DOI: 10.7910/dvn/82itm
title: House Unpassed Legislation 1845, Docket 1588, SC1/series 230, Petition of Charles Spear

description: &lt;p&gt;Petition subject: Abolition of capital punishment &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Original: &lt;a href="http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:13481384"&gt;http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:13481384&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Date of creation: (unknown) &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Petition location: Massachusetts &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Legislator, committee, or address that the petition was sent to: John Milton Earle, Worcester; committee on the judiciary &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Selected signatures:&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Charles Spear&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Cornelius Bramhall&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;H.A. Morse&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Henry Barker&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Joseph Southwick&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Francis Jackson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;William C. Nell&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Addison Davis&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Jonathan Buffum&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Lewis H. Barnard&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;James N. Buffum&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Reuben H. Ober&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;George C. Leach&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;William Shaw&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Richard Clap&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Benjamin Snow Jr.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Robert R. Crosby&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Henry P. Trash&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Joshua Everett&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;John Curtis Jr.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Henry J. Prentiss&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Josiah Wolcott&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Benjamin Nye&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;George Adams&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;William Lloyd Garrison&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;George W. Pierce&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Peter Blacker&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;James Campbell&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;William P. Atkinson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Rebecca T. Pool&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Sarah Studley&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Thomas Hill&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Sarah Allen&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Sarah Ford&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Charles K. Whipple&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Anne M. Whiting&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Mary M. Brooks&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Charles Bowers&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;John Bailey&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Addison Davis&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Eliza J. Kenny&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Mary P. Kenny&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Charles H. Bolton&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Martha Barker&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Goodhue Ambrose&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Kies Doane&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Elizabeth H. Richards&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;William H. Hill&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Actions taken on dates: 1845-01-22 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Legislative action: Received in the House on January 22, 1845 and referred to the committee on the judiciary &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Total signatures: 129 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Legislative action summary: Received, referred &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Legal voter signatures (males not identified as non-legal): 93 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Female signatures: 18 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Unidentified signatures: 18 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Female only signatures: No &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Identifications of signatories: citizens, [females], [males of color], ["others"] &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Prayer format was &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing"&gt;printed&lt;/a&gt; vs. &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuscript"&gt;manuscript&lt;/a&gt;: Printed &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Signatory column format: not column separated &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Additional non-petition or unrelated documents available at archive: no additional documents &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Additional archivist notes: Towns next to names including Weymouth, Boston, Gardner, Holliston, Quincy, Lynn, Berlin, Lowell, Dorchester, Fitchburg, West Roxbury, Princeton, Watertown, Springfield, East Abington, Roxbury, Hanover, Northampton, Georgetown, Abington, Concord, New Bedford, Salem; clergymen appointed as executioners [religious, clergy, ministers, hangmen; signatories include clergy, reverends; includes petition wrapper for several petitions; signature crossed out: George Doughty of New York] &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Location of the petition at the Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth: House Unpassed 1845, Docket 1588 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Acknowledgements: Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-5105612), Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University, Institutional Development Initiative at Harvard University, and Harvard University Library.&lt;/p&gt;