The daughter of a prominent Colonial American lawyer, justice and military officer, Bathsheba Ruggles had an arranged marriage to a wealthy farmer, Joshua Spooner. She then became lovers with a young soldier from the Continental Army, Ezra Ross, and became pregnant. She enlisted the assistance of Ross and two others to murder her husband. On the night of March 1, 1778, one of them beat Joshua Spooner to death and they put his body in the Spooner well. Bathsheba Spooner and the three men were soon arrested, tried for and convicted of Spooner's murder and sentenced to death.