On September 4, 1834, Abraham Prescott, a young man charged with the murder of Mrs. Sally Cochran, both of Pembroke, New Hampshire, was tried before the Court of Common Pleas, held (on account of the large concourse of people) in the old North Meeting-House in Concord.
He was found guilty, but allowed a new trial. The second trial took place at the same place, September 8, 1835, and on Saturday, the 12th, a nine AM, the jury came into court with a verdict of guilty. Sentence of death was pronounced by Judge Nathaniel G. Upham on Monday, September 14, and the time of his execution fixed on the 23rd of December, between the hors of ten and twelve o'clock.
A reprieve was granted by Gov. William Badger, until the 6th of January 1836, when Prescott was executed, by hanging at Hopkinton NH, in the presence of a large concourse of people. Prescott was buried in Rumney, New Hampshire.
Janice
*Additional Reading*
–Report of the Trial of Abraham Prescott–
Sources:
1. The history of Concord: from its first grant in 1725 to the organization of the city government in 1853, etc.,” by Nathaniel Bouton, Concord NH; B.W. Sanborn; 1856; page 422
2. History of Concord, New Hampshire : from the original grant in seventeen hundred and twenty-five to the opening of the twentieth century by John Pierpont; Concord, N.H.: Rumford Press, 1903, page 640
