I have been transcribing a record from a 1787 murder case. I needed to see such a record for creative writing research. I searched for a newspaper clipping about an execution that took place in Delaware before 1800. I then sent the name of the executed, Sarah Kirk, to the Delaware archives to order the records. They sent three files: the coroner’s inquests, the execution sentence, and all the court proceedings.
The coroner’s inquest was challenging to read. The court proceedings are the longest document, but generally easy to read and very repetitive.
Sarah Kirk was a self-made widow, in that she murdered her husband, James Kirk. They must have had a bad marriage because one of the witnesses reported that James and Sarah often fought, including hitting each other. One day, she’d had enough, so she used a thick stick and a stone to beat him to death.
Multiple people saw what she was doing, and someone sent for the constables. The court records named several witnesses and several jurors.
Sarah Kirk’s actions had been described with the adverb feloniously, which is a fun word that should be used in everyday speech more often. She had also been accused of the crimes of treason and murder. Apparently, murdering her husband was considered treacherous.
The sooner I can finish transcribing the record, the more time I’ll have to do follow-up research for Halloween case studies. So there’s more to come on this.
How is this related to creative writing research? I’m writing a genealogy ghost story in which one of the ancestors was murdered. The living characters will find the records of the murder trial while meeting the ghosts of their murdered ancestor and his murderer. If I’m going to have my characters reading fictitious court records, I need to first see the real thing.
