Elizabeth Pain

According to court records: Elisabeth Payne spinster being presented by the Grand Jury, in March last for murdering of her child was now brought to the Barr & Indicted by the name of Elizabeth Payne spinster for not having the feare of God before her eyes & being led by the Instigation of the diuil did on our about the 6th day of March last willfully murder her child Contrary to the Peace of our Soueraigne Lord the king his Crowne & dignity the laws of God and of this Jurisdiction holding up her hand at the Barr pleaded not Guilty & put herself on trial by God & the Country.

Ye BODY OF ELIZABETH PAIN WIFE TO SAMUEL PAIN AGED NEAR 52 YEARS, DEPARTED THIS LIFE NOUEMBR Ye 26 1704Pain's grave is in the same cemetery mentioned in The Scarlet Letter, which ends with a description of Hester Prynne's grave: So said Hester Prynne, and glanced her sad eyes downward at the scarlet letter.

All around, there were monuments carved with armorial bearings; and on this simple slab of slate—as the curious investigator may still discern, and perplex himself with the purport—there appeared the semblance of an engraved escutcheon.

It bore a device, a herald's wording of which may serve for a motto and brief description of our now concluded legend; so sombre is it, and relieved only by one ever-glowing point of light gloomier than the shadow:—

[4] Scholar Laurie Rozakis has argued that an alternate or additional source for the story may be Hester Craford, a woman flogged for fornication with John Wedg.