Elizabeth Branch
Elizabeth Branch (1672 - 3 May 1740) was an English woman who murdered her servant Jane Buttersworth in 1740. Prior to the murders she had a reputation for cruelty to servants to the point that local people were not willing to serve her.
Biography
Elizabeth was born Elizabeth Parry in 1672 in Bristol. She married a wealthy farmer named Benjamin Branch and they were granted a £2000 dowry by her father, supplementing Branch's £300 yearly income.
Branch and her daughter Betty quickly gained a reputation for violence. They enjoyed torturing animals, taking inspiration from stories of the Roman emperor Nero. This was surpassed by their reputation for tormenting servants. They were known for beating, insulting and humiliating servants. This only increased with the death of Benjamin in 1730. Their reputation for cruelty was such that no local person was willing to serve them no matter how poor.
Their cruelty came to a head on 13 February 1740, when Elizabeth Branch sent 13-year-old serving maid Jane Buttersworth on an errand to a nearby farm. When she returned, Elizabeth and Betty complained that she had taken too long and accused her of loitering. The two threw her to the ground and began savagely beating her, which was witnessed by dairy maid Anne James. Elizabeth Branch ordered James to leave while she and her daughter continued the beating, and by the time James returned seven hours later Buttersworth was dead.
The Branches quickly buried Buttersworth, claiming she had died of an illness. Suspicious locals dug up the body and brought it to the local surgeon, who decided that she had died after suffering a severe beating which would "have killed the stoutest man" based on a number of injuries on her body. Both Branches were arrested and came to trial at the Somerset Assizes in March 1740. Elizabeth attempted to escape conviction by bribing the jury, resulting in a jury change. The second jury, after hearing the testimony of Anne James and the surgeon, found both women guilty without even retiring. Elizabeth and Betty were hanged at Ilchester Gaol on 3 May 1740.