Produced by Bryan Ness, Linda Cantoni, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Library of Congress) [Transcriber's Note: This e-book contains extensive passages from 18th Century documents. Spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, and capitalization are preserved as they appear in the original (including "goal" for "gaol"). Superscripts are rendered as normal letters. Macrons over consonants are rendered in brackets with an equal sign, e.g., [=c].] THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION, FOR PETIT TREASON, OF MARK AND PHILLIS, SLAVES OF CAPT. JOHN CODMAN, WHO MURDERED THEIR MASTER AT CHARLESTOWN, MASS., IN 1755; FOR WHICH THE MAN WAS HANGED AND GIBBETED, AND THE WOMAN WAS BURNED TO DEATH. INCLUDING, ALSO, SOME ACCOUNT OF OTHER PUNISHMENTS BY BURNING IN MASSACHUSETTS. BY ABNER CHENEY GOODELL, JR. CAMBRIDGE: JOHN WILSON AND SON. _University Press._ 1883. [200 copies printed.] THE TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF MARK AND PHILLIS, IN 1755. [The following pages are, with slight changes, a reprint from the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, of a paper read before that Society, March 8, 1883, in answer to a question propounded at a previous meeting, relative to the authenticity of the tradition that a woman was burned to death in Massachusetts in the year 1755. As this case is the only known instance of the infliction of the common-law penalty for petit treason, in New England, and is not known to have been elsewhere reported, the printers have, at the author's request, struck off, in pamphlet form, a limited number of impressions for the use of persons interested in the history of our criminal jurisprudence, who may not have convenient access to the serial from which it is taken, or who may desire to preserve it separately.] It is not surprising that the execution of a woman, by burning, so lately as when Shirley was governor,--a period when the province had greatly advanced in culture and refinement,--should seem to any one incredible. Indeed, even so critical and thorough a student of our provincial history as our late distinguished associate, Dr. Palfrey, once wrote to me inquiring if the rumor of such a proceeding had any foundation in fact, and if so, whether the execution took place according to law, or by the impulse of an infuriated mob. It gave me great satisfaction to be able to settle his doubts on this subject by referring him to the records of the Superior Court of Judicature, where the judgment, from which I shall presently read to you, and a copy of which I sent to him, appears at length.