Ruth Blay's Saddest Day

On December 31, 1768, Ruth Blay of South Hampton, NH was hanged for the crime of Concealment — the alleged burying of a stillborn child in order to conceal a pregnancy. On that unfortunate day, between 10am and Noon, the High Sheriff, Thomas Packer, despite the protests of the large crowd, dispatched the convict, even as, according to legend, her reprieve from Governor Wentworth was en route. This thought provoking treatment of that tragedy draws upon the 1858 poem ‘The Ballad of Ruth Blay’, by Albert Leighton, set to music by the author; and examines the morality of colonial theocracy, and the status of women throughout the ages.