Sarah Simpson

Case record: Sarah Simpson

Background

Sarah Simpson died on December 27, 1739. She was a widow executed by hanging for the murder of her child in New Hampshire.

Sarah Simpson was executed with Penelope Kenny, who was also convicted of killing her child. The executions took place in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and surrounding towns.

Between 1623 and 1800, twenty-nine women in all were executed for the crime of infanticide across New England. Most of these women were white servants or Afro-American slaves.

Sarah Simpson and Penelope Kenny were described as the first individuals to suffer capital punishment in New Hampshire’s history, and their executions were said to have ignited an intense debate over the death penalty in New Hampshire that continued for two centuries later.

Other details

In the late 1720s, New Hampshire experienced events interpreted by ministers as religious omens. A violent earthquake shattered the night of October 29, 1727, and ministers including Jabez Fitch of Portsmouth interpreted it as a divine omen of “Wrath to come” if the populace did not engage in a “universal and constant Reformation.”

In September 1729, Governor William Burnet died suddenly, and Jonathan Belcher, a merchant from Massachusetts, was appointed by King George II to succeed him. It was stated that Belcher’s administration would be fraught with controversy, including a decades-long border dispute with Massachusetts and a quarrel with lieutenant governor John Wentworth, involving Belcher denying Wentworth a share of his substantial salary.

New Hampshire also experienced social turmoil in the 1730s, including a population increase to nearly 25,000 due to immigration from England and Scots-Irish regions.

Reverend Arthur Browne was described as arriving in Portsmouth in 1736 after serving as rector of King’s Chapel in Providence, Rhode Island for six years. Communities in New Hampshire were said to have been reeling from an epidemic beginning in May 1735, described as “Distemper in the throat,” probably diphtheria, which resulted in deaths of over 1,000 people, taking a particularly devastating toll on children. In Portsmouth, over eighty children under the age of ten perished. Jabez Fitch wrote that the “loss of so many children…ought…to be lookt upon as a Frown of Providence upon the Land in general, as well as a sore Affliction to the Parents in particular.” Fitch argued that “unfeigned Repentance and humble Supplication” would shelter people in the future “from the fierceness of his Anger.”

The offence

The case concerned the murder of a child in the context of infanticide.

A dead body of a female newborn was found floating in a well in Portsmouth on August 11, 1739. Warrants were issued and “a Widow woman named Sarah Simpson who had been suspected some time before to have been with child, was apprehended and charged with being the mother of the child found in the well.”

Sarah Simpson was said to be “about 27 years [born] in ye parish of Oyster River,” in Durham, and that she was “put out young, and serv’d her apprenticeship in Portsmouth.” Simpson denied that the infant in the well was hers but admitted she had recently given birth. She led officials to a shallow grave where an infant’s body had been “buried about four inches underground by the riverside.”

Investigation

On the day after the discovery of the newborn’s body, Penelope Kenny, described as “a twenty-year-old Irish servant in the household of Dr. Joseph Franklin,” was interrogated by provincial officials who suspected her of being the mother of the baby in the well.

Officials were not satisfied with her answers and forced a physical examination by “four or five skillful Women,” very likely midwives, who reported that “according to their Judgment she had been delivered of a Child within a week.”

Kenny did not give direct answers to the questions put to her. After spending a night in jail, she confessed that she “alone delivered of a Male-Child alive the Wednesday Morning before,” and “put it alive into a tub in her Master’s Cellar and then left it, till Friday-Night following, when she threw it into the River.”

Arrest and charges

Sarah Simpson was apprehended pursuant to warrants issued after the body of a female newborn was found floating in a well in Portsmouth on August 11, 1739. She was charged with being the mother of the child found in the well.

It was also stated that the punishment of fornication and bastardy was harsh in colonial New Hampshire and that stigma could cost a working class woman her livelihood. The material stated that Penelope Kenny and Sarah Simpson gave birth in August 1739 and knew the physical product of their sexual improprieties must be concealed. It said “infanticide might have seemed a matter of survival.”

An earlier legislative measure was described: in 1714, the General Assembly passed “An Act to Prevent the Destroying and Murdering of Bastard Children,” which included language that women might “to avoid shame and escape punishment, do secretly bury or conceal the death of their children.” The act declared that if a woman was delivered of any issue that if born alive should by law be a bastard and she endeavored privately either by drowning or secret burying to conceal the death, then “In every such case the Mother soe offending shall suffer Death,” except where “the Mother soe offending cann make proof by one witness at least, the Child whose death was by her so intended to be concealed was born dead.”

Trial

Sarah Simpson and Penelope Kenny were convicted by a jury of “twelve good and lawful men” of “feloniously concealing the death of a…infant bastard child” on August 30, 1739.

Presiding over the proceedings were four Justices of the Superior Court: Henry and Joseph Sherburne, Ellis Huske, and Nicholas Gilman. They were described as playing an intimate role in Governor Belcher’s controversial administration during the 1730s.

The trials were described as “long, tedious and attended with much trouble and difficulty,” and over thirty witnesses were summoned.

There was said to have been some uncertainty concerning the extent of Simpson’s and Kenny’s crimes. Jabez Fitch remarked that both women “deny’d that they laid violent hands on their children…one affirming that her child was dead born…and the other, that hers dy’d soon after it was born.”

It was stated that there were no witnesses to confirm their stories. Reverend Fitch’s position was that their denial did not matter because “both seem’d sensible of their neglect of taking due care to preserve the life of their children.”

The material further stated that their actions were recognized as evidence of sexually deviant behavior and an affront to the social order.

Chief Justice Henry Sherburne and his colleagues were said to have sentenced both women to be “hanged up by the Neck until her body be dead” on November 21, 1739.

Sentencing and reprieve

After the sentence, Simpson and Kenny were “persuaded by some indiscreet persons who came to visit them, that their sentence was rigorous and unjust, and…they might obtain a reprieve so as to be finally executed from suffering.”

A petition was sent to Governor Belcher. On November 12, he signed an order that postponed the executions until December 27.

The material stated that it was unclear why Belcher granted the request, but it also stated that the two condemned women “expressed a sorrowful & penitent sense of their crime.”

Outcome

On December 27, 1739, residents of Portsmouth, New Hampshire and surrounding towns gathered to witness the hanging of Sarah Simpson and Penelope Kenny.

That morning, Sarah Simpson was brought from jail to the South Church. Reverend William Shurtleff preached an “execution” sermon.

Penelope Kenny spent her final hours at Queen’s Chapel listening to Reverend Arthur Browne. The material stated that Browne “had privately visited and assisted” her during the days leading up to her execution.

Arthur Browne warned: “May her untimely End influence you all,” “to lay fast hold on Instruction; may her Example and Sufferings answer the Intention of Law, and deter all viciously and wickedly disposed persons among you from incurring the like condemnation.”

William Shurtleff reminded his congregation that the “neglect and abuse of God’s Sabbaths (which the condemned person here present reflects upon with so much regret)…very often lead to Capital Crimes.”

The material also described how the sermons addressed empathy and repentance. It quoted Shurtleff: “the tenderest Bowels of Compassion, and the deepest Concern of Soul,” and Browne asked: “But why should I…upbraid or insult this poor Malefactor! She is convinced I trust of the heinousness of her Sins, and may her Preparation and Repentance avail her in the Day of the Lord.”

After the sermons, the material stated that Sarah Simpson and Penelope Kenny were led about a mile to the place of execution where a gallows had been erected in a field between the homes of William Cotton and Edward Cates in 1718.

It was said that snow shrouded the landscape the day before, and that “the execution of the said women drew together a vast concourse of people” and the “numerous spectators seem’d earnestly concern’d for them.”

A person in the crowd was identified as Samuel Lane, a “young cordwainer who traveled from Hampton to see “two women Hanged at the Bank.” Lane’s entry was described as not revealing how he felt.

The material stated that Sarah Simpson and Penelope Kenny climbed the gallows and uttered final statements before Sherriff Eleazar Russell carried out the execution. It further stated that Simpson handed one of the ministers “a Writing…said to be of her dictating,” which was “publickly read at her desire.”

Sarah Simpson confessed “in a very moving manner,” that she “pass’d away her early days in light and wicked Company” and mentioned “with regret, that when she entered into the Marriage State, it was not with one that took care to maintain the exercise of Family Religion,” and advised her listeners “that when they marry, to make it their great Care to marry in the Lord.”

Penelope Kenny also spoke “ a few words by the way of Warning to others.” Reverend Mr. Fitch “having then commended them both to the Mercy of God in Christ, she and the other were executed…and left us not without hopes of their being delivered from the second Death.”

Timeline

• August 11, 1739 — A dead body of a female newborn was found floating in a well in Portsmouth; Sarah Simpson was apprehended and charged with being the mother of the child found in the well.
• August 30, 1739 — A jury of “twelve good and lawful men” convicted Sarah Simpson and Penelope Kenny of “feloniously concealing the death of a…infant bastard child.”
• November 12, 1739 — Governor Belcher signed an order postponing the executions until December 27.
• November 21, 1739 — Sarah Simpson and Penelope Kenny were sentenced to be “hanged up by the Neck until her body be dead.”
• December 27, 1739 — Sarah Simpson and Penelope Kenny were executed by hanging in New Hampshire.

Aftermath

The material described mysteries after the executions, including questions about the mother of the dead baby found in the well in August 1739. It also stated that Penelope Kenny had cast hers into the Piscataqua River, while Sarah Simpson had buried her infant.

It stated that archaeological discoveries made during the 1970s revealed that women in other regions of colonial America practiced disposing unwanted offspring in this manner.

In Portsmouth, William Shurtleff was said to have been convinced that “there has been one among us…that is equally & it may be more heinously guilty in the sight of God…and could I suppose the Person to be within Hearing, I would say…Be assur’d that though you are as yet concealed from Men, both you and your Crime are known to God.”

The identity of a third guilty person was described as never discovered.

A legal procedure from 1702 was described concerning alleged fathers of bastard children: “he that is accused by any woman to be the father of a Bastard Child begotten of her body, she continuing constant in her accusation being exam’d upon Oath…he shall be adjudged the reputed father of such child notwithstanding his denial and stand charged with the maintenance thereof.”

The material stated there was nothing to indicate that Sarah Simpson and Penelope Kenny attempted this legal recourse, and that they took these secrets with them to their unmarked graves.

The material quoted Jabez Fitch as confident that “the sad end of these women may be a Warning to all others, to take heed of the Sin of Uncleanness,” echoing sentiments expressed by Cotton Mather more than forty years earlier.

It quoted William Shurtleff as hoping: “nothing of the like Nature might again happen among us!”

The material stated that the events of 1739 ushered in a new era of crime and punishment in New Hampshire, and that four more individuals were executed there during the eighteenth century, including Ruth Blay, who was “infamously hanged in Portsmouth for infanticide on December 30, 1768.”

It further stated that after the American Revolution, attitudes towards bastardy and infanticide began to shift in New England. In the early 1790s, the 1714 statute was repealed and replaced with a form of “symbolic” execution in which “the Mother so offending” could “be set on the Gallows for the space of one hour,” forcing public humiliation but not death.