{"id":162,"date":"2011-02-09T05:33:54","date_gmt":"2011-02-09T05:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technogypsie.com\/science\/?p=162"},"modified":"2011-02-09T05:33:54","modified_gmt":"2011-02-09T05:33:54","slug":"graves-vampires-vampirism-tuberculosis-consumpiton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/science\/graves-vampires-vampirism-tuberculosis-consumpiton\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercy Brown, the 19 year old 18th Century Vampire"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nMercy Brown<\/strong><\/a>

\nThe Rhode Island 18th century Vampire, RI Historical Cemetery No 22 in Exeter, RI on Route 102<\/em> In the heart of what has been nicknamed “The Vampire Capital of America” lies the grave of sweet 19 year old “Mercy Brown”. Her family and neighbours however didn’t think she was that sweet. Especially after she died. She had been deemed a vampire. Not only then, but her reputation continues hundreds of years later as being one of the most popular vampire burials in North America. The good citizens of Exeter Rhode Island firmly believe she was rising from her grave as a blood sucker and literally feeding on the blood and energy of her sick brother. She was in a line of female family members that had died from consumption (tuberculosis), following her mother and sister to the grave. Then her brother fell ill and the community was strong in the belief that she was the cause. They convinced her father who was desperate to do anything to save his son from the death bed. He and his accusing neighbours dug up the remains of his daughter Mercy to see if she was a vampire. Sure enough they found she had shifted in her coffin, there was fresh blood in her mouth as well as in her heart. She looked like she was rejuvenating, growing hair, nails, and teeth. Her skin was light and looked new. She had to be a vampire. They tore her heart from her chest, and burned it on a large rock near her grave to stop her from coming out of her grave. It was believed that those ashes would have magical properties to heal the brother, so they were fed to him as a cure. He still died two months later. He was staked in the heart and tied in his coffin to make sure he didn’t catch the vampire virus like believed of the rest of his family. Or so goes the legend. She was one of many in the area that gave Exeter the status of Vampire Capital. It was quite commonplace in this era to dig up the remains of the dead, make sure they were dead, dismember, behead, or burn the corpse to prevent vampirism. Oddly in Rhod Island, most of those accused of being vampires were 19 year old girls who died of consumption. There is also the story of 19 year old Nelly Vaugn. Her epitaph is rumored to state “I am waiting and watching for you”. Apparently grass nor moss would grow on her grave and numerous haunting apparently take place at her grave site. Her headstone was victim of so many anti-vampire hate crimes they had to remove it to stop the vandalism. Then there is Juliet, the daughter of William Rose, who after her mother, died of consumption. Vampirism was blamed, exhumed her corpse, cut out her heart, and bladed her chest. Her grave was reputedly moved to an unmarked location to stop hate vandalism. There was also Sarah Tillinghast of 1799. Her fate was revealed in a prophetic dream, that was had by her father Stuckly “Snuffy” Tillinghast. After her death, many of the neighbours reported seeing her each night pressing on their chests. As later children began to become ill, Sarah’s body was exhumed, heart removed, and burned. Clippings about Mercy Brown were discovered in possession of Bram Stoker after his death leading to the speculation that he based many items in his novel Dracula on Rhode Island vampires. Mercy Brown and Sarah Tillinghast were stories used by H.P. Lovecraft in his short story “The Shunned House”. Reuben Brown, descendant of Mercy Brown, tells tales that there were unexplained deaths, young girls, six or seven on one side of the Brown family, died of consumption, all of them with a mark on their throats, leading people to believe they had been bit by a vampire. Many blamed Mercy for this. After burning her heart the deaths had stopped.\u00a0
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\u00a0 Mercy Brown The Rhode Island 18th century Vampire, RI Historical Cemetery No 22 in Exeter, RI on Route 102 In the heart of what has been nicknamed “The Vampire Capital of America” lies the grave of sweet 19 year … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[36,40,53],"tags":[631,939,987,1008,1490],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-folklore","category-graves","category-mythology","tag-folklore","tag-mercy-brown","tag-mythology","tag-new-england","tag-vampires"],"yoast_head":"\nMercy Brown, the 19 year old 18th Century Vampire - Naturally Science and Lore<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/technotink.net\/science\/graves-vampires-vampirism-tuberculosis-consumpiton\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mercy Brown, the 19 year old 18th Century Vampire - 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