On March 11th, 1834, Prince Mortimer would pass away while incarcerated at Wethersfield prison.  Attending Physician Dr. Alonzo Rockwell would examine his body. At the end of his report, he stated,

"It was abundantly evident that he died of old age.  He was supposed, from all that could be gathered relative to his age, to have seen between 110 and 120 years."

4 years prior (in 1830), Connecticut passed a new law that allowed the bodies of convicts having no family to be sent to medical institutions for research...a means to advance medical science in the state.  Frank Winiarski, a friend of mine and incredible historian, discovered all of the above. He knew that many bodies from Wethersfield prison were sent to Yale, but has struggled for nearly 30 years to definitively say which ones. 

On November 8th, I met with the Connecticut Freedom Trail Committee and members of the Yale Medical Historical Library. We were all looking to determine if Yale held any records that may indicate that Prince Mortimer's body was sent to Yale. In our discussion, I was provided the name of the physician on staff at Yale during the time period that Prince died...Dr. Jonathan Knight.  I was told that his Account and Day books are stored in their archives at Yale!

I reserved time for Monday, November 14th to review these records, on site at the Beinecke Library on the Yale campus. In arriving, I learned that they had only pulled Jonathan Knight’s Account book. I had to make a new request to also pull his Day book. I’ve scheduled another visit for Friday, November 18th to review the Day book.

More to come!!!