Nancy Mosley – New Brunswick’s First Murderess

A deadly quarrel, a sympathetic jury, and a centuries-old legal loophole that saved a Black Loyalist woman from the gallows

Standing before the court in February 1785, Nancy Mosley faced the gallows. Convicted of killing her husband, the Black Loyalist woman from Parrtown had just been sentenced to death.

Then she made an extraordinary request.

Nancy asked the court for the ‘benefit of clergy.’

The phrase might have sounded like a plea for a minister’s prayers before execution, but that was not what she meant. Nancy was invoking an ancient provision of English law, one that, if granted, could spare her life.

Her story had begun four months earlier.

On October 4, 1784, Nancy Mosley was arrested for the murder of her husband, John Mosley, in their home in Parrtown (now Saint John), New Brunswick.

The case was filled with firsts. It was the first recorded murder in the newly formed colony. The first autopsy was performed by the coroner, Dr. Samuel Moore. And New Brunswick’s first Grand Jury, composed of nineteen white Loyalist men, was convened to consider the case.

Nancy’s case unfolded at a remarkable moment in the region’s history, when Loyalist refugees were building a new colony, Black Loyalists were struggling to establish new lives, and New Brunswick’s courts were hearing their first criminal cases.

According to a confession Nancy made at the time of her arrest, an argument began when she refused to bake more bread, telling her husband he would have to eat what she had already prepared. Enraged, John Mosley reportedly came at her with an axe. Trying to defend herself, Nancy struck back with a fork she had in her hand, stabbing him in the head.

Though wounded, John Mosley initially seemed to recover and took to his bed. But several days later his condition worsened and he died from his injuries.

By October 6 there was enough evidence to charge Nancy with the murder of her husband. She was indicted by the newly formed Grand Jury. Among the nineteen men who served on this first jury was John Ryan, printer and publisher of The Royal St. John’s Gazette and Nova-Scotia Intelligencer. There is no record that Nancy had legal representation.

Her trial did not take place until four months later. On February 3, 1785, Nancy Mosley stood before the court charged with murder. A petit jury of twelve men quickly returned a verdict of manslaughter, though they added a recommendation of mercy.

The judge, however, sentenced her to death.

Nancy, it seems, was literate and may have known something about English common law. Standing before the judge, this Black woman asked that she be granted the ‘benefit of clergy.’

The privilege dated back to medieval England. Originally it applied only to members of the clergy, who were often the only people able to read and write. Over time the protection was extended to others who could prove their literacy by reading a passage from the Bible. The verse commonly used was from Psalm 51:

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Nancy successfully claimed the privilege.

Instead of execution, she was branded with the letter ‘M’ on the brawn of her left thumb, marking her conviction for manslaughter and recording that she had received the benefit of clergy. The mark ensured that if she were ever convicted of another serious offence, she could not claim the privilege a second time.

After that moment, Nancy Mosley disappears from the historical record, leaving behind only the mark on her thumb and the story of New Brunswick’s first murder trial.