Convicted of conspiring with her 16-year-old lover, Ezra Ross, and two British Army deserters (William Brooks and James Buchanan) to murder her husband, Joshua Spooner, in Brookfield, Massachusetts on March 1, 1778. The men beat him to death and disposed of his body in a well. She was pregnant at the time of her execution. All four were hanged on July 2, 1778 in Worcester before a large crowd.
Background
Bathsheba Ruggles Spooner was the daughter of prominent Loyalist Brigadier General Timothy Ruggles. She was convicted of conspiring to murder her husband during the American Revolutionary War and is historically noted as the first woman executed by Americans after the Declaration of Independence.
Contemporary accounts from the Massachusetts Spy and other period newspapers
Historical records of the 1778 trial in Worcester County
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No other flagged graves found within 5 miles of this location in our current database.