Execution of Stephen Merrill Clark, Which Took Place on Winter Island, Salem, Thursday, May 10, 1821; For the Crime of Arson

Stephen Merrill Clark - Subject.

N.P., 1821

[Original Broadside of the execution of a teenager by Massachusetts]  46 x 28 cm.  Black wide-ruled mourning border.  Text printed in 4 columns.  Wood cut of coffin, printed under title. Old fold creases. Moderate staining.  Some loss at outer margin, but doesn't effect text.  

  After several fires were set in Newburyport in 1820, arson was suspected.  Stephen Merrill Clark, a teenager with an ill-reputation was accused by Hannah Downes (a prostitute, who Clark was rumored to have had relations with).  After confessing under duress, Clark was sentenced for execution.  Clark maintained his innocence through the trial and his father claimed the boy was with him at home the night of the fire.  The Revs. Carlile and Cornelius exhorted Clark to repent and call upon divine mercy to avoid the fires of hell after his execution.  Before his death he confessed that he committed the act at Hannah's urging because of the treatment the townspeople had given her.  He was hung at age 16 for the crime of arson (although only a property crime, no one was injured).  Whether Clark committed the five fives he was accused of, is uncertain.  The broadside includes the verses: "Be warn'd, ye youth, who see my sad despair: Avoid LEWD WOMEN, false as they are fair. By my example learn to shun my fate: How wretched is the man who's wise too late! Ere innocence, and fame and life be lost, Here purchase wisdom cheaply, at my cost."  Ref: Harvard Law School Record, 990148107630203941.