Hanging Ruth Blay: An Eighteenth Century New Hampshire Tragedy

Hanging Ruth Blay: An Eighteenth Century New Hampshire Tragedy, by Carolyn Marvin, is the kind of historical work I greatly admire, and would one day like to write.  

Marvin takes the largely orally told story of the execution of a thirty-year old school teacher in colonial America who has a baby out out marriage, and then is hung for the death of the infant under uncertain circumstances, and translates legend to history.  She seeks out primary documents, and contextualizes Ruth's story.

Gallows Hill, in Portsmouth, where Ruth Blay was executed

Ruth Blay’s execution was pointless, a tale of a society that was still running on the fumes of its puritanical past.  Her story was told and retold over the centuries, in print and orally, with embellishments.  Marvin provides us with historical records that give Ruth an authentic voice, and therefore “rescues” the historical Ruth Blay.

Ruth Blay is buried in an unmarked grave in this field