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Robert Treat Paine Papers

Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4

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From David Cobb

19 June 1782

To Joshua Thomas

24 June 1782
Commonwealth versus Lucy Pernam on the charge of arson

See November 1781 for first part of trial and summary.

Trial notes RTP
Essex Supr. Ct. Ipswich June 17821

Comnwlth vs. Lucy Pernam, Arson

Huldah Todd. barn burnt Octr. 21 last the morning after I saw Lucy she sd. she had been to the Evening meeting & got the fire to burn the barn. I was telling my neighbour of the barn being burnt: Todd heard her then: no threats, no questions. Betty Cressy I was talking with Hul. Todd abt. the burning the barn. Todd came along with Lucy Todd sd. she came out of meeting before it was done. Lucy then sd. she got the fire to burn it after she came out: & turned & pointed to our barn & said it is a wonder that Barn has not been burn’t before now. Lucy Todd the morning after the Barn was burnt, she said she intended the House should have been burnt but as it was not she wished everyone had been in the barn & had been sent to Hell before morning; PM she was sitting 212 on the cell of the Door she said would be revenged for such treatment. you see wt. you have got by it, she wd. be as good as her word it was not half so bad as she would do, you see I am as good as my word Sarah Sanders Sunday Evening I was coming from Lecture. I saw between 8 & 9 oClock a Person coming to me she showd me I saw it was Luce I asked her where she was going she went the back side of the Meeting House. She said she had been after Mr. Jewett & was in a great hurry, was walking from the Barn, abt. 20 Rods in the Road in a few minutes I saw the fire break out in the Barn & burn down Wm. Todd in July before: we encountered her in the Garden just before day break she said she was lost; my wife charged her with stealing. she sd. dammd us sd. shd. be a Dead Corpse before morning. If I had you alone I’d let yr. breast blood out & wash my hands in it; I will burn yr. barn the first Opportunity. I can go to Mr. Jewett & get fire in a Mugg & burn you all up. the morning after barn burnt she folded her hands & sd. she had a glorious night last night: when they took her they put a chain on her & chain’d her to the Post Ebenezer Todd, the Threats in July. PM after Barn burnt I saw here at Mrs. Todds George Todd in the morning early she was in the road coming to the Barn. I met her she turned abt. I overtook her, she turned I asked her how she came to burn my Barn. she sd. I did not know it was she that did it. She went with me to my house in the course of the day she said she might know she did not burnt it because she did not run away from me: the barn I hired had 10 Load of Hay & twenty bushel of Grain Ruth Freeman I was coming from the meeting I met her; she said to herself Good Lord I have done the Jobb for them I swear I have. I soon saw the Fire: at Lecture she said what is this dam’d noise abt. are you fighting Mr. Bradbury for Pris. Benja. Adams Something seem’d to ail her more than other people, the evning the barn was burnt while burning I saw her 25 R from meeting house with Boys abt. her. I have thought her Disorder moral especially that morning 213 Wm. Ingals I have known her for 15 years for 10 yr. last I have thought her in some little degree disordered, she has been free squarely in my Custody; she wd. read & pray & sing Psalms. I thought for a shew Nathl. Foster I knew her before her marriage, she soon grew crazy at times Theo: Parsons Esqr. 3 or 4 yrs. ago. She cryed when I ordered her from Goal & she immediately she fell to singing John Harris. I saw her come into the Lecture; stop’t 2 or 3 minutes: said I wont stay here the Devil is here; I thought she acted like one from whom all restraints was taken off. more Delusions Col: Gage next morning, we had a Chh. meeting: I heard from the Barn Lord have mercy on me I saw her chained to a post, a Rope abt. her Neck. Dirt thrown, water &c. I did not see any of the Todds there; Col. Dudley Colman I have known her a long while, she behaved regularly at first, she would behave well & then ill very suddenly, she was sent out of Camp

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the Indictment is for two things a House & a Barn, it should have been a House with a Barn he makes a distinction: Blackstone Com: 4th 349. the Evidence so strong as to admit of no contradt. Crazy Persons are capable of reasoning: she sd. she did not burn the Barn, & sd. she would not have been found but absconded taken witht. any Authority of Law suppose some other person should confess they had done it send her into the Eternal sun she would not have interrupted Religious Worship if not crazy if she burnt the Barn it might have been proved where she got the fire: it should not have been mentioned Mr. Sullivan burning a barn with Hay & Grain chargeable your business leads you to the plough &c & therefore I give you the rules of Evidence Black Com. 4th: 352: prescriptive Eviden. cautiously: the story of the neice: 214 the case of the negro’s confessing: The Todds interested, & did not see her chained no man in a free Country is obliged to accuse themselves: The abuses she met with. did you ever know Boys surround any but a crazy Person The Effects of the Preaching

MS .

1.

The grand jury testimony and indictment for this case are printed above, Nov. 1781 . The case was heard at the June 1782 session of the Supreme Judicial Court held at Ipswich before Chief Justice William Cushing and associate justices Nathaniel Peaslee Sargeant and David Sewall. The jury, composed of Israel Bartlett (foreman), Robert Dodge, John Goodhue, Jeremiah Pearson, Thomas Townsend, John Endicott, Joshua Cleaves, Richard Dodge, Stephen Perkins, Jacob Gould, Eliphalet Hardy, and Bernard Hoite, found Lucy Pernam not guilty.