History of the Panhandle, being Historical Collections of the Counties of Ohio, Brooke, Marshall and Hancock, West Virginia.

Compiled and Written by:J.H. Newton, G.G. Nichols, and A.G. SpranklePublished by:J.A. Caldwell, 1879, Wheeling, W. VA.

A CORONER'S INQUEST

Brooke County, to-wit: Inquisition indented, taken near a Branch of Holbert's Run, in the County aforesaid, the 9th day of July, in the thirtieth year of the common wealth, before me, John Edie, one of the coroners of the commonwealth. for the county aforesaid, upon the view of the body of Sarah Maxwell, late of the county aforesaid, then and there lying dead.

And upon the oaths of John G. Young,John McMillen, John Wylie, Alexander Morrow, William Morrow, Cornelius Aten, James Andrews, James Cameron, Nathan Baker, Daniel McLead, ThomasP. Peterson and James Morrow, good and lawful men of the county aforesaid who being duly sworn and charged to enquire on the part of the commonwealth, when,where and how and after what manner, the said Sarah Maxwell came to her death do say upon their oath that she the said Sarah Maxwell not having the fear of God before her eyes, but being seanced and moved by the instigation of theDevil, at the county aforesaid, in a certain wood, near a branch of Holbert'sRun aforesaid, standing, and being, the said Sarah Maxwell, being then and there alone, with a certain flaxen rope of the value of six cents, which she then and there held in her hands, and one end thereof then and there put about her neck, and the other end thereof tied about a bough of a certain Birch tree, herself then and there, with the rope aforesaid, voluntarily, feloniously, and of her own malice aforethought, hanged and suffocated, and so the jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, say that the said Sarah Maxwell, then and there, in manner and form aforesaid, as a felon of herself, feloniously and voluntarily and of her malice aforethought, killed herself, strangled, and murdered against the peace, and dignity, of the commonwealth. In witness thereof, as well the Coroner, as the jurors aforesaid, have to this Inquisition, put their seals and the day and year aforesaid and at theplace aforesaid.

John Edie, Coroner John G. Young John Wylie Alexander Morrow William Morrow Cornelius Aten James Andrews James Cameron Nathaniel Baker Daniel McLead Thomas P. Peterson James Morrow John McMillen