History
| An article in the History of Dedham series |
|---|
|
| Topics |
|
Fairbanks had been courting Elizabeth Fales, the daughter of Nehemiah Fales, although she was resistant to marrying him. Finally on May 18, 1801, Fairbanks was determined to force her to make up her mind. He met with Fales in a birch grove next to "Mason's pasture" in Dedham, though the exact location today is not known.
Later, Fairbanks appeared at the Fales house, covered with blood and holding a knife. He told them that their daughter had committed suicide and he had tried to do the same but could not. She had been stabbed 11 times, including once in the back.
Fairbanks' wounds were serious; he was in no shape to be taken directly to jail. He was therefore taken into the Fales household, where he received medical treatment. On August 8, 1801, after a three-day trial and Elizabeth Fales' funeral on May 20, a jury indicted Fairbanks as an accessory to her death and he was jailed.
James Sullivan, the Attorney General of Massachusetts, handled the prosecution. Harrison Gray Otis and John Lowell, Jr., two prominent Federalist lawyers, defended Fairbanks. He was found guilty of the murder and was sentenced to death by hanging.
Read more about this topic: Jason Fairbanks
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“It may be well to remember that the highest level of moral aspiration recorded in history was reached by a few ancient Jews—Micah, Isaiah, and the rest—who took no count whatever of what might not happen to them after death. It is not obvious to me why the same point should not by and by be reached by the Gentiles.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“You that would judge me do not judge alone
This book or that, come to this hallowed place
Where my friends’ portraits hang and look thereon;
Ireland’s history in their lineaments trace;
Think where man’s glory most begins and ends
And say my glory was I had such friends.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Books of natural history aim commonly to be hasty schedules, or inventories of God’s property, by some clerk. They do not in the least teach the divine view of nature, but the popular view, or rather the popular method of studying nature, and make haste to conduct the persevering pupil only into that dilemma where the professors always dwell.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)