Ever since I visited the Lizzie Borden House, I’ve been on a truecrime kick. Looking into cases of other female killers made me stumble upon the Bathsheba Spooner case, and I’ve been fascinated since. She was the first woman to be executed in the United States, in Worcester MA…not too far from home. Her story is a whirlwind of abuse, sadness, passion, crime, and nobility…
Bathsheba Ruggles (b. Feb. 15th, 1746) was the daughter of Brigadier General Timothy Ruggles, a military officer and Harvard Law graduate. Her Father served as chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas in Worcester, MA. In 1766, Bathsheba’s Father wished to secure his daughter’s future by arranging for her to marry the son of a wealthy Boston merchant – Joshua Spooner. Joshua, at age 24, was a well-off farmer from Brookfield, Massachusetts who had a prominent status within the community. Though Bathsheba wasn’t entirely thrilled with the arrangement, she wanted to please her Father and the two wed on January 15th of that year. Despite the couple eventually having four children together, Bathsheba was anything but happy in their marriage. Joshua was an incredibly abusive drunk whom she developed a burning hatred for. To make her situation worse, in 1774 her Father was banished from Massachusetts for his Loyalist activism, leaving his daughter behind at the mercy of her pitiful husband.
In 1777 while Joshua was away, Bathsheba discovered 16 year-old Continental Soldier Ezra Ross outside of their home. Ross had fallen ill while making his way back to his home in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Bathsheba invited him into their home where she nursed him back to health and from then on, he would frequent the Spooner home during his travels to and from his army services…Joshua even invited Ross to accompany him on his own business ventures. During another visit to their home while Joshua was gone, Bathsheba (then in her 30’s) was intimate with Ross (who was still in his teens) and ultimately became pregnant.
You can imagine her panic when she realized she was with child. Adultery was a punishable crime in 18th century Massachusetts. Should it be discovered she had an affair, she would most likely have been taken to the town center, stripped of her clothes, and given 30 lashes. If she’d survive that, she would lose all of her children and spend the rest of her life in isolation. Divorce was not an option, either…in that day women could not file for divorce. Her options were limited, and she decided the only way to get out of her situation was to off her husband…with the help of Ross.
In 1778, Ross accompanied Joshua on a trip to Princeton, MA where he planned to poison him with nitric acid given to him by Bathsheba. He decided he couldn’t go through with it, he backed out of the plan and returned immediately to his home in Ipswich. While the men were away, Bathsheba invited two runaway British soldiers to her home, William Brooks and James Buchanan. She discussed with the men her situation, and her need to kill her husband. She offered the men compensation in the form of paper money and valuables belonging to her husband, so they agreed to assist. She wrote Ross to inform him of the plan and he returned to the couple’s home on February 29th along with the other two men.
As Joshua made his way home from a tavern that evening, Brooks attacked him – beating him until he was bloody and lifeless. Ross and Buchanan assisted Brooks in carrying and disposing of Joshua’s body down the well on the Spooner property. Bathsheba told the men to take the family’s horses and get out of the area immediately. Once the body had been discovered by local officials, it took less than 24 hours to find and arrest the men who were hiding out in Worcester. They all implicated Bathsheba, and the 4 were arraigned and pleaded not guilty.
All were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging, with their executions set for June 4th, 1778. Bathsheba petitioned to postpone her execution due to her pregnancy, she asked for the opportunity to deliver her child before being hanged. She was examined by 12 women and 2 male midwives, all of whom swore she was not pregnant. When she protested their report, 5 other examiners along with her brother in-law (who was a doctor) examined her and supported her claim. The court didn’t accept their findings and she was sent to the gallows bearing an unborn child.
Despite her circumstances, Bathsheba remained calm and composed on the days leading up to her death. She, alongside Ross, Brooks, and Buchanan, were hanged on July 2nd, 1778 in Worcester’s Washington Square in front of 5,000 townspeople.
An autopsy showed she was carrying “a perfect male fetus of the growth of five months”….
The New England Ghoul 
Absolutely heartbreaking. As cruel as the world can be today, it used to be even worse.
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