April 21, 1778

Worcester Ss. At the Superiour Court of Judicature Court of Assize and general Goal delivery begun and holden at Worcester within & for the County of Worcester on the Tuesday next preceeding the last Tuesday of April in the year of our Lord Seventeen hundred & seventy eight

The Jurors for the Government and People of the Massachusetts Bay in New England upon their oaths present that William Brooks resident at Charlestown in the County of Middlesex Labourer James Buchannon1 of the same Charlestown Labourer and Ezra Ross2 of Ipswich in the County of Essex Labourer, not having GOD before their Eyes but being moved & seduced by the instigation of the Devil on the first day of March last past with force and Arms, at Brookfeild aforsaid in the County aforsaid feloniously wilfully and of their malice aforethought in and upon Joshua Spooner3 of said Brookfeild then & there in the peace of GOD and of the said Government & people being an assault did make, and that the aforsaid William Brooks with his right fist the said Joshua Spooner to and against the Ground then & there feloniously wilfully and of his malice 33 aforethought did strike down, and the same Joshua Spooner so on the Ground, lying, he the said William Brooks with both his hands & feet of him the said William Brooks in and upon the back, head Stomach, Sides & throat of him the said Joshua Spooner then and there feloniously wilfully & of his malice aforethought did strike beat & kick, giving to him the said Joshua Spooner, as well as by the Striking down of him the said Joshua Spooner to the Ground as aforsaid, as also by the striking beating & kicking the said Joshua Spooner in & upon the back, head Stomach, sides & throat of him the said Joshua Spooner as aforsaid with both the hands & feet of him the said William Brooks in manner aforsaid, several mortal bruizes, of which said several mortal bruizes the said Joshua Spooner there instantly died. And the James Buchannon aforsaid and Ezra Ross aforsaid, feloniously & of their malice aforethought, then and there were present, aiding, assisting, abetting, comforting & maintaining the aforsaid William Brooks to the felony and murder aforsaid, in form aforsaid to be done and Committed. And so the Jurors aforsaid upon their oaths aforsaid do say, that the said William Brooks James Buchannon & Ezra Ross the aforsaid Joshua Spooner at Brookfeild aforsaid, in manner and & form aforsaid, feloniously, wilfully & of their malice aforethought killed & murthered, against the peace of the Government & people aforsaid: and that Bathsheba Spooner of Brookfeild in the County of Worcester Widow, late Wife of the said Joshua Spooner not having GOD before her Eyes, but being seduced by the Instigation of the Devil, before the felony and murder aforsaid, by the aforsaid William Brooks, James Buchannon and Ezra Ross and Baths in manner and form aforsaid done and Committed, that is to say on the twenty eighth day of February last past the aforsaid Bathsheba Spooner at Brookfeild aforsaid in the County of Worcester aforsaid, the felony and Murder aforsaid in manner & form aforsaid to be done and Committed maliciously, wilfully and of her malice aforethought did, incite, move abett, Councel and procure, against the peace of the Government & people aforsaid

a true bill R T Paine Atty pr. Stat. Samuel Denny form:

Worcester Superiour Court

April Term 1778— The said William Brooks, James Buchannon, Ezra Ross & Bathsheba Spooner ware brought & sit to the Bar here, by the 34 Sheriff of Worcester County, and arraigned; and upon their arraingment they severally plead “That thereof they are not guilty & thereof they put themselves, forunclear> trial, on god and the Countery.”

Att. M Smith Clerk

MS (Suffolk Files, no. 152958. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, division of Archives and Records Preservation, Boston, Mass.). The coroner’s inquisition is in the same file. Brackets represent a tear on the page.

1.

Sgt. James Buchannon (c. 1742–1778), a Scot, and Pvt. William Brooks (c. 1751–1778), an Englishman, were among the British forces surrendered by Gen. John Bugoyne, Oct. 17, 1777. They are said to have been kept in a camp at Rutland, Mass., from which they escaped (“The Dying Declaration of James Buchanan, Ezra Ross, and William Brooks, Who Were Executed at Worcester, July 2, 1778, for the Murder of Mr. Joshua Spooner,” contemporary broadside reprinted in Deborah Navas, Murdered by His Wife [Amherst, Mass., 1999], 111–117).

2.

Ezra Ross (1761–1778) was a native of Ipswich, Mass., and served in the 26th Massachusetts Regiment under the command of Col. Loammi Baldwin from Dec. 1775 until his discharge in Dec. 1776 (Navas, Murdered by His Wife, 8–10).

3.

Joshua Spooner (1741–1778) married Bathsheba Ruggles (1746–1778) in 1766. They had four children and lived in Brookfield, Mass. He was born into a prosperous Boston merchant family, and she was the daughter of Gen. Timothy Ruggles, who was commander of all the Massachusetts troops during the French and Indian Wars, remained loyal to the Crown during the Revolution, and died in exile in Nova Scotia (Navas, Murdered by His Wife, 30; E. Alfred Jones, The Loyalists of Massachusetts: Their Memorials, Petitions, and Claims [London, 1930], 251–253).