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VOL. II.

SALEM, MASS., JANUARY, 1898.

THE AMES MURDER.

BY SIDNEY PERLEY.

ONE of the most interesting cases in criminal proceedings that ever occurred in Essex county is that of the Ames murder in the West parish of Boxford in the year 1769. The story of the murder and the trial of the accused is as follows.

On a knoll on the east side of a little brook running past the barn of Mr. A. S. Howe in Linebrook parish, Ipswich, and on the northerly side of the highway, are the remains of an ancient cellar. The house that stood there was probably gone before this century opened. A part of the cellar wall remains, and there yet survive some shrubs that grew in the yard. Here lived widow Ruth Perley with her family late in the year 1768. Her eldest child, Samuel, was then pastor of the church in Seabrook, N. H., and the rest of the six children were at home. Ruth, the elder daughter was twenty-one Oct. 29th. The family had lived there for many years.

Ruth was pretty and refined; and though her home was in the extreme western portion of the town of Ipswich, and in a sparsely settled region, she was, early sought in marriage by Jonathan Ames of Boxford, a young man of affluent parents. They were married Dec. 19, 1768, by her brother, Rev. Samuel Perley.

Mr. Ames took his bride to the house of his parents in West Boxford, and lived there. The Ames house stood on the westerly side of the road running from 'Captain Wood's corner" to the "peg factory," on a knoll by the edge of the present woods. The site is shown in the frontispiece, at its top, the bars being located in the cellar hole.

No. I.

As has been the case in some instances since that early time, the mother-in-law was not in full sympathy with the young bride dwelling under her roof. The reason of this is probably as inexplicable as it has been in many similar cases.

Spring had hardly come when Mrs. Ames, senior, began to speak of Ruth as her son's housekeeper. Eventually, about the latter part of May a child was born to the newly-wedded couple.

On the morning of the fifth of June, one of the neighbors, Mrs. Kimball, called to see the young mother. She was met at the door by Mrs. Ames, senior, who, in reply to the request of Mrs. Kimball to see Ruth, objected, intimating that she was very ill, and had vomited and purged so much that it was disagreeable to enter the chamber. Notwithstanding, Mrs. Kimball entered the house and went into the sick chamber. She found that the room was clean and agreeable, and there appeared no signs of vomiting or purging. But Ruth was in deathly agony, with froth or phlegm exuding from her mouth. She was taken sick in that manner at about seven o'clock in the morning and died between eleven and twelve o'clock before noon. Mrs. Ames said she knew that Ruth would die as it was the same disorder that a certain Mrs. Chandler died with some years before, and that it "was as mortal as the plague ;" and that there would be another death soon, having reference to the baby. On laying out the body, livid spots, indicating poison, appeared on one of the arms of the deceased.

The writer was informed many years ago by an aged lady, who was born and had always lived her almost centenary of years within a few rods of the Ames homestead, and personally knew many of the people who took a prominent part in the events that followed, that the funeral occurred soon after Ruth's death, that none of the neighbors were invited to it and that a clergyman from a neighboring town performed the burial service instead of Rev. John Cushing, pastor of the church, who was their nearest neighbor. The burial occurred in the old village cemetery, which is shown as it now appears in the middle section of the frontispiece.

Mrs. Kimball was suspicious that Ruth had been poisoned to death. She repeatedly told of what she had experienced at the Ames house and in the sick room. The peculiar attitude which Mrs. Ames assumed toward the deceased seemed to confirm the suspicion of poisoning, and that Mrs. Ames was at least cognizant of the crime. The matter of an accusation was not at first conceived, but about a month afterward the feeling against Mrs. Ames became so strong that a complaint signed by twenty-nine men, and consented to by the relatives of the deceased, was preferred to Henry Ingalls, Moses Dole and Abraham Choate, three coroners, for an inquisition upon the body, which had lain in the ground all that length of time.

The coroners thereupon summoned a jury of twenty-five (whose names are af fixed to their report hereinafter given, Joseph Osgood being foreman), thirteen of whom were physicians; and four other physicians were engaged to perform the autopsy.

The inquest was opened on Monday, July 10th, "when there assembled a promiscuous multitude of people." The court was held in the meeting-house, which stood on the easterly side of the "Sandy road" in the pasture in the rear of the old cemetery, a road, which can still be traced running from the meeting-house up the present wooded declivity to the

cemetery, and from thence as it now exists to the parsonage on the ancient Andover road. The site of the meetinghouse, as it now appears, is shown in the frontispiece, at the bottom.

Rarely, if ever, has such a mass of people been seen in the parish, the meetinghouse being, as the current newspaper* said, "much thronged."

The court was opened with prayer. The coroners then gave the jury "their solemn charge." During these exercises the same newspaper account says, "there appeared not the least irregularity or disorder, but a solemn, silent sadness seemed to be fixed on the face of the gayest youth."

After the charge, the coroners, the jury and the spectators proceeded "with decency and good order," over the winding roadway up the hill to the old buryingground, where for five weeks had lain the body of the murdered girl.

The exhumation of the body was begun; and as it progressed the human mass surged around the grave so eagerly to see the whole of the operation that they were only kept from causing harm by being told that all should have an opportunity of seeing the remains.

The body was taken to the meetinghouse, the procession taking up its route down the hill, at the middle of that midsummer day.

An autopsy was made by the physicians; the jury heard their report and other testimony, and two days later the coroners and the jury made report of their inquisition as follows::"Essex Ss.

"An Inquisition. Indented & taken at Boxford within the sa. County of Essex, the Twelfth Day of July, in the Ninth year of our Sovereign Lord George, the third, by ye Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, defender of ye Faith, &c., before Henry Ingalls, Mofes Dole, & Abraham Choate, Gentlemen, Coroners for our Sd. Lord the King, with

*Essex Gazette, July 11-18, 1769.

in the County of Efsex aforesd upon the View of the Body of Ruth Eams Wife of Jon". Ames Jur. then and there being Dead by the Oaths of Joseph Osgood, || Foreman, Nehemiah Abbot, Amos Putnam, Enoch Sawyer Jun. Micajah Sawyer, James Brickett, Wm. Hale, Silas Miriam, Thomas Kitredge, Wallace Rust, Ephraim Davis, Simons Baker, Benj". Muzzy, Ephraim Wales, Peter Osgood, Dan'. Spafford, Afa Perly, Benj". Berry, Nathan Wood, John Hale, Ephraim Fuller, Moody Bridges, Nathaniel Pearly, Oliver Peabody, Rich". Peabody, Good and Lawful Men of the County of Efsex afores", who being Charged and Sworn to enquire for our Lord the King, when, by what means, and how, the sa. Ruth Eames came to her Death, upon their Oaths do say, the sd. Ruth Eames on the fifth Day of June last in the morning Died of Felony (that is to say by Poison) given to her by ||a|| Person or Persons to us unknown ||which murder is against the Peace of our sd. Lord the King, his Crown and Dignity. In Witness whereof We the s. Coroners, as well as the sa. Jurors to this Inquisition, have interchangeably put our Hands and Seals the Day and year abovesaid.

"Joseph Osgood [seal]
Nehemiah Abbot [seal]
Amos Putnam [seal]
Enoch Sawyer jun'. [seal]
Micajah Sawyer [seal]
James Brickett [seal]
William Hale [seal]
Silas Merriam [seal]
Tho. Kittredge [seal]
Wallis Ruft [seal]
Symonds Baker [seal]
Benja. Muzzy [seal]
Ephraim Davis [seal]
Eph. Wales [seal]
Peter Osgood [seal]
Daniel Spaffard [seal]
Asa Perley [seal]
Benja. Berry [seal]
Nathan Wood [seal]
John Hale [seal]
Moody Bridges [seal]
Ephraim Fuller [seal]

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The body being laid upon a table with a sheet over it, Jonathan and his mother were invited to prove their innocence by this gruesome test. The ancient practice was similar. The body was laid at length, covered only with a sheet of the purest white, in the dim and weird church, and the suspected party was invited to touch the neck of the deceased with the index-finger of the left hand, the superstition being that when the guilty hand touched the remains blood would issue, the whiteness of the sheet making it plainly visible, "pleading trumpet-tongued against the deep-damnation of her taking off."

These scenes were always awful, being rendered more so by the environment and the nervous tension of every one of the multitude that gazed with strained eyes and breathless upon the accused as he dared to either advance toward or retreat from the remains, either direction tending to confirm his guilt in the minds of the spectators until he finally passed the ordeal, which but few persons ever did.

In this instance, from fear, probably, not that they believed in the superstition, but were afraid that by some chance blood might flow, both refused.

The "examination gave great occasion to conclude that they were concerned in the poisoning," and on Tuesday, July 18, they were arrested and taken to Salem, where they were confined in the ancient jail where the persons accused of witchcraft were imprisoned many years before.

When the grand jury sat, Mrs. Ames was duly indicted as the principal, and Jonathan as accessory in the crime. Mrs. Ames' indictment was as follows:

"The Jurors for the said Lord the King upon their Oath presented that Elizabeth Eams the wife of Jonathan Eams of Boxford in the said county of Efsex yeoman, on the fourth day of June last past, at Boxford aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, not having the fear of God in her heart, but feloniously, wickedly and of her malice aforethought intending and contriving with Poison to kill and murder one Ruth Eams, then and there being in the peace of God, and of the said Lord the King, did then & there with force and arms feloniously willfully and of her malice aforethought, mix and mingle a great quantity of white arfenic, being a deadly poison, in a certain quantity of Spermaceti fhe the said Elizabeth Eams, then and there well knowing the said white arsenic to be a deadly poison; And that fhe the said Elizabeth Eams, there afterwards, to wit, on the same day, the poison aforesaid so mixed and mingled as aforesaid; with force and arms feloniously willfully and of her malice aforethought, did offer and give to her the said Ruth Eams, to take, eat and Swallow down; and that the sa. Ruth Eams, not knowing the poison aforesaid, to have been mixed and mingled as aforesaid, in the Spermaceti aforesaid, there afterward on the same day, by the procurement and persuasion of the said Elizabeth Eams, did take, eat and swallow down the said Poison, so mixed and mingled as aforesaid; and thereupon the said Ruth Eams by the said poison, so, as aforesaid taken eaten & Swallowed down, then and there became sick and distempered in her body; and the said Ruth Eams of the poison aforesaid, and of the sickness and Distemper thereby occasioned, did languifh and languishing did live from the said fourth day of June last, untill the fifth day of the same June, at Boxford aforesaid in the county aforesaid; on which same fifth day of June, at

Boxford aforesaid in the county aforesaid, the said Ruth Eams died of the poison aforesaid and of the Sickness and distemper thereby occasioned as aforesaid; and so the Jurors aforesaid upon their said || Oath do say that the said Elizabeth Eams, in manner and form and by the means aforesaid, feloniously, willfully and of her malice aforethought, did poison kill and murder the said Ruth Eams against the peace of the sa. Lord the King his crown and dignity.

"Jon: Sewall, Att. pro. Domo. Rege. "This is a true bill

"David Britton, Foreman." While lodged in jail, Mrs. Ames was heard to mutter in her sleep, "Don't tell on me, Jonathan; if you do, I shall be hanged."

The superior court, in which the case would be tried, being about to sit in Salem, Jonathan's sister Elizabeth was arrested as an accessory to the murder, by Amos Mulliken, deputy sheriff, on November 9th, and lodged in the jail at Salem on the same day.

The court convened on the morning of Tuesday, the 14th, in the old court house that then stood in the middle of Washington street, opposite the Tabernacle church. The judges upon the bench were Benjamin Lynde, John Cushing, Peter Oliver and Edmund Trowbridge, and during the session they boarded with William Goodhue.

The jury impanelled to try the case consisted of Jonathan Orne of Salem, foreman, and John Gardner of Salem, William Bowden of Marblehead, Daniel Jacobs of Danvers, Thorndike Procter, jr., of Salem, William Becket of Salem, Richard Manning of Salem, Stephen Phillips of Marblehead, Thomas Grant of Marblehead, Theophilus Breed of Lynn, Mascol Williams of Salem, and Samuel Holton of Danvers.

The counsel for the king was Jonathan Sewall of Boston.

The counsel of the accused was John Adams, afterward president of the United States. He was, at this time, thirty-four

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