Biography

Ephraim Kingsbury Avery was a Methodist minister who was among the first clergymen tried for murder in the United States. He was tried for the murder of Sarah Maria Cornell, a young factory worker. Cornell's corpse was found hanging from a stackpole on the farm of John Durfee in nearby Tiverton, Rhode Island on December 21, 1832. Her death was at first thought to be a suicide. After an autopsy, it was discovered she was pregnant. Avery, a married man, was suspected to be the cause of her pregnancy and was tried for her murder in a trial that engaged local industrialists against the New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Later discovered among Cornell's personal effects was a note written by Cornell and dated the same day as her death: "If I should be missing, enquire of the Rev. Mr. Avery of Bristol, he will know where I am."

Although Avery would be acquitted for the murder, he was forever scorned in the eyes of the public.