Below, get a look at an exquisite example of going down rabbit holes. While reading about Jason Fairbanks of Dedham and his infamous murder case, I came across a reference to Sarah Wentworth Morton.

Started with this book which devotes an entire chapter to the Jason Fairbanks saga.

After finding the reference to Sarah Wentworth Morton, I got online. These are some notes (I’ll be adding to this). It’s especially exciting to me because she’s buried in Boston and the family home’s in Dorchester. And I’ve already been to Long Wharf (to the Middle Passage marker) where her father’s slavers would have moored and unloaded their “cargo.”

Born August 1759. Died May 1846 (age 86). Portrait at Worcester Art Museum (and another in the MFA?)

Dorchester home on Boston Women’s Heritage Trail

Sister slept with Sarah’s husband. Had a baby. Then killed herself to avoid the shame of being discovered (suicide note published in the newspaper!) Echoes with Jason Fairbanks story and a possible reason for Sarah’s interest.

(One version of the Fairbanks story is that in the fateful, final meeting between Betsey and Jason, she learned that he had revealed that they had had sex to two of his friends and she was enraged).

Maybe also Sarah had a sickly son with symptoms similar to Jason’s? (Funny enough the man Sarah eventually had an affair with, Morris (see below) ALSO had a dead arm).

Father was a slave trader, one of 25 kids. Her mother grew up in Yorkshire at Wentworth Manor.

Poet. “The American Sappho” (Wikipedia)

1792 (age 33) wrote anti-slavery poem : The African Chief

About slain leader on Santa Domingo

Also wrote this:

Ouabi: Virtues of Nature / an Indian Tale

Told in four cantos

I haven’t found her telling of the Jason Fairbanks story yet, but learned she may have helped with his infamous escape.

Had an affair with the little-known Founding Father, Gouverneur Morris, written about here.

I’ve ordered The Power of Sympathy by William Hill Brown. Sometimes wrongly (?) attributed to Sarah Wentworth Morton.

Sometimes considered America’s first novel.Themes of illicit love abound with one love child being both nephew and son to his father — just as Perez’s child with Sarah’s sister Frances would be both niece and daughter to him.

Summary found here.

Two years ago (in 2023), the book came up for auction for between $12,000 and $18,000.

Exploration of Fanny’s predicament in this Medium article.