Report of the case of John W. Webster, indicted for the murder of George Parkman, before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts : including the hearing on the petition for a writ of error, the prisoner's confessional statements and application for a commutation of sentence, and an appendix containing several interesting matters never before published / by George Bemis.

  • Webster, John White, 1793-1850.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the case of John W. Webster, indicted for the murder of George Parkman, before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts : including the hearing on the petition for a writ of error, the prisoner's confessional statements and application for a commutation of sentence, and an appendix containing several interesting matters never before published / by George Bemis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    went on to speak of his application to me for money, and of his sale to me of his minerals. Dr. Parkman thereupon said, they are not his to sell ; I have a mortgage on them, and if you will come to my house, I will show it to you. He took me to his house ; and on comparing his mortgage with my bill of sale, they corresponded throughout. He then said that he would see Dr. Webster, and give him a piece of his mind ; that it was a downright fraud, and he ought to be punished. [The mortgage was here produced by the witness, and read to the Court and jury, by Mr. Bemis. It bore date, January 22d, 1847, and ran from John W. Webster to George Parkman. It embraced in its terms, all my per- sonal property, including, among all other, my whole house- hold furniture, all my books, minerals, and other objects of natural history and knowledge, and all utensils and apparatus of chymistry, mineralogy, and geology; includ- ing with the rest, all articles, a schedule of which may be delivered with, or appended to, these Presents; and wherever the said property may be, whether in said Cam- bridge, Boston, or elsewhere. Its condition was for the payment of $2,432, in four years from date, according to the tenor of the note accompanying it; and it had been recorded in the Cambridge City Registry, February 13th, 1847.] Dr. Webster, after this, wrote me a long letter of expla- nation, (as I suppose,) which I never read ; my eyes being poor, I laid it away after opening it, and no one else saw it. At a subsequent period, I was told that Dr. Webster was pro- posing to give his minerals to Harvard College, on a certain sum being made up by subscription to enable him to do so. The subscription-paper for that object was handed to me ; and I put my name down for $500, on the understanding, that so much of my debt, should be reckoned as a subscrip- tion. The requisite amount was raised; and soon after, a Mr. Smith called on me from Dr. Webster, and paid me the balance of my debt. I then told him to take back the letter and bill of sale, &c, to Dr. Webster, and to tell him that I was perfectly satisfied. I know that Dr. Parkman was not paid off by this arrangement. Dr. Parkman left a wife, and two children, — a son, and a daughter. The daughter has been an invalid for several years. I know that he was always anxious to procure deli- cacies for her, suitable to her state of health. He was the most punctual man that I ever knew. I should call him over-punctual. He was also a very domestic man.