r/newengland

I made a video about the history of Moxie soda. I had a really great time diving into this corner of New England History

I’m just curious. I say ”Ant” that’s how I’ve always said it from Ohio. moved to New England and I learned that everyone here says “Auwnt”

what is your first word association when someone says ‘Ant’? is it like an instant realization you’re speaking with an outsider?

I never realized that as a new englander you almost always know if someone is from your region or not.

adding the “Mary, Merry, Marry” thing. And you probably can slightly hear a difference in other words

a part of the port I had not been to before here in New Bedford MA

Hi everyone, I know this is last minute but my fam wants to do a camping celebration for my mom’s retirement. This is the last time she’d be in the states and so we want to show her the beauty of New England and show her the fall foliage.

We’re considering places no farther than a 4 hour drive from Eastern Queens New York and would like to see waterfalls, mountains, and of course the beautiful fall colors. Right now Manchester Vermont is at the top of our list but we would like to hear from others. We like hiking and sightseeing, would love to eat some delicious pancakes with maple syrup too, also love fall activities.

Anyway if anyone has suggestions please drop them below; it would really help. We also need camping sites and are worried about the temperature since one of the nights will be 39°F, would a 30°F sleeping bag be sufficient for each of us? Anyway thanks everyone! I really look forward to hearing advice :).

Is there any? Has there ever been any? Seems like it would be a nice place for a restaurant.

Two of Massachusetts's most notorious women (who became infamous throughout the centuries due to the murder allegations they faced) are in actual fact cousins to each other.

Bathsheba Ruggles (1746-1778) married Joshua Spooner Sr. (1741-1778) on January 15, 1766 in Hardwick. Theirs was an arranged marriage, possibly due to Bathsheba's dad Timothy Ruggles Jr. being a Loyalist throughout the American Revolution. Bathsheba and Joshua had four children together but at some point their marriage went south. According to Wikipedia, Joshua was described as abusing to Bathsheba to the degree that this ultimately made her develop "an aversion" to him (losing whatever affection she might have had towards him). When Bathsheba was around thirty, she met a sixteen-year-old Revolutionary War soldier named Ezra Ross and after she successfully nursed him back to health he got her pregnant with what would have been her fifth kid in late 1777 or early 1778. There was a HUGE problem for this couple, though: Bathsheba was still married to Joshua Spooner Sr. and divorces were NOT that easy to come by. The solution? Bathsheba and Ezra Ross (along with a couple of British soldiers who deserted the Revolution named William Brooks and James Buchanan) murdered Joshua by throwing him down the well on March 1, 1778. All three of the men along with Bathsheba were arrested, tried and convicted, the four would be executed in July 1778. Bathsheba was the first female ever sentenced to death following the Declaration of Independence in the USA and was actually in her second trimester of pregnancy at her execution (she actually requested a stay of execution so that she could give birth but that request was denied). Joshua's gravestone makes mention of the fact that his wife, her lover and two other men murdered him and that the four of them ultimately got hung for this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathsheba_Spooner

Lizzie Borden (1860-1927) has been notorious enough to warrant her own wildly inaccurate playground chant ("Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her father forty whacks, when she saw what she had done she gave her mother forty-one"). There are plenty of people with very strong opinions on all sides, but the reality is that the Andrew and Abby Borden murders went unsolved so that in all likelihood nobody will ever really know for sure who murdered them in their Fall River home (that has since become a popular place for tours as well as bed and breakfast) on August 4, 1892. While the Bordens were known to have a maid and one of their Morse relatives (from the Borden sisters' biological mom) in their home that day Lizzie was the only one who ever got arrested and charged with murdering her dad and stepmother only to get acquitted at trial (and every so often whenever this case gets a mock trial "Lizzie" ends up with an acquittal there too). Some who believe Lizzie is guilty speculate that the Bordens were a dysfunctional or abusive family. Emma Borden (who wasn't home that day) spent Lizzie's trial at her side and the sisters moved into a house they named Maplecroft afterwards with Emma spending the rest of her life publicly insisting that Lizzie hadn't killed their father and stepmother. The two sisters did go on to have an unrelated argument around the time Lizzie was accused of shoplifting in Providence, Rhode Island, which unfortunately led to Emma and Lizzie becoming estranged for the rest of their lives. Lizzie passed away of pneumonia on June 1, 1927 and Emma actually ended up following her on June 10, 1927 because of nephritis. Emma and Lizzie were buried in the Borden plot along with their younger sister Alice who died in infancy, their biological mom Sarah Morse-Borden, dad Andrew and stepmother Abby. I wonder if Andrew and Abby rolled over in their graves!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizzie_Borden

As promised.... the pièce de résistance....

https://www.geni.com/path/Lizzie-Borden+is+related+to+Bathsheba-Ruggles-Spooner?from=6000000003940257369&path_type=blood&to=298200243320003679

The two of them are at closest known blood relationship fourth cousins five times removed to each other through their respective moms. Bathsheba's ancestor Arthur Howland Sr. is the brother of Lizzie's ancestor John Howland Sr. (who had a particularly memorable journey on The Mayflower). The Howlands can from there be traced back to their English parents Henry Howland Sr. 1566-1635 and his wife Margaret 1567-1629 (as Margaret's maiden name is unknown and the parentage for both of them is also currently unknowable, their "line" as it were basically ends there).

But THAT isn't all....

According to another genealogical site FamousKin, Lizzie and Bathsheba are cousins in ELEVEN ways total. Granted their other connections are mostly VERY remote, though!

https://famouskin.com/famous-kin-menu.php?name=10581+lizzie+borden&kin=32987+bathsheba+spooner

edit: TL;DR: Lizzie Borden and Bathsheba Ruggles-Spooner are 4th cousins 5x removed.