5 Victims of the “black cloud”

In 1841, Mary Ann Brough secured the illustrious position of wet nurse to the Prince of Wales. But a marital dispute sent her life spiralling out of control

In 1834, George Brough, a groundsman at Claremont House, a royal residence in Esher, married one of the domestic servants, Mary Ann. In 1841, shortly after the birth of her fourth child, Mary Ann secured the illustrious position of wet nurse to the queen’s first son, Bertie (later Edward VII). Victoria herself remembered Mary Ann from visits to Claremont. Just months later, though, Mary Ann was dismissed, allegedly for drunkenness.

At home in Esher, she went on to have yet more children – 10 in total, though only seven survived infancy. There were difficulties in her marriage with George, too. By the early 1850s, George had become a house servant at Claremont, often staying on site. His wife began an affair.

Suspecting as much, in the summer of 1854 George hired a private detective, who reported that Mary Ann had spent time with a man from Esher in a “questionable house” in London. Angry and upset, on 6 June George left the family home. The next day, when he returned to collect his nightcap, he declared: “I intend to see a solicitor to start legal proceedings and to get full custody of the children.”

In mid-19th century England, a mother found guilty of wrongdoing – such as adultery – could lose all contact with her children. Mary Ann now faced the real prospect of being separated from them.

Two days later, on the evening of 9 June, Mary Ann slit the throats of the six children who lived with her, aged between 21 months and 12 years, before attempting to kill herself. She made a full confession to the police, claiming that a “black cloud” had come over her. But to the woman who was nursing her, she said: “He left me with no money and was going to take the children away from me.

I was not going to allow him to do so.”

Pain and bleeding

At Mary Ann’s trial on 9 August, the jury accepted her plea of insanity. Neighbours and her doctor testified that she was a loving mother who had suffered ill health – pain in the head, bleeding from her nose and a suspected stroke – following the birth of her youngest child. The eminent psychiatrist Forbes B Winslow recognised her account of ‘”the black cloud”, explaining that mothers could experience bouts of temporary insanity when under significant stress.

Insanity also provided contemporaries with a way to explain the unexplainable: a mother who killed her six children. Mary Ann was sent to Bethlem Asylum, where she died on 18 March 1861 from paralysis and apoplexy.

A psychiatrist noted that mothers could experience bouts of insanity when under significant stress