Prologue: the Kutztown Folk Festival -- Reading and the Oley Valley -- Fingers of guilt -- Middling stiff -- When law and humanity had but faint connection -- Twelve honest men -- A distraction from grim tidings -- As innocent as a child -- The last melancholy resource -- Ten o'clock to two o'clock and fifty minutes -- Slinking off anonymously -- A last hope -- Seduced by the devil -- Confession -- I poor wretch -- A final jolt -- Peace be to her -- The printers of Exeter Township -- The sad, sad song of Susanna Cox -- Advice from the dead to the living -- Her exit--infamy -- Epilogue: back to the festival.
Summary
The unfortunate Susanna Cox gained notoriety for killing her illegitimate infant son. The fatal episode led to her hanging in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1809, the last public execution of a woman in the commonwealth. But was Susanna really the culprit? The legend of her fate, repeated in Pennsylvania German broadsides by the generations that followed, suggests she herself was a victim. Now, in this first full-length investigation into the tragedy, new evidence reveals some startling facts about how indifference, an undeveloped court system, and the inexact science of nineteenth-century forensics combined to determine Susanna's tragic fate. A full look at how Susanna's "sad song" became romanticized through broadside ballads follows, complete with illustrations.
Style's practical register : begun in the reign of King Charles I, consisting of rules, orders, and the principal observations concerning the practice of the common law in the courts at Westminster, particularly the Kings Bench, as well in matters criminal as civil : carefully continued down to this time, alphabetically digested under several titles, with a table for the ready finding out of those titles
Publications of the Pennsylvania German Society ; ser. 2, v. 46
Notes
Illustrated lining papers.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 285) and indexes.
Contents
Berks County: the center of it all -- Daniel Schumacher: a Fraktur artist of some note -- Henrich Otto, 1784 -- Friederich Krebs, August 4, 1790 -- Johann Valentin Schuller -- The greatest development of Fraktur writing, 1800-1835 -- Johann Ritter: a century of influence -- Conclusion: The last flickering -- Appendix 1. Fraktur artist who routinely made Taussscheine for Berks County families -- Appendix 2. Scriveners who routinely infilled Taussscheine for Berks County families -- Appendix 3. Berks Couny printers of Taussscheine in order by active dates -- Appendix 4. Translations.
The reports of divers special cases adjudged in the courts of Kings bench, common pleas & exchequer, in the reign of King Charles II. Collected by Sir Thomas Raymond Kt. late one of the judges of the Kings Bench and Common Pleas, and one of the Barons of the Exchequer. Printed from the original manuscript, written with his own hand. With two tables, one of the principal matters, and the other of the names of the cases
The second part of Modern reports : being a collection of several special cases most of them adjudged in the Court of Common Pleas, in the 26, 27 ... 30th years of the reign of King Charles II. ... To which are added, several select cases in the Courts of Chancery, Kings-Bench, and Exchequer in the said years
