c1770 - 1790s ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT DOCUMENT OF NANTUCKET'S HISTORY OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TO SOME OF THE LOCAL INDIANS

On offer is a super, original 18th Century manuscript relic of early Nantucket history being a handwritten undated document titled "Some account of Indians that have been hanged since the year 1700". The bizarre deposition describes the first hanging in 1704, of an Indian who killed his wife. It states: "First in 1704 an Indian by the name of Sabo that lived at Mattecocham [now Madequesham] killed his wife and fled was missing....days.... taken at Coppaum [the site of the first English settlement on Nantucket in 1659] with a company of Indians that said they had been to Muskeget after Bass returning they stopped at Tuckernuck where they found Sabo who said he waded acrost from Smith's point and now took passage with them the Indian Constable took him Carried him before John Gardner Esquire who committed him to prison he was finally hanged." Five more individuals are listed who were hanged between 1736 and 1768, including a female, "Happy Comfort a Squaw in 1739". There are two small areas of loss and a crease tear has been mended with archival tape. The 9¾ x 7 ¾ inch document is overall save for the small losses G.