New Brunswick’s first-ever murder took place in 1784, only two months after the province was created. The murder weapon was an ordinary table fork.
On October 4th, 1784, two men, both Black Loyalists, named Richard Wheeler and John Walker, walked through Parrtown to visit their friend John Mosely.
This was the chaotic early days after the arrival of the Loyalists. John and Nancy Mosley, who were both Black Loyalists, lived on tiny Allotment #1084 on what was then the outskirts of Parrtown. Today, their little cabin would be found on St. James Street in Saint John, just below Queen Square.
Walker and Wheeler found John Mosley dead.
They quickly scrambled to find a constable, accusing his wife, Nancy Mosley, of murder.
According to Stephen Davidson’s book Black Loyalists in New Brunswick, authorities felt the weight of history investigating and prosecuting the province’s first-ever murder. A full and by-the-book investigation was conducted, including the province’s first autopsy. Autopsies were so rare that it would be fifty years before a second one was conducted in NB.
We know very little about John and Nancy Mosley. Davidson suggests they had likely been slaves in America before the Revolution. They would have had to prove they had aided the British war effort to gain passage on the ships headed to Nova Scotia.
This likely implies that they had fought against the Americans during their Revolution. Their story is told in more detail in the third Backyard History book, Rebellious Women In The Maritimes! Order it here!
We know that when they made it here, they had a young child.
Following along with the records of monthly food and supplies given to Loyalists by the British soldiers, we see the child disappear in May of 1784, immediately followed by Nancy moving out of Allotment #1084.
Presumably, their child passed away.
That September, those records show Nancy again living with John.
On the 27th of that month, she stabs him in the head with an ordinary table fork.
A remarkable recently re-discovered document found in the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick offers us an unprecedented first-hand account of what happened that day: the confession of Nancy Mosley.
The yellowed document’s unknown author transcribed an interview with Nancy Mosley, writing that she claimed it was self-defence:
“On Monday evening, 27th of September 1784, her husband told her to bake some bread. She answered that he must eat what they had baked. He then, in anger, took up an axe to strike her with … She had a fork in her hand and held up to fend the blow off, and this scratched his face.”
Two friends of theirs, Grace and John Walker, both Black Loyalists, rushed in and broke up the fight. John Mosley was wounded.
Nancy Mosley continued, saying: “John [Walker] … dressed [John] Mosley’s wound with some grease and sugar. It came off and John [Walker] put it on again, bonding it up with a handkerchief and then went home.”
Sugar does indeed help wounds heal faster. Bacon grease would prevent infection from entering an open wound. A handkerchief, especially one that kept falling on the ground, on the other hand, would not be good for an open wound.
The next day, “[John] Mosley … continued to complain about pain in his head, stomach, and belly but was able to and did walk out of the house and [back] in.”
“On Wednesday morning,” according to Nancy’s confession, he was up and about and “asked for something to eat, which she gave him and he ate.”
However, over the next few days, he spent more and more time in bed. By Friday, Nancy Mosley stated that she “found him unable to speak. He continued in that condition until Sunday night or toward Monday at the break of day when he died.”
Nancy Mosley was charged with murder.
The following February, her trial took place — the first ever murder trial in New Brunswick’s history.
The prosecuting lawyer was Ward Chipman, an ultraconservative lawyer and politician who delivered a fiery speech that began with:
“Not having the fear of God before her eyes, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil and with malice and forethought contriving and depriving him the said John Mosley of his life … traitorously willfully and with malice … with a certain iron fork of the value of six pence which the aforesaid Nancy Mosley held in her right hand and … then struck and beat the said John Mosley upon the head near the temple with the iron fork … the mortal wound of the length of [BLANK] inches and a depth of 1/8th inch.”
While Chipman left the length of the wound blank in that speech, he confirmed that the wound was shallow, and later in his tirade, also confirmed that the death happened six days after the wound.
By all accounts, the jury — twelve white males — was particularly vocal in this trial. They regularly interrupted to ask questions, argue, pick apart Ward Chipman’s arguments, grill witnesses, and were viciously critical of coroner Samuel Moore’s findings.
The jury’s verdict is notable for its sympathetic wording, stating: “It appears to us by Evidence that Nancy Mosley, the Defendant, is Guilty of Manslaughter in her own defence.”
At that time, the judicial system was very harsh, with 220 crimes punishable by the death penalty.
While the jury seems to have picked its words carefully, the legal system did not make distinctions.
Nancy Mosley was sentenced to die by hanging.
She bowed her head and prayed.
Then she spoke, asking for “the benefit of the clergy.”
Nancy Mosley was citing an obscure ancient legal clause dating back to Medieval times, which stated that religious leaders like priests and ministers could not be executed.
Nancy Mosley, as a woman, was almost certainly not actually a member of the clergy. However, this ancient law stipulated that to prove they were clergy, the defendant needed only to prove they could read.
The Judge handed her a Bible, and Nancy Mosley read.
The judge declared that instead of being executed, she would be branded with the letter “M” (for murderer) on the fleshy part of her left hand between the index finger and the thumb.
After that, Nancy Mosley was set free.
