A Colonial Abortion Drama
This is one chapter of a book I am working on, a primary source reader for American history courses. My idea is to give students the opportunity not just to read about history, but to actually do some history. Each chapter will contain a selection of primary source documents organized around a single event, theme or historical question. By reading and comparing the documents, students will piece together the historical puzzle. The title of the book will be Voices from the Margins, since many of the chapters will be devoted to events, questions, and people who are in my opinion glossed over in most standard textbooks. Other chapters will look at first contacts between Indians and whites, the ordeal at Jamestown, the religious beliefs of the Founders, the spectacle of lynching in 19ths century America, Victorian sexual ideas and devices, and the sanity or lack thereof of Richard Nixon. What you have here is something of a rough draft, your reactions, advice, and comments are very eagerly solicited!
I. The Introduction
Sometime in 1741, in the Connecticut village of Pomfret, Amasa Sessions began keeping company with Sarah Grosvenor. There was nothing unusual in that. Sarah and Amasa were unmarried young people from two of Pomfret s leading families. But theirs was to be no fairytale romance. Instead, the relationship between Sarah and Amasa would be marked by illegal drugs, midnight burials, an agonizing death, and charges of murder.
Pomfret was a fairly typical New England village of the early 1700s. Originally home to the Nipmunk Indians, the first English families settled the area in the 1690s, many of them from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The settlers built clapboard houses, a meeting hall and a church. They planted Indian corn, rye, and wheat and grazed cattle and sheep. By the 1740, mills and a schoolhouse had been built, and Pomfret was connected to the wider world by a wagon road that went to Norwich and Boston.
Sarah and Amasa lived in a time when New Englanders were changing their ideas about sexual responsibility and moral behavior. New England had been settled by rigid Puritans, who believed that all sin should be punished. The English Puritans who came to America in the early 1600s believed that they had a duty to observe and regulate the behavior of every member of the community. The sexuality of young people was a particular concern and early criminal codes give a vivid window into the Puritan mindset. For example, young people who gathered outside in the evening without permission of their parents could be charged with nightwalking (the colonial version of cruising!)and fined or sentenced to the stocks.
There was no double standard in the 1600s. Both men and women who broke the laws could expect to be punished. For example, the town fathers of Ipswich, Massachusetts commanded the whipping of both men and women for fornication, and ordered that one John Palmer be severely whipped for attempting uncleanness with Elizabeth White in her master s house. [1] When a pair of lovers in another Massachusetts town tried to continue their courtship over the objections of the young woman s father, both were whipped for offeringe and attemptinge to doe the act of fornication. [2]
Yet even the sternest Puritans understood that laws could not always curb youthful passion. The answer was to encourage young people to form appropriate marriages. So along with whipping and fines, one of the penalties for fornication was enjoyning marriage that is, forcing the amorous couple to marry. Appropriate marriages were further encouraged by a curious dating ritual known as bundling, where a young couple were allowed to lie together in bed. They lay together under the covers but fully clothed. Sometimes a long wooden plank called a bundling board was placed between them.
Modern readers will not be surprised to learn that a large proportion perhaps 20 or even 30% of colonial New England brides were already pregnant at the time of their marriage. When an unwed woman became pregnant in the small communities of early New England, the identity of the father was usually no mystery. Both the man and woman faced punishment in such cases, but the punishment was much less if they married before the child was born. The pressure on the young man to make an honest woman of his girlfriend was intense. If an illegitimate child was produced, the man and woman responsible could expect equal punishment, which might include whipping, imprisonment, and a fine. Small wonder that in the 1600s and first decades of the 1700s, such pregnancies almost always led to marriage.
But by 1740 a double standard of sexual morality was emerging. New England was growing, the towns and villages were larger, and the people were more mobile. Even in the smaller villages, neighbors did not know one another as well as they had in the past. An increase in non-farm occupations such as merchant, artisan, and laborer gave young men more options than they had in the past, and left them more free to defy parental and community authority. In this changing world, young men discovered that they could plausibly deny their sexual responsibility in many cases. If a man claimed that a certain child was not his, it was hard to prove otherwise. In the absence of any certain proof which rarely exists in such cases judges and juries were reluctant to convict young men. The full legal and social weight of society began to fall on the young women who bore illegitimate children. Fear and desperation caused some young women to perform atrocious acts. In the mid and late 1700s there was a sharp rise in the numbers of convictions for infanticide.
A Note on the Documents:
What you are about to read are a series of legal documents, mostly depositions to the grand jury in Windham County, Connecticut. These are not transcripts of court testimony, no such transcripts were kept at the time. Rather, they are the evidence that was gathered to see whether or not a trial was warranted. The county sheriff went to interview people who had some knowledge of the case, recorded their testimony, and sent it on to the Grand Jury. These depositions offer a fascinating look at an aspect of colonial society that is otherwise inaccessible to the historian.
The original documents are now in the Connecticut State archives. I photocopied the crumbling yellow originals and typed them up. I have modernized much of the spelling and grammar of the originals to make them more readable, but tried to leave enough of the originals to give you a feeling of what they were like. In cases where it was not quite clear what was meant in the original, and I have kept the ambiguous words or sentence exactly as it was in the original. The sections in italics before each document are my own explanations, meant to help you through the reading.
How to read the Documents:
These depositions tell a story. It is your job to read the depositions and figure the story out. As is often the case with primary sources (and especially court documents!), some of these depositions contradict one another. In these cases, it is your job to weigh the evidence and decide what you think is the truth. In particular, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- What happened? Who did what to whom?
- What is the trade that several depositions refer to? Do you think it was rare or common in colonial Connecticut?
3. Why didn t Amasa and Sarah get married when she discovered she was pregnant? What did each of them want?
- How was the decision to take the trade reached?
- How many people knew that Sarah was pregnant, and who were they?
- How did Amasa attempt to justify his actions?
- Who was Doctor Hallowell, and what was his status in the community?
- Be able to describe the abortion. Where did it take place? When was the baby expelled? When, and from what cause, did Sarah die?
- What happened to Amasa Sessions?
- Overall, what does this story tell us about New England society in the mid-1700s?
II. The Evidence
Indictment of Sessions and Hallowell
This is the second or three indictments issued by the Grand Jury. At first, Zerviah Grosvenor and Abigail Nightingale were also charged as accessories in the death of Sarah. Eventually, for reasons unknown, charges were dropped against everyone except Doctor Hallowell.
Windham County
Windham Superior Court
Sept. 20th 1746
The Grand Jurors of our Sovereign Lord the King upon their oaths present:
That one Sarah Grosvenor late of Pomfret was in the summer season in the year 1742 found to be pregnant five months gone with child, by her alleged to have been begotten by one Amasa Sessions of Pomfret.
That Sarah then being in full life and health and free from all bodily unsoundness or disorder in such her pregnancy, Amasa Session did then apply unto one John Hallowell late of Killingly in said county, now of Providence, in the colony of Rhode Island Practitioner of Physick. And with his advice of and concerning such medicines and medicinal applications as might most effectively procure an abortion and immature the fruit of her womb from her.
That Hallowell did accordingly counsel and advise Amasa Sessions of medicines best adapted to said purpose or the use and application of them to the end and also these then him therewith supply.
That Amasa Sessions did soon after repair to Sarah and her importune and persuade said medicine by him to proceed to take to the purpose above. And she on such his persuasion did so . . .
That since such time after such taking, Hallowell did also repair to Sarah and by force and arms on her body an assault make her, and then with his own hands did grievously hurt and wound and with great force and violence endeavor to cause her said child to depart from her. And Amasa Sessions was thereunto privy and consenting.
That thereupon by force of said noxious and destructive operation of said medicines administered or by the force and violence by John Hallowell applied as above, Sarah for & during the space of about two days languished and was then of child immature and without life delivered. And from thence for the first seven or eight days after such expended delivery, and then [she was] taken with great pain and fever and so continued for about the space of three weeks and then died.
Whereupon the jurors do say that Amasa Sessions and John Hallowell, not having fear of God before their eyes but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil, did willfully, wickedly and maliciously counsel, advise, contrive and together conspire [against] the health and soundness of Sarah to destroy the fruit of her body [and] to destroy and cause [her] to perish. All which is heinous and high handed offense and misdemeanor against the peace of our sovereign and lord the King and the common right of the land and of his majesties liege subjects of their government.
Deposition of Zerviah Grosvenor
Zerviah was Sarah Grosvenor s sister.
When reading this document note that Zerviah s story has a time lapse.
Zerviah Grosvenor testifieth and saith that being in discourse [talking] with my late sister Sarah some time in the month of July before her death, and being suspicious that she was with child, I asked her whether it was so, which she declined owning and went away sorrowful.
And in a day or two after she was taken sick, and as we apprehended was in danger of a fever. And hearing that Doctor Hallowell was at one of our neighbors, my Mother desired me to go and call him, which being done he came along with me to see her. Then I told Doctor Hallowell I feared she was with child, which if it was time I desired him to know of her [examine her] & not give her any thing that should harm her. He being come to the house desired all save my late sister to leave the room which we did; and immediately on his coming out told me she was not with child.
But my suspicion continuing I urged him several times while he was with her that day to let me know if it was so, but he declared as often that there was nothing in it. He also told her that she need not keep house, and moved her . . . down to cousin John Grosvenors, which she did, I also going down with her. And we tarrying there till evening, he advised her not to go home that night, on which I left her there with the doctor and returned home. Soon after which Mr. [Amasa] Sessions came to our house and inquiring after her, I told him where she was, on which he went down to her. And as I perceived they stayed there that night together but what was done, I know not.
The next day my sister came home and was not well. A few days after which I asked her again whether she was not with child & urged her to let me know if it was so, telling her the longer it was known the better, on which she began to cry & owned that it was true. Then I asked her why she did not let me know it before, she answered because she had been taking trade to remove it. I asked her why she did so telling her that I thought the last error was worse than the first. I also asked her how long it was since she began to take the trade. She answered ever since she knew it was so [that she was pregnant].
I asked her where she had [gotten] the trade. She said of Doctor Hallowell and that Sessions was of mind to have her take it. Soon after which Mr. Sessions came to see her. And I informed him what my sister had told me, letting him know that I was very sorry for what had happened and advising them immediately to marry and not any farther to take any unlawful measures, asking him why they had taken the method they had. To which he replied because he was afraid of his parents and that they would always make their lives uncomfortable. Then I asked him whether he thought it was not his child, or whether he did not desire to have her. To which he answered he had not the least suspicion but that it was his and that he desired to marry her if they lived. And they immediately agreed to be published the Sabbath following.*
But that not being done [the banns were never published] the Sabbath evening, Mr. Sessions came again to see her and brought some trade with him. And on inquiring in the reason of it being neglected & him pretending to give her anything more to make her miscarry, and my opposing the same Mr. Sessions said that both he and the doctor thought is was necessary to giver her more, or they were afraid she would be greatly hurt by what was already done. Soon after which he took a paper of powder out of his pocket and persuading, prevailed with her to take some of it and carried off the rest, telling me that he would see that she took it himself for that Hallowell said he had given sufficient before to have done the business had not either she or myself thrown it away.
A little after which Doctor Hallowell came to John Grosvenors, and according to the best of my remembrance sent up one of their children to call my late sister down. And a little after she was gone I went down after her and found them together. And presently on it the doctor desired her to go into a room with him, and some time after they had been together the Doctor called in cousin Hannah. And immediately they desired me to bring in some cold water for that my sister was faint, which I immediately got and carried in, asking them what was the matter. And they gave me to understand that he (viz the doctor) had made an attempt to deliver her, and likewise informed me that he had done that which would make it necessary for the child to come away. And that her circumstances were such as made it needful for him to proceed. Soon after which I left the room and on coming in again perceived by their discourse [talking] that he had made another attempt upon her. Some time after which she [Sara] returned home and within a day or two miscarried, having at the same time an ague fit. After which she revived and seemed considerable comfortable for a few days and then as seized with a violent pain in one of her limbs and an ague fit, and on it followed a fever which with sundry of ague fits continued for the space of about four or five weeks and then she died. All which the deponent declares to be the truth.
Zerviah Grosvenor
Deposition of Hannah Grosvenor
Hannah was married to Sara s
cousin John. Note that the testimony changes from first person to third
person.
Hannah Grosvenor declared that sometime in the month of July she was told by Sarah Grosvenor that she was with child, and knew but little more about it. But in the latter end of July or the beginning of August 1742, Doctor John Hallowell came to the house where Hannah Grosvenor dwells, and desired the liberty of a room or chambers, which was granted him, he saying he was weary and wanted to rest. And accordingly he went into the rooms alone. And some little time after, Sarah came into the house while he was there alone, which he perceiving, soon came out, and after some private conference together between them, Hallowell and Sarah went into the room together, and shut the door and fastened it. And after they had been in a little while, he came to the door, and desired Hannah to come in.
And she [Hannah] went in and was much surprised, and immediately called Zerviah Grosvenor who was in the other room to come in, and found Sarah lying on the bed very faint. And we inquired what was the matter, and he gave us to understand, he had been making an attempt on the body of Sarah to take the child of which she was pregnant away from her. And Hannah opposed it with as much zeal as she was capable of. He replied to her it was of necessity to be done, for she had taken so much trade to destroy the child, that now if it was not taken away it would destroy her own life. And according to the best of my remembrance he used a further force upon her while I was by, and he set me to hold a bottle of drops to her nose,and the doctor gave her drops and she revived. And he said he had done so much to her, as would cause the birth of the child in a little time.
This was in the after part of the day, and before the sun was down she went home, and her sister Zerviah went home together to her own father s house. And I think the next day or day after she was delivered of an untimely birth. Because I was called in by Zerviah to Sarah, and I found her very ill, and a child which I saw, that I conclude came from her, none else being in the room . . . And by the appearance of the child, which was not half so large as children commonly are when born, and the place where I saw it was in a common chamber pot, and the child with all that belonged to it did not half fill it. And the child did not appear to have any life in it, and it seemed by the scent from the child that it had been hurt and was decaying. And we took the child wrapped it up and conveyed it away and buried it. I am not certain whether I can find the place; it was in Capt. Grosvenor s wood land. And she remained for seven or eight days in a mending way, and was so as to go down into the lower room and walk about, and then was taken very sick and died about a month after. And Doctor Hallowell and Doctor Cokor were with her in her sickness, and Doctor Hallowell was principally improved. And I think Amasa Sessions applied to him for her and went to fetch Hallowell, and I heard the family say he called him, and I think I saw them go there together. And further she says that when she came into the room, where she supposes said Sarah was delivered, she found said Sarah on the pot in which the child was, and she rose from it on my coming in.
Thus declared Hannah Grosvenor.
The following are
addendums to the deposition of Hannah Grosvenor.
Zerviah adds:
Just before her sickness, I found that Sarah was with child, and that she had been taking medicines of Doctor Hallowell to make her miscarry. And then when I found that was the case I talked with him and my sister upon it and told them that what they had done was very sinful. They said that there was no life in the child, but it must be taken from her or she would die with all what had been done. And I was once knowing to her [I then learned that she had been] taking medicines which Amasa Sessions brought from the Doctor and gave her, which she took at two portions . . . My sister and he talked upon it, and my sister was loath to take it, and thought it an evil, and Sessions urged her to it, and told her there was no life in the child, and that it would not hurt her. I told him, I think it a sin, and she had better not take it, but they had better marry. And he said that would not do, they should have a very uncomfortable life at home with his father and mother. When my sister lay on her death bed she lamented her taking the medicines aforesaid, and that Sessions [had] persuaded her to it.
Depositions of Zebulin Dodge, Alex Sessions,
and John Shaw
Zebulin Dodge saith he talked with Zerviah Grosvenor sometime last summer she told him Sarah Grosvenor had a child and it was a perfect child and she supposed that Sarah was near 7 months gone with child, and that her sister told her so.
Alex Sessions [Amasa s younger brother] testifieth that Zerviah Grosvenor told him that when they take Sarah Grosvenor at her cousin s home, and that John Grosvenor stood at the door to keep people from hearing and coming. And I asked her if her sister was delivered there and she said no, she was delivered in her father s chamber, and she said that Cousin Hannah was there when she was delivered and asked her if she was well. And she said no, that was the cause of the death. And she said it was a perfect child, and was a pretty child, and she took it and buried it over toward her fathers and their cousin Ebenezers. And he being asked whether she was in her right mind when she gave this account and he could not tell, she did not appear like a person in her right mind by reason of the untimely birth on Saturday afternoon and had a very bad fit at his house afterwards that day and it was commonly famed that she was often out of her head.
And at the other time he, for this account was not given at once ___ and he said that Hallowell told him that [Amasa] Sessions never applied to him for anything to cause an abortion and that if she was with child he did not think Amasa knew it.
John Shaw testifies that he has heard Hannah and Zerviah Grosvenor give and account of Sarah Grosvenor having an untimely birth and that they never gave him so particular account as is given now to the court. Yet he did not observe anything in which there appears a variation in this account. And he said he talked with Hallowell sundry times about it but particularly once in jail, and I told him I could not look upon him otherwise than a bad man since he had destroyed my kinswoman (meaning Sarah Grosvenor) and he manifested that Amasa Sessions was of the occasion of it and I told him he was like Old Mother Eve when she said that the serpent beguiled her and he turned it off [ignored it].
And I told him Thou not worth while to turn it off for I told him in my mind he deserved to die for it. And he then said he did not do anything but what Sessions importuned [persuaded] him to do. And I told him I did not believe Sessions ever importuned him to lay hands on her and he never said he did and he did not say the story were true or not, though he always tried to cast it on Sessions. This discourse[talk] we have had over once and again, whether Zerviah was out of her head about the time Alex Sessions speaks of in his evidence. She was that very night she said she had been at the Sessions house that Saturday night.
Amasa Sessions told him that he could freely be stripped naked provided he could bring Sarah Grosvenor to life again,(to give all he had in (?) home) and have her as his wife but Doctor Hallowell had deluded him and destroyed her. Had he been as much knowing in the time of it as he was then, he thought he could have got[ten] things that would have preserved her life. Doctor Cokor told me that Doctor Hallowell deserved to die and was a man of death for he had destroyed the young woman (meaning Sara Grosvenor). And he mentioned Sessions as accessory to it (as concerned in it), and blamed him, but [blamed] especially Hallowell. And that he told Hallowell at Uncle Grosvenors in the time of it that he had destroyed the woman. And he [Cokor] said the hand of justice would take hold of him [Hallowell] sooner or later.
Deposition of Abigail
Nightingale
Abigail was Sarah s neighbor and best friend. Her testimony provides the most graphic and
detailed description of Sarah s last days.
Abigail Nightingale of lawful age testifieth that being at the house of Capt Leicester Grosvenor a little before the death of his late daughter Sarah Grosvenor & observing Sarah Grosvenor to be under great concern of mind . . . I asked her what was the matter. to which she replied by asking me whether I thought her sins would ever be pardoned, to which I answered that I hoped she had not sinned the unpardonable sin but with time and hearty repentance hoped she would find forgiveness.
Then I asked her what made her take the trade (meaning what she had used for destroying the fruit of her body) to which she replied because Sessions would take no denial. And that she told him she was willing to take the sin & shame to her self and to be obliged never to tell whose child it was. And that she did not doubt but that if she did humble her self on her knees to her father he would take her & her child home. And that she urged him not to go on to add sin to sin, that the last transgression would be worse than the first, and that she feared it was too late. (all which she spoke in a very affectionate manner). On which I observed to her that I heard that Mr. Sessions denied that it was his child, to which she replied, . . . let Mr. Sessions say what he will, she never knew any other man but Amasa Sessions in all her life; on saying which the conversation was interrupted . . .
At another time, when it was apprehended that said Sarah Grosvenor was just going out of the world . . . Amasa Sessions [was] sitting on the bed with her and my self endeavoring to raise her up and he asked my thought of her state. And then leaning over her used these words: Poor Creature I have undone you.
At another time being in company with Sarah Grosvenor, and being (to appearance) full of sorrow & distressed of mind [she] asked me whether I knew that Doct. Hallowell had attempted to deliver her. And on my telling her that I did not, and on her insisting on my never discovering the matter & said she would tell me about it. And [she] immediately began to inform me that at a certain time . . . Doctor Hallowell came to her cousin John Grosvenor s and sent for her to go down there, and on her going down, said he wanted to speak with her alone
And then they two went into a room together, and then Dr, Hallowell told her it was necessary that something more should be done or else she would certainly die. To which she replied that she was afraid they had done too much already. And then he told her that there was one thing more that could easily be done, and she asking him what it was; he said he could easily deliver her. But she said she was afraid there was life in the child, then he asked her how long [since] she had felt it; and she replied about a fortnight. Then he said that was impossible or could not be or ever would; for that the trade she had taken had or would prevent it; and that the alteration she felt was owing to what she had taken. And he farther told her that he verily thought that the child grew to her body to the bigness of his hand, or else it would have come away before that time. And that it would never come away, but certainly kill her, unless other means were used. On which she yielded to his making an attempt to take it away, charging him that if he could perceive that there was life in it he would not proceed on any account.
And then the Doctor opening his portmanteau took an instrument out of it and laid it on the bed, she asking him what it was for, he replied that it was to make way. And then he tried to remove the child for some time in vain putting her to the utmost distress, and that at last she observed he trembled and immediately [she] perceived a strange alteration in her body and thought a bone of the child was broken; on which she desired him as she said to call in somebody, for that she feared she was a dying, and instantly swooned away all which I the subscriber so testify to be the truth and Witness in my Hand, etc.
Abigail Nightingale
Deposition of Rebekah Sharp
Rebekah Sharp was a
confidante of Zerviah Grosvenor and a resident of Pomfret.
Rebekah Sharp of lawful age testifieth and saith that being in company with Mrs. Zerviah Grosvenor some time in October last, we falling into discourse [talking] about those stories concerning Amasa Sessions and her sister Sarah Grosvenor I asked her how long it was after her sister Sarah had taken the trade before she knew it, she said some time and she thought about eight weeks, I asked her also whether it where a perfect child she said yes, I further asked her, whether there was anybody there with Hannah and herself when they buried it, she said that seeing they intended to keep it private, I might be sure they would be as private as they could, I asked her also whether she thought there was life in the child, she said no, she did not think there was ever any life in it.
Given under oath
Deposition of Ebenezer
Grosvenor
Ebenezer Grosvenor was Sara s
cousin.
The subscriber being of lawful age testifieth and saith that some time in the month of August in the year 1742 Doctor John Hallowell being at my house in Pomfret and he told me that he had been to see Sessions . . . and I had heard that Sarah Grosvenor was with child, and he told me that he had been at Capt. Grosvenor s which made me ask him whether it was so or no. And after sometime the Doctor told me that he believed that she was. And knowing Sessions made suit Sarah Grosvenor, I asked him what was the reason that they did not marry and he told me that he doubted that Sessions did not love her well a nuf [enough], for[Amasa] saith he did not believe it was his own and if he could cause her to get rid of it he would not go near her again. And the doctor gave me to understand that said Sessions had been interceding with him to remove her conception.
Furthermore . . .I understood that the Doctor had at that time undertaken to destroy her conception and furthermore sometime after I saw Doctor Hallowell and falling under discourse concerning these former things and he told me that [Amasa] Sessions was awaiting at Waldoes to know the event of his making that attempt to remove her conception at John Grosvenors and furthermore the doctor told me to the best of my remembrance that he either nipped or squeezed the head of the conception.
All this is the truth to the best of my remembrance Ebenezer Grosvenor
Deposition of John Grosvenor
John Grosvenor was Sarah s cousin, and it was at his house that Doctor
Hallowell performed the abortion. Note that Waldoes is the name of the town s
tavern.
John Grosvenor of Lawful age testifieth that sometime in the month of August in the year 1742, I heard that Sarah Grosvenor was with child and I went to see her . . . I asked her whether she was not with child and she told me in a sorrowful manner that she was and I asked her who it was by and she said it was by Amasa Sessions. And I asked her whether she had been taking of trade to destroy it, and she said that she had. And I asked her why she did and she said because Sessions so very earnestly persuaded her. And I asked her where Sessions got the trade that he brought her to take and she said from Doctor Hallowell and that by his direction.
And I saw Hallowell a little time after and I asked why he gave Sarah Grosvenor trade to destroy her child and to do with her as he did. And he said because Sessions came to him and was so very earnest with him and offered him five pounds if he would do it. But he said he would have twenty of him before he had done. And I went after said doctor [Hallowell] to Providence [Rhode Island] a few days before the young woman died and Hallowell thought that she would not live. He seemed very much to lament that he should be persuaded by Sessions to do as he had done.
And on further thinking I remember in the discourse aforesaid I asked said Hallowell whether or not that Sessions [k]new of his doing what he did at my house before he did it. And he gave me to understand that he [Amasa] did before even he [Dr. Hallowell] did anything to Sarah, and [Amasa] was at Mr. Waldoes to hear the event.
Deposition of Parker Morse
Parker Morse was the town s
regular doctor.
I the subscriber being requested by Leicester Grosvenor Esq. of Pomfret to visit his daughter Sarah as a physician in the sickness of which she died; went accordingly, & found her . . . seized of a malignant fever with all the symptoms of it, in an exalted degree, & as I then apprehended likely to be mortal in its event. Having before heard a report whispered, among some of the neighbors . . . that Doctor John. Hallowell of Providence, at the request and by the procurement of Mr. Amasa Sessions of Pomfret, had been instrumental of her sickness by causing the abortion of a birth (embryo or fetus) with which Sarah was pregnant . . . A short time before, I inquired of Mrs. Anne Grosvenor widow (since deceased) concerning the young woman s circumstances & told her I had heard within a little while she was with child. Mrs. Grosvenor answered me that she was not with child, & that I might do what I thought was best for her fever without any regard to her being with child because she was not. Mrs. Grosvenor did not say to me that Sarah had not been with child nor that she had, I should have asked some further questions but some other persons coming up prevented me.
I repaired again to the young woman . . . & found her under all the symptoms of a malignant fever; being reduced to a great degree of weakness, with nervous contractions causing convulsive motions, much disordered in her brain, & near to or quite delirious. Upon observation of which I judged her sickness to be mortal & to the best of my remembrance I told her friends so & left her, & from that time I saw her no more
Parker Morse Practitioner of Physick
Windham April 1746
The Verdict
Windham County, Windham
Sept 9 1746
The Grand Jurors of our Sovereign Lord of King upon their oaths Present That whereas in and by the fourth and fifth paragraphs of one law of this Government in page 12 of the Colony Law book instituted An Act for Punishing Capital Offenders. Is stated, enacted and provided that if any person shall commit and willful murder, upon malice, hatred, or cruelty, not in a mans just and Necessary Defence nor by ?? against his will he shall be put to Death. And it further enacted that if any Person Shall Slay another thro Guile, either by Performing?? Or other such Devilish Practices he shall be put to Death, as by said reference thereto being had doth appear.
Yet nevertheless, one John Hallowell late of Killingly in said County now of Providence in the Colony of Rhode Island Practitioner of Physick some time in the Summer Season in the year 1742, not having a fear of God before his eyes but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil, on the body of one Sarah Grosvenor of Pomfret in Windham County [a] Single woman, then is said Pomfert being, in the Peace of God and the King; with force and arms? An assault did make : and then and there under Color & pretext of administrating to her as a Physician give, administered unto & persuade her to take (She then being pregnant) Sundry Dangerous & Destructive Medicines, and did also further as well with his own hand, or with a certain Instrument of Iron by him, then ?? of the value of six pence, then & there with force and arms violently Lacerate and grievously wound the body of Said Sarah Grosvenor whereby the Child whereof she was then pregnant was caused to Perish and immanently to Depart from her, upon which said manual force & violence the said Sarah Languished for about Six Days & was then of said Child Delivered of ?? and from the time? by reason of said Noxious and Destructive operation of Said Medicines together with the Hurts & Wounds by the manual operation occasioned for about a space of three weeks further languished and then thereof Dyed. Whereupon the Jurors do say that the said John Hallowell did then & there Willfully, Maliciously and by Such his Wicked and Diabolical practice, Feloniously Murder the Said Sarah Grosvenor Contrary to the Peace of our Sovereign Lord ?? ?? King and the Laws of this Colony above recited.
Note: Hallowell fled to Rhode Island before the sentence could be carried out. At that point, he disappears from the historical record. We have no idea what happened to him.
III. Conclusion
In November of 1789, almost 50 years after Sarah s death, President George Washington passed through Pomfret on his national tour. He stopped to rest his horses at the home of the town s attorney, Thomas Grosvenor. Thomas father was John Grosvenor, Sarah s uncle and the owner of the house where she had the abortion. Thomas was born two in 1744, two years after Sarah s death, and probably in the same house where she died. Sarah would have been his cousin.
All along Washington s route, people turned out to meet the president and father of his country, and we may assume it was the same in Pomfret. We do not know which citizens braved the chilly November day to see the president, but one of them might very well have been 74-year-old Amasa Sessions.
Sessions lived a long and prosperous life, and if he suffered any public disgrace from the very public scandal over Sarah s death, history does not record it. Sessions married a wealthy young widow less than two years after Sarah died, and his bride bore ten children over the years. Sessions served as a captain in the colonial militia during the French and Indian War, and eventually assumed his station as a respected patriarch of the Sessions clan. He died in 1799, 84 years of age and surrounded by his large extended family. The epitaph on his elegant headstone in the Pomfret cemetery lauds him a man of distinguished abilities and ends with a quote from the English poet Alexander Pope: An honest man s the noblest work of God.
Personal Postscript
I first learned of Sarah s story a few years ago when I read an article about the trial by Cornelia Hughes Dayton. Pomfret is in the part of Connecticut where I grew up, so I brought the article with me when I visited my sister and her husband in the summer of 2000. My sister read the article and became fascinated, and angry. My brother-in-law was interested as well. We decided to take a drive and see if we could locate Sarah s grave.
Pomfret today is beautiful, sleepy New England town, so quaint and picture perfect that it could be a movie set. The grassy town commons is surrounded by beautifully restored colonial houses, many of which existed in Sarah s day. The rector at the Episcopal church told us that there were actually three colonial-era graveyards in town, and drew us a map to each. It was July 4th, and the Daughters of the American Revolution had decorated the graves of every veteran with an American flag. Amasa s grave will have a flag, I said, and we fanned out across the first graveyard.
The first graveyard was small, dark and overgrown, hidden from the road and all but abandoned. Huge trees had grown up in the consecrated ground, their roots overturning some of the headstones in the 200 years since anyone had been laid to rest there. The bright clear morning sun hardly penetrated the place. There were Grosvenors and Sessions buried there, but not Sarah or Amasa. We went to the second graveyard. There we found Amasa:
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Grave of Amasa
Sessions,
South Cemetery, Pomfret ConnecticutThe inscription reads: In Memory of Capt. AMASA SESSIONS who departed this life April 7th 1799 In the 84th Year of his age. A gentleman of distinguished Abilities and always acquitted Himself with honor in Public Business in which he was much Improved. Sincere & agreeable As a friend & kind & obliging As a neighbor. A wit s a feather, and a chief a rod An honest man s the noblest work of God.* |
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*The last two lines are taken from the English poet Alexander Pope, 1688-1744. |
As I crouched down to take this picture, I muttered, Here s the bastard. Sessions wife was buried beside him. I took out pencil and paper to record the inscription and chatted with my sister. We were probably not going to find Sarah, I told her. The grave of a single unwed woman would be marked by a very small stone, if any, and it well might have disappeared in the last 250 years. We should look around the edges of the graveyard, I told her, maybe near the back. It might be a small marker with just some initials. While I was being the history teacher, my brother-in-law rolled his eyes and set out looking at some of the other graves.
I found her! he announced.
Look again at the picture of Amasa s grave. Do you see the small dark tombstone behind and on the right? That is the grave of Sarah Grosvenor. Her marker is simple, but respectable.
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Grave of Sarah
Grosvenor,
South Cemetery, Pomfret Connecticut The inscription reads: Here Lyes Ye Body of M. Sarah Grosvenor Daug. of Licester Grosvenor Esq. & M. Mary his Wife: Who Died Sep. 14th 1742: In Ye 20th Year of Her Life |
The next day I went to the Connecticut State archives in Hartford and began copying and transcribing the documents that you just read.
For Further Reading:
Cornelia Hughes Dayton, "Taking the Trade: Abortion and Gender Relations in an Eighteenth-Century New England Village," William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 48 (Jan. 1991), 19-49. This amazing article is the best description of events, and available in Spiva library.
Cornelia Hughes Dayton, Women Before the Bar: Gender, Law, and Society in Connecticut, 1639- 1789 (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1995).
Roger Thompson, Sex in Middlesex: Popular Mores in a Massachusetts County, 1649-1699 (Amherst: Univ. of Massachusetts Press; 1986).
The Grosvenor-Sessions Abortion Case, Pomfret, Connecticut, 1742. http://oncampus.richmond.edu/~aholton/Dayton/index.html
This is a website where another historian has placed the documents from the trial (including some not presented above) along with brief biographies of the participants and a timeline of events.