Connecticut Historical Collections

" Sir, — 'Tis not strange iha't reports various and contradictory, should have circula- •<ed on so interesting and terrible a subject as thai of a man's consiyumg to the giave himself and family, in a moment of apparent ease and tranquillity. The agitation of mind wliicli must be the conseijuence oi' being near such a scene of horror, will sulli- ciently apologize for not answering your request for the pnriicnlars ere this. C)iir ignorance of the history of this man, at first precluded a possibility of giving you sat- isfaction on this head. Perhaps no one in this town had more lavoiable opjioi tuni- lies of obtaining the particulars of hi.s histoiy : yet 1 could never induce him to men- tion a single syllable relating to his age, parentage, or early occupation. To have asked him directly would have been rud.e, when he evidently meant to be .-ileut on these subjects. My conjecture \vas, that he was the natural son of some gentleman in r.ngland, and that he had been brought up in or near Lomton and had been about the court. Since his decease I have been able to learn from undoubted authority, that he was born in the county of Essex, in a village not very far from London. As to his business in youth, I am still left in the dark, but find he has once meniioned to a gentle- man, some iitile incidents which happened to him while in company with Ins laihcr, and that he very early became acquainted with a club in London, who were Deists, where 'tis probable he received the first rudiments in those principles. While in I-'.ng- land, wheie he left a mother and sister, he had a fair characier lor integrity and hon- esty. In the ye.ir 1755, he went out to the i>!aud of Barbadoes, in the family of Charles Pinfold Rsn. Governor of that Island, where he tamed six years, then return- ed to JMiglaiid, purchased some meichandi/e, and from thence came to IS'ew Yolk in the year I7(j'2, and immediately rejnoved to yiratfoid in this Slate, from tlnMice to Der- by, and then to Fairfield, where he married and dwelt lor some years. By this lime, he had acquired about tvvelve hundred jiounds property, with which he removed to this town, about ten years since, where he lesukd until his death. His business was that of retailing ; he l^ormerly credited his goods, but since his residence in this town he has refused to give any credii, intending to keep Ins projicriy wiihin his own reach, believing it alu ays secure while his eye was upon it. While here he added coii'-ider- able to his stock," none of which he ever vested in real estate : the Coiilinenlal cui len- cy taught him thai wealth could take to ilsi.lf v.-ings and tly away : nutw itll^talJdulg all his vigilance. " When the war commenced, he had on hand a very handsome assortment of goods for a country >toie, which he sold for the currency of the counlrv, wiihout any ail- vaiice in the price ; the money he laid by, waiting and expecting ihe time wouUl soon anive when he might therewith rephu-e his goods, resolving noi to jKiit w iih it unlil II should be in asgood ilemand as when received by liim, IIis expeclaiions froiu this (piarter daily lessening, finally lost all hope, and was thrown into a state litile bet- ter liian despair, as ap|iear.s from Ills writing; he adoiUed a plan of the most ligid family economy, but still kept uj) the outward appearance of his I'ormer alllucnce, and ever to the last entertained his niend with his usual decent hospitality although noth- ing appeared ill his outward deportment, which evinced the uncommon jiride of his heart ; his writings shew clearly that he was determined not to bear the mortification of being thought by his friends poor and dependent. On this subject he expresses him- self in the following extraordinary manner: ' If a man, who has once lived well, meant well and done well, falls by unavoidable accident into poverty, and then sub- mits to be laughed at, despised and trampled on, by a set of mean wretches as far be- low him as tiie moon is below the sun; I say if such a man submits, he must become meaner than meanness itself, and I sincerely wish he might have ten years added to bis natural life to punish him for his folly." " lie fixed upon the night succeeding the IStli of November for the execution of his nefarious purpose, and procured a su]>pcr of oysters, of which the family eat'very plentifully; that evening he writes as follows: '1 have prepared a nohh- supper of oysters, that my dock and 1 may eat and drink together, tiiank God and die.' After supper he sent the maid with a siudied errand to a friend's house at some distance, di- recting her to stay until she obtained an answer to an insignificant letter he wroie his friend, intending she should not return that evening — shedid however rclurn, perhaps iier return disconcerted him and prevented him for that time. The next day he car- ried his pistols to a smith for repair; it may be, ihe ill condition of his pistols might be an additional reason for the delay. " On the evening of the 10th of December some persons were with him at his house 10 whom he appeared as cheerfid and serene as usual; ha attended to tlio little affairs 118 WE T H E US F r E LD. of his family as if nothing uncommon was in contemplation. Tlie company left him about nine o'clock in the evening, when he was urgent as usual lor their stay ; wheth- er he slept that night is uncertain, but it is believed he went to bed. The children and maid slept in one chamber; in the gray of the morning of the 11th of December he went to their bed chamber, awaked the maid and ordered her to rise gentlv, without disturbing the children when she came down staiis, he gave her a line to tlie famil) phy- sician who lived at the distance ot a quarter of a mile, ordered her to carry it immedi- atelv, at the same time declaring that Mrs. Beadle had been ill all night, and directing her to stay until the physician should come with her; this he repeated sundry times with a degree of ardor. There is much reason to believe he had murdered Mrs. Beadle be- fore he awaked the maid. Upon the maid's leaving tlie house he immediately pro- ceeded to execute his purpose on the children and himself, it appears he had for some time before, carried to the bedside every night an ax and a carving knile; he smote his wife and each of the children with the ax on the side of the head as they lay sleep- ing in their beds; the woman had two wounds in the head, the skull of each of them was fractured ; he then with the carving knife cut their throats from ear to car ; the woman and little boy were drawn partly over the side of llieir beds, as if to prevent the bedding Irom being besmeared with blood ; the three daugiiters were taken from the bed and laid upon the tloor side by side, like three lambs, belore their throats were cut; they were covered with a blanket, and the wumaii's face with a handkerchief. lie then proceeded to the lower lloor of the house, leaving marks of his foutstcjis in blood on the stairs, carrying with him the ax and knife, tlie latter he laid upon the table in the room where he was found, reeking with the blood ol' his family. Perhaps he had thoughts he might use it against himself if his pistols should fail ; it appears he then seated himself in a Windsor chair, with his arms supp(irted by the arms of the chair ; he fixed the muzzles of the pistols into his two ears and fired them at the same instant; the balls went through the head in transverse direeiioiis. Ahhoiiyh the neighbors were very near and some of them awake, none heard the report of the pistols. The capital facts of the ma.ssacre you have aeen in the puldic papers, a minute detail was too horrible to be given at lirst, until the mind (especially of the relatives of the unhap- py woman) had been prepared for it by a summary nan alive, and even now 'lis enough to give feelings to apathy itself to relate the horrid tale. " The line to the physician oliscurely announced the intentions of the man; the house was soon ojiened, but alas, too late I The bodies were pale and motionless, swimming in their blood, their laces white as mountain snow, yet life seemed to tremble on their lips; description can do no more than faintly ape and tride with the real figure. " Such a tragical scene filled every mind with the deepest distress ; nature recoiled and was on the rack with distorting passions ; the most poignant sorrow and tender pity for the lady and her innocent babes, who were the hapless victims of the brutal studied cruelty of an husband and father, in whose embraces they expected to find se- curity, melted every heart. iShocking ellects of pride and false notions about reli- gion ! " To paint the first transports this afiecting scene orochK^ed, when the house was open- ed is beyond my reach. — .Mnliiludes of all ai,'es ami .se.\es were drawn together hv the sad tale. — The very inluo^t .-nouIs >d' the InhoKlers were wounded at ihe sight, and torn by conleiiding passions: Silent grief, willi marks of astoni>hment were siieceeileO by furious indignation against the author ot the ali'ectingsjiectacle, which vented itself in incoherent exclamations, tjome old soldiers accidentally pa.ssing thro' the town that morning, on their way from camp to visit their friends, led by curiosity turned in, to view the sad remains; on sight of the woman and her tender ofl!spring, notwithstand- ing all their firmness, the tender sympathetic tear stealing gently down their furrowed cheeks, betrayed the anguish of their hearts; on being shewed the body of the sacrifi- cer they paused a moment, then muttering forth an oath or two of execration, with their eyes fixed on the grounil in silent sorrow, they slowly went their way. So aw- ful and terrible a disaster, wrought wonderfully on the minds of the neighborhood; nature itself seemed rulUed, and refused the kindly aid of balmy sleep for a time.