REPORT OF THE CASE JOHN DORRANCE AGAINST ARTHUR FENNER, TRIED AT THE DECEMBER TERM, OF THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, IN THE COUNTY OF PROVIDENCE, A.D. 1802. TO WHICH ARE ADDED, THE PROCEEDINGS IN THE CASE ARTHUR FENNER VS. JOHN DORRANCE. CAREFULLY COMPILED FROM NOTES CORRECTLY TAKEN BY SEVERAL GENTLEMEN WHO WERE PRESENT DURING THE WHOLE COURSE OF THE TRIAL.

[Rhode Island]: [Dorrance, John]: [Fenner, Arthur]:

Edité par Providence: Printed by Bennett Wheeler, 1802.

A propos de cet article

A record of "these bizarre cases" in which "a justice of the Court of Common Pleas and the Governor sued each other for libel" (Cohen). The cases, full of political contention and macabre intrigue, revolve around a story circulated by Rhode Island Governor Arthur Fenner, who claimed that John Dorrance, a local judge and president of the Providence town council, had sold the dead body - snatched from its grave - of an unidentified man who had committed suicide to his friend and physician Dr. Pardon Bowen for dissection in exchange for a beaver hat. The events in question in both cases took place in February of 1799 and began when a stranger, having wandered into the town of Scituate, Rhode Island, hanged himself. Shortly after the discovery of the man's body, town officials buried it. Two days later, however, the grave was found empty, with sleigh tracks leading away from the site in the snow. Following the tracks, a group of inquisitive Scituate citizens discovered that they led some ten miles east, all the way to Providence, directly to the doorstep of Dr. Benjamin Dyer, who, together with his friend and colleague, Dr. Pardon Bowen, were teachers of anatomy. It seemed as though some students of Dyer and Bowen had stolen the body for the purpose of dissection. Outraged, the Scituate residents confronted Bowen, demanding justice in the matter. With the help of Bowen's friend, Judge John Dorrance, a settlement was eventually reached. In the end, all parties agreed that the Scituate residents should receive forty dollars and that Dorrance and Bowen should arrange for the proper burial of the body, which they did, however haphazardly. Matters did not end there, however, for the body was again disinterred, apparently in secret. Over the course of several nights, Bowen was said to have dissected the corpse in the presence of Dr. Dyer and some of their students, after which the entrails were buried and the bones articulated into a skeleton. Whether Judge Dorrance was aware of - or had indeed arranged - the plan to disinter the corpse again in exchange for a beaver hat from Bowen was a matter that would be taken up by a court in December of 1801. That's when Dorrance, a Federalist, brought a case against Governor Arthur Fenner, an Anti-Federalist, for slander, accusing him of circulating the story of the corpse and the beaver hat in a failed attempt to undermine Dorrance's electoral bid for judge on the court of common pleas. That case - and the counter-suit initiated by Governor Fenner - are documented here in the present Report, published by Bennett Wheeler. The Report recounts "the history of the long and intricate trial." Wheeler was the editor of the United States Chronicle, a Federalist paper, which had long traded barbs with the Impartial Observer, a Republican organ owned by Governor Fenner himself. An intriguing - and at times entertaining - record of what scholar Gary Laderman has described as "one of the most famous legal cases in the early history of Rhode Island," one involving political rivalry and accusations of body-snatching. SABIN 20652. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 2156. COHEN 11968. BARTLETT, p.111. Gary Laderman, The Sacred Remains: American Attitudes toward Death, 1799-1883 (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1996), pp.18-21. Ben C. Clough, The American Imagination at Work: Tall Tales and Folk Tales (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947), pp.4-12. Dbd. Edges of titlepage and final four leaves chipped, not affecting text. Text tanned with light, occasional foxing and soiling. Dampstaining to first six leaves. Loss to lower corner of leaf D2, not affecting text. Contemporary marginal annotations in ink to p.106. Contemporary ownership inscription in ink to top of titlepage. About very good.

N° de réf. du vendeur 67389

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: REPORT OF THE CASE JOHN DORRANCE AGAINST ARTHUR FENNER, TRIED AT THE DECEMBER TERM, OF THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, IN THE COUNTY OF PROVIDENCE, A.D. 1802. TO WHICH ARE ADDED, THE PROCEEDINGS IN THE CASE ARTHUR FENNER VS. JOHN DORRANCE. CAREFULLY COMPILED FROM NOTES CORRECTLY TAKEN BY SEVERAL GENTLEMEN WHO WERE PRESENT DURING THE WHOLE COURSE OF THE TRIAL.
• Éditeur: Providence: Printed by Bennett Wheeler, 1802.