Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
Coram G. Jury
complaint of Cloe Slocum1 vs. John Brainerd2 of Roxbury
Cloe Slocumof Franklin. 21st June. he threw me on the floor & forced me
Joshua LeggI was 1/2 mile off
Molly SlocumSister to Cloe he tried to force me.
Eunice Smith
Chloe Slocum (1758–1849) was the daughter of John Slocum, a weaver of the Wrentham, Mass., district which became Franklin, and his wife Experience Healy. She later married Benjamin Mann, settled in Mendon, Mass., and had seven children. Her sister Mary “Molly” (c. 1762–1829?) married William Hall, moved to New York State, and had ten children (Charles Elihu Slocum, A Short History of the Slocums, Slocumbs and Slocombs of America [Syracuse, N.Y., 1882], 502, 507, 509).
The later whereabouts of John Brainard has not been discovered. He was perhaps an itinerant member of the large Brainerd family of Connecticut (see David D. Field, The Genealogy of the Brainerd Family in the United States [New York, 1857]).
Suffolk Ss. At the Superiour Court of Judicature Court of Assize and general Goal delivery begun and holden at Boston within and for the County of Suffolk on the last Tuesday of August in the year of our Lord Seventeen hundred & seventy nine
The Jurors for the Government and People of the Massachusetts Bay in New England upon their Oaths present that John Brainard resident at Roxbury in the same County Labourer, not having the Fear of GOD before his Eyes, but being moved and seduced by the Instigation of the Devil, on the twenty first day of June last past with force and Arms at Franklin in the County of Suffolk aforsaid, in and upon one Chloe Slocum spinster in the peace of GOD & the government & people aforsaid then & there being, violently and feloniously did make an assault and her the said Cloe Slocum against the Will of her the said Cloe, then and there feloniously did ravish and carnally know, in evil Example to others to offend in like Case, and against the peace and dignity of the Government and People aforsaid.
Suffolk Ss. Augt. Term 1779 John Brainerd is set to the Bar & arraigned upon this Indictment and being demanded how he will acquit himself 99 thereof, he saith that thereof he is not guilty, and thereof for trial puts himself upon God & the Country
Andrew Henshaw (1752–1782) graduated from Harvard in 1768 and was appointed as one of the two clerks of the Superiour Court in 1778. When the new constitution of Massachusetts came into effect, Henshaw became first clerk of the House of Representatives and clerk of the new Supreme Judicial Court (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 17:34–36).