Norwich bulletin., 1913-10-29
OLD HAMPTON PAPERS
THE TRAGEDY OF THE CONTAIN :
 TIC ROCKS,

l hampton, or CandQa Parish, LOOK
 place in 1712. It then became open to
 purchasers and the happy days for the | Cowhantic Indians were soon to be ov- l CT. He was to leave his fields of corn
 and beans to the stranger and his snug
 winter quarters under the grim rocks forgotten and deserted
 One William Shaw bought 100 acres
 of land on both sides of the Little Riv- 1 CT in 1709 for 23 Pounds and settling on 1 it he became prominent in Church and | town affairs But little is known of l him farther, except that he was the an- l cestor of Elizabeth Shaw the first per- | son to be legally executed in Wind | ham County.
 Her home was somewhere on the ] banks of the Little River not far from | the Cowhantic Rocks She was a child l of but fifteen years, simple minded and weak in body and mind. A poor be- | trayed beWiidered girl, who, dreading l the wrath of her stern father, after giving birth to her child in secret and alone, she stole away to the Cowhantic Rocks and hid the babe in the crevices of the rocks. Her father suspected and reported her to the authorities Search was made and the tiny dead body found The poor. distracted girl-moth- CT was carried away and confined in Windham Centre jail. Her trial was held Sept. 17 1745. Great interest was taken in the trial and deep sympathy was felt for the girl throughout the entire country. bu there were no brave women who dared in those days to plead for mercy for this child of fifteen of deficient mental capacity: for in those days Women were to keep si- lent"
 The stern grand jurors presented the case: That one Elizabeth Shaw, Jun. of Windham a single woman, was, on the 18th day of June delivered of a liV- ing male bastard child in Windham, and did endeavor to conceal the birth and death thereof, so it should not come to light whether said child was born alive or not: and did cause said child to perish"
 The prisoner pleaded mot guilty" claiming that the child was born dead, but every mans hand was against her and it was judged gcod for the com munIty that the full penalty of the law be carried out So it was decreed that she should go to the Common Goal and thence to the place of execution, and there be hanged until she was dead Dec 1th 1745'
 This severe sentence was executed and when the fearful day came she rode on her coffin to the place of execution southwest of Windham Green.
 The day was intensely cold but great crowds formed in the awful death march behind the cart which bore the doomed girl, who cried continuously in a loud voice: "Oh Lord Jesus, have mer- cy upon my soul!' and so Justice was meted out by the good men of Wind ham to this helpless, friendless child, but tradition does not tell us wheth- CT justice was meted out to her be- trayer by man. But let us hope that God Almighty required his sin of him.
 A tradition comes down to us that her father repented of his rash cruelty of giving up his child to her death. aEd went to Hartford where he obtained a Pardon for her from the Governor; but owing to heavy rains and swollen streams he arrived in Windham too late to prevent the sentence from be- ing carried out. Of her mothers feel ings history does not tell us but un- doubredIy it was her grief for her enid that finally caused her unnatural fath- CT to relent and seek a pardon for the girl. The last record which closes the chapter of this life reads: Allowed Mir. Sheriff Huntington for cost and expense of doing execution on Eliz- abeth Shaw, 2F SD 5S March 22d 1746.
 The last public execution to be held in Windham was in the latter part of the 18th century. Ebenezer Jewett re- members hearing his grandmother re- late the occurrence. A man was hanged on the limb of the tree that still extends over the street in Wind ham Center, at the foot of the big hill going towards Windham Plains. She remembered an old woman who had witnessed the execution coming up the hill by the present Episcopal Church Wringing her hands and exclaiming over and over again: What a spec tekeI; what a spec. tekeI!"
 Tragedy seems to turk in the shadows of the grim CowhantiC rocks for sev-
 
 lived near them. Beginning with EliZ- abeth Shaw and child, the next of whom we have record was in the same century. a peddlar was murdered in the Haunted House. now in ruins, which crowned the eminence above the Three Bridges which cross Little River. About forty years ago Daniel Farman who lived inE the Haunted House com mitted suicide John Hall, the ruins of whose house is still seen just west of the Howard Valley schoolhouse the on- ly house on the Cowhantic lane, was assaulted and died from the effects, not far from the rocks.
 On this ill-fated road lived Cortland P. Ray who last December, crazedN by the terrible sufferings he was enduring from cancer, drowned himself under the middle bridge of the Three Bridges And in last Jaunary young ernest Burnham. whose home was above the rocks was killed by a falling tree.
 Perhaps a hunderd years ago people would have said that the crazed spirit | of poor Elizabeth Shaw still haunted the locality. and thus caused this corn 1 CT of the beautiful old town of Hamp- 1 ton to be the scene of so many trage- | dies But. 8 all events we hope the | spell is broken and that no more trage- dies will ever be enacted in Howard 1 Valley.
 SUSAN JEWETT HOWE l MEN NOW AT