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On a cold December morning in 1768, 31-year-old Ruth Blay approached the gallows erected for her execution. Standing on the high ground in the northwest corner of what is now Portsmouth's old South Cemetery, she would have had a clear view across the pasture to the harbor and open sea. (Continued below)

The hanging of a schoolteacher for concealing the birth of a child out of wedlock has appeared in local legend over the last few centuries, but the full account was never told until a recent investigation by author Carolyn Marvin.

OUR ORIGINAL ARTICLE on Ruth Blay book

Marvin will speak on the Ruth Blay tragedy in an Old Berwick Historical Society lecture on Thursday, October 27, starting at 7:30 pm.  The program will be held at Berwick Academy's Jeppesen Science Center on Academy Street, and the public is invited.  Refreshments will be served by volunteers.

Drawing on over two years of investigative research, Marvin brings to light the dramatic details of Blay’s life and the cruel injustice of colonial Portsmouth's moral code. In her search to reveal the truth, the author explored the social, political, cultural and legal climate of provincial New Hampshire and New England.  As she uncovers the real flesh-and-blood woman who suffered the ultimate punishment, her readers come to understand Blay as an individual and a woman of her time.

A research librarian at the Portsmouth Athenaeum, Marvin has experience in both public and school libraries. She has a degree in American Studies from George Washington University and is a certified media specialist.

More information on the Counting House Museum and all the Old Berwick Historical Society's programs is available by calling (207) 384-0000.