DOI: 10.7910/dvn/5zjr8
title: House Unpassed Legislation 1844, Docket 1410, 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:13481330"&gt;http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:13481330&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Date of creation: 1844-01-23 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Petition location: Boston &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Selected signatures:&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Charles Spear&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Goodhue Ambrose&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Oliver Johnson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Richard Hood&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Joseph Southwick&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;James B. Yerrington&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Cornelius Bramhall&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;J.C. Ray [John Ray?]&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Mary M. Brooks&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Ann E. Bacon&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Gertrude Barrett&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Jonathan Butterfield&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;John T. Hilton&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Rebecca Pool&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Richard Hildreth&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;George W. Benson&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Robert F. Wallcut&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Charles K. Whipple&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Ignatius Sargent&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;David Lee Child&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Elbridge Spargue&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Jonathan Buffum&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Hannah S. Adams&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Thankful Southwick&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Charles Lenox Remond&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;George W. Milton&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Bela Marsh&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Henry Willard Williams&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;B.B. Mussey [Benjamin B. Mussey]&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Mary Ann Pepper&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;John G. King&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Sarah Southwick&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Frederick S. Cabot&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;James N. Buffum&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Caroline Remond&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Elizabeth C. Leach&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Anne M. Whiting&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Eunice D. Church&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;George Phelps&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Charles B. Amos&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Total signatures: 171 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Legal voter signatures (males not identified as non-legal): 105 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Female signatures: 39 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Unidentified signatures: 27 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Female only signatures: No &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Identifications of signatories: citizens, [males of color], [females], [females 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;: Manuscript &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: appointment of clergymen and ministers as executioners [clergy, religious, hangmen]; towns next to names including Boston, Danvers, Chelsea, Lynn, Salem, Northampton, Wrentham, Worcester, Walpole, Whately, Stoneham, Charlestown, Middleton, Abington, South Scituate, West Roxbury, New Bedford, Gloucester, Stoughton, Weymouth, Lowell, Concord, Bedford, Hingham, Annisgram, Quincy, Milton, Cambridgeport, Holliston, Milford, Attleboro, Rockport, Plymouth, Foxborough, Watertown, Dorchester, Brookfield, Roxbury, Cambridge; note at top: "Bourgeoise" &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Location of the petition at the Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth: House Unpassed 1844, Docket 1410 &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;