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Mercy Brown's gravestone in the
cemetery of the Baptist Church in
Exeter
Mercy Brown vampire incident
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mercy Brown Vampire Incident, which occurred in 1892, is one
of the best documented cases of the exhumation of a corpse in order to
perform rituals to banish an undead manifestation. The incident was part
of the wider New England vampire panic.
Several cases of consumption (tuberculosis) occurred in the family of
George and Mary Brown, in Exeter, Rhode Island. Friends and
neighbors believed this was due to the influence of the undead. Several of
the bodies were dug up, one of which had almost no decomposition,
which was taken as a confirmation that the undead were influencing the
family to be sick. The heart of the exhumed body was burnt, mixed with
water and given to Edwin, one of the sick relatives, to drink, in order to
stop the influence of the undead. The young man died two months later.
Contents
1 History
2 Literature
3 References
4 External links
History
In Exeter, Rhode Island, the family of George and Mary Brown suffered a sequence of tuberculosis infections in the
final two decades of the 19th century. Tuberculosis was called "consumption" at the time and was a devastating and
much-feared disease.
The mother, Mary, was the first to die of the disease, followed in 1888 by their eldest daughter, Mary Olive. Two
years later, in 1890, their son Edwin also became sick.
[1]
In 1891, another daughter, Mercy, contracted the disease and died in January 1892. She was buried in the
cemetery of the Baptist Church in Exeter.
Friends and neighbors of the family believed that one of the dead family members was a vampire (although they did
not use that name) and caused Edwin's illness. This was in accordance with threads of contemporary folklore
linking multiple deaths in one family to undead activity. Consumption was a poorly understood condition at the time
and the subject of much superstition.
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George Brown was persuaded to give permission to exhume the bodies. Several villagers, the local doctor and a
newspaper reporter exhumed the bodies on March 17, 1892.
[1]
While the bodies of both Mary and Mary Olive
had undergone significant decomposition over the intervening years, the more recently buried body of Mercy was
still relatively unchanged and had blood in the heart and liver. This was taken as a sign that the young woman was
undead and the agent of young Edwin's condition. The cold New England weather made the soil virtually
impenetrable, essentially guaranteeing that Mercy's body was kept in freezer-like conditions in an above-ground
crypt during the 2 months following her death.
Mercy's heart was removed from her body, burnt, and the remnants mixed with water and given to the sick Edwin
to drink. It was thought that giving the victim of consumption ashes of the "vampire's" heart would cure them, but he
died two months later.
[1]
Literature
The Mercy Brown incident was the inspiration for Caitln R. Kiernan's short story, "So Runs the World Away,"
which makes explicit reference to the affair. It has also been suggested by scholars that Bram Stoker, the author of
the novel Dracula, knew about the Mercy Brown case through newspaper articles and based the novel's character
Lucy upon her.
[2]
It is also referred to in H. P. Lovecraft's "The Shunned House".
[3]
Mercy Brown's story was the
inspiration for a young adult novel, "Mercy: The Last New England Vampire" by Sarah L. Thomson. Rapper B.
Dolan also wrote a song from the perspective of a fictitious party involved in the case in his song "The Hunter" from
his 2010 LP "Fallen House, Sunken City."
[4]
References
1. ^
a

b

c
Tucker, Abigal (October 2012). "The Great New England Vampire Panic"
(http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Great-New-England-Vampire-Panic-169791986.html?
c=y&page=3). Smithsonian Magazine: 3. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
2. ^ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Great-New-England-Vampire-Panic-169791986.html
3. ^ Spiers, Richard (2004). "Mercy Brown: A Real Rhode Island Vampire"
(http://www.underworldtales.com/submissions/mercy.htm). Underworld Tales Magazine. Retrieved 18 June 2011.
"As Lovecraft's Mercy Dexter character allows the plot to flow, he cagily reveals, "[don't] hire anyone from the
Nooseneck Hill country seat of uncomfortable superstitions. As lately as 1892, an Exeter community exhumed
a dead body and ceremoniously burnt its heart in order to prevent certain alleged visitations.""
4. ^ "The Hunter lyrics" (http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858819829/).
Bell, Michael E. (2001). Food for the Dead - On the Trail of New England's Vampires. New York:
Carrol & Graf Publishers. 338 pages. ISBN 0786708999.
Connecticut Public Television (1996). Vampires in New England (TV Documentary).
External links
Smithsonian Magazine account of Historical Vampires (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_Brown_vampire_incident 3/3
archaeology/Meet-the-Real-Life-Vampires-of-New-England-and-Abroad-170342886.html?
onsite_source=relatedarticles&onsite_medium=internallink&onsite_campaign=SmithMag&onsite_content=
Meet%20the%20Real-Life%20Vampires%20of%20New%20England%20and%20Abroad)
O.T.I.S.(Odd Things Ive Seen): A Firsthand Account of Mercy Browns Grave
(http://www.oddthingsiveseen.com/2007/12/grave-of-mercy-brown-vampire.html)
Mercy Brown (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6628164) at Find a Grave
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mercy_Brown_vampire_incident&oldid=603090759"
Categories: Deaths from tuberculosis American folklore Vampires Infectious disease deaths in Rhode Island
Exeter, Rhode Island Washington County, Rhode Island 1892 deaths 1892 in Rhode Island
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