In doing some research on the Peleg Brown family, I ran across an item in an old newspaper, the Rhode Island American of January 28, 1814. They had published a letter written by someone to a family member stationed at Fort Trumbull. The letter went into detail about how on the 27th of "December last" William C. Brown, son of Peleg Brown, had murdered a 4-5 year old child who lived with him. He killed the child because she was having trouble learning her alphabet. There was a description of a horrific crime, and then the writer added that the whole scene was witnessed by Brown's wife and "Baker and his wife" - none of whom did anything to stop the crime. I have been trying to find out the name of the little girl as well as any info on a trial, jail sentence, etc. There's a big gap in the births of children to William and his wife, Sally Kenyon, which may be accounted for by the fact that he could have been incarcerated, but I can find nothing else on the crime to support that. Have any of you South County history experts heard of this crime? Any info is appreciated. Donna in RI