years old, and the mother about the same age.  The father refused to comply, stating his inability to answer so great a demand without suffering immediate distress.  The said Bangs then declared that if he did not comply, it was in his power to arrest the body of the deceased.  The father still refused, and Bangs left the house; and a most distressed one it was, this being the last son out of three, left these aged parents, the other two being lost at sea, or died.

“The Monday following was appointed to have the deceased buried, when Col.  Jonathan Snow appeared as Sheriff, with a writ to serve on the body.  Here the melancholy scene commenced, a part of the relations being assembled, with the aged parents convulsed in sorrow; no one can paint their feelings but those who have children and are denied them the right of Christian burial.  The usual ceremonies on such occasions were however performed, and an appropriate prayer was delivered by the Rev. John Simpkins, and the funeral procession formed and proceeded with the corpse about one and a half mile, and very near to the spot of the grave, when the said Sheriff arrested the coffin, without any service on the body, and it was set down in the middle of the highway nearly abreast of said Bangs’ dwelling house, and forbid proceeding any further.  A large company who followed, with the mourners, soon after retired, and left the officer in charge of the body.  After lying in this situation for some time, one of the Grand Jurors ordered it out of the high road; this was complied with by the Sheriff, by placing it under the window of the said Bangs, and about sunset still further removed it into Bangs’ dwelling-house.  By this inhuman proceeding the aged parents were deprived of seeing their last and only son buried, as were the widow of the deceased and five children.  So distressing a scene never was witnessed in this place, and perhaps not in the most barbarous nations.  Between seven and eight of the clock, the same evening, the body was buried by a few individuals, and by the consent of said Benjamin Bangs, Esq., after he had inflicted all the wounds he could on the feelings of the poor grey-headed parents and their relations.”

The barbarity and illegality of this conduct of B. Bangs, Esq. (an influential democrat of that day), were viewed with indignation from all quarters.  The statute of Feb., 1812, on this subject was not passed to render illegal the arrest of a dead body of a debtor, for that was always illegal, but its object was to fix the punishment, instead of leaving it to the discretion of the Courts.  Many undoubtedly recollect the instance at Portland several years before, in which a debtor who was on the limits was suddenly taken sick and carried out of the limits, where he died.  It was then decided to be the law that the debtor’s bond was not broken unless his body was out of the limits by his own agency and will.

    So disinterring dead bodies of men was always a misdemeanor, but
    in 1815 a law was passed by our General Court to fix the
    penalties.