On 11 April 1729, Mary Green sat dining alone in a box at the Green Lettuce, an alehouse in High Holborn. James Cluff, who was employed as a tapster in the same house, entered and joined her. Four or five minutes elapsed. He then called out to his mistress: “Pray, madam, come here.” Mary was already dead, struck down by a wound to the thigh that had severed the femoral artery. That sudden cry brought the witnesses running to the body; it was soon to take its place among the depositions gathered against Cluff.
Cluff was the son of honest folk who kept a public house in Clare Market. They sent him to school, and subsequently placed him as an apprentice at the Swan Tavern, near the Tower. There he served diligently and preserved, according to the chronicler, a fair reputation. His apprenticeship concluded, he worked as a drawer in several public houses. No known offence was ever laid to his charge until he entered the service of Mr Payne, the master of the Green Lettuce. Mary Green was likewise employed upon the premises. The source records that some suspected him of harbouring an affection for Mary, though it observes that this was never clearly established; on the other hand, it reports that they frequently quarrelled, and that Cluff had on occasion struck her.
Cluff was first tried at the Sessions of the Old Bailey for the murder of Mary. He was indicted both upon the statute of stabbing and upon the coroner’s inquisition. The jury acquitted him, holding the evidence insufficient to warrant a conviction. Mary’s brother, William Green, thereupon instituted a distinct procedure—an appeal of murder—which permitted the kin of a slain person to prosecute the accused following a public acquittal. The chronicle sets forth the ancient rules governing this remedy; yet, in the present instance, the essential circumstance is plain: Mary’s brother carried the accusation before another jury.
Upon this appeal, the chronicle recounts the depositions through which the events of that day may be reconstructed; no witness claimed to have seen the blow struck. His mistress, Diana Payne, was walking about the house with her child in her arms. She had observed Mary descend into the cellar to fetch two pints of drink, the one for a guest, the other for her own dinner. Mary had subsequently seated herself alone in the box. Diana’s testimony placed Cluff outside the room at the moment the young woman returned from the cellar; she afterwards saw him go in. According to her account, he called out a few minutes later. Drawing near to the box, she found Mary stretched upon her back, Cluff supporting her by the shoulders, and the blood pouring from her wound.
Diana demanded what he had done. He answered that he had done nothing. She asked whether he had seen Mary do anything to herself; he replied that he had not, though he added that he had seen her with a knife in her hand in the cellar. The woman spoke no more and appeared already dead. Seized with fright, Diana sent for her husband and ran to fetch an apothecary.
John Payne, her husband, confirmed the greater part of this testimony. He added that in the morning, between nine and ten o’clock, a young man had come into the house to drink and smoke. He was told that this visitor had formerly been a suitor to Mary. Payne thought he saw the man kiss her; he then observed Cluff’s countenance change, as though he were displeased, though he could not affirm that any amorous tie existed between the two servants. He stated also that he had heard the prisoner enter the box with some abruptness. These observations suggested a possible motive in the eyes of the witnesses; of themselves, they did not establish what passed between Cluff and Mary after he entered the room.
Saunders, a guest who was dining at the Green Lettuce, corroborated the substance of the Paynes’ depositions. He added that, following a rebuke from John Payne, Cluff declared himself as innocent as the child in the house. Saunders and Payne also searched the cellar for the knife Cluff claimed to have seen; they found no blood there. Saunders stated that he had seen no knife in Mary’s hand when she went down for the drink, and that Cluff was not near her at that moment.
Surgeon Cox examined the body. Upon a table, among other knives, he discovered one slightly stained with blood, which corresponded to the cut. The blade had pierced through her apron, a stuff petticoat, and a coarse shift. The wound ran obliquely through the thigh; in Cox’s judgment, its slant was inconsistent with any stroke Mary could have inflicted upon herself. The surgeon declared further that the knife lay too far off for her to have placed it there after receiving the wound, for the injury to the femoral artery must have caused death within a minute, or a minute and a half at most. Beneath her chin and near her left ear he observed marks of violence. Another surgeon and an apothecary confirmed his findings, as did a surgeon summoned for the defence upon the principal facts observed.
Cluff put few questions. Daldwin, called on behalf of William Green, testified that at nine in the morning he had seen the prisoner and the deceased quarrelling; he pronounced Cluff to be of a malicious and ill-natured temper. The appellant’s counsel then concluded their evidence. Cluff denied the deed, offering no explanation beyond his supposition regarding the knife fetched from the cellar. The jury retired, and returned a verdict of guilty.
Between this verdict and his execution, Cluff demeaned himself, according to the chronicle, with an uncommon composure. He attended the chapel prayers and remained tranquil in his cell. He betrayed no apparent fear and uttered no railing words against his prosecutors; he prayed for them. The ministers exhorted him not to pass into the other world with a lie upon his lips, but to declare how Mary came by her wound. He answered that he acknowledged having committed many sins, yet knew not how Mary came by her death, and had no knowledge of the crime for which he was to die. He maintained this denial to the very end.
Passing through Holborn, the cart halted before Payne’s house at Cluff’s request. He called for a pint of wine and desired to speak with his master. He told him that he was about to die for an act of which he declared himself innocent, and begged him and his wife to pray for his soul. He invoked the divine blessing upon them, and then desired the cart to proceed. At Tyburn, he repeated the same denial before the assembled multitude, recalled that he had prayed for those who had prosecuted him, and asked the people to pray for his soul. He prayed that he might be as free from all other sins as he was, he declared, from the crime for which he died.
James Cluff was executed in 1729, being about thirty-two years of age. The record thus preserves his initial acquittal, the conviction pronounced upon the appeal of William Green, and the solemn denial Cluff maintained unto his death.