1749 July 13 (Thursday). Hinder’d in the Morning so long as to have my Horse’s Shooes rectify’d and fasten’d, and one Shooe put on. Got down to Mr. Hastings’s at Watertown so as to dine there — to Cambridge about 2 p.m. My visit was to my Daughter though the Crowd was going by to the Gallows with Mary Rogers,[1] alias Elizabeth Richardson, alias etc. My Molly was very low, having Fever and sore Throat. N.B. Forbush got down by 10 a.m. As to the vile Woman who was carry’d up to the place of Execution She Seem’d somewhat affected but Said very little — though the Terrible Instruments of Death were before her, the Rope about her Neck, her Coffin before her etc. — and the Sheriff bid her prepare for Death, for he had no further Reprieve for her — But Colonel Brattle[2] read her Pardon and Mr. Appleton[3] pray’d. I went home with Mr. Appleton and Mr. Sheriff; there was also Colonel Wendell[4] at Mr. Appletons. I visited the President[5] likewise. After Visiting divers Friends and Spending Some Time with my Daughter, I repair’d to Mr. Appleton’s where, at his repeated Sollicitations I lodged; my Horse also was kept in his Pasture.
[1]“The Woman under Sentence of Death for Theft, who has been in Prison at Cambridge, for some Months past, having had several Reprieves, was on Thursday last carried to the Place of Execution, where a Pardon was read to her, and she accordingly discharged.” The Boston Weekly News-Letter, July 20, 1749.
[2]William Brattle (Harvard 1722), lawyer, representative, Councillor, later a general, and finally a Loyalist, who left Boston in 1776. Sibley, VII, 10-23.
[3]The Reverend Nathaniel Appleton of Cambridge.
[4]Jacob Wendell, a Boston merchant of Dutch background, was a colonel of the militia and a councillor.
[5]Edward Holyoke, the President of Harvard College. Sibley, V, 265-278.