9.]

Still another negro was convicted, at the same term of the court, of
the crime of arson, and ordered to be hanged, and afterwards consumed
to ashes in the same fire with Maria, as appears by the following
record:--

[Sidenote: Jack negro Jndicted & sentenc]

"Jack negro servant to Mr Samuel Woolcot of
Weathersfield thou art Jndicted by the name of Jack Negro
for not hauing the feare of God before thy eyes being
Instigated by the Divill did at or upon the foureteenth day
of July last 1681 wittingly & felloniously sett on fier
Leiftenat Wm Clarks house in North Hampton. by taking
a brand of fier from the hearth and swinging it vp & doune
for to find victualls as by his confession may Appeare
Contrary to the peace of our Soueraigne Lord the King his
Croune & dignity the lawes of God & of this Jurisdiction in
that case made & prouided title firing of houses page (52)
to wch Jndictment at the barr he pleaded not Guilty, &
Affirmd he would be trjed by God & the Country and after his
Confessions &c were read to him & his owni[=g] thereof were
Comitted to the Jury who brought him in Guilty and the
next day had his sentence pronounct agt him by the
Gouernor that he should goe from the barr to the place
whence he came & there be hangd by the neck till he be
dead & then taken doune & burnt to Ashes in the fier wth
Marja Negro--The Lord be mercifull to thy soule sajd the
Gouernor"[23]

[Footnote 23: _Ibid._]

There was some excuse for the latter part of this sentence, for since
the offence was an atrocious felony, such as in England would subject
the offender to an infamous punishment, it seemed proper to attach
something more of ignominy to his sentence than the mere execution by
hanging.

Our forefathers of the colonial period regarded the Mosaic law as of
too sacred obligation to be impaired in the least degree; much more to
be expressly contravened by the courts of justice in respect to the
command,--

"And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he
be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree, his body
shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in
any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is
accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the
Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance."[24]

[Footnote 24: Deut. xxi. 22, 23.]