Customer Reviews

Murdered by His Wife

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This story interested me very much as Bathsheba Ruggles is an ancestor of mine. She is my 5th great aunt, her father Timothy Ruggles is my 6th great grandfather and it was important to me that this story be told as accurately as possible and Ms. Navas has done an exceptional job with this story. After 20 plus years of researching the Ruggles family she had information on the Ruggles and Spooner families that even I did not have. She includes in the story transcripts of the trial, photos and wood carvings from the time as well as genealogy and tells the story of Bathsheba in as kind a light as she deserved. I highly recommend this book to other Ruggles and Spooner researchers. There were very few details to this book that I took exception to and I think she did an exceptional job telling the story. I long ago knew this was a story others would want to read - Ms. Navas beat me to the punch and did a great job at it. Thank you Ms. Navas

Having just moved to the area, I (a professional historian specializing in modern Europe) have been reading as much local history as possible to get a feel for the history of central Massachusetts. "Murdered By His Wife" is outstanding. Ms. Navas writes with clear, crisp prose, and sticks very close to the original documents, many of which are reproduced in her book. She tells a superb tale of mystery, murder, and intrigue -- and a gripping tragedy about the execution of three revolutionary soldiers and Bethsheba Ruggles Spooner, who was five months pregnant on the day she was hung on Washington Square in Worcester on July 2, 1778.

The best part of this book is that it becomes a challenge and adventure for your whole family to rediscover the route of the story. You can visit murder victim Joshua Spooner's grave in Brookfield Cemetery off Route 9. About 3/4 miles down the road, you can walk, bike, or drive to the site of his and Bethsheba's home, where a plaque still commemorates the notorious murder. Kids of all ages will love the abandoned well still on the property -- the place where Bethsheba Spooner's lover(s) dumped the body (now covered by a stone which leaves enough visible to excite the imagination). You can also find the remnants of the house's old stone foundation, and four large flat stone steps leading from the road to the site of the old house.

The Spooner House is located on Elm Hill, now an historical landmark zone, and large parts of the road are a wildlife sanctuary perfect for spring, summer, or autumn walks. This is one of few places where you can reproduce the feeling of a colonial road and how it stood 200 years ago. The old stone walls along the Old Post Road are still intact, and you get a feeling of being carried back in time.

I highly recommend this book as a basic tour guide for the central Massachusetts leg of your next tour to New England. The site of all the adventure is just 15 minutes off of Exit 9 on Route 90, or the Sturbridge Exit off Highway 84.

Murdered by His Wife by Deborah Navas is at once a gripping "Gothic" page-turner and a solid piece of scholarly research. Navas writes in an elegant, clear and concise manner. A fine balance is sustained between objective, documented reporting and carefully considered interpretation which is never allowed to override the facts. The book is packed with information including fascinating transcripts of eighteenth century testimony. While the narrative stands on its own as a riveting drama that will appeal to the general public, the book should be of special interest to historians,legal historians, feminists sociologists and psychologists. In my opinion this is a landmark book.

Hard to believe this happened and so close to home! Exceptionally detailed account!

I'm not a relative, Just a history buff of many years. This is great local history. From a bigger stand point tho, it dives, head first, into the Founders idea's of when life states in their eyes... I got me thinking of the HUGE abortion issue that has been in the US for years... What did our Founding Fathers thing? Well this answers all that with a good murder mystery... Well worth the read even if our not a history buff...

When Joshua Spooner, a 'gentleman farmer' of Brookfield, Massachusetts, was beaten to death and his body stuffed down a well in March 1778, newspapers called his murder "the most extraordinary crime ever perpetrated in New England." Four people stood trial for the killing- two British soldiers, a 17 year old Continental soldier, and the victim's wife, Bathsheba. They were found guilty and hanged before 5000 spectators the following July. Mrs. Spooner had attempted to secure a temporary reprieve by 'pleading her belly', but reports from two 'matron juries' sent to confirm her pregnancy were conflicting, and the Massachusetts Council rejected her petition. During the post-execution autopsy, she was found to be five months pregnant.

Thirty-two year old Bathsheba Spooner was a figure of revulsion in the community after her participation in her husband's murder became known. Deborah Navas acknowledges Mrs. Spooner's guilt and condemns the crime as selfish and abhorrent. She had concieved a child with the young Continental soldier who was fated to become her co-defendant, and fearing the punishment meted out to adulteresses in eighteenth century America, persuaded her teenaged lover and two British deserters from General Burgoyne's defeated army to kill the spouse she despised. On the surface it appears that she instigated Joshua Spooner's death to prevent him from accusing her of adultery and subjecting her to public consequences, but Navas presents the intriguing possibility that Bathsheba wanted to be caught and executed by the state. She confessed to the crime without hesitation, and when led to the gallows, she seemed unnaturally calm and happy. The inference is that Bathsheba, whose behaviour could be erratic, may have committed the eighteenth century version of 'police suicide' by bungling a capital crime so thoroughly that the death she sought was guaranteed.

Bathsheba Spooner's only real unselfish act was to request a stay of execution so that she could deliver her baby. But she was stonewalled by a politically hostile judiciary that despised her as the daughter of Brigadier General Timothy Ruggles, state's most prominent and hated Loyalist. The deputy secretary of the Council that considered her petition also happened to be the stepbrother of the murdered Joshua Spooner. Because justice was not blind, the whole affair claimed two victims instead of one.

I found this interesting in that Bathsheba is a relative, however I found it a bit repetitive in the telling.