In 1797, Thomas Starr was hanged in Haddam Connecticut for the murder of his nephew, Samuel Cornwell.
That was a surprising sentence I found today in, of all things, a research paper titled “THE STARR FAMILY OF MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT; A STUDY IN SOCIAL MOBILITY AND SOCIAL EXPERIENCE” by John Barry. It’s an interesting read, talking about all the connections between families in Middletown and uses the murder as an example of a family failure. You can read the paper free online at https://digitalcollections.wesleyan.edu/_flysystem/fedora/2023-02/8064-Original%20File.pdf
The aforementioned Thomas Starr was my first cousin 8x removed. He shares a name with my 7x and 10x great grandfathers, as well as dozens of other uncles and cousins. His father was Joseph Starr Jr, the son of my 8x great grandfather also called Joseph. Thomas was 43 when he committed the murder in August of 1796. He came from a wealthy family, though I do not know what his profession was for sure, the family business was tailoring.
The murder victim was my 2nd cousin 7x removed, Samuel Cornwell. Samuel’s mother Priscilla was Joseph Starr Jr’s daughter, Thomas’ sister. Sam was 24 at the time of his death.
The author of the paper uses the sermon delivered the day of his hanging to find motive for the murder. The preacher spoke of Thomas becoming depressed and drinking because he was rejected by a girl of a “worthy family”.
He stabbed his nephew 7 times with a pen knife in his torso, violent enough that he died of the wounds. I think it’s worth mentioning that his mother, Priscilla Roper Starr, had died just three months prior to the murder as well. Thomas’s father Joseph Jr had 17 children with his two wives, his oldest sister was born just 3 years before his mother. Joseph Jr had died 16 years previous. Exactly one year prior to his birth his mother suffered the loss of her infant daughter Hannah who lived less than month. One can imagine Priscilla being wary to connect with her new son should he also die in infancy. It’s all conjecture of course. There’s no way to know what set off the rage that fueled his apparently spontaneous crime.
The newspapers of the day carried the story succinctly:
