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Elizabeth
EMERSON
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Infanticide
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders: May 7, 1691
Date of arrest:
3 days after
Date of birth: 1664
Victims profile:
Her newborn twins
Method of murder: Neglect?
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Status:
Executed by hanging
in Boston on June 8, 1693
June 8, 1693 - 28 year old Elizabeth Emerson was hanged on
Boston Commons, Massachusetts for the murder of her two children who
were conceived with her boyfriend. Strangely for the time, two years
was to elapse between sentence and execution.
Elizabeth Emmerson
Elizabeth had an
affair with Samuel Ladd which produced two children. In 1691 Elizabeth
was arrested for the murder of these two children.
On "6th Sept.
Elizabeth Emmerson single woman Daughter of Michael Emmerson of
Haverhill in the County of Essex being indicted by the Jurors for our
Soveraigne Lord & Lady King William & Oueen Mary upon their Oathes.
For that the sd. Elizabeth Emmerson being with child with two living
Children or Infants on Thursday night the 7th of May 1691 before day
of Fryday morning at Haverhill aforesd in the house of Michael
Emmerson aforesd by the Providence of God two Bastard Children alive
did bring forth and the sd. Elizabeth Emmerson not haveing the feare
of Cod before her Eyes and being instigated by ye Devil of her malice
forethought, the sd two Infants did feloniously kill & Murther, and
them in a small Bagg or cloath sewed up, and concealed or hid them in
sd Emmersons house untill afterwards, that is to say, on sabbath day
May the tenth 1691, the sd two Infants in the yard of sd Emmerson in
Haverhill aforesd did secretly bury contrary to the peace of Our
Soveraign Lord 6 Lady the King & Queen, their Crown & Dignity, the
Laws of God, and the Lawes & Statutes in that case made & provided."
1693: Elizabeth Emerson
By Robert Wilhelm
(Thanks for the guest post to Robert Wilhelm of the
Murder By Gaslight historic crime blog, and author of the book Murder
And Mayhem in Essex County. Executed Today readers are sure to enjoy
Wilhelm’s detailed investigations into long-lost historic crime. -ed.)
The Emersons of Haverhill, Massachusetts, were the
kind of family that just could not stay out of trouble. Death was a
common feature in the Emerson household; only nine of their fifteen
children survived infancy. Michael Emerson’s first child, Hannah,
would marry Thomas Duston and, become famous for escaping Indian
captivity by murdering and scalping ten of her captors.
The sixth child was a daughter named Elizabeth,
born in 1664. Twelve years later, Michael was brought to court “for
cruel and excessive beating of his daughter with a flail swingle and
for kicking her, and was fined and bound to good behavior.” Corporal
punishment was not considered wrong in and of itself, but Michael’s
beating of Elizabeth was criminally excessive. There is no way to know
why Elizabeth was being punished, but the impression is, that she was
a rambunctious, strong-willed child living in a violent household.
Another of Elizabeth’s sisters, Mary Emerson, was
married in 1683 to Hugh Mathews of Newbury. Though there is no record
of premature offspring, Hugh and Mary were both brought to court and
found guilty of fornication before marriage. They were sentenced to be
“fined or severely whipped.”
Perhaps with her sister as an example, Elizabeth
also engaged in premarital sex. In 1686, Elizabeth Emerson gave birth
to an illegitimate daughter she named Dorothy. It is not clear whether
Elizabeth was ever punished for this, but court records indicate that
Michael Emerson accused a neighbor, Timothy Swan, of being the father.
Timothy’s father, Robert Swan, vehemently denied that Timothy was the
father because he “… had charged him not to go into that wicked house
and his son had obeyed and furthermore his son could not abide the
jade.” He further threatened to “carry the case to Boston” if Timothy
was formally accused. Michael did not pursue the charges and little
Dorothy remained fatherless.
Five years later, with Elizabeth and her daughter
still living at her parents’ house, Elizabeth became pregnant again.
She somehow managed to keep this a secret from her parents, but the
neighbors were suspicious. Sometime during the night of May 7, 1691,
Elizabeth, who slept at the foot of the bed where her mother and
father slept, gave birth to twins without waking her parents. The
twins were either stillborn or murdered by their mother. She hid the
bodies in a trunk for three days then sewed them into a sack and
buried them in the backyard.
The following Sunday, while her parents were at
church, the neighbors who had suspected Elizabeth’s pregnancy, came to
the house with a warrant from the magistrates of Haverhill. While the
women examined Elizabeth, the men went to the backyard and found the
bodies buried in a shallow grave. Elizabeth was arrested for murdering
her bastard infants.
Elizabeth maintained that she had kept the
pregnancy and birth a secret out of fear. Her mother had been
suspicious, but whenever asked about it, Elizabeth denied she was
pregnant. Michael claimed he had no idea that Elizabeth was pregnant
but this time put the blame on Samuel Ladd, age 42, a married man,
nine years older than Elizabeth. Elizabeth also named Samuel Ladd as
the father, saying that the “begetting” had taken place at an inn
house. She also stated that Ladd was the only man with whom she had
ever slept, implying that Dorothy was Ladd’s daughter as well.
Although Samuel Ladd had been previously found
guilty of a misdemeanor and fined for an earlier episode involving
sexual advances on a younger woman, Ladd was never questioned in
Elizabeth Emerson’s case. Elizabeth was already the mother of a
bastard child, and Samuel Ladd was the son of an early settler — her
story was not believed.
Elizabeth Emerson was sentenced to hang and
remanded to the custody of the Boston prison on May 13, 1691. An
accompanying letter explained the facts and said that she had been
examined for “whore-dom.” By English law, concealment of the death of
a bastard child had been punishable by execution. Though this law had
been repealed in England, it was still on the books in Massachusetts.
It did not matter whether Elizabeth Emerson had murdered her babies or
merely concealed their death — she would be hanged.
The hanging was scheduled for 1693. Elizabeth was
imprisoned during the height of the Salem witch trials, and though he
played an active role in the trials, Reverend Cotton Mather found time
to take an interest in her case. Mather worked on her soul and before
her execution Elizabeth confessed that “when they were born, I was not
unsensible, that at least one of them was alive; but such a Wretch was
I, as to use a Murderous Carriage towards them, in the place where I
lay, on purpose to dispatch them out of the World.” But Mather
believed she had more to confess and held little hope for her
salvation.
Elizabeth Emerson was hanged in Boston on June 8,
1693, along with a black indentured servant named Grace. Before the
execution Cotton Mather preached a sermon during which he read the
following declaration written by Elizabeth:
I am a Miserable Sinner; and I have Justly Provoked
the Holy God to leave me unto that Folly of my own Heart, for which I
am now Condemned to Dy … I believe, the chief thing that hath, brought
me, into my present Condition, is my Disobedience to my Parents: I
despised all their Godly Counsils and Reproofs; and I was always an
Haughty and Stubborn Spirit. So that now I am become a dreadful
Instance of the Curs of God belonging to Disobedient Children.
ExecutedToday.com
Elizabeth Emerson
From Jane Emerson James, "The Haverhill Emersons:
Revised and Extended", (Jane Emerson James, Lake Winnebago, MO, 1983),
p. 25:
"On 10 Apr 1686 Elizabeth Emerson, unmarried, gave
birth to Dorothy of whom no further record has been located by me. The
father was Samuel Ladd, then 37, who was married to Martha (Corlis)
Ladd, mother of their 6 children. Elizabeth was 23 at the birth of
Dorothy and at 28 she again gave birth, this time to twin boys who did
not survive. Again the father was Samuel Ladd, then 42. Whatever else
may be thought of Elizabeth, she was not permiscuous [sic]. Doris
Smith of Porterville, CA located the following record from Records of
the Court of Assistants of the Massachusetts Bay, Vol. 1:
'26th Sept. Elizabeth Emmerson single woman
Daughter of Michael Emmerson of Haverhill in the County of Essex being
indicted by the Jurors for our Soveraigne Lord & Lady King William &
Oueen Mary upon their Oathes. For that the sd. Elizabeth Emmerson
being with child with two living Children or Infants on Thursday night
the 7th of May 1691 before day of Fryday morning at Haverhill aforesd
in the house of Michael Emmerson aforesd by the Providence of God two
Bastard Children alive did bring forth and the sd. Elizabeth Emmerson
not haveing the feare of Cod before her Eyes and being instigated by
ye Devil of her malice forethought, the sd two Infants did feloniously
kill & Murther, and them in a small Bagg or cloath sewed up, and
concealed or hid them in sd Emmersons house untill afterwards, that is
to say, on sabbath day May the tenth 1691, the sd two Infants in the
yard of sd Emmerson in Haverhill aforesd did secretly bury contrary to
the peace of Our Soveraign Lord 6 Lady the King & Queen, their Crown &
Dignity, the Laws of God, and the Lawes & Statutes in that case made &
provided. Upon which Indictment the sd Elizabeth Emmerson was
arraigned and to the Indictment pleaded not guilty & put berselfe upon
Tryal by God & the Country, * a Jury was impannelled being the first
Jury, whereof mr. Richard Crisp was foreman, and were accordingly
sworne (the prisoner making no challeng) The Indictment Examination &
evidences were read, & the prisoner made her defence, The Jury return
their Verdict, the Jury say, That she sd. Elizabeth Emmerson is guilty
according to Indictment. The Court Order, That sentance of Death he
pronounced ag. her.' *Left blank in the record
"She spent two years in prison and was hanged on
Boston Common 8 Jun 1693. Although the entire village knew that Samuel
Ladd was the father he seems never to have been officially censured."
-------
The following comes from the Diary of Cotton
Mather:
"I had often wished for an Opportunity, to bear my
Testimonies, against the Sins of Uncleanness, wherein so many of my
Generacon do pollute themselves. A young Woman of Haverhil, and a
Negro Woman also of this Town (Boston)were under sentence of Death,
for the Murdering of their Bastard-children. Many and many a weary
Hour, did I spend in the Prison, to serve the Souls of those miserable
Creatures; and I had Opportunities in my own Congregation, to speak to
them, and from them, to vast Multitudes of others. Their Execution,
was ordered to have been, upon the Lecture of another; but by a very
strange Providence, without any Seeking of mine, or any Respect to
mee, (that I know of) the order for their Execution was altered and it
fell on my Lecture Day. I did then with the special Assistance of
Heaven, make and preach, a Sermon upon Job. 36.14. Whereat one of the
greatest Assemblies, ever known in these parts of the World, was come
together. I had obtained from the young Woman, a pathetical
Instrument, in Writing, wherein shee own'd her own miscarriages, and
warn'd the rising Ceneracon of theirs. Towards the close of my Sermon,
I read that Instrument unto the Congregation; and made what Use, was
proper of it. I accompany'd the Wretches, to their Execution; but
extremely fear all our Labours were lost upon them; however sanctifyed
unto many others. The Sermon was immediately printed; with another
which I had formerly uttered on the like Occasion; (entitled, Warnings
From the Dead) and it was greedily bought up; I hope, to the
Attainment of the Ends, which I had so long desired. T'was afterwards
reprinted at London."
[In the referenced sermon, Mather read Elizabeth's
confession which follows. It may be found in his Magnalia Christi
Americana.]
"I am a miserable sinner, and I have justly
provok'd the holy God to leave me unto that folly of my own heart, for
which I am now condemmed to die. I cannot but see much of the anger of
God against me, in the circumstances of my woful death. He hath
fulfilled upon me that word of his, "Evil pursueth sinners!" I
therefore desire humbly to confess my many sins before God and the
world; but most particularly my blood guiltiness. Before the birth of
my twin-infants, I too much parlied with the temptation of the devil
to smother my wickedness by muthering of them. At length, when they
were born, I was not insensible that at least one of them was alive;
but such a wretch was I, as to use a murderous carriage towards them,
in the place where I lay, on purpose to dispatch them out of the
world. I acknowledge that I have been more hard hearted than the
sea-monsters; and yet for the pardon of these my sins, I would fly to
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the only "fountain set
open for sin and uncleanness." I know not how better to glorifie God,
for giving me such an opportunity as I have had to make sure of his
mercy, than by advertising and entreating the rising generation here
to take warning by my example, and I will therefore tell the sins that
have brought me to my shameful end. I do warn all people and
expecially young people, against the sin of uncleanness in particular.
'Tis that sin that hath been my ruine. Well had it been for me, if I
had answered all temptations to that sin as Joseph did, 'How shall I
do this wickedness, and sin against God?' But, I see, bad company is
that which leads to that and other sins; And I therefore beg all that
love their souls to be familiar with none but such as fear Cod. I
believe the chief thing that hath brought me into my present
condition, is my disobedience to my parents. I dispised all their
godly counsel and reproofs; and I was always of a haughty, stubborn
spirit. So that now I am become a dreadful instance of the curse of
God belonging to disobedient children. I must bewail this also, and
although I was baptized, yet when I grew up, I forgot the bonds that
were laid upon me to be the Lord's. Had I given my self to God, as
soon as I was capable to consider that I had been in baptism set apart
for him, How happy had I been! It was my delay to repent of my former
sins, that provoked God to leave me unto the crimes for which I am now
to die. Had I seriously repented of my uncleanness the first time I
fell into it, I do suppose I had not been left unto what followed. Let
all take it from me: They little think what they do when they put off
turning from sin to God, and resist the strivings of the Holy Spirit.
I fear 'tis for this that I have been given up to such "hardness of
heart", not only since my long imprisonment but also since my just
condemnation. I now know not what will become of my distressed,
perishing soul. But I would humbly commit it unto the mercy of Cod in
Jesus Christ. Amen."
[Elizabeth at first pled not guilty, but after
sessions with Cotton Mather, did plead guilty. Whether or not
Elizabeth could have fashioned the above confession (or was guilty of
anything more than fornication) is a subject of speculation. It is to
be noted that Elizabeth is the sister of Hannah Emerson Dustin, about
whom Cotton Mather also wrote.]
Rootsweb.ancestry.com
"They Die in Youth And Their Life is Among the
Unclean"
The Life and Death of Elizabeth Emerson
By Peg Goggin Kearney
May 6, 1994
University of Southern Maine
On June 8, 1693 The Reverend Cotton Mather
delivered a sermon before a large crowd in Boston. Mather exhorted the
crowd, delivering what he unabashedly referred to as one of his
greatest sermons ever. 1 In the crowd sat Elizabeth Emerson,
singlewoman of Haverhill. Whether she sat penintently looking
downwards or definantly staring into Mather's eyes we can only
imagine. That the sermon was delivered for her benefit is undoubted.
The lecture was based upon Job 36:14, "They die in youth and their
life is among the unclean." 2
The life of Elizabeth Emerson would have been
wholly unremarkable were it not for three related events: The first
was a severe beating she suffered at the hands of her father when she
was a child; the second, the birth of her illegitimate daughter
Dorothy; and the third event, the reason for her presence in the
meeting hall that June day three hundred years ago, her death by
hanging for the crime of infanticide. 3
Elizabeth had been born in the town of Haverhill in
what was then the Massachusetts Bay Colony on January 26, 1664/65. She
was the sixth of fifteen children of Michael and Hannah Webster
Emerson, and one of only nine to survive infancy. Of her siblings who
did not survive infancy only one died before she was born, the
remainder were born and died during her lifetime.4 The tragedy of
frequent death in the Emerson household may have predisposed Elizabeth
to the crime for which she ultimately hanged. Death of children was
assuredly a part of life in early New England, and attitudes toward
infants would strike many twentieth century readers as callous. But a
certain distancing or lack of affection may well have allowed women,
such as Elizabeth's mother, to bear the burden of the frequent death
of their offspring.5 In fact, colonists frequently referred to their
infants and toddlers as "it" rather than he or she.
Michael and Hannah Emerson were among the early
settlers of Haverhill, though not founding members of the town. He was
variously employed as a contable, a Grand Juryman, a cordwainer, a
sealer of leather, and a tax collector.6 Despite the impressive sound
of this list, they were positions which those of greater estate would
endeavor to avoid. Michael Emerson's life, too, would have been wholly
unremarkable were it not for the fame of one daughter and the infamy
of another.
In 1666, when Elizabeth was but a year old, Michael
Emerson chose to move his family closer to town. He decided to settle
on Mill Street which was then in the heart of Haverhill. One of his
new neighbors, a Mr. White, evidently disliked either Michael, his
family, or perhaps both. It was decided by the town that if the
Emersons would "go back to the woods," they would grant him an
additional tract of land. Michael seeminly obliged the town and moved
two miles from the center, which at the time would indeed have been in
"the woods."7 This incident seems innocuous enough and is certainly a
unique and expedient way of resolving a neighborly difficulty in an
area rich in land. One wonders, though, what it was about the family
that so angered Mr. White. Undoubtedly, removal that far from town was
not only inconvenient but dangerous. The reason for the removal,
unfortunately, is not described by the record, but it certainly must
have been compelling.
Michael's first child, Hannah Emerson Dustin, was
born on December 23, 1657. She was destined to become famous in the
annals of New England history as the only female Indian captive ever
to have slain her captors and escaped, not only with her scalp but
with theirs as well.8 Hannah slew her captors with the help of Mary
Neff, another captive, and a young boy, Samuel Lennardson. Upon her
escape from her captors she realized she had forgotten to take
trophies of her exploit. She returned to the scene and took scalps
from the ten dead Indians; six children, two women and two men. She
and her little party managed to find their way down the Merrimac
River, from near present day Concord, New Hampshire, to their home in
Haverhill. She became a heroine to white New Englanders frustrated
with the long Indian wars.9
Violence was inescabable in the lives of early New
Englanders. Certain types of violence were unacceptable to community
standards, whereas other types were not only accepted but also
condoned. Among the types of condoned violence were not only violence
toward Indians, but also corporal punishment of children, servants and
in some cases wives.10 Children were often singled out as victims of
violence. The poetess Anne Bradstreet once wrote "some children (like
sowre land) are of so tough and morose a dispo[si]tion, that the
plough of correction must make long furrows upon their back."11 Surely
if so gentle a personage as Anne Bradstreet advocated corporal
punishment in the raising of children, then it must have been both
widespread and condoned. This very approval on a community-wide basis
serves as a counterpoint to the case that was brought before the
Quarterly Court of Essex County Massachusetts in May of 1676.
Michael Emerson was brought to court that May day
"for cruel and excessive beating of his daughter with a flail swingle
and for kicking her, was fined and bound to good behavior."12 The
daughter in question was Elizabeth.13
In November of the same year the back due portion
of his fine was abated because of Emerson's status as a grand juryman,
and he was freed from his bond for good behavior.14 Corporal
punishment in and of itself was not considered a crime, but the
excessive beating of a child did deserve punishment. Although
Michael's status as a grand juryman did help to get his fine abated
and perhaps influenced his release from the bond for good behavior, it
did not prevent his fellow grand jurymen from censuring him for the
cruelty of his act. What Elizabeth did to deserve such a beating is
unknown. Also, whether this beating was an isolated incident or a
pattern of violence in the family can only be guessed, but a court
case involving another family member may shed further light.
The case involved Elizabeth's younger brother
Samuel who was apprenticed to a John Simmons. Simmons was brought to
court by another of his servants, Thomas Bettis, in March of 1681.
Bettis claimed in his deposition that his "master haith this mani
yeares beaten me upon small and frivelouse ocasion." Bettis claimed
that Simmons had "brocke my hed twice, strucke me on the hed with a
great stick...tied me to a beds foott [and] a table foott" and a long
list of other injuries and insults suffered at his master's hand. He
begged the court to be allowed to leave his master. A number of
community members deposed that Bettis had, indeed, been beaten
excessively and had not been clothed properly. But Samuel Emerson took
his masters side in the suit saying, "that he had lived with his
master Simmons about four years and Bettis was very rude in the family
whenever the master was away, etc."15
Perhaps Samuel's deposition was a form of self
defence. After all, he still had to live with Simmons after the suit
was over. But maybe Samuel really did think that Bettis deserved the
beatings and that they were not excessive given the situation. If the
latter is true, it could indicate that this type of violence was by no
means foreign to Samuel Emerson's upbringing. In any event, Bettis was
told to return to his master's house, and there the record ends.
On April 10, 1686 Elizabeth Emerson gave birth to
her first child, an illegitimate daugher named Dorothy. There is some
controversy surrounding the father of her first child. Charles Henry
Pope in his book The Haverhill Emersons stated unequivocally that the
father of little Dorothy was Samuel Ladd of Haverhill. This is the
same Samuel Ladd who would later be named as the father of the dead
twins. Pope, in what can only be viewed as a noble attempt to salvage
the reputation of his ancestress, writes that "whatever else Elizabeth
might have been, she was certainly not promiscuous."16 But the Records
And Files Of The Ipswitch Quarterly Court reflect something quite
different. Michael Emerson accused a neighbor, Timothy Swan, of being
the father of Elizabeth's daughter Dorothy.17 Timothy Swan's father,
Robert Swan, Sr., vehemently denied the charge. Robert Swan went on
record as saying that it was unlikely that Timothy was the father as
he "...had charged him not to go into that wicked house and his son
had obeyed and furthermore his son could not abide the jade."18
The phrase "that wicked house" rings down through
the centuries. Why was Michael Emerson's house referred to as "wicked"
and why was Timothy forbidden to enter the house? Not that Timothy
Swan would have necessarily have had to enter the house in order to be
the father of Dorothy. It is possible and even likely that Elizabeth
contrived to get pregnant elsewhere. But why the phrase "wicked
house"?
Presumably Robert Swan and Michael Emerson were
well acquainted with one another. Robert Swan had even sold Michael
and his brother Robert Emerson "twenty or thirty acres of land."19
They had also voted on the same side in a dispute about moving the
meeting house to a different location. The breakdown of the meeting
house case is rather interesting as Nathaniel Saltonstall, a very
wealthy and respected member of the Haverhill community as well as a
member of the Court of Assists, and Robert Emerson, brother to Michael
but much wealthier and a member of the church in question,20 both came
down on the opposite side of the argument, favoring building the new
meetinghouse on the site of the old one.21 This would indicate that
the proposed location of the new meetinghouse was more convenient to
both Michael Emerson's and ?Robert Swan's households, i.e. they must
have been "neighbors."
Neighbors or otherwise, Robert Swan threatened to
"carry the case to Boston" if his son Timothy was formally accused of
being Dorothy Emerson's father.22
Nothing ever came of the charges against Timothy
and little Dorothy came into the world fatherless.
Elizabeth was 23 years old at the time of Dorothy's
birth. She still resided at her father's house. Three years previous
to Dorothy's birth Elizabeth had witnessed her sister Mary's
successful marriage to Hugh Matthews of Newbury on August 28, 1683.
Hugh and Mary were both sentenced by the Essex County Court in
September of 1683 to be "fined or severly whipped" for the crime of
fornication before marriage.23 No offspring of this alleged
fornication is mentioned in the records but that they did the deed and
subsequently had a successful marriage could not have gone unnoticed
by Elizabeth. Perhaps Elizabeth expected the same thing to happen to
her upon getting pregnant. And why not? The colonial court records are
literally strewn with cases involving fornication before marriage
where the parties did, indeed, get married and became respectable
members of the community. As we know, for Elizabeth, this would not be
her fate.
Elizabeth next appeared in the court records in May
of 1691, five years after the birth of Dorothy, when she was arrested
and charged with the murder of two bastard infants. On May 7, 1691
Elizabeth gave birth to twins sometime during the night in a trundle
bed at the foot of her parents bed. She managed to somehow hide the
birth from her parents, conceal the infants for three days in a trunk,
sew them up in a bag and bury them in the backyard of the Emerson
house.24
The Sunday following the birth, while her parents
were at church, some concerned citizens of Haverhill who suspected
that Elizabeth was pregnant went to the Emerson house to find her.
When they arrived at the Emerson home they inquired after Elizabeth's
health which she descibed to them as "not well." She was read a
warrant and told that the women who were present were appointed to
examine her.25 Elizabeth submitted to this examination without
protest. Meanwhile, the men went into the backyard and found the
bodies of the two infants sewn up in a bag and buried in a shallow
grave.
The discovery of the bodies led to statements being
taken by Nathaniel Saltonstall. The depositions of the parties
involved were similar. They suspected Elizabeth of being with child
and therefore sought her out that Sunday morning with the intent of
making inquiry. Elizabeth denied any wrongdoing, stating that she
"never murdered any child in my life." She also said "I never
committed a murther that I know of...." But the evidence against her
in the form of the infant bodies and the physical examination by the
women present, where they discovered Elizabeth to be post partum, was
overwhelming.
The following day, May 11th, Elizabeth, Michael and
Hannah Emerson were all questioned and a transcript of that exchange
is still extant. Elizabeth was asked her husband's name to which she
replied, "I have never [had] one." She confessed that she did give
birth to twins. When asked where they were born she replied, "On the
bed at my father's beds feet...." She stated that she did not call for
help during her travail because, "there was nobody near but my Father
and Mother and I was afraid to call my mother for fear of killing
her." When asked if she told her father or mother afterwards, she
replied, "No, not a word; I was afraid." Elizabeth was then questioned
as to whether either of her parents knew of her pregnancy to which she
replied that they did not know of the pregnancy, birth or burial of
them.
How could Elizabeth have given birth to twins in
the same room her parents were sleeping and kept it a secret from
them? The record indicates that her mother did suspect Elizabeth of
being pregnant but was told "no" every time she inquired of Elizabeth.
Elizabeth's fear of "killing" her mother denotes a certain amount of
love and respect, but what of her statement, "No, not a word; I was
afraid"? Elizabeth had, after all, been in this position before. She
already had one illegitimate child which her father had unsuccessfully
tried to pin on Timothy Swan. Could it be that the treatment she had
received from ther father after the incident with Robert Swan, Sr.
made her loathe to reveal to him her latest indiscretion? After all,
Michael was known to have beaten her severely at least once; perhaps
she was afraid of similar treatment if the truth was made known to
him. Whatever her reason, it must have been compelling for her to have
given birth to twins in complete silence while her parents slept mere
inches away.
Michael was also questioned on May 11th regarding
his daughter's crime. According to the transcript, he did not even
suspect that Elizabeth was with child, nor did he know of the birth or
burial of them. When asked if he knew who the father was, he stated
for the first time on the record, that the father of the children was
Samuel Ladd.
Samuel Ladd was a resident of Haverhill. He was
considerably older than Elizabeth, for he was married to his wife on
December 1, 1674 when Elizabeth was 9 years old. At the time of the
twins birth Pope gives his age as 42 and Elizabeth's as 28. Although
Samuel Ladd was named as the father of the children a number of times
in the court records, he was even said to be the one person who knew
of Elizabeth's pregnancy, he was never questioned about the matter.
Samuel Ladd's father, Daniel Ladd was on the list
of the first settlers of Haverhill in 1640.26 As a first settler he
would have received a considerable estate from the normal course of
land distribution. Samuel was referred to as Lieutenant Ladd,27 a high
rank in the Colonial militia, and he was paid more than twice the
amount of any of the other soldiers who formed the militia company
during King Philips War.28 Thus Samuel Ladd was not only the son of a
wealthy founder of the community but an important member of it in his
own right. As to the character of Samuel Ladd, a court case in which
he was involved may be instructive.
On June 9, 1677 Samuel Ladd "was fined for
misdemeanors." "Frances Thurla, aged about forty-five years, and Ane
Thurla, his wife, testified that in the evening after Mr. Longfelow's
vessel was launched, about nine or ten o'clock, and after he and his
family were in bed, having shut the door and bolted it, Sameull Lad of
Haverhill and Thomas Thurla's man, Edward Baghott, came to their
house. One or both of them went into the leanto where their daughter
Sarah lay, and having awakened her urged her to rise and go to her
aunt's, telling her that she was very sick. Whereupon deponent arose
and seeing one at the door reproved him for being there, and
mistrusting that there was one with his daughter, as he went to light
a candle, Samuell Lad leaped out of the house. Sworn in court."29
For this Samuel Ladd was found guilty of a
misdemeanor. What was he doing at Frances Thurla's house after all had
retired to bed? Why had he tried to get Sarah to leave the house and
go to her aunt's? And if her aunt were, in fact, sick, why did he not
tell Sarah's parents, as the aunt presumably would have been sister to
one of them? Was Samuel Ladd bent upon the seduction of young Sarah
Thurla? At the time of the incident Samuel had been married for three
years.
This was the man accused of being the father of the
dead twins. Why he was never questioned regarding his involvement is
unknown. Perhaps it was his relative standing in the community that
saved him. He was, after all, the son of a founder and somewhat
wealthy himself based upon his position in the community. The Emersons
were undoubtedly much poorer. And certainly, the fact that Elizabeth
already had one bastard child made her testimony as to the patrimony
of the twins suspect.
Samuel Ladd did eventually reap some kind of poetic
justice for his part in Elizabeth's demise. On February 22, 1697/98 he
was killed during an Indian raid.30 He left a wife and five
(legitimate) children.
Elizabeth's mother Hannah was the next to be
questioned regarding her daughter's crime. She stated for the record
that she suspected her daughter was pregnant but as she was big, she
could not tell and Elizabeth would not confess to it. She was then
accused of being the one to sew them up in a bag but again she denied
any knowledge of it. She too named Samuel Ladd as the father of the
children.
The women who were sent to the house to examine
Elizabeth also gave testimony at the same time as the Emersons. They
testified that one of the children had its navel string twisted about
its neck. There was apparently no sign of violence to either of the
children but in their opinion one or both of them died "for want or
caer att the time of travell."31
With these statements went another intriguing
document. In it, Elizabeth confessed that Samuel Ladd was the father
of the children and that the "place of his begetting...was at Rob't
Clements inn house."32 Elizabeth also states for the record that
Samuel is the only man with whom she had slept, indicating by this
that he was not only the father of the dead twins but the father of
Dorothy as well, contrary to her father's assertion that Timothy Swan
was the father of Dorothy.
There is no record of Robert Clements running an
inn or tavern, though he is listed as one of the founders of the
town.33 It is entirely possible that he was running an unlicensed
ordinary as this was not an uncommon practice at the time. Evidently
Samuel Ladd and Robert Clements were well acquainted with one another
as they were close neighbors. Nathaniel Saltonstall was later to write
of the perfidy of tavern houses 34 and could well have been thinking
of this case when he wrote it.
Elizabeth was remanded to the custody of the Boston
prison on May 13, 1691, accompanied by a letter from Nathaniel
Saltonstall. In this letter he writes that he had Elizabeth before him
on May 11th and 13th..."upon examination for whore-dom." He then
reiterated the facts of the case as they were known and commanded the
prison keeper to safely keep her in prison until she "shal be thence
delivered by due order of Law."35
Elizabeth was kept in prison until September 1691
when she was sentenced to hang for her crime. Previous to this case it
was a crime in England to conceal the death of a bastard child. This
law, though repealed in England by the time of the Emerson case, was
still on the books in the Massachusetts Bay.36 Therefore, while it was
never sufficiently proven that she intentionally killed her children,
such proof was unnecessary as their very concealment was considered to
be a crime. She did maintain her innocence of the charge throughout
the proceedings but that was of little consequence, even though by
1691 convictions on the charge of concealment of the death of a
bastard were waning. Nathaniel Saltonstall's comment that she had been
examined for "whore-dom" was, perhaps, more to the point. It could be
that the good people of Haverhill had tired of the antics of Elizabeth
and had determined that being a whore, she could just as easily be a
murderess. The society at large may have wanted to point to her as a
warning to their own children. At the time, fewer and fewer of the
children of the first settlers were owning the covenant and that was
certainly a cause for great concern among the "saints."
Although convicted in September 1691 Elizabeth was
not hanged until June 8, 1693. In the interim she came under the care
and guidance of the Reverend Cotton Mather. How he found time to
minister to Elizabeth while at the same time actively pursuing the
Salem Witch Trials is unknown. Perhaps it was purely convenience, as
Elizabeth was incarcerated in Boston, presumably with the unfortunate
victims of the witchcraft hysteria. He did, however, get her to do
something which nobody else could, to "confess." During his sermon on
Job 36:14 he read to the congregation what he claimed was a confession
given him by Elizabeth. He writes that she confessed that "when they
were born, I was not unsensible, that at least, One of them was alive;
but such a Wretch was I, as to use a Murderous Carriage towards them,
in the place where I lay, on purpose to dispatch them out of the
World." What did she mean by "murderous carriage?" Did she lay upon
them or did she merely neglected them? Or were they, as per her
initial assertion, truly stillborn?
According to Mather, she claimed that she should
have listened to her parents, that she was "always of an Haughty and
Stubborn Spirit." and that "Bad Company" was what led to her downfall.
Although her confession is very moving and seemingly sincere, Cotton
Mather was not moved. He claimed that she "has more to confess, I
fear..." and held little hope for her salvation. According to Mather
"there never was Prisoner more Hard-Hearted, and more Unfruitful than
you have been..."37
It is a little puzzling that Mather was so
disappointed with his prisoner. She did, after all, confess her crime
and exhort the rising generation not to follow in her footsteps.
Perhaps she did not confess readily enough to suit him. She was in
prison for a little over two years and under those circumstances would
surely have been broken into a confession at the hands of a less
expert confessor than Mather. She may have continued to protest her
innocence until very near the end, disappointing Mather who would have
wanted to use her for his own ends.
Elizabeth was executed in Boston on that June day
in 1693 and there her story ends. Dorothy, her daughter, also
diseappeared from the record, and one can't help but wonder at her
fate. Michael, in his last will dated 1709, left distributions of a
few shillings to at least some of his grandchildren, but Dorothy was
noticeably absent.38
Elizabeth may be seen in a number of different
ways, as either victim or murderer, as evil or misguided. Her
concealment of the birth seems unintellibible to many but in the
context of a 17th century Puritan home it may be understandable,
particularly in light of Michael Emerson's known temper. That Samuel
Ladd certianly bore responsiblity is undeniable. That he was not even
questioned can only be seen as a result of his class and standing in
the community. Was she coerced into sexual relations, and when the
result was made known to him did he exhort her to silence? Perhaps,
but by her own admission she had slept with Ladd many times. If he was
the father of Dorothy as well as the twins they must have had a
relationship lasting over five years. Such a relationship would not be
seen as adulterous, as adultery was defined by the marital status of
the woman.
But what of Michael Emerson's charge in court that
Timothy Swan was Dorothy's father? The Swans and the Emersons were
from the same social strata of Haverhill society. It may have been
easier to try to claim paternity of his grandchild was the
responsibility of an unmarried young neighbor than that of a high
ranking, older married man. Perhaps Elizabeth herself, weighing the
options, chose to lie to her father regarding Dorothy's paternity,
hoping that Timothy would marry her or seeking to protect Samuel from
scandal. Eventually the truth must have come out as both of
Elizabeth's parents name Samuel Ladd without hesitation as the father
of the twins. One thinks they may have known of their relationship
prior to the discovery of the dead girls.
If Elizabeth had lived in the 20th century her life
would have been very different. Rarely is the charge of whore-dom
meted out today. In today's society it would be her sister, Hannah
Dustin, seen as the murderess, and Elizabeth as only an unfortunate
girl, a victim of circumstance. But in the context of the 17th century
Elizabeth was seen as the result of a moral degeneration that was very
real and very frightening to Puritans of the first generation. A vast
falling away from godliness in New England, not to be rectified until
the next century's Great Awakening. With nowhere to turn in her
society, she sought to hide her pregnancy as long as possible, and
when the twins were either born dead or died shortly thereafter, she
took what steps she thought necessary to conceal her sin from her
parents and from the community. How many others who did likewise were
not caught?
Footnotes:
1. Charles Henry Pope, The Haverhill Emersons
(Boston: Murray and Emery, 1913-1916, p. 27.
2. Cotton Mather, "Warnings From the Dead", Boston
1693 (Early American Works #665), pp. 35-67.
3. She was convicted of murdering twin female
infants.
4. Pope, The Haverhill Emerson's, p. 25.
5. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Good Wifes, Image and
Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England 1650-1750 (New
York: Oxford University Press) pp. 157-158.
6. Pope, The Haverhill Emersons, p. 11.
7. Ibid, p. 12.
8. This event is cited in a number of different
sources. Among these are Good Wives, pp. 167-170; The Haverhill
Emersons, pp21-23; and Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana,
(Boston, 1702, reprinted New Haven, 1820) Book VII, pp. 550-551.
9. Hannah may have felt she had just cause to slay
her captors. During the raid in which she was captured the Indians
dashed her days old infant's brains out against a tree. This was a
common practice among Native Americans involved in capturing white New
Englanders for eventual ransom as an infant would have slowed down the
raiding party.
10. Good Wives, pp. 187-188.
11. Anne Bradstreet, "Meditations," in The Works of
Anne Bradstreet, ed. John Harvard Ellis (Gloucester, Mass.: Peter
Smith, 1962) p. 65.
12. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of
Essex County Massachusetts, (Salem, Mass.: Essex Institute, 1917), VI,
p. 141. Herafter referred to as ECR.
13. There is some discrepency as to the age of
Elizabeth at the time of this beatin. Charles Henry Pope in The
Haverhill Emersons, p. 12, gives her age as nine. At the time of the
court hearing Elizabeth would have been eleven.
14. ECR, VI, p. 212-213.
15. ECR, VIII, p. 91-92.
16. Pope, The Haverhill Emersons, p. 25.
17. ECR, IX, p. 603.
18. Ibid.
19. Pope, The Haverhill Emersons, p. 11.
20. Pope, The Haverhill Emersons, pp. 15-16.
21. Charles Wingate Chase, History of Haverhill
Massachusetts (Somersworth, NH: New England History Press, 1861;
reprint 1983), pp. 138-139.
22. ECR, IX, p. 603.
23. ECR, IX, p. 93.
24. The following is from Suffolk Court, Early
Files, 2636.
25. One of the women, Mary Neff, was the same woman
who later accompanied Hannah (Emerson) Dustin into captivity and
helped to slay their Indian captors.
26. Pope, The Haverhill Emersons, p. 38.
27. Ibid, p. 48.
28. Ibid, p. 128. In fact, Samuel Ladd was paid
3.17.00 while the man nearest him on the payroll was paid only
1.17.00. Ironically, that man was Robert Swan. No Emersons are listed
on the militial roll.
29. ECR, IX, p. 344.
30. Pope, The Haverhill Emersons, p. 26.
31. Suffolk Court, Early Files, 2636.
32. Ibid.
33. Pope, The Haverhill Emersons, p. 47.
34. Ibid, p. 157.
35. Collections of the Massachusetts Historical
Society. May 1691, p. 203.
36. N.E.H. Full, Female Felons (Urbana: University
of Illinois Press, 1987), p. 34. For the primary source documents on
crimes punishable by death in the Massachusetts Bay see Acts and
Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 21
vols. (Boston, 1869-1922), 1, p. 55-56 (1692).