The Murderous Mother/Daughter Duo

The tantalising tale of this gruesome crime is not for the faint of heart and shows just how wicked some women can be. Our tale takes us to 18^th century London where a mother and daughter ran a household and haberdashery near Hanover Square. The mother, Sarah Metyard was strict and cruel, and used starvation and beatings as punishment for her servants. Sarah Morgan Metyard, her daughter was not unlike her mother in the treatment of their servant girls, had a harsh countenance as well, though she was known to relinquish punishments sooner than her mother and like the young girls, would sometimes fall victim to her mother’s temper. The unfortunate victim in this story is a female servant by the name of Ann Nailor.

One morning Ann attempted to escape the two women but was stopped by the milkman. Already frail from previous punishments, she had no hope of getting out. In consequence to her bid for freedom, Ann was beaten by Sarah Morgan while the senior Sarah held her down. Afterwards she was tied up on her feet, unable to move. She was left there for days, only being untied at night, just to be retied the following morning. After several days, Ann looked lifeless, so she was cut down and Sarah tried to revive her. She was conscious but only just, not even able to speak. The next day the ruthless mother and daughter found her dead.

Now, if killing the poor girl wasn’t brutal enough, they decided to hide the body in the attic. When asked where Ann had gone, Sarah told the other girls that she had run away with the milkman. Two months went by, and the decomposing body of Ann Nailor began to worry Sarah, so she asked her daughter for help dismembering the body so she could dispose of it. Sarah threw the girls’ dismembered body into a sewer drain on Chick Lane, except for her hands, which she burned, due to their distinctiveness. It is hard to know if Sarah Morgan’s testimony was true, but she claimed that her mother was the mastermind behind it all and that she was originally concerned about Ann during her punishment and wept when she and her mother were getting rid of the body. Though a definite contributor to the beatings and a silent witness to the starvation of these poor girls AT THE MINIMUM, Sarah Morgan was labelled the lesser of the two evil women by some of the other servant girls, so her testimonies may have some validity to them.

Two months later Ann’s body was discovered and given a proper burial, but there was no way to identify Ann’s body or who had committed the horrible murder. This perilous story now takes a bit of a hiatus and jumps four years into the future. During these four years, two more servant girls, including Ann’s sister Mary, had mysteriously died within the care of these women and the mother and daughter themselves had a bit of a falling out. During this time a lodger came to stay at their place and noticed the horrendous treatment the girls were victim to as well as Sarah Morgan. When the lodger, Mr. Rooker, was leaving, Sarah Morgan begged him to take her with him. He agreed and she took up a job as his servant.

For two years Sarah Morgan tried to distance herself from her mother, but Sarah kept dropping by to ‘check’ on her and ask her to return home. Sarah Morgan refused, and they would get into heated arguments, with Sarah terrified that their secret would get out if Sarah Morgan stayed away. This was not the best practice for secret keeping and would eventually lead to their downfall. One day during yet another screaming match, Sarah Morgan, fed up with her mother trying to control her, threatened to tell their secret if she did not leave her alone. Sarah retorted that she would do so first and blame it all on Sarah Morgan. The fight escalated with Sarah grabbing a knife and holding it to her daughter’s throat. One wonders if she would have gone through with another murder, had Sarah Morgan not yelled “murder!” and alerted Mr. Rooker. As he entered the room, Sarah dropped the knife and muttered something about ‘Chick Lane’. Sarah Morgan retorted that Sarah was the ‘Chick Lane Ghost’ and should remember the sewer drain. Mr. Rooker heard these threats but thought nothing of them.

It wasn’t until another of Sarah’s plans backfired that he thought twice about what he had heard during their many fights. One day, after Sarah had come yet again to argue with her daughter, Mr. Rooker shared his regret that she didn’t behave better when visiting. Sarah, terrified that he knew about their misdeed, wrote a threatening letter to his sister, hoping to keep him from sharing any murderous details. Mr. Rooker was shown this letter, and instead of deterring him, it made him investigate further. He went to Sarah Morgan and demanded the entire story, which she told, but as a victim not as an accomplice. Sarah was soon arrested and once the truth came out about Sarah Morgan’s involvement, she was as well.

They were brought to Newgate but were so furious with each other they had to be kept in separate parts of the prison. At their trial they were both deemed guilty and sentenced to hang. Sarah Morgan was distraught. Crying and begging for reprieve, she claimed that her unstable, crime ridden childhood was partially to blame. Sarah was upset as well, but was quiet, dejected and terse about the situation. In an ironic turn of events, she even tried to starve herself before the execution, which almost succeeded. The murderous mother/daughter duo was brought to the scaffold at Tyburn on 19 July 1762 and hanged for the murder of Ann Nailor.

Unfortunately, this was not the only instance of cruelty towards servants and apprentices during the early modern period, as there are many accounts of stabbings, beatings and burnings throughout Britain. This one however, is particularly brutal and shows how vicious one woman could be, let alone two.

To read more wicked and tantalising tales of murderous women check out Erin’s new book “Women Who Kill: A History of Britain’s Most Dangerous Women” available now on the Pen and Sword website. Also, check out her exciting and intriguing history posts, and updates about her book and work at @thecanadianlondoner on Instagram.