Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/420

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"Death's Deeds":

was quite empty." I shall call the Orderson version "O.," the Anderson version "A." A. and O. both record: "Feb. 22, 1808, burial of infant daughter of Hon. Col. Chase in a leaden coffin." (So, too, the Book of Christ Church.)

A. and O. both give July 6, 1812: "Dorcas Chase buried, the two other coffins were in their proper places. They were leaden coffins." (So, too, the Book of Christ Church.)

A. and O. agree that on August 9, 1812, The Hon. Thomas Chase was buried. (So, too, the Book.) The two leaden coffins were found out of place, that of the infant (Feb. 22, 1808), had been thrown from its corner to the opposite angle. If any dead person had done this it must have been Dorcas Chase (July 6, 1812); at least Mrs. Goddard and Mary Anna Maria Chase had previously been tranquil.

Now comes a discrepancy between A. and O.

O. gives "Sept. 25, 18 16, Samuel Brewer Ames, an infant, was interred" (so, too, the Book), "and when the vault was opened the leaden coffins were removed from their places, and were in much disorder."

"Nov. 17, 1816, the body of Samuel Brewster was removed from the parish of St. Philip" (so, too, the Book), "and was deposited in the vault, and great confusion was discovered among the leaden coffins."

Samuel Brewster, an adult, is another person than Samuel Brewster Ames, an infant.

A. says nothing about the infant Samuel Brewster Ames, buried on September 25, 1816, but has "September 25, 1816, vault opened for Samuel Brewster, a man whose remains had been removed from St. Philip's, where he was shot in the insurrection of April, 1816, to Christ Church. Great confusion among the coffins." A. gives no interment of November 17, 1816. How are we to account for these variations in the two synoptic records?