Month: November 1737

November 7, 1737

1737 November 7 (Monday).  At Mr. Tim Brigham’s.[1]  Mr. Stone brought Mrs. Parkman to his House, we dined there, after which I rode to visit old Mrs. Morse[2] at Marlboro’, confined by her Broken Bone, and in great distress of mind, whilst Mr. Stone went with my wife up to Dr. Gott’s.  There we tarried all night.

[1]Walett: Timothy Brigham was a distinguished citizen of Southborough, being town treasurer and selectman for many years.

[2]Walett: Widow of Joseph Morse.

November 10, 1737

1737 November 10 (Thursday).  I rode to Mr. Wheeler’s, called at Mr. Danforth[1] as I went, but dined at Mr. Wheeler’s.  N.B. Mr. Thos. Ward at Mr. Nathan Balls’s.  I was at Mr. Lawrence’s,[2] and at Mr. Gershom Fay’s[3] and at Mr. McCollister’s.[4]  N.B. Disappointment about Swine notwithstanding my long Dependence.

[1]Walett: John Danforth of Westborough.

[2]Walett: Benjamin Lawrence of Westborough.

[3]Walett: Gershom Fay, Jr., the nephew of Captain John Fay lived in that part of Westborough that later became Northborough.

[4]Walett: John McCollister.

November 15, 1737

1737 November 15 (Tuesday).  Trooping and Training — prayed with the foot before Dinner and dined with the officers of both Horse and Foot — prayed with the whole Body at Eve.  N.B. Capt. Eager detained by his sickness and Lieut. Baker[1] also absent.  N.B. I wrote to Worcester by Capt. Moses Rice,[2] being I could not visit the Prisoner.

[1]Forbes: Lieut. Edward Baker was one of Mr. Parkman’s first friends in Westborough, for he and James Eager had been the committee who brought him the news that he had been called to be the town minister.  He was always prominent in town and church affairs, and chairman of the committee which built the old Arcade.

He lived on Main Street, on the Pollard place, where his son, Squire Baker, afterwards had his home.  He had ten children, of whom one, Joseph, born in 1736, was “the Squire.”

His house was moved and in now part of Mrs. Gleason’s house.

He died in 1763, and his stone still marks his last resting place in the old burying ground, although that of Persis his wife has long since disappeared.

Walett: Edward Baker, an original settler of Westborough.

[2]Walett: Keeper of a public house in Worcester.

November 17, 1737

1737 November 17 (Thursday).  Mr. Tainter came to me before Sunrise and informed me of a most Sudden and awful accident in their neighbourhood.  That the wife of Mr. Joshua Harrington (who came up with his Family to Dwell among us, but this Day three weeks) was Shot in the head last evening, a little before Sundown, by a servant named Ebenezer Chubb in his 15th year, and she dyed upon the Spot.  Mr. Tainter was going for the Coroner.  Public Thanksgiving.  Preached on Lev. 3.1.  After the publick exercises, the Coroner’s Inquest sat on the body of Mrs. Harrington and their verdict was Accidental Death.

November 21, 1737

1737 November 21 (Monday).  I rode up to Worcester to see Hugh Henderson again.  Was sorry to find he had tried to make his escape by filing the Goal[1] door.  We talked more of other matters, and kept longer off from the main point of his case than heretofore.  I’m more put to it to judge of his Frame.  Mr. Burr came to me, requested me to preach to him on Wednesday.  Hugh desired it of me, and several of the people repeatedly and urgently insist and plead for it.  I prayed with the prisoner and took leave at about seven o’clock.  N.B. His Discourses of the Jury, not going by the laws of God and the Country in Condemning him, having but Circumstantial Evidence.  As to Newton, he offered him all reasonable Satysfaction etc.  But he added, that he was guilty, and his many sins had provoked God to anger etc.

 

I called at Mr. Cushings and supped there.  Thence I rode home.

[1]Forbes: The goal or jail where Hugh Henderson was confined stood on the west side of Lincoln Street, a short distance from Lincoln Square.  It was a building forty-one feet by eighteen.  “The prison part,” writes Caleb Wall, “was eighteen feet square, made of white oak timber set with studs, four inches thick and five inches broad, and floored, roofed and ceiled with two-inch planks spiked together.  A stone dungeon was underneath.  The north end of the structure, finished as a dwelling, afterwards became part of the old ‘Handcock Arms.’” Probably at this time it was the dwelling-house of the jailer, Luke Brown.

November 23, 1737

1737 November 23 (Wednesday).  The wife and younger son of Mr. Increase Ward very bad.  I visited them and old Mrs. Pratt A.M.  P.M. I rode up to Worcester at the Request of the Criminal and others to preach to him.  There were so many at the Goal that we were obliged to go to the Meeting-House.  I preached on 1 Tim. 1.15.  Supped (with Mr. Campbell) at Deacon Haywards.[1]  We visited the Prisoner.  He spoke of having a solemn warning taken from his mouth, but chose to have it deferred to the morning, but prayed I would be early.  We lodged at Mr. Burr’s.

[1]Forbes: Daniel Haywood, one of the first deacons of the Old South Church in Worcester.  He kept the first tavern in that town – he, his son, and grandson keeping for nearly a hundred years a hotel on the site of the Bay State.  This old hotel is still standing in Worcester, having been moved years ago to the southeast corner of Salem and Madison streets.

November 24, 1737

1737 November 24 (Thursday).  I went to the Prisoner as early as I could, and Mr. Burr was with me to assist in penning down what the Prisoner[1] had to deliver by way of Confession and Warning to the World before his Execution.  In it I was as punctual and strict as I could be in inserting his own words as near as I could, and when any others were used.  It [here this portion of the diary ends].

[1]Forbes: The sad story of Hugh Henderson we learn from these dying confessions, which, together with a poem on his untimely death, were published as a broadside and sold as a warning to all youth.

He was of Scotch-Irish descent and came to Massachusetts about 1735, and for two years indulged his wicked practices, when he was arrested and convicted of breaking and entering the house of Abner Newton, of Westborough, who lived at this time in the old Thomas Rice garrison.  (See note for March 14, 1737.)

Four indictments were found against him, two for burglary and two for larceny, and he was tried, convicted and sentenced to be hanged on one for burglary.  The Court was the Superior Court of Judicature sitting at Worcester in September, with the following named judges on the bench: Benj. Lynde, Paul Dudley, Edmund Quincy, Jonathan Remington and Richard Saltonstall.

In the following extracts from the Confession, we can detect Mr. Parkman’s pen:

“The Confession and Dying Warning of Hugh Henderson Who was executed at Worcester in the County of Worcester, Nov. 26, 1737, Signed by him in the Presence of four of the Ministers, the Morning of the Day of his Execution.

“I, Hugh Henderson, otherwise through my wickedness called John Hamilton of about 28 or 29 Years of Age, was born in Armagh in the Kingdom of Ireland, received Baptism in the Manner of the Presbyterians and was brought up by my uncle, who was obliged to give me suitable Learning, but did not; which Neglect, together with my own Neglect of learning the word of God afterwards, was a great reason of my taking to such wicked Courses as have brought me to my unhappy, untimely End.

“I began with smaller Sins, while I was Young: with but stealing Pins: against which I received warning oftentimes, but persisted in it, and was very disobedient, till I increased further in Sin.”

Then follows warning to various classes of people and confession of various sins, and the confession ends:

“Having given this Warning, I desire to commend myself to the Charity and Prayers of all God’s People for me, and that You would lift up your Hearts to God for me, for the Pardon of my Sins, an interest in Christ, and that I may be sanctified by the Spirit of God: But above all I commend myself to the infinite Mercy of God, in my dear Redeemer, begging and beseeching that through the Merits of His Blood, I may this Day be with Him in Paradise.”

“Hugh Henderson

“Signed with his Mark.”

A True Copy Examined

“Per Ebr. Parkman.”

The poem is entitled:

“A Poem occasioned by the Untimely Death of Hugh Henderson alias John Hamilton who was hanged at Worcester for House Breaking, Nov. 24, 1737” – and an extract therefrom reads:

“The Scene we did but lately view

Too well evinces this is true –

A man with healthful Vigour bless’d

The Morn of life but hardly past,

Compelled to leave the pleasing Light,

And stretch away to endless Night;

Because regardless of his Peace,

He chose the flowery Path of Vice.”

The uncle receives his deserts in the poem as follows:

“But when he met with no Restraint,

And found his Uncle was no Saint,

In Vice’s pleasing Steps he ran.”

The N. E. Weekly Journal, Dec. 6, 1737, says:

“On the day of his Execution the Rev. Mr. Campbell of Oxford preached to the Prisoner and a great assembly, a very suitable sermon on I Peter 4-5.  The Prisoner was exceedingly moved and in such Anguish of soul that the Expressions of it in the face of the congregation, in crying and moans, in prayers and tears and passionate gesture there were even to disturbance.

“At the place of execution, after the Rev. Mr. Hall of Sutton had prayed, the prisoner with great earnestness desired all that were present to hearken well to what was going to be read to them, and to mind to take the warning contained in it, after which he put up a most importunate and pathetical prayer himself which manifested more of knowledge of religion, sense of his own state and humble faith and hope in God, than anything that has been received from him before.”

So was ended this sad chapter in the history of Worcester County — her first execution!