Amaziah Harding was born in 1671 to Joseph Harding and Bethiah Cooke. He was a miller in the area of Eastham, and married Hannah Rogers, daughter of Thomas Rogers and Elizabeth Snow.
Amaziah and Hannah had nine children: Hannah (1694), John (1696), Thomas (1699), James (1702), Mary (1706), Elisabeth (1708), Phebe (1710), Nathan (1711), and Cornelius (1716).
In 1704, Amaziah and Hannah complained to the Barnstable County Court that Hannah's father's estate had been improperly handled, and that Hannah had not received her fair share of his estate; the Court agreed, and ordered Thomas and Eleazer Rogers, Hannah's brothers, to pay her 50 shillings, and Joseph Rogers, another of her brothers, to pay her 20 shillings.
On July 18, 1733, Amaziah Harding is believed to have killed his wife Hannah Rogers. Massachusetts courts ruled that he did it, and he was executed the following year. According to Juliet Haines Mofford, the Boston Weekly Newsletter, on its July 19-July 26, 1733 edition, summarized the case:
"We hear from Eastham on Cape Cod that a most barbarous murder was committed there on the body of one Mrs. Harding, supposed to be done by her own husband, he having for a great while before, as 'tis said, carried it very ill toward her, to the impairing of her reason, and now being found in the room alone with her, where she laid dead near him, with her neck twisted and broke and about her mouth and throat much beat and bruised. The hard-hearted man being thus surprised and charged with the fact, by those who first discovered it, endeavored to put an end to his own life, by stabbing a knife into his bowels, which stroke not proving mortal immediately he went to repeat it, aiming at his breast, but was prevented by those about him. On Friday last night he was sent to the Barnstable Gaol."
Also according to Mofford, the subsequent order for execution reads:
"The Juror of our Lord the King upon their oath present Maziah Harding... not having the fear of God before his Eyes but being Instigated by the Devil with force and arms and of his malice aforethought on the Eighteenth Day of July last at Eastham aforesd, did commit assault on the Body of Hannah, his then wife and in the Kings peace did make and then and there with force Feloniously twisted the neck of said Hannah and Dislocated the same, of which the said Hannah then Instantly dyed so that the said Maziah Harding of his malice... murthered his said wife contrary to the peace of our sd Lord the King his Crown and Dignity, and the Law... upon which Indictment the said Harding being arraigned at the Barr pleaded Not Guilty... and the Prisoner after a full hearing of the Evidences for the King and the Prisoner's Defense went out to Consider thereof and returned their Verdict upon oath that the said Maziah Harding is Guilty... and shall suffer the pains of death."
Amaziah Harding was executed in Barnstaple on June 5, 1734.
Amaziah and Hannah had nine children: Hannah (1694), John (1696), Thomas (1699), James (1702), Mary (1706), Elisabeth (1708), Phebe (1710), Nathan (1711), and Cornelius (1716).
In 1704, Amaziah and Hannah complained to the Barnstable County Court that Hannah's father's estate had been improperly handled, and that Hannah had not received her fair share of his estate; the Court agreed, and ordered Thomas and Eleazer Rogers, Hannah's brothers, to pay her 50 shillings, and Joseph Rogers, another of her brothers, to pay her 20 shillings.
On July 18, 1733, Amaziah Harding is believed to have killed his wife Hannah Rogers. Massachusetts courts ruled that he did it, and he was executed the following year. According to Juliet Haines Mofford, the Boston Weekly Newsletter, on its July 19-July 26, 1733 edition, summarized the case:
"We hear from Eastham on Cape Cod that a most barbarous murder was committed there on the body of one Mrs. Harding, supposed to be done by her own husband, he having for a great while before, as 'tis said, carried it very ill toward her, to the impairing of her reason, and now being found in the room alone with her, where she laid dead near him, with her neck twisted and broke and about her mouth and throat much beat and bruised. The hard-hearted man being thus surprised and charged with the fact, by those who first discovered it, endeavored to put an end to his own life, by stabbing a knife into his bowels, which stroke not proving mortal immediately he went to repeat it, aiming at his breast, but was prevented by those about him. On Friday last night he was sent to the Barnstable Gaol."
Also according to Mofford, the subsequent order for execution reads:
"The Juror of our Lord the King upon their oath present Maziah Harding... not having the fear of God before his Eyes but being Instigated by the Devil with force and arms and of his malice aforethought on the Eighteenth Day of July last at Eastham aforesd, did commit assault on the Body of Hannah, his then wife and in the Kings peace did make and then and there with force Feloniously twisted the neck of said Hannah and Dislocated the same, of which the said Hannah then Instantly dyed so that the said Maziah Harding of his malice... murthered his said wife contrary to the peace of our sd Lord the King his Crown and Dignity, and the Law... upon which Indictment the said Harding being arraigned at the Barr pleaded Not Guilty... and the Prisoner after a full hearing of the Evidences for the King and the Prisoner's Defense went out to Consider thereof and returned their Verdict upon oath that the said Maziah Harding is Guilty... and shall suffer the pains of death."
Amaziah Harding was executed in Barnstaple on June 5, 1734.
Amaziah Harding was born in 1671 to Joseph Harding and Bethiah Cooke. He was a miller in the area of Eastham, and married Hannah Rogers, daughter of Thomas Rogers and Elizabeth Snow.
Amaziah and Hannah had nine children: Hannah (1694), John (1696), Thomas (1699), James (1702), Mary (1706), Elisabeth (1708), Phebe (1710), Nathan (1711), and Cornelius (1716).
In 1704, Amaziah and Hannah complained to the Barnstable County Court that Hannah's father's estate had been improperly handled, and that Hannah had not received her fair share of his estate; the Court agreed, and ordered Thomas and Eleazer Rogers, Hannah's brothers, to pay her 50 shillings, and Joseph Rogers, another of her brothers, to pay her 20 shillings.
On July 18, 1733, Amaziah Harding is believed to have killed his wife Hannah Rogers. Massachusetts courts ruled that he did it, and he was executed the following year. According to Juliet Haines Mofford, the Boston Weekly Newsletter, on its July 19-July 26, 1733 edition, summarized the case:
"We hear from Eastham on Cape Cod that a most barbarous murder was committed there on the body of one Mrs. Harding, supposed to be done by her own husband, he having for a great while before, as 'tis said, carried it very ill toward her, to the impairing of her reason, and now being found in the room alone with her, where she laid dead near him, with her neck twisted and broke and about her mouth and throat much beat and bruised. The hard-hearted man being thus surprised and charged with the fact, by those who first discovered it, endeavored to put an end to his own life, by stabbing a knife into his bowels, which stroke not proving mortal immediately he went to repeat it, aiming at his breast, but was prevented by those about him. On Friday last night he was sent to the Barnstable Gaol."
Also according to Mofford, the subsequent order for execution reads:
"The Juror of our Lord the King upon their oath present Maziah Harding... not having the fear of God before his Eyes but being Instigated by the Devil with force and arms and of his malice aforethought on the Eighteenth Day of July last at Eastham aforesd, did commit assault on the Body of Hannah, his then wife and in the Kings peace did make and then and there with force Feloniously twisted the neck of said Hannah and Dislocated the same, of which the said Hannah then Instantly dyed so that the said Maziah Harding of his malice... murthered his said wife contrary to the peace of our sd Lord the King his Crown and Dignity, and the Law... upon which Indictment the said Harding being arraigned at the Barr pleaded Not Guilty... and the Prisoner after a full hearing of the Evidences for the King and the Prisoner's Defense went out to Consider thereof and returned their Verdict upon oath that the said Maziah Harding is Guilty... and shall suffer the pains of death."
Amaziah Harding was executed in Barnstaple on June 5, 1734.
Amaziah and Hannah had nine children: Hannah (1694), John (1696), Thomas (1699), James (1702), Mary (1706), Elisabeth (1708), Phebe (1710), Nathan (1711), and Cornelius (1716).
In 1704, Amaziah and Hannah complained to the Barnstable County Court that Hannah's father's estate had been improperly handled, and that Hannah had not received her fair share of his estate; the Court agreed, and ordered Thomas and Eleazer Rogers, Hannah's brothers, to pay her 50 shillings, and Joseph Rogers, another of her brothers, to pay her 20 shillings.
On July 18, 1733, Amaziah Harding is believed to have killed his wife Hannah Rogers. Massachusetts courts ruled that he did it, and he was executed the following year. According to Juliet Haines Mofford, the Boston Weekly Newsletter, on its July 19-July 26, 1733 edition, summarized the case:
"We hear from Eastham on Cape Cod that a most barbarous murder was committed there on the body of one Mrs. Harding, supposed to be done by her own husband, he having for a great while before, as 'tis said, carried it very ill toward her, to the impairing of her reason, and now being found in the room alone with her, where she laid dead near him, with her neck twisted and broke and about her mouth and throat much beat and bruised. The hard-hearted man being thus surprised and charged with the fact, by those who first discovered it, endeavored to put an end to his own life, by stabbing a knife into his bowels, which stroke not proving mortal immediately he went to repeat it, aiming at his breast, but was prevented by those about him. On Friday last night he was sent to the Barnstable Gaol."
Also according to Mofford, the subsequent order for execution reads:
"The Juror of our Lord the King upon their oath present Maziah Harding... not having the fear of God before his Eyes but being Instigated by the Devil with force and arms and of his malice aforethought on the Eighteenth Day of July last at Eastham aforesd, did commit assault on the Body of Hannah, his then wife and in the Kings peace did make and then and there with force Feloniously twisted the neck of said Hannah and Dislocated the same, of which the said Hannah then Instantly dyed so that the said Maziah Harding of his malice... murthered his said wife contrary to the peace of our sd Lord the King his Crown and Dignity, and the Law... upon which Indictment the said Harding being arraigned at the Barr pleaded Not Guilty... and the Prisoner after a full hearing of the Evidences for the King and the Prisoner's Defense went out to Consider thereof and returned their Verdict upon oath that the said Maziah Harding is Guilty... and shall suffer the pains of death."
Amaziah Harding was executed in Barnstaple on June 5, 1734.
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