The Proceedings of the Old Bailey

THE ORDINARY of NEWGATE'S ACCOUNT of the Behaviour, Confession and Dying Words,   OF ELIZABETH BROWNRIGG, Who was executed at   TYBURN, On Monday, Sept. the 14th, 1767.

In the MAYORALTY of the Rt. Hon.   Sir ROBERT KITE, Knt. LORD-MAYOR of the CITY of LONDON .

Entered at STATIONER'S-HALL.

LONDON:

Printed for M. LEWIS and SON, [No. I.] in Pater-noster-Row. Price Six-pence.

THE ORDINARY of NEWGATE'S ACCOUNT, &c.

BY Virtue of the King's commission of the peace, oyer and terminer and general goal-delivery of Newgate, holden for the city of London and county of Middlesex at     Justice-Hall in the Old-Bailey, before the   Right Honourable Sir Robert Kite, Knt. Lord-Mayor of the city of London , the   Honourable James Hewitt, Esq. one of the judges of his Majesty's court of King's-Bench ,   James Eyre, Esq. Recorder , and others his Majesty's justices of the peace, oyer and terminer and goal-delivery of Newgate, holden for the said city and county of Middlesex on Wednesday the 9th, Thursday the 10th, Friday the 11th, and Saturday the 12th of September, in the seventh year of his present Majesty's reign, Elizabeth the wife of   James Brownrigg was capitally convicted, and received sentence of death, for the wilful murder of   Mary Clifford her apprentice .

As the attention of the public has been considerably raised by the various reports which have been propagated respecting this unhappy woman, I thought it necessary to give a fuller extract from the charges exhibited against her, and for which she was tried and found guilty, than is usual in these cases.

The first charge was on the coroner's inquest, whereby   James Brownrigg and Elizabeth his wife were charged, for that they on the 31st of July last at   St. Dunstan's in the West, in and upon   Mary Clifford did make an assault. And that the said Elizabeth to strip herself did force and compel; and that the said Elizabeth the hands of the said Mary across with one end of a certain cord did then and there bind, and her the said Mary with the other end

of the same cord to a certain staple fixed in the beam belonging to a kitchin under ground, in the dwelling-house of the said James then and there feloniously, wilfully, and of her malice aforethought, did tie up, confine and fasten; and that the said Elizabeth with a certain horsewhip of the value of 1s. which she the said Elizabeth in her right hand then and there had and held, her the said Mary so being naked bound and fastened as aforesaid, in and upon the head, neck, shoulders, sides, arms, back, belly, hips and thighs, of the said Mary then and there several times did strike and beat; and that the said Elizabeth with the horsewhip aforesaid did then and there feloniously, wilfully, and of her malice aforethought, give to the said Mary in and upon the said head, neck, shoulders, sides, arms, back, belly, hips and thighs, of the said Mary divers mortal wounds, cuts and bruises, of which said mortal wounds, cuts and bruises, the said Mary, at London aforesaid at the parish aforesaid, and also at   St. Bartholomew the Less, to wit, at   St. Bartholomew's Hospital there situate, from the said 31st day of July to the 9th day of August last the said Mary did languish, and on the said 9th day of August last the said Mary, within the said Hospital, of the said mortal wounds, cuts and bruises, did die. And that the said   James Brownrigg, at the time of committing the said felony and murder, feloniously, wilfully, and of his malice aforethought, was present aiding, helping, abetting, assisting, comforting and maintaining the said   Elizabeth Brownrigg, her the said   Mary Clifford in manner aforesaid to kill and murder.

Some circumstances appearing on the examinations that were taken subsequent to the coroner's inquest which affected   John Brownrigg the son, it was thought necessary by the gentlemen who managed the prosecution, that an indictment should be preferred against   James Brownrigg,   Elizabeth his wife, and   John their son, that the whole matter might be properly investigated, and the punishment fall upon all that should appear guilty; and accordingly an indictment was preferred and found by the Grand Jury, whereby it was charged,

That   James Brownrigg and   Elizabeth his wife, and   John their son, on divers days and times before the 4th day of August last, at   St. Dunstan's in the West, in and upon the said   Mary Clifford feloniously, wilfully, and of their malice aforethought, did make

an assault, and that the said   Elizabeth, with divers large whips, canes and sticks, feloniously, wilfully, and of her malice aforethought, did strike, beat and whip the said   Mary over her head, shoulders, back, belly, sides, and other parts of her body, in a cruel and inhuman manner, giving her by such striking, beating and whipping, divers large and grievous wounds, swellings and bruises; and that she the said   Elizabeth divers hempen cords and iron chains round the neck of her the said   Mary feloniously, wilfully, and of her malice aforethought, did tie, bind and fasten, giving her thereby a large and violent swelling in her neck; and that she the said Elizabeth in a certain place under the stairs leading into a certain cellar in the dwelling-house of the said James their situate, feloniously, wilfully, and of her malice aforethought, did confine and imprison the said Mary; by means whereof she the said Mary from the said 4th day of August, until the 9th day of the same month, at the parish aforesaid and also at   St. Bartholomew the Less, did pine and languish, and languishing did live, and on which said 9th day of August last, at the parish of   St. Bartholomew, the said Mary, by means of such ill usage, did die: and that they the said James and John, feloniously, wilfully, and of their malice aforethought, were present, abetting, aiding, assisting, comforting, and maintaining the said Elizabeth to kill and murder the said Mary in form aforesaid.

Upon this indictment all the defendents severally pleaded, Not Guilty; and after the evidence was gone through on the part of the prosecution, Mrs. Brownrigg being asked, what she had to say in her defence? answered, That she had nothing farther to say, than that she had no intention to kill the child. But the evidence appearing most fully convictive against Mrs. Brownrigg, she was found Guilty, to the entire satisfaction of the whole court and a very numerous audience.

Before I enter upon the account of this unhappy woman's behaviour, I hope the reader will not think it impertinent to premise, That the criminal procedure in this kingdom is universally acknowledged to be better adapted than in any other country, for the prosecution of guilt and for the protection of innocence. In many other nations, even some, (where, to their dishonour, christianity is professed) the accused are frequently put to the torture to make

them confess their crimes, and examples are not wanting where the innocent have confessed crimes they were accused of in order to avoid the tortures they were threatned with. But, God be praised, such is not the practice here; no man is obliged to accuse himself; no confession is received that is effected by threats or promises, or that is not the free voluntary act of the party accused: And by the peculiar excellence of our laws, every person accused is presumed to be innocent, not only when he is brought to the bar but even during his trial he is treated with every degree of tenderness and humanity; the judge is his council, his jury his equals, and the presumption of his innocence attends him quite down to the time of his conviction.

In such a procedure no prisoner can have any thing to fear but from his guilt. All auterior attempts therefore to inflame the minds of the people, and to create public prejudice against any person accused, how enormous soever the crime, are highly illegal and inhuman, and manifestly tend to a perversion of justice. He therefore who wilfully does any act to create public prejudice, robs the party accused of the presumption of his innocence, and in conscience merits at least the punishment he would inflict. - What leads me to these observations are the many false and scandalous papers and reports which have been shamefully published and propagated in relation to these unhappy persons, against the laws of humanity, the laws of the land, and the laws of God.

But after such things had happened it was a most pleasing sight to the great assemblage of persons who attended their trials, to behold, not only the judge who tried them, but even the council for the prosecutors, in the midst of their zeal for justice, using with humanity every means in their power to guard the minds of the jury from the pernicious consequences of prejudice, and to direct their attention to the evidence produced, as the only legal foundation for their verdict.

Happily for the two persons acquitted the jury were composed of men of sense and virtue, capable and inclined to resist the torrent of public prejudice; their verdict is a lasting proof of their integrity and justice, and gave entire satisfaction to the court and all who were present.

As soon as I was informed of Mrs. Brownrigg's commitment to   Newgate I attended her, and endeavoured by the most mild and pathetic means to convince her of her deplorable situation, but all my endeavours for some time were ineffectual, but on my repeated attendance on her, for which I took every opportunity, and using my utmost endeavours to impress in her mind the awfulness of death, and the certainty of eternal punishment for the impenitent, she appeared to be much affected, and began to acknowledge her guilt, and with agony and distress cried out, " O Lord God, " cleanse me from this horrid fact, and let the blood of Christ " speak better things for me than the blood of that innocent " child I have so cruelly and barbarously murdered!" And turning to me she said, " Do you think that God can forgive such a wicked " creature as I am?" I assured her that mercy always attended those who truly repent, and are weary and heavy laden with the burden of their sins; that Christ invites such to come unto him and find rest unto their souls. I also reminded her that God had shewn mercy to Manasses, who had filled the streets of Jerusalem with innocent blood, and told her, if she lamented her case as he did, she might obtain mercy; and I recommended to her frequently to repeat the following prayer of Manasses:

" O Lord, almighty God of our forefathers Abraham, Isaac. " and Jacob, and of their righteous seed; who hast made heaven " and earth, with all the ornament thereof; who hast bound the " sea by the word of thy commandment, who hast shut up the " deep, and sealed it with thy terrible and glorious name; whom " all men fear, and tremble before thy power; for the majesty of " thy glory cannot be borne, and thine anger threatning towards " sinners is insupportable; but thy merciful promise is unmeasurable and unsearchable; for thou art the most high Lord, of " great compassion, long-suffering, very merciful, and repentest " of the evils of men. Thou, O Lord, according to thy great " goodness hast promised repentance and forgiveness to them that " have sinned against thee: and of thine infinite mercies hast appointed repentance unto sinners that they may be saved: Thou " therefore, O Lord, that art the God of the just, hast not appointed repentance to the just, as to Abraham, and Isaac, and " Jacob, which have not sinned against thee; but thou hast ap

" pointed repentance unto me, that am a sinner: for I have sinned " above the number of the sands of the sea. My transgressions, O " Lord, are multiplied, and I am not worthy to behold and see the " height of heaven, for the multitude of mine iniquity. I am bowed " down with many iron bands, that I cannot lift up mine head, " neither have any release: for I have provoked thy wrath, and " done evil before thee. I did not thy will, neither kept I thy " commandments: I have set up abominations, and have multiplied offences. Now therefore I bow the knee of mine heart, " beseeching thee of grace: I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, " and I acknowledge mine iniquities: wherefore I humbly beseech " thee forgive me, O Lord, forgive me, and destroy me not with " mine iniquities. Be not angry with me for ever, by reserving evil " for me; neither condemn me into the lower parts of the earth. " For thou art the God, even the God of them that repent: and in me thou wilt shew all thy goodness: for thou wilt save me that " am unworthy, according to thy great mercy. Therefore I will " praise thee for ever, all the days of my life: for all the powers " of the heavens do praise thee, and thine is the glory, for ever " and ever. Amen."

This prayer she frequently repeated with remarkable fervency, and seemed to receive some consolation therefrom: But on the day before she was tried, she shewed some appearance of confusion; but being somewhat consoled with prayer and admonition, she gave me the following account: That she was married to her present husband   James Brownrigg about the year 1745, by whom she had sixteen children, three of whom are now living; to whom (and indeed the same is well authenticated) she behaved with great tenderness, and in all respects shewed the utmost conjugal affection and love to her husband and children. She said: "She had for many years feared God, and walked in his ways; and had not only the form of godliness, but experienced much delight in the service of God, and found the ways of wisdom to be pleasant, and all her paths peace; that she attended public worship at every opportunity; and when she had a large family of small children was constantly, for several years, at the early sacrament of Bow-Church, and constantly read prayers in her family; but that she had lately neglected the same, by which means, and frequently breaking the sabbath, she believed to be the first inlet to the wickedness she had unhappily

fallen into; and that having left her God, he had hardened her heart, and permitted her to commit those acts of cruelty for which she was justly prosecuted."

Some years after her marriage she studied midwifry, under Dr. K - y; and, from the time of her commencement in that business, undoubtedly bore the character of a humane and tender practitioner, which many persons now living are ready to evince; and was the inducement for the parish of   St. Dunstan in the West to appoint her midwife to their workhouse, in which employ she ever acquitted herself with judgment and humanity, and many times relieved the necessitous, to whose assistance she was often called, and frequently at a considerable distance, so far as her abilities would extend, which many persons are ready to corroborate.

After her trial was over and she had received that sentence which her crime merited I attended her in the cells, when she appeared quite resigned and perfectly at ease: She said, although   Mary Mitchell, the surviving child who was evidence against her, had sworn many things that were not true, yet that the material part of her evidence was not to be contradicted, and acknowledged that her sentence was just, and that she deserved to suffer long ago for her cruelty to the poor girls; and added, " Dear Sir, O that I " had had half the mercy towards the poor girls which I experienced from the judge who tried me, or the council who " pleaded against me! in that case I never should have come to " an untimely end. But, thanks be to God, that my husband and " child are acquitted, for they knew nothing of my last cruelty " till after it was committed, and when it came to his knowledge " he came to a determination to send the girl into the country, " and have a surgeon to attend her, and use every possible means " to recover her: but that his good intentions were frustrated by " the discovery made by Mr. Deacon's servants;" and added, " that her husband did not deny the girl to the parish-officers from " any consciousness of guilt in himself, but to screen her, who he " feared would appear in a very unfavourable light should the " girl be produced." And then she gave me the following detail of the several acts of cruelty she had exercised towards the unhappy girls who had been apprenticed to her.

She said that the accounts of her having had a great number of parish-children apprenticed to her, and that many of them had disappeared unaccountably, although propagated with much virulence, was utterly false, and with a solemnity that none could discredit assured me that she never had more than three apprentices; and that the first was   Mary Mitchell the evidence against her, one of the poor girls of   White-Friers; the second,   Mary Jones, whom she had from the   Foundling-Hospital; and the third, the deceased,   Mary Clifford, likewise apprenticed by the officers of the precinct of   White-Friers. She said she had excercised so many acts of cruelty against   Mary Jones as induced her one night, when she and her husband were asleep, to secure the key of the street-door and make her escape back to the   Foundling-Hospital where she was received, and having related to the governors the several acts of cruelty which had been exercised upon her by this unhappy woman, the governors summoned Mr. Brownrigg before the chamberlain of London, to answer for the ill treatment of his wife to this girl, and the matter was settled before that gentleman and the girl discharged from her apprenticeship. She said she for some time treated the girls with tenderness and humanity, but her heart became unaccountably hardened, and the first species of her cruelty she exercised upon them was abridging them of the necessary quantity of food, and at the same time exacted from them an additional portion of labour even beyond their natural strength, and like Pharoah's task-masters, required brick without straw; and on their declaring their incapacity to perform her unreasonable tasks she, like those task-masters, cried, Ye are idle, and corrected them with great cruelty, sometimes with a thick walking-cane, at other times with an old hearth broom, over the head, neck and shoulders, and frequently with such cruelty that the blood followed the strokes; and under pretence that   Mary Clifford, the deceased child, had wetted the bed, she made her lay for many succeeding nights in the passage upon the hard boards and without any covering but her own cloaths, but after her laying in this manner for some time her humanity extended so far as to give her the matt on which they rubbed their shoes to lay upon, and an old blanket to cover her; but still continued to abridge her of her necessary food to such a degree that she became almost starved: and being one day impelled by the pressing calls of hunger, she forced open the door of the cupboard

where the victuals was generally kept, but being detected by Mrs. Brownrigg, she immediately took her into the kitchin, stripped her naked, whipped her with a horse-whip till she had exhausted her own strength, and made her stand the whole day naked at the washing-tub: and at various intervals in the same day repeated the whipping over all parts of her naked body with the greatest degree of cruelty and inhumanity; and at night ordered the other girl,   Mary Mitchell, to remove some coals out of a dark closet under the stairs, where she made the deceased lay all night quite naked upon the cold stones, and without any other covering than an old ragged waistcoat and pettycoat. But the next night she ordered a sack of straw to be put in this hole for the unhappy deceased to lay upon, which she did alone for several nights: But after some time   Mary Mitchell was put into the hole with her, and afterwards was treated with equal diabolical cruelty with her fellow-sufferer; but she being older and of a stronger make of body, survived those repeated acts of cruelty, which the other unhappily sunk under.

She informed me that after she had confined these unfortunate girls in that dismal hole under the stairs, she frequently used to tie their hands across with a cord, and draw them up to a water-pipe which went across the kitchen, and in that position whipped them with a horse-whip until she was weary: but by a frequent repetition of this act of cruelty the water-pipe gave way, and she was apprehensive that it would come down, she therefore desired her husband to fix a hook in the beam in the kitchin, but never informed him, nor does she believe he had the least idea of the use she intended to apply it to, nor was he ever privy to any of her acts of cruelty, he seldom being at home at these times, and his business occasioning him to be much abroad. But she soon made this hook an instrument of cruelty, by frequently tying the poor girls up to it as she had before done to the water-pipe, and whipping them with the utmost severity on all parts of their bodies, till the blood followed every lash.

The summer season coming on, Mrs. Brownrigg and her husband went every Saturday evening to a lodging they had a small distance from town, where they generally stayed till Sunday night or Monday morning, during all which time the poor girls were locked up in the before-mentioned dark hole, with a small portion

of dry bread, scarcely sufficient to keep nature from sinking, but without any sort of drink, even water being prohibited them. This was their usual treatment in the summer season, and was practised on them with remarkable cruelty until the time the discovery was made.

The day on which she exercised her last acts of barbarity was on a Friday, in the beginning of August last, when she says, She tied up the unfortunate deceased to the before-mentioned hook, stripped her naked, and horse-whipped her till the blood gushed in torrents from her wounds: That she tied her up a third time, but was not able to repeat her infernal cruelties, the sight of her lacerated body filling her heart (steeled as it was) with horror, so that she was unable to look to her; she therefore untied her and let her fall to the ground, and possitively denied she repeated her cruelties any more that day, notwithstanding what   Mary Mitchell swore on her trial.

The manner in which these dark scenes of iniquity were brought to light is very observable, and in which the hand of Providence is eminently conspicuous. Mrs. Brownrigg took care to exercise her acts of barbarity with all imaginable privacy, to prevent a discovery by the neighbours: But it happened Mr. Brownrigg bought a hog at a sale he had at Hampsted, and put the same in a covered yard adjoining to the kitchin, where the scenes of barbarity were acted; but the close confinement occasioning the hog to become very offensive, it was found necessary to open a window in the sky-light to admit air, and let out the stench. It happened on the last day she exercised her cruelties that this window was opened, and a servant of Mr. Deacon's, a baker, at the next door, hearing the poor object express some dismal grones, he looked from his master's through this casement-window, and observed something lying upon the ground bloody, but in such a situation as not to discover whether it was human or not; he thereupon called, but receiving no answer he threw something which fell upon the poor girl, who thereupon groaned and uttered some inarticular sounds; from whence he discovered the object to be human. He thereupon alarmed his master and the family, who immediately came to view the dismal spectacle, and immediately concluded the unhappy object was one of the unfortunate parish-girls. From this presumption, Mr. Deacon caused notice to be given to the parish-officers,

who immediately attended, and demanded a sight of the deceased; who Mr. Brownrigg for some time peremptorily refused to produce, insisting she was in the country, and even sent for an attorney, and used threats and menaces against the gentlemen of the parish for presuming to enter his house, but they were not to be intimidated; and after various searches over the house to find her but without effect they took Mr. Brownrigg into custody, who thereupon finding his menaces to have no effect on the gentlemen of the parish, he at last produced the girl; a most dismal object indeed, speechless, and in such a condition as would shock humanity to describe! All proper care was taken of her, but alas in vain; the poor infant languished some days in the hospital in inexpressible torture from the various wounds and lacerations she had received which were become corrupted, and then changed her unhappy life for a life of eternal bliss; on the death of the child the coroner of the city of London took an inquest on the cause of her death, whereby   James Brownrigg and   Elizabeth his wife were found guilty of wilfully murdering her, as set forth in the former part of this account. But Mrs. Brownrigg and her son   John having made their escape from justice, every method was taken to apprehend them, not only by diligent searches but by advertisement of rewards, and at length they were discovered in a lodging they had hired at   Wandsworth, where they had passed some days as man and wife, and from thence they were brought to town and committed to the   Poultry Compter, where she continued some days, it being thought unsafe to remove her on account of her ill state of health, but in a few days, she being somewhat recovered, she was removed to   Newgate. After she had given the above account, which she did freely and voluntarily, she seemed to be considerably eased, and applied herself with great chearfulness and earnestness to prayer.

I asked her if the report was true that her husband and son John had exercised repeated cruelties on the poor girls, and she assured me, as she was a dying woman, she did not know that her husband had ever beat or whipped them, or exercised any other cruelties towards either of them, nor did he know the purpose for which she desired him to drive the hook into the beam. She said that her son John had beat them three different times with much severity, but by her particular orders, and that one time in particular, when   Mary Clifford was become emaciated with hunger and ill treate

she ordered her to turn up a bed, which being unable to do for want of strength, she ordered her son to beat her till she did, and that he accordingly did beat her with a belt, with a buckle at the end of it, till the blood gushed from various parts of her body, and fell in streams upon the floor, but said that she was pretty well recovered from these wounds before she had any further beating.

It having been represented that she had been accustomed to accommodate unhappy woman in their lying-in, and to provide for their children for certain sums, and that she had destroyed several of those children, as well as many others, in their birth, for rewards, and being desired by authority to make an inquiry into those facts, I laid before her the heinousness of those crimes, and the injury it would do her immortal soul if she was guilty of any such, and should die without a due repentance of them, and that the first step to repentance was a confession of her guilt; and observed, as she had found so much ease in unburthening her mind, respecting her treatment of the poor girls, she would find that satisfaction considerably augmented by laying open every guilty action which oppressed her mind. But she assured me, in a manner that forced belief, that all such stories were intirely groundless, and mere inventions to blacken her character, already sufficiently darkened by the load of iniquity she was really guilty of, and for which she acknowledged she was most deservedly to suffer: She admitted that she often had unfortunate women to lie-in at her house, but that she never undertook to provide for their children, they being always taken away and provided for by their friends, and she heard no more of them; and that she never had a child dead in her house but one, which was still born; and that, during her whole practice, only two woman had died under her care, and that not through any neglect, or want in judgment or tenderness in her; and this she assured me would be confirmed not only by the officers of the parish of   St. Dunstan but also by her neighbours, and many others now living; and indeed I have no sort of reason to doubt the truth of it, and therefore cannot help lamenting the depravity of the age in inventing and propagating such horrid untruths, which have with too much success been impressed into the minds of the people, in prejudice of this unhappy family. But, thank God, justice in the midst of public prejudice has been preserved,

and that part of this unhappy family who were not really guilty in a degree public clamour would make us believe, have been acquitted, although the grounds for putting them upon their trial were fully approved by the court.

I visited her on Sunday morning, and she informed me, she had spent the preceeding night in fervent prayer; she wished the time was come when she was to pay the debt justly due to her crime; she said that she did not think her sufferings would atone for her sins, but knew she must be saved by the sufferings and merits of Christ or perish eternally. She attended chapel in the morning, where her husband and son were permitted to be with her. I preached from Psalm 51. 12. " Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God of my " salvation." She seemed very attentive and much affected; and after service there was a very moving scene between her and her husband and son.

On my visiting her in the afternoon I found her in great distress of mind, crying out, "What must I do to be saved?" I gave her the best instruction in my power, which she thankfully received. After praying with her a considerable time she seemed much comforted, and said, she had a strong hope God for Christ's sake would recover her soul.

Morning of Execution.

I attended her soon after five, when she was brought into the Press-Yard. She seemed much resigned, and joined me for some time in prayer. Afterwards we went up to chapel; where her husband and son were again permitted to be with her, and joined in receiving the holy sacrament. After which she prayed with the utmost fervency, crying, " Lord, deliver me from blood-guiltiness. I have nothing to plead or recommend me to thee but my misery; but thy beloved Son died for sinners, therefore on his merits I rely and " depend for pardon." She seemed quite composed and resigned, and continued in prayer with her husband and son upwards of two hours, when she took leave of them, which exhibited a scene too affecting for words to describe, and which drew tears from all present. Her husband assured her, that if it pleased God to release him from his confinement, which he trusted he would from a manifestation of his innocence, he doubted not of being able to support and maintain their two younger children, and desired her not to be affected on

their account. She begged him to seek a release from the prison of sin; and as for her children, God was all-sufficient, and hoped he would not suffer them to be used as she had treated the unhappy girls put under her care. Her son fell on his knees, and begged his mother to give him her blessing: On which she fell on his face and kissed him, while her husband fell on his knees, on the other side, praying, That God would have mercy on her soul. She said to him: " Dear James, I beg that God, for Christ's " sake, would be reconciled, and that he will not leave me nor forsake me " in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment." She then took a last farewel of them, and came down to the Press-Yard: Where, after joining in prayer for some time, she was put into the cart, and conveyed to the place of execution. In my way there, my ears were dinned with the horrid imprecations of the people: One said to me, He hoped I should pray for her damnation, and not for her salvation! Others exclaimed, That they hoped she would go to hell, and was sure the devil would fetch her soul. This unchristian behaviour greatly shocked me, and I could not help exclaiming: Are these the people called christians? This the reformed nation we so much boast of? I fear charity, which is the very basis of christianity, is banished from the greatest part of our land.

At the place of execution she was quite composed, and assisted in prayer; and at her request I sung the following verses, taken from the vth Psalm: " O thou that hear'st when sinners cry, &c."

She being very weak, she desired me to acquaint the spectators, That she acknowledged her guilt, and the justice of her sentence. And her last words words were: " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"

This is all the account given by me,

  JOSEPH MOORE.

ORDINARY of Newgate .

P. S. It having been mentioned in the extract from Mr. Wingrave's account, published in the daily papers, [the pamphlet itself I had but a slight view of] that some reflections are cast upon some extraordinary behaviour of some clergyman who visited Mrs. Brownrigg during her confinement, which has been mentioned to me by several persons, and by some believed to point at me: I therefore think it necessary to declare, That the clergyman, I suppose alluded to, never visited her during her confinement in Newgate; and that the behaviour complained of was in another prison.

FINIS.

THE WHOLE PROCEEDINGS ON THE KING'S COMMISSIONS of the PEACE, OYER and TERMINER, and GOAL DELIVERY FOR THE CITY of LONDON; And also the GOAL DELIVERY FOR THE COUNTY of MIDDLESEX, HELD AT     JUSTICE-HALL in the OLD-BAILEY, On Wednesday the 9th, Thursday the 10th, Friday the 11th, Saturday the 12th, Monday the 14th, Tuesday the 15th, and Wednesday the 16th, of SEPTEMBER, In the Seventh Year of His MAJESTY's Reign.

Being the Seventh SESSIONS in the MAYORALTY of   THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR ROBERT KITE, KNT.

LORD-MAYOR of the CITY of LONDON .

NUMBER VII. PART II.

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