The Romance of Old New England RooftreesCrawford, Mary Caroline
History
The Romance of Old New England Rooftrees
Crawford, Mary Caroline
Historic buildings -- New England; New England -- Biography
The counsel also made much of the fact that, though it was at midday and
many people were not far off, no screams were heard. A vigorous girl
like Elizabeth Fales would not have submitted easily, they held, to any
such assault as was charged. In the course of the trial a very moving
description of the sufferings such a high-strung, ardent nature as this
girl's must have undergone, because of her hopeless love, was used to
show the reasons for suicide. And following the habit of the times, the
lawyers turned their work to moral ends by beseeching the parents in the
crowded court-room to exercise a greater vigilance over the social life
of their young people, and so prevent the possibility of their forming
any such attachment as had moved Elizabeth Fales to take her own life.
Yet all this eloquent pleading was in vain, for the court found Jason
Fairbanks guilty of murder and sentenced him to be hanged. From the
court-room he was taken to the Dedham gaol, but on the night of the
seventeenth of August he was enabled to make his escape through the
offices of a number of men who believed him innocent, and for some days
he was at liberty. At length, however, upon a reward of one thousand
dollars being offered for his apprehension, he was captured near
Northampton, Massachusetts, which town he had reached on his journey to
Canada.
The gallows upon which "justice" ultimately asserted itself is said to
have been constructed of a tree cut from the old Fairbanks place.
The Fairbanks house is still standing, having been occupied for almost
two hundred and seventy-five years by the same family, which is now in
the eighth generation of the name. The house is surrounded by
magnificent old elms, and was built by Jonathan Fairbanks, who came from
Sowerby, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, in 1633. The
cupboards are filled with choice china, and even the Fairbanks cats, it
is said, drink their milk out of ancient blue saucers that would drive a
collector wild with envy.
The house is now (1902) the home of Miss Rebecca Fairbanks, an old lady
of seventy-five years, who will occupy it throughout her lifetime,
although the place is controlled by the Fairbanks Chapter of the
Daughters of the Revolution, who hold their monthly meetings there.
[Illustration: FAIRBANKS HOUSE, DEDHAM, MASS.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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