April 5, 1744

1744 April 5 (Thursday).  Mr. Checkly[1] preach’d the Publick Lecture (instead of Dr. Chauncy) on Tit. 3.8.  Din’d at Brother Samuels again with Mr. Eliot.  P.M. a Young Man[2] Sat on the Gallows for attempting to Murther his Master.  The world has also rung with Tom Bell’s[3] conduct in Charlestown Jayl.  N.B. p.m. Discours’d with Mr. Joshua Emms about his taking my son Thomme.  John White from Brother Parkmans went for my Horse to Cambridge.  At Eve I return’d there.  N.B. Brother and sister Hicks there.

[1]Rev. Samuel Checkley.

[2]Parkman must have referred to the following incident reported in The Boston Gazette, or Weekly Journal, March 27, 1744.  “Early on Wednesday Morning last, one John Martin, Journeyman to Mr. Perkins, Chairmaker, hanged himself in the Chamber over the Shop, with a Piece of rotten Line that neither had Knot or Noose at either End, and he was found with one Foot on the Ground, and the other Knee on a Block.  The Jury of Inquest having declared him a Felo de se, his Corps was carried in a Cart and buried near the Gallows.” .

[3]The following appeared in The Boston Evening-Post, March 19, 1744.  “The famous Tom Bell, upon an Indictment of the Grand Jury for the County of Middlesex, was last Thursday convicted of Theft, and on Saturday had the following Sentence passed upon him, viz. That he next Wednesday, between the Hours of Two and Three in the Afternoon, be whip’d at the publick Market at Charlestown, Twenty Stripes upon his naked Back; that he pay 75 Pounds Lawfull Money, being Trebel Damage, and cost of Prosecution, and stand committed till Sentence be performed; and that in Case he complies not with the Sentence, that he be sold for Three Years.”  See SHG 9:375-86.