William Dearing (b. 9/17/1708), one of my Ancestors, was master of a coastal sloop in the mid-1700's. He lived in Scarborough, Maine, on what was then known as Black Point. In February of 1749 he murdered his wife, Mary Pine Dearing, with a blow to her head with an axe. He was arrested, tried and convicted and sentenced to be hanged up by the neck until dead. However, being the first cousin to Sir William Pepperell, he was given two stays of execution. Finally, he escaped the York jail and disappeared. Sir Pepperell was implicated in his escape and probably bribed the jailer. If anyone has visted the York jail they will see how impossible it would have been for William to escape on his own. The mystery is that there are two stories as to what happened to William Dearing. The standard account is that Pepperell slipped him aboard one of his mast ships to England and he was never heard from again. However, in Saco Valley Settlements and Families by G. T. Ridlon, it is reported that he hid out for three weeks on Richmond's Island and then escaped to Halifax, Nova Scotia. "His remorse drove him to insanity and while in confinement he dashed his head against a spike in the wall of his cell and ended his miserable existence...". This account may actually be true, but I believe that maybe someone else helped his head find that spike! Can this mystery be solved!