?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(CRIME.) Group of pamphlets and ephemera regarding the murder trial of the nefarious Rev. Ephraim Avery. 7 items, various sizes and conditions. Rhode Island and Massachusetts, 1833-1834
In December 1832, a young factory worker named Sarah Maria Cornell from Fall River, MA was discovered hung in a barn in nearby Tiverton, RI. She was found to be several months pregnant, and had confided that the father was a married Methodist minister, Ephraim Kingsbury Avery. Among her personal papers, investigators found a note: "If I should be missing, enquire of the Rev. Mr. Avery of Bristol, he will know where I am." Avery was widely believed to be guilty of killing Cornell, but was acquitted in June 1833 in one of the most widely reported murder trials before Lizzie Borden. This lot includes:
Thomas F. Norris. "To the Public." 2 printed pages plus integral blank, 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches; circular letter defending Avery before his final trial. Not in OCLC or McDade, none traced at auction. East Cambridge, MA, February 1833.
"The Death of Sarah Cornell." Broadside ballad, 10 3/4 x 8 inches; moderate foxing, horizontal fold; uncut. No place, circa 1833.
Caroline Corson. Autograph Letter Signed to her father R.D. Corson, 4 pages on one folding sheet with inked Newport postmark, discussing the case: "If Grandpapa has not read Avery's trial yet, we can get it here for him. The populace are still enraged against him. . . . He is hanging in effigy on liberty tree in the public road from Boston, as it enters the town. . . . Avery was swung up high as Haman, on a regular gallows with green spectacles on, a letter in one hand directed to S.M. Cornell. . . . They say the jury have been burnt in effigy. Even the school children have Avery hanging on a tiny gallows." Newport, RI, 10 July [1833].
Benjamin F. Hallett. "The Arguments of Counsel in the Close of the Trial of the Rev. Ephraim K. Avery." 94, [4], 195-207 pages as issued. 8vo, later 1/2 morocco; moderate dampstaining. McDade 33. Boston, June 1833. Bound with "A Vindication of the Result of the Trial of Rev. Ephraim K. Avery." Folding map, 74 pages. McDade 53. Boston, 1834.
Benjamin F. Hallett. "Trial of Rev. Mr. Avery: A Full Report of the Trial." 191 pages. 8vo, stitched; moderate dampstaining; uncut. Boston, May 1833. In a modern cloth folding case WITH--the supplement, "Avery's Trial, Supplementary Edition." 40 pages, uncut. McDade 52.
"The Correct, Full and Impartial Report of the Trial of Rev. Ephraim K. Avery." Frontispiece portrait (laid down to inner wrapper). 178 pages. 12mo, original wrappers; worn, corners trimmed. In modern cloth folding case. McDade 36. Providence, RI, [1833].
[Catherine R. Williams.] "Fall River, an Authentic Narrative." Frontispiece plate. 198 pages. 12mo, contemporary cloth-backed boards, recased; "A detailed telling of the story with all the letters, by a then popular author"--McDade 40. Boston, 1833.
