Unraveling the 1694 Murder of Ursula Cutt |
HISTORY MATTERS
Two cheeky, slightly creepy, wooden cherubs may be among the oldest artifacts at the Portsmouth Historical Society. The hand-carved toddler-sized figures have been greeting visitors to the museum for almost 100 years, but they are much older than that. And they come with a story. These figures once decorated the home of Ursula Cutt who was murdered in 1694. (Read the story below)
The Ursula Cutt story is deeply embedded in
"That's all he wrote," says Sandra Rux. "That is the most primary resource."
This old house
As curator of the Portsmouth Historical Society, Rux has been digging for the truth about Ursula Cutt and the two wooden cherubs. She points to a photograph of Ursula's house taken around 1900. It shows a good-sized two-story home with a large central chimney, and many additions. The two cherubs are clearly visible standing above the front door. The house burned in 1912, but the wooden figures survived. They became part of the museum collection when it opened in 1920.
Early accounts locate the Cutt farm somewhere between Boiling Rock and Pulpit Rock, not far from Freeman's Point in the North End. That puts it, according to Rux, near present-day Osprey Landing and Spinnaker Point, where the plantation also encompassed what became Wentworth Acres and the former
"Ursula had a house here before her death in 1694, " Rux explains. "However, it was definitely not the house as shown in the picture ... She did not have such an elaborate house."
An probate inventory taken after Ursula's death described a two-room house including an "upper room" with a fireplace, her bed, cooking pots, sewing supplies, eight books, and her reading glasses. Ursula likely had a servant who lived in the "lower room."
Political assassination
Ursula Cutt was no ordinary citizen. She was the second wife of
CONTINUE with ax murder of Ursual Cutt
URSUAL CUTT CONTINUED
"Before the end of the week, she saw the end of her life," wrote Cotton Mather. A Puritan minister best known for his role in the Salem Witch Trials, Mather's contemporary report was also brief and offers few details. A century later,
Young Richard Waldron had succeeded John Cutt as colonial president. The powerful Cutt and Waldron families had intermarried. Modern scholars suggest that Ursula was not a random victim. Like Major Waldron, she may have been targeted by Native Americans and their supporters for her politics and her celebrity status.
In Belknap's version the young Waldron and his wife literally dodged a bullet when they met friends in
"If you're living in the 17th century," Rux says, "are you going to wear your gold rings out to the field? It is not likely. It's a very strange detail."
CONCLUSION OF URSULA CUTT on next page
Historical fiction
Two local authors further expanded the legend, Rux points out. Sarah Sayward Keating Wood of
Helen French Cochrane of Derry, NH offered a highly dramatic and detailed version in 1872. Cochrane published her story in the weekly Youth's Companion magazine, adding an African servant and a host of colorful
"You can't calculate on the doings of these savages as if they were Christian... being devils incarnate, they will do all the mischief they can," Wood wrote in a melodramatic style. Begged to flee, the widow of President John Cutt stands her ground.
"Run away in the midst of haymaking for a mere idle rumor? That I will not, as sure as my name is Ursula Cutt," she declares.
In this imaginative telling intended for young readers, Ursula scolds her maid and her farm workers for being cowardly. Moments later she falls, shot through the heart.
What about the cherubs?
Ursula Cutt's house, like her legend, was reshaped and enlarged over the centuries. Each new owner left a mark on the property. Sandra Rux spent months doggedly tracking the history of the house in an effort to discover when and why the two mysterious wooden figures showed up.
Technically, Rux says, they are not cherubs, but are called "putti" (pronounced "poo-tee"). These are secular carvings, not religious -- part cupid and part wingless angel -- and usually represented as chubby, semi-naked, male children. As garden statues they signify heaven on earth. They might also represent prosperity, peace, romance, even humor. Since the carvings were not among Ursula Cutt's few possessions, where did they come from?
Sandra Rux has a theory. First, she traced the ownership of the Ursula Cutt farm through its many owners with familiar local names like Wentworth, Warner, Rhymes, Pike, Langdon, and
No way, says Rux, because Ursula's modest original house was later enlarged by many intervening owners and tenant farmers.
"The figures were definitely not there when Ursula was killed," she says, but they could still be almost as old. The "putti" style was popular at the beginning of the 18th century. But by the 1760s, prior to the American Revolution, "these guys were out of style," Rux says.
Here the scene shifts to downtown
Captain Macpheadris was a man of "eccentric style" says Rux, who is also among the Warner House board of governors. At one point he even imported a live lion to the city.
"We can certainly imagine Macpheadris having these guys in his garden," Rux says of the two carved figures.
In 1765 Jonathan Warner purchased the Ursula Cutt Farm, along with other
It's only a theory, but it all finally makes sense. Sandra Rux has even more myth-busting theories, so stay tuned.
Copyright © 2013 by J. Dennis Robinson, all rights reserved. Robinson’s history column appears in the