Category: History Publisher: self
ISBN-10: 0578835428
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 301
Copyright: February 26, 2021
ISBN-13: 9780578835426
Price: $4.99 (eBook)
The favorite daughter of a notorious loyalist enlists two British POWs and her teenage American lover (and ex-militiaman) to kill her patriot husband, at mid-point of the Revolution.
My book traces Spooner’s family background, her marriage, and her involvement with the three men who would participate in the most infamous crime of the American eighteenth century. The murder, trial and executions are detailed within the contexts of Revolutionary America, and its traditions of marriage, jurisprudence, and capital punishment.
Professional Reviews
Jonathan Cohn, Sr. Nat’l Correspondent, HUFFINGTON POST
“Andrew Noone…brings to life a murder and scandal that shook New England and reverberated for decades to come. This meticulously researched, elegantly told tale transports you back to the time of the nation’s founding, and the volatile mix of cultural, economic and political forces that clashed during that critical era. It’s a story about love and money, power and privilege, crime and eventually the ultimate punishment. Bathsheba Spooner paints a picture of what life was really like back in the eighteenth century, during the transition from colonial life to independence, by focusing on the travails of a storied family, a wealthy couple, and a group of soldiers whose lives intersected. It ends in tragedy—or more accurately, a series of tragedies—and its lessons still feel relevant today.”
Alan Rogers, history professor, BOSTON COLLEGE
“…a provocatively and deeply researched volume that includes fascinating descriptions of Massachusetts colonial life and a chilling analysis of how and why Bathsheba Spooner, the daughter of wealthy loyalist Timothy Ruggles, came to be fatally linked with two British soldiers…and a seventeen-year-old American soldier…This powerful, well-told story culminates with the confessions, convictions and hangings of Bathsheba and the three men she seduces, and provides insight into how divided loyalties during the American Revolution had personal consequences…”
Liam Riordan, history professor, UNIVERSITY OF MAINE, Orono
“Drawing on rich publications and manuscript records, independent historian Andrew Noone uncovers broad family networks as well as issues of Revolutionary allegiances, mental instability, sexual escapades, and the long legacy of the quadruple public execution in popular memory. In doing so he reminds us of the wide web of significance that can be revealed by carefully-researched and well-written local history.”
The authors of Savannah: Brokers, Bankers and Bay Lane: Inside the Slave Trade (Civil War Savannah), received the 2012 Award for Excellence in Research from the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board. The Award was issued by then Georgia Secretary