of leaving it to the
discretion of the Courts. Many undoubtedly recollect the instance
at Portland several years before, in which a debtor who was on
the limits was suddenly taken sick and carried out of the limits,
where he died. It was then decided to be the law that the
debtor's bond was not broken unless his body was out of the
limits by his own agency and will.

So disinterring dead bodies of men was always a misdemeanor, but
in 1815 a law was passed by our General Court to fix the
penalties.

-------------------------

The case of Stephen Merrill Clark is remembered by many people in Salem
and its vicinity.

_Supreme Judicial Court._

At the present term of this Court in Salem, Andrew Dunlap,
John Foster, and Solomon Whipple, Esqrs. were admitted
Counsellors, and Asa W. Wildes, Esq. an attorney of said Court.

_Capital Trial_.--On Tuesday Stephen Merrill Clark, a lad about
15 years of age, was indicted for the crime of ARSON alleged to
have been committed in Newburyport, was arraigned the same day,
and pleaded _not guilty_. The day for his trial is not yet
fixed.--The Court assigned him Leverett Saltonstall and John G.
King, Esquires, for his counsel on his trial.

_Salem Observer_, Nov. 4, 1820.

Clark was subsequently convicted of the crime for which he was tried,
and executed upon Salem Neck in 1821. He had made a confession of his
guilt; but considering his youth, and the circumstances of his having
been instigated by others, as was believed, to the commission of the
crime, many humane people thought there should have been some
mitigation of the punishment.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some
Strange and Curious Punishments, by Henry M. Brooks

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLDEN TIME SERIES ***

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