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The death of Elizabeth Fales took place on May 18, 1801, in Dedham, Massachusetts. Her boyfriend, Jason Fairbanks, was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death but escaped from jail before he could be hanged. He was recaptured, returned to Dedham, and hanged before a crowd of 10,000. The case made national headlines.
Jason Fairbanks lived in the family homestead on East Street in Dedham and was courting Elizabeth Fales, two years his junior at 18. [lower-alpha 1] They both came from old and respected Dedham families [lower-alpha 2] and met while attending a signing school at the First Church and Parish in Dedham. [2] They carried on a "desultory and somewhat ambiguous relationship" marked by Fales' parents' disapproval, Fairbanks' poor health, and Fales continually breaking up with Fairbanks and then taking him back again. [2]
Jason had told a friend that "planned to meet Betsey, in order to have the matter settled" and that he "either intended to violate her chastity, or carry her to Wrentham, to be married, for he had waited long enough." [3] On May 18, 1801, Fales met Fairbanks in a "birch grove next to 'Mason’s Pasture'" and told him that she could not marry him. [4] [2] The pasture was about 400 yards from Fales' home. [2]
Fales was stabbed 11 times, including once in the back, and her throat was slashed. [2] Fairbanks staggered to her home, covered in blood, and told her family that she had committed suicide. [2] He also told them that he had also attempted to take his own life, but was unable to, and that accounted for his wounds [4] which left him "still alive, but in a most deplorable situation." [5] [2] Fales' family rushed to their daughter where they found her "writhing in her blood" with her body "cruelly mangled." [2] She was conscious and took a small sip of water, but died soon thereafter in her mother's arms. [2]
The editor of the local paper, Herman Mann, was called to the scene and reported the incident in the next edition of his weekly newspaper under the headline "MELANCHOLY CATASTROPHE!" [6] Fairbanks was too injured to be moved, and was left to recuperate at the Fales' home. [2] He did not attend Fales' funeral, but 2,000 others did, probably making it the largest crowd ever assembled in Dedham. [7] He was eventually removed by litter to the Norfolk County Jail where he remained until the grand jury indicted him on August 4, 1801. [8]
Fairbanks was arraigned the next day, August 5, and the trial opened on the sixth. [8] Interest in the case involving two prominent families was so great that the trial was moved from the new courthouse to the First Parish Meetinghouse across the street. [8] When that venue proved to still be too small, the trial again moved to the Town Common.
Prosecuting the case was the then-Attorney General James Sullivan. [8] More than 30 witnesses testified that they had heard him make threats against Fales and her parents. [8] Sullivan also presented evidence that suggested Fales could not have inflicted all of her own wounds and demonstrated that Fairbanks borrowed the murder weapon from a field hand that morning. [8] The Fairbanks' family physician, Dr. Kitteridge, testified at the trial about Fales' wounds but was indicted for perjury. [9]
Defending Fairbanks was Harrison Gray Otis and John Lowell. [8] Their defense tried to focused on sentimental issues, trying to create a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors. [8] They showed the jury that, due to a smallpox vaccination that ended up harming him, Fairbanks did not have the use of his right arm and was sickly in general. [8] [lower-alpha 3] They suggested, though Fairbanks later strongly denied it, that the lovers had a murder-suicide pact. [8] The defense lawyers also tried to show the government witnesses were not trustworthy and that Fales had become unbalanced after reading too many romantic novels. [8] The trial concluded on the evening on August 7. [8] The next day, August 8, the jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to death. [8]
On the night of August 17, Fairbanks escaped from jail along with several others. [10] [4] A $1,000 bounty offered for his capture. [10] [4] Fisher Ames drew up a petition calling for his capture declaring that "the stain of blood is upon this land" and that "no honest man's eyes must sleep in Dedham this night." [10]
The murder, trial, and the escape set off a media firestorm. One newspaper implored readers to "Stop the Murderer!" [4] When Boston's Columbian Centinel, a Federalist newspaper, blamed the escape on a banditti of the Liberty Pole gentry, the Republican Independent Chronicle shot back the next day. [10] The political potshots and retorts continued in the days that followed. [10]
Fairbanks was captured in Skeensborough, New York while waiting for a steamer to bring him to Canada. [11] He was eating his breakfast when he was discovered by Seth Wheelock of Medfield, Captain Henry Tisdale of the Springfield Parish, and Moses Holt of Hadley, Massachusetts. [11] Surprised to have been pursued so far, he said he would have ridden another 400 miles had he known. [11] Fairbanks was not returned to Dedham, the site of his previous escape, but was instead brought to the Suffolk County Jail in Boston. [11]
On September 10, 1801, he was returned to Dedham from the Boston jail and was hanged. [11] To ensure that he would not escape again, he was accompanied by a civil escort to the border of Dedham and Roxbury. [11] Then, once they crossed over into Norfolk County, he was accompanied by a corps of cavalry plus two companies of cavalry and an infantry unit to stand guard at the actual scaffold. [11]
In addition to the military presence, "the 10,000 people who showed up at the Town Common to witness the execution were five times the town’s population at the time." [4] [11] One resident counted 711 carriages driving down Spring Street towards the gallows that morning. [11] It set a new record for the largest crowd in Dedham. [11]
Within days of the execution the first of four installments of the Report of the Trial of Jason Fairbanks was published by the Boston firm Russell and Cutler. [11] [6] It was 87 pages long and was issued over the course of several months, making it "the first demonstrably popular trial report published in early national New England." [6] A number of books and pamphlets would be written about the case in the months and years to come including "one of the earliest novels based on an actual murder case," the Life of Jason Fairbanks: A Novel Founded on Fact. [12] Fairbanks' brother, Ebenezer, published a 55-page tract titled The Solemn Declaration of the Late Unfortunate Jason Fairbanks,. From the Original Manuscript, composed and signed by himself, a very short time before his death, To Which is Added Some Account of his Life and Character. [11]
Thomas Thatcher, the minister at the West Church, published a sermon in which he wondered if Fairbanks' hanging and the "riot and confusion" at the end of the day were caused by a hellish legion "of obstreperous, incarnate fiends, who paraded the streets of this peaceful village. [13] Other authors also jumped in as well, publishing a large number of poems and broadsides reflecting on Fales and Fairbanks. [9]
After Fairbanks was dead, attention then turned to those who helped him escape. [9] Stephen Fairbanks, two black men named Jacques and Sam, and Henry Dukeham all testified for the commonwealth. [9] Isaac Whiting, Reuben Farrington, Ebenezer Fairbanks, Edward Sisk, and a person named Davis were all charged with helping Fairbanks escape. [9] Those who testified for the government were acquitted, as were Whiting and Farrington. [9] Ebenezer Fairbanks and Sisk were found guilty and sentenced to four months in jail while Davis got two months. [9] Timothy Gay, Jr., the jailkeeper, was charged with being complicit with the escape but this was later disproved. [9] He was, however, turned out of office. [9]
James Allen (1809-1837), also known as George Walton, Jonas Pierce, James H. York, Burley Grove, was a Massachusetts, United States highwayman in the early 19th century.
The history of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1635–1699, begins with the first settlers' arrival in 1635 and runs to the end of the 17th century. The settlers, who built their village on land the native people called Tiot, incorporated the plantation in 1636. They sought to build a community in which all would live out Christian love in their daily lives, and for a time did, but the Utopian impulse did not last. The system of government they devised was both "a peculiar oligarchy" and a "a most peculiar democracy." Most freemen could participate in Town Meeting, though they soon established a Board of Selectmen. Power and initiative ebbed and flowed between the two bodies.
The history of Dedham, Massachusetts, from 1800 to 1899 saw growth and change come to the town. In fact, the town changed as much during the first few decades of the 19th century as it did in all of its previous history.
Ebenezer Battelle (1754–1815) was an American Revolutionary War veteran, a bookseller in Boston, Massachusetts, and a settler of Marietta, Ohio, in the late 18th century.
Benjamin Fairbanks was an 18th-century farmer and selectmen from Dedham, Massachusetts who received the lightest sentence of anyone ever convicted under the Sedition Act of 1798.
Allin Congregational Church is a historic United Church of Christ church in Dedham, Massachusetts. It was built in 1818 by conservative breakaway members of Dedham's First Church and Parish in the Greek Revival style.
The First Church and Parish in Dedham is a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Dedham, Massachusetts. It was the 14th church established in Massachusetts. The current minister, Rev. Rali M. Weaver, was called in March 2007, settled in July, and is the first female minister to this congregation.
Timothy Gay Jr. represented Dedham, Massachusetts, in the Great and General Court.
Jason Haven was the longest serving minister of the First Church and Parish in Dedham.
Alvan Lamson was a minister at First Church and Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts. His ordination led to a split in the church and eventually a lawsuit, Baker v. Fales, that helped disestablish the church and state in Massachusetts.
Baker v. Fales, also known as The Dedham Case, was a seminal case of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. It involved the First Church and Parish in Dedham rejecting the minister the Town of Dedham selected for it and its split into the Allin Congregational Church. It was a major case on the road to the separation of church and state and led to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts formally disestablishing the Congregational Church in 1833.
The history of Dedham, Massachusetts from 1700 to 1799 saw the town become one of the largest and most influential country towns in Massachusetts. As the population grew and residents moved to outlying areas of the town, battles for political power took place. Similar battles were taking place within the churches, as liberal and conservative factions bristled at paying for ministers with whom they had differences of theological opinion. New parishes and preciencts were formed, and eventually several new towns broke away.
William Montague was an Anglican cleric at Old North Church in Boston and St. Paul's in Dedham, Massachusetts.
The Norfolk County Jail was a jail located on Highland Street in Dedham, Massachusetts. Following the creation of Norfolk County in 1792, Timothy Gay deeded land to the county for the creation of his jail next to his tavern on Highland Street in October 1794. Construction began that year but it was not complete until 1795.
The Norfolk County Courthouse served Norfolk County, Massachusetts from soon after its establishment in 1792 until 1827. It was replaced by a new Norfolk County Courthouse.
Thomas Thatcher was the third minister of the West Church of Dedham, Massachusetts.
Jabez Chickering was a lawyer and businessman from Dedham, Massachusetts.
The Phoenix Hotel was one of the most popular social spots in Dedham during the 19th century. It was located on the northwest corner of the High Street-Washington Street intersection in modern-day Dedham Square. Among the distinguished guests of this hotel were Andrew Jackson and James Monroe.
This is a timeline of the history of the town of Dedham, Massachusetts.
Ebenezer Burgess was the minister of the Allin Congregational Church in Dedham, Massachusetts.
