ABSTRACT
This chapter moves from fictional representations of the murderess to nonfiction accounts of four women convicted of homicide: Catherine Hayes, Mary Blandy, Sarah Malcolm, and Elizabeth Brownrigg. It looks at the intersections and gaps between the roles of "wife" and "servant" that Lady Mary Chudleigh describes. Popular narratives of the cases of Catherine Hayes and Mary Blandy offer strikingly different visions of the murderess: Hayes is presented as a monstrous and sexually voracious harridan; Blandy, with some variations, is presented as a flighty, romantic, and dangerous fool. The chapter examines, that of Mary Blandy, convicted of murdering her father, stands out as a rare example of a familial murder, and one by a woman no less. Sarah Malcolm was convicted in 1733 for multiple murders in the course of a robbery; Elizabeth Brownrigg was convicted in 1767 for the torture and murder of a female apprentice.
