this, however, in compassion to the girl, he endured patiently at first, hoping time would put an end to it. It was not long before a little place fell to him at Ealing, and he immediately quitted his house in town, and went to live there, taking the girl with him; but the mother, neither softened by time, nor discouraged by distance, followed her thither, and continued her abuse with yet more malice and vociferation. When orders were given to refuse her admittance, she forced her way in, and, at other times, behaved in such a manner before the house, that to let her in was thought the least evil of the two. Rooker was loaded with reproaches, and the girl was often cruelly beaten. It is, probable that she would have been killed if assistance had not been at hand, for she was once found forced up into a corner by the mother, who, having torn off her cap and handkerchief, and greatly bruised and scratched her face, had laid hold of a pointed knife, which she was aiming at her breast. This continued till the 9th of June last, and, it had been observed that in the height of their quarrels, many doubtful and mysterious expressions were used that intimated some secret of importance between them.

The mother used to call Rooker, "The old perfume tea dog," and the daughter would reply, Mother, remember you are the perfumer, alluding to her having kept the child's body in a box till it could not be endured: at other times the daughter, when provoked, would say, You are the Chick-lane ghost; remember the gully-hole in Chick-lane.

These obscure hints made Rooker uneasy; and one day, after the mother was gone, he urged the girl so pressingly to tell what they meant, that, with many tears, and great reluctance, she gave him an account of the murder, begging, at the same time, that it might be a secret.

As by this account the girl did not appear to be any otherways culpable than by concealing the mother's crime, and as Mr. Rooker supposed also that the fact could not be proved without her evidence, he immediately wrote an account of what he had learnt, to the officers of the parish of Tottenham - High Cross, by whom the deceased had been put out an apprentice, that a prosecution against the mother might be commenced.

In consequence of this letter, the parish officers applied to Sir John Fielding, at whose house they were met by Rooker and the daughter, and proper persons were sent to bring the mother and her apprentices before the justice. The mother was soon brought, with Dowley and Hinchman, two of the girls who lived with her when the murder was committed; the daughter's examination was taken, which contained a very full, direct, and clear charge against the mother, who was therefore committed to New Prison; the girls were sent for farther examination to the workhouse of St. George, Hanover-square, and the daughter was dismissed; but the mother and the apprentices being examined a second and third time, some evidence came out which affected the daughter, who was therefore committed to the Gatehouse on the 5th of July.

Bills of indictment were soon after found against both mother and daughter, and the evidence of the girls was thought sufficient to convict them both.

On the 16th of July they were brought to their trial at the sessions house in the Old Bailey, when the two girls deposed, that the deceased was tied up and cruelly beaten by the daughter, and kept without victuals, till she died, by the joint consent of both daughter and mother. Mr. Rooker deposed, that the daughter related the circumstances of the murder to him as he had related them in her examination, and told him, that the mutilated hand was burnt, and the rest of the body thrown into the gully hole in Chick-lane. The constable proved that all the corpse, except the hand, was found there; and Rooker also deposed, that the children who lived with her, when he lived in her house, were ill treated.

The mother, in her defence, alledged, that the deceased was sickly, and was therefore kept apart from the rest; that she had a fit, from which she was recovered by hartshorn drops, and that soon after she ran away. The daughter gave a long and circumstantial account of the whole transaction, but imputed all the guilt to the mother. She said, that the night before the child died, she entreated her mother to send her some victuals, which she refused with many oaths and execrations; that she, the daughter, did not tye her, nor know she was tyed the last morning; that she generally gave the children victuals by stealth, for which her mother, when she discovered it, used to upbraid and to beat her; that after Nanny died, she urged the mother to have the body buried, which the mother refused, calling her fool, and saying, That the body, upon view, would shew that the child had been starved; that the mother urged her to assist in cutting it to pieces, which she refused; and used to threaten if ever she spoke of it, that she would swear first and become an evidence against her; she also denied that she ever beat the children, and declared that she had suffered much from the mother's cruelty, because she would not be the instrument of it against them.

If this, however, had been true, the girls, on whose testimony she was convicted, would have had no motive to depose against her; they necessarily would have loved her in proportion as they hated the old woman; and as they could have no interest in accusing her, neither could they have had any inclination.

They were, after a long trial, both convicted, and received sentence of death; but, even after this there continued so bitter an animosity between them, that it was necessary to confine them apart.

Both denied the charge constantly and invariably, but with this difference; the mother declared the child was not starved, and the daughter declared the mother starved her; so that though the daughter accused the mother, the mother did not accuse the daughter. The daughter also pleaded pregnancy, but a jury of matrons declared she was not pregnant.

They were both overwhelmed with a sense of their condition, and about six o'clock in the evening before the execution, the mother, who had neither eaten or drank for some time, fell into convulsions, and continued speechless and insensible till her death. The daughter, though she was present when this happened, took no notice of it, but continued her conversation with a  friend who was come to take leave of her.

The daughter persisted to the last in declaring herself innocent of all but concealing the murder, which she extenuated by saying, she thought it was her duty. What could I do, says she, it was my mother! She also solemnly declared, that she had no criminal connection with any man, particularly with Mr. Rooker, whom yet she always mentioned rather as a friend than a master; and that though  she pleaded pregnancy, it was only done as an expedient to gain a short respite, not knowing that a jury would determine the fact immediately. This declaration has been confirmed by the testimony of some persons who were present at the dissection of her body; and it is said, that though a little woman, she was remarkably pretty, and had a form extremely delicate, and well proportioned.

The mother was executed in the 44th, and the daughter in the 24th year of her age.