June 4, 1715: Margaret Gaulacher
Boston, Massachusetts
The news that week includes a lyonefs displayed, attacking Fowls and Catts. They watched her feeding time, remarked on her mercilefs cruelty. Meanwhile, Cotton Mather preached against Hard-hearted Sinners, and Hardnefs of Heart. He helped with her confession, which reflects on attempts to destroy her unborn child, a part of her Wicked crime, completed through Neglect. Now hers is a Stony Heart, of Flint. Ah! Poor Margaret, behold: the congregation calls on your wondrous Industry, Agony, your death four days off. Pray for a Clean, and a Soft Heart; don’t fall from this fresh gallows to the Mouths of Dragons, unconcerned, adamant, so little broken.
Notes:
Not much is known about Gaulacher; her name is sometimes recorded as “Callahan.”
Quotations:
The Boston Newsletter
Mather, Cotton. A sorrowful spectacle: in two sermons, occasioned by a just sentence of death, on a miserable woman, for the murder of a spurious offspring. Boston : Printed by T. Fleet & T. Crump, for Samuel Gerrich, 1715