left the house;
and a most distressed one it was, this being the last son out
of three, left these aged parents, the other two being lost at
sea, or died.

"The Monday following was appointed to have the deceased
buried, when Col. Jonathan Snow appeared as Sheriff, with a
writ to serve on the body. Here the melancholy scene commenced,
a part of the relations being assembled, with the aged parents
convulsed in sorrow; no one can paint their feelings but those
who have children and are denied them the right of Christian
burial. The usual ceremonies on such occasions were however
performed, and an appropriate prayer was delivered by the Rev.
John Simpkins, and the funeral procession formed and proceeded
with the corpse about one and a half mile, and very near to the
spot of the grave, when the said Sheriff arrested the coffin,
without any service on the body, and it was set down in the
middle of the highway nearly abreast of said Bangs' dwelling
house, and forbid proceeding any further. A large company who
followed, with the mourners, soon after retired, and left the
officer in charge of the body. After lying in this situation
for some time, one of the Grand Jurors ordered it out of the
high road; this was complied with by the Sheriff, by placing it
under the window of the said Bangs, and about sunset still
further removed it into Bangs' dwelling-house. By this inhuman
proceeding the aged parents were deprived of seeing their last
and only son buried, as were the widow of the deceased and five
children. So distressing a scene never was witnessed in this
place, and perhaps not in the most barbarous nations. Between
seven and eight of the clock, the same evening, the body was
buried by a few individuals, and by the consent of said
Benjamin Bangs, Esq., after he had inflicted all the wounds he
could on the feelings of the poor grey-headed parents and their
relations."

The barbarity and illegality of this conduct of B. Bangs, Esq.
(an influential democrat of that day), were viewed with
indignation from all quarters. The statute of Feb., 1812, on this
subject was not passed to render _illegal_ the arrest of a dead
body of a debtor, for that was _always_ illegal, but its object
was to fix the punishment, instead