The Crow family taught her how to read, counseled in following Christ's word, and warned her against being Sinful. Patience was a rebellious child though as she would play on Sabbath, tell lies and ignored her teachings. As her family was at church she would let the cattle into the cornfield. Her behavior did not get better as she got older.
She went out at night and kept bad company and followed lewd practices. After contemplating her terms of service she began to steal from the family and left the Crows. A year later she married an African American servant and also became one under her husband's master. Soon after they married she became an alcoholic and would abuse her husband verbally and physically.
While her husband was away on a whaling voyage she ran away from their master and cheated on her husband and would drink excessively She would return home to deliver her firstborn, who was born with broken arms and died within weeks.
She was still drinking and fighting with her husband constantly. She would then become pregnant a second time. It's stated that she had thoughts of murdering her second child after it was born. Before she could do it the baby died at two months.
While being drunk she got in an argument with her husband stating she had killed the second baby. She showed up to court drunk. She was acquitted of her babies death due to there being no evidence and she changed her story. With permission from her husband, she was bound to Cap. Dimmick who sold her to Joseph Bailey of Casco Bay, Maine.
There was another event of her claiming to kill a third baby. The baby couldn't be found where she claimed to have buried it. Nothing came of this case because there was no evidence this third child existed. An examination by a panel of matrons concluded that she hadn't recently delivered a baby.
Joseph Bailey likely grew tired of Patience's antics. She was sold yet again to another master. She immediately hated her new master. She had planned to poison the new master but had no access to any. She then tried to burn down his barn, but this was foiled.
Her new Master was raising his Grandson 8-year-old Benjamin Trot. On July 9, 1734, Patience decided to take revenge. The Master and his wife were out of the home. She lured the 8-year-old out into the woods with the intent of beating him with a large stick. She lifted the stick but lost courage to do so.
Instead, they went to the well together. She dropped her stick down it and asked him to help her get it, and when he got to the edge of the well she pushed him inside it. While at the bottom of the well she used the long pole to hold him under the water.
It's said that after the murder she lifted her arms and stared at the sky "Now am I guilty of Murder indeed; formerly I accused myself falsely, yet now has God left me." She then left the well and walked two miles to the home where she confessed to killing the child.
Patience stayed in prison for months while waiting for the Supreme Court to convene and hear her case. She would cry out to God constantly while in prison. Then one day she stopped realizing she now believed in God.
Patience pleaded guilty to the murder. She was then sentenced to being executed. At the time she was pregnant with her third child and was to give birth to him before her execution. While in prison she worked with a father and son who were ministers. She was said to solidify her belief in God. After the baby was born he got a fever and he recovered.
Patience was executed on July 24, 1735, in York, Maine by hanging.
SOURCES
Capital Punishment UK
Murderpedia
American Bibliography: 1730-1750
A Bibliography of the State of Maine from the Earliest Period to 1891, Volume 2
