Elizabeth Atwood, 1725

   About 1725, Elizabeth Atwood, single woman, of Ipswich, was hung
for murdering her child. She gave no signs of being properly affected
by her crime, or by the realities of eternity. She put on, as many
others in a similar condition have done, a mock courage, which set at
defiance the retributions of both God and man. As an evidence of her
callousness, tradition tells us that, as it was customary for the
executioner to have the clothes of those whom he executed, she fitted
herself out in the very worst of her apparel, and on her way to the
gallows, she laughed, so that a woman who attended her saw it, and
exclaimed, "How can you be so thoughtless on such an occasion?" and
that she immediately replied, "I am laughing to think what a sorry
suit the hangman will get from me."


http://john-slaughter.rootsweb.com/IpswichHistory/HOI07.html