John Taylor, Martyrdom Account

While I lay at , previous to Mrs. Taylor’s arrival, a pretty good sort of a man who was lame of a leg, waited upon me and sat up at night with me; after Mrs. Taylor, and my mother and others waited upon me.

Many friends called upon me, among whom were Richard Ballantyne, and Elizabeth Taylor, several of the Perkins family and a number of the brethren from and . Besides these many strangers, from , some of whom expressed indignant feelings against the mob, and sympathy for myself. Br. Alexander Williams called upon me and <​who​> suspected that they had some designs in keeping me there, and stated that he had at a given point in some woods fifty men, and that if I would say the word he would raise other fifty and fetch me out of there. I thanked him; and but told him I thought there was no need. However it would seem that I was in some danger, for Col. Jones before referred to, when absent from me, left two loaded pistols on the table in case of an attack; and some time afterwards, when I had recovered and was publishing the affair, a lawyer, Mr. Backman, stated he had prevented a man by the name of Jackson, before referred to, from coming up <​ascending the​> stairs, who was coming with a design to murder me, and that now he was sorry he had not let him do the deed.

There were others also, of whom I heard, that said I ought to be killed, “and they would do it; but that it was too damned cowardly to shoot a wounded man”; and thus by the chivalry of murderers I was prevented from [p. 64]