USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 37
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Crimes and Punishments.
CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS.
" Self-banished from society, prefer Their hateful crime to honourable toil."
WE have been so long happily delivered from the former exhi- titions of the pillory, whipping-post, ducking-stool, wheelbarrow- men, and even hanging itself, that it may serve to show the aspect of quite another age, to expose the facts in the days of our fore- fathers, as derived from the presentments of Grand Juries, trials in the Mayor's court, or from the Gazettes, to wit:
1702-John Simes, ordinary, and others, are prosecuted "for keeping a disorderly house to debauch the youth. John Smith was disguised in women's clothes walking the streets openly, and going from house to house, against the laws of God and this province, to the staining of holy profession. and against the law of nature. Ed- ward James, a like offender, at an unreasonable time of night. Dorothy, wife of Richard Canterill, is indicted also for being masked in men's clothes, walking and dancing in the house of said John Simes at ten o'clock at night. Sarah Stiver, wife of John Stiver, was also at the same house, dressed in men's clothes, and walked the streets, and went from house to house, to the encouraging of vice," &c .- the house was in Front street. Probably there was no further attempt at "Masquerade Balls" from that time till about twenty-four years ago, when some foreigner publicly proposed to introduce them at his dancing room. It was promptly suppressed by an act of the Legislature, got up, before the night of intended execution, by John Sargent, Esq. It was then supposed for a while that the steady habits of our citizens would have frowned down any future attempt; but the inroads of luxury have since succeeded to evade the force of law, by getting through some "Fancy Balls," so called, without molestation, and even without any expose by them- selves of their rare enactments in "monstrous novelty and strange disguise." We have heard, however, it was a strange medley of strange personages and habiliments.
" Oh, a Fancy Ball's a strange affair, Made up of silks and leathers, Light heads, light heels, false hearts, false hair, Pins, paint, and ostrich feathers: There dullest wight in all the town One night may shine a droll one: And rakes, who have not half a crown, Look royal with a whole one."
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Crimes and Punishments.
Bingham, had a Masquerade Ball at his mansion, when he had finished it.
1702-George Robinson, butcher, is indicted as a common swearer and drunkard, "for swearing three oaths in the market- place, and for uttering two very bad curses."
They afterwards present the same George Robinson for " uttering a grievous oath, on the 13th of 7 mo. and another on the 10th day of the 8th month." In those days all cases of drunkenness and pro- fane swearing were punished.
A riot was committed at Israel Townsend's inn, sign of the Broad Axe, in Chesnut street, [close by Hudson's alley] where they beat the constables with clubs.
1702-The Grand Jury present, to wit: Sons and servants rob- bing orchards on the First or Lord's day; the ill consequence of many negroes assembling and acting tumultuously on the same day : the loss of sheep by unnecessary quantity of dogs; the evil of having so many hay and reed stacks in the yards of city houses in case of fires; the great annoyance, daily occurring, of butchers killing their meat in the street, [at the market-place probably] and leaving their blood and offals there.
1703-The Grand Jury present Henry Brooks, the Queen's Col lector at the Hore-kills, {Lewestown] and three others, for raising a great disturbance and riot in the city at the dead of night. They present all houses and persons individually known to play at cards publicly, and they give the names of all the persons so concerned. They present nine persons at one time, for selling strong drink with- out license .* Three barbers are presented for trimming people on First-day. John Walker is presented for using Sassafras street as a rope-walk, for the last year; and John Jones, Alderman, is presented for making encroachments on Mulberry street, by setting up therein a great reed stack, and making a close fence about the same. These Grand Juries, almost all of them affirm-very few swear.
1704-1st of 7 mo .- The Grand Jury present some of the young gentry, for an assault on James Wood, constable, and James Dough, watch,-making a riot at the inn of Enoch Story by night-[in Combes' alley.] The names were William Penn, jun. (Proprie- tary's son,) John Finny, the sheriff, Thomas Gray, scrivener, and Joseph Ralph. [Quondam infidel, and friend of Benjamin Frank- lin?] It is stated that young Penn called for pistols to pistol them, &c. Their host, Story, was also of their party.
1705-They present Thomas Docherty, barber, for trimming, about three weeks ago, on the first day of the week.
1715-The Grand Jury find 35 true bills against unlicensed taverns, in one session.
1717-Women are publicly whipt for having an illegitimate
* All tavern licenses are petitioned for, and granted generally to widow-women --- occasionally to decrepit or unfortunate prudent men.
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Crimes and Punishments.
child; and poor runaway apprentices and others, who are whipt, are charged 6s. for the unwelcome service.
1718-William Wright, merchant, is presented for publicly and maliciously declaring aloud that our Saviour was a bastard.
1721-Nicholas Gaulau, (a foreigner, by his name,) "by colour of his art, as a butcher, did, with his breath and wind, blow up the meat of his calf, whereby the meat was made unwholesome to the human body." He was fined 13s. and 4d. for introducing this odious practice-still known among some of us.
1729-Charles Calaghan was convicted of intent to ravish a child of ten years-he was whipt round the town at the cart's tail, and re- ceived thirty-five lashes. Another man, at the same time, received twenty-one lashes for stealing a saddle.
Several executions occasionally occur, as mentioned in the Ga- zettes. Prouse and Mitchell, who were to be executed together, were reprieved under the gallows.
1730-G. Jones, and one Glasgow, an Indian, stood an hour in the pillory, and were whipt round the town, at the cart's tail-both for assaults, with intent to ravish-the one, a girl of six years of age Margaret Cash is also whipt for stealing.
I find it remarked, that the number of criminal offences occur from the great emigration of evil persons, who bought their passages by servitude.
1731-At New Castle, Catharine Bevan is ordered to be burned alive, for the murder of her husband; and Peter Murphy, the ser- vant who assisted her, to be hanged. It was designed to strangle her dead by the previous hanging over the fire, and before it could reach her; but the fire " broke out in a stream directly on the rope round her neck, and burnt off instantly, so that she fell alive into the flames, and was seen to struggle therein!" A shocking spectacle for our country !
1733-December-There was the greatest number of felons arraigned for crimes, ever known in Philadelphia, at one Quarter Sessions. Thirteen men and women were convicted of grand larceny, and sentenced to be whipt.
1738-Three negro men were hung for poisoning sundry persons in Jersey. They said they had poisoned Judge William Trent, the founder of Trenton, among that number-but when he died, none were then suspected. A lad of five years of age, who had heard much of their hanging, took it into his head to make some imitations, and actually hung himself to death from the stake of a fence!
A negro man of Robert Hooper's, Esq., of Rocky Hill, in Somer- set, New Jersey, was executed by fire, for having killed the child of his overseer, and firing his master's barn.
1743-A black man, brought up to the whipping-post to be whipt, took out his knife and cut his throat before the crowd, so that he died immediately-in Philadelphia.
1750-1-About this time, a great deal of hanging occurs. Thev
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Crimes and Punishments.
hang for house-breaking, horse-stealing, and counterfeiting. It seems that imported criminals swell the list, and many evil persons come out as redemptioners. This remark is made, to wit: "When we see our papers filled so often with accounts of the most audacious robberies, the most cruel murders, and other villanies, perpetrated by convicts from Europe-what will become of our posterity! In what could Britain injure us more, than emptying her jails on us! What must we think of those merchants, who, for the sake of a little paltry gain, will be concerned in importing and disposing of these abominable cargoes!" It is probable they got premiums abroad for bringing them out here.
1759-I observe that the number of criminal offences and execu- tions appears much diminished for some time-so far as the silence of the Gazettes respecting them may be evidence.
1761-A strange freak seized the minds of some of the young citizens, which was shown " in several women being stabbed in the streets," in the evening, " by some unknown persons." The terror being great, the Governor offered a reward for their apprehension. The evil was probably magnified according to the terror of the relaters. In time, however, it was so far brought to light as that the Wardens got hold of the facts. The venerable Charles Thomson having been one of those city officers, and acquainted with the facts, ventured to tell them after many years had elapsed and the parties concerned were likely to pass unmolested. It was to the following effect, to wit:
The insulting of several women in the streets, by cutting their gowns and petticoats with a razor, rendered it dangerous for them to appear therein without protection, as also breaking of knockers and bells, cutting the spouts, &c., was nightly committed, and caused considerable alarm. The soldiers in the barracks were at first blamed for it, but by an arrangement with their commanding officer it was immediately discovered they were not implicated. The Wardens then silently increased the watch more than one half, and soon came across these blades in their depredations. They proved to be the sons and relations of some of the most respectable citizens, and whose parents and friends thought them absent from the city, as at New York, Lancaster, Chester county, &c. By day they lay concealed and slept in the tavern at the south-west corner of Chestnut and Fourth streets, and from thence sallied forth at night to commit their depredations. Robert M. had a brother among them; Anthony W. a son; Doctor A. a son; Mr. W. a brother, &c. In the morning they were carried before the Mayor, appeared penitent, received a very serious lecture, and their friends gave high bail for their good behaviour and appearance, and made restitution to all persons who had been injured by them. On this discovery the city instantly be- came safe and orderly as usual, and the thing was suffered to sleep I believe they were never prosecuted.
It cannot but be noticed, in a review of the preceding items of
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The Excellencies of Penn's Laws.
crimes, how little there appears of that dexterity of vice which has so alarmingly grown up within the last thirty years! Crimes formerly occurred occasionally from sheer love of mischief, or were perpetrated by low and vulgar miscreants, of drunken and de- based habits-but now, they are too often executed by men of good manners and good education ;- by men who " glory in their shame," who seem to prefer every trick of wickedness to honorable industry. They are spoiled men, who with a different direction of their facul- ties, might shine in any creditable pursuit. They are such men as seem to have been affected by the introduction of luxury, and their addiction to expensive habits. Where are the reforming "School- masters" in their case !
THE EXCELLENCIES OF PENN'S LAWS.
To the general good Submitting, aiming, and conducting all. For this the patriot council met-the full, The free, and fairly represented Whole; And with joint force, oppression chaining-set Imperial justice at the helm."
'T'HERE is probably no subject within the scope of our history, to which a Pennsylvanian may look with more just pride and satisfac- tion, than to the whole tenor of the laws instituted for the welfare of the people by the Founder and his successors.
Every thing in our laws has been popularly constituted, even from the beginning. The Founder, although born and brought up within the precincts of an arbitrary Court, was essentially a republican in its best acceptation. In this his wisdom was advanced a century beyond the light of his generation. It was not learned of his cotem- poraries ; but was a beam of light derived from that book of gospel sta- tutes, rarely regarded by Rulers, but which he made his manual. Fol- lowing its plain dictates, that we were all children of one common Father, and " all ye are brethren," he struck at once upon the dis- interested and magnanimous effort of framing a form of government, which, while it should " be an example," should also "show men as free and happy as they could be !"
Freedom of mind and conscience had here free operation, leaving it solely to "the Almighty, the only lord of conscience, to judge." " Privilege and toleration," words of such deep import in Europe, were terms unknown to Penn's laws. We possessed tne right, with- out the grant, to worship freely.
His first frame of government provided instantly for universal
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The Excellencies of Penn's Laws.
suffrage. No distinctions of rank, fortune, or freehold, then ou tained ; and the ballot-box, which, where it is indulged, produces more valuable revolutions than the sword, was introduced, "probably for the first time, on this continent."
The controlling power of the Governors was restrained with the most cautious limitations. They had no other influence in the passage. of the laws than what they could derive from presiding at the council-board.
The Judges were even more limited in their dependence on the people than has since been claimed by any free people. They were at first appointed annually by the Governors, from lists elected by the Provincial Council. The people at the same time might appear and "plead their own causes !" They could say-
"The toils of law, laid to perplex the truth, And lengthen simple justice into trade, How glorious was the day-that saw thee broke, And every man within the reach of right."
Even the children were the subject of public care. 'They should early learn their duties to society, by reading " the laws that shall be printed, and taught in schools." It was expressly provided that " all children of twelve years of age, without discrimination, should be taught some useful trade." It was also enacted that "all children should be taught to read and write by twelve years of age- thus determining betimes that all should be first educated, and then usefully employed !
With a mind so intent on the happiness and just freedom of men, we are prepared to expect that the evils of "woful Europe" should find some marked correctives in his statutes : We, therefore, find such beneficent novelties in legislation as the age had not elsewhere produced. We may name such as follow, to wit:
Aliens, who by the laws of England are debarred of almost every common benefit and privilege, were here made integral members of the common stock. In England an alien is disabled from hold- ing land, either by lease or purchase; and, if a manufacturer or mechanic, he is forbidden to work on his own account. If he be even naturalized by special act, at much expense, he can never be admitted to any office of whatever kind. Penn early perceived the hardship of such restrictive laws, and made it the law of his new country that the property of an alien should be held entire and sacred to the alien and his heirs.
He excluded every thing like the "game laws" of his own country-declaring, that " the food and sustenance which God hath freely afforded" should be freely used ; wherefore, all might " fowl and hunt upon the lands they hold, and fish in all the rivers and rivulets."
The English laws seize upon the estate of all suicides, leaving their helpless families in penury and want ; but the good sense of
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T'he Excellencies of Penn's Laws.
our Founder rejected this severity, by enacting that " if any person, through temptation or melancholy, shall destroy himself, his estate shall, notwithstanding, descend to his wife and children or relatives."
At a single stroke of his pen he struck off all the sanguinary laws of his parent country respecting felonies, substituting, in lieu of death, temperate punishment and hard labour-the Great Law saying, "all prisons shall be workhouses." Indeed, in former times " the workhouse" was the prevalent name of our jails. These mild laws, however, caused the offence and severe rebuke of the Privy Council in England-they ordered that the English laws should be enforced. Our Assembly, thus resisted, continued to re- enact, and to so retain their first principles as to preserve a mitigation of punishment for many years; and, finally, when they had to yield to the necessity of the case, they took the earliest occasion, produced by the Revolution, for establishing codes of prison dis- cipline and reformation, which has made this State peculiar among the nations.
He suffered not in this land the English law of descents, whereby, when a son dies leaving a real estate, it cannot go to his father, although he had no children, but must pass to other relatives, how- ever remote they may be. But Penn's law declared, in such case, one half should go to the parents, and the other half to his next of kin.
He introduced a simple means of making lands pay debts, not- withstanding all English precedents were against such a measure ; and, to avoid the wordy redundancy of English conveyancing, briefer forms of transfer were enacted and used, until repealed by a later Assembly.
The law of primogeniture, so grateful to the lordly feelings of great families, was excluded from our Great Law at the very outset. It declared the equal distribution among all the children. So very early was the spirit of aristocratical selfishness and pride repressed by the wholesome and distributive rules of equal justice to all .*
With such marked condescension and good feeling in the ruler, and such cherished freedom in the governed, it was but matter of course that changes from good to better and to best should occur, where all were intent on the general good. Penn's charters, there- fore, soon underwent three several changes, to wit :
In the beginning of his colony, say on the 2d of April, 1683, he gave his second charter, to supersede the first, before formed in theory when still in England, and which was found encumbered with an inconvenient number of Assemblymen-it calling for two hundred from the then six counties, which were only able to furnish seventy-two members. Although this second charter reduced the council to eighteen, and the assembly to thirty-six, a third charter,
· As early as 1705, and subsequent, measures were repeatedly taken to restrain, and finally to prevent, the importation of slaves, which were as often defeated by the Privy Council.
Vor. I .- 2 P
27
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The Excellencies of Penn's Laws.
granted in November, 1696, reduced that number to one-third less ; at the same time the former general right of suffrage was restricted to such as were worth £50, or possessed of fifty acres of land, and had been two years before the election resident in the province; it also admitted the right of affirmation. On the 28th of October, 1701, the founder himself being in the colony, and just before his final leave, granted his people his last and final charter-the same which endured till dissolved by our Revolution.
The liberal and enlightened expression of principles which go- verned and directed this distinguished founder, deserve, for his just fame, to be engraved in capitals of gold. In his first frame of go- vernment, he says: "We have, with reverence to God, and good conscience to man, to the best of our skill, contrived and composed the frame and law of this government, viz. to support power in reference with the people, and to secure the people from the abuse of power; that they may be free by their just obedience, and the magistrates honourable for their just administration ; for liberty without obedience, is confusion, and obedience without liberty, is slavery. Where the laws rule, and the people are a party, any government is free ; more than this is tyranny, oligarchy or confu sion." In his letter of 1681, he says : "For the matters of liberty and privilege, I purpose that which is extraordinary, and to leave myself and successors no power of doing mischief-that the will of one man may not hinder the good of a whole country."
In the manifesto, published by Penn before the arrival of his colony, he declared sundry of the noblest and wisest principles of political sagacity, viz. " Governments, like clocks, go from the mo- tion men give them; and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too : wherefore governments rather depend upon men than men upon governments. Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad ; if it be ill they will cure it But if men be bad, let the government be ever so good, they will endeavour to warp and spoil it to their turn. That, therefore, which makes a good constitution [such, for instance, as we have since made for the United States] must keep it, viz., men of wisdom and virtue-qualities that, because they descend not with worldly inheritances, must be carefully propagated by a virtuous education of youth ; for which after ages will owe more to the care and pru- dence of founders, and the successive magistracy, than to thei- parents for their private patrimonies." [Excellent!]
Embued with such maxims of government, it was to be expected that the efficiency of his practical philosophy should have an in- structive and benign influence on other communities of men : wherefore this article may properly conclude in the energetic eulogy of a modern observer, (T. I. Wharton, Esq.,*) to wit: "In the early constitutions of Pennsylvania are to be found the distinct
* See his able and instructive discourse before the Penn Society, 1826.
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The Philadelphia Bar.
enunciation of every great principle-the germ, if not the develope- ment, of every valuable improvement in government or legislation which have been introduced into the political systems of more modern epochs. Name to me," says he, "any valuable feature in the constitutions of our confederacy, or for which patriots are con- tending in other quarters of the globe, and I will show you that our Pennsylvania statesmen, before the Revolution, had sought out the principle, and either incorporated it with their system, or struggled with the rulers of the darkness of the old world for its adoption."
We mean no disparagement in comparing facts. The facts were, that there was in Penn's institutions a general adherence to equality, not seen among the other colonies at any given time in the same degree ; for, if we advert to the south, there was a baronial and lordly style of ascendency over the poor and the enslaved, while in New England there was, from the beginning, a dictatorial control in the Congregational and Presbyterian clergy. While these as- sumed a rigid control of religious sentiments there, the ministers of the established church ruled the minds of the people of the south, until the Revolution, by divesting them of their salaries. destroyed their power.
THE PHILADELPHIA BAR.
« Theirs be the task to mark with awe The mighty edifice of law !"
IT would have been gratifying to have been able to make some notices of the gentlemen composing the Bar of Philadelphia from its earliest known period ; but although unusual efforts were bestowed, and applications made to those who should have imparted something, almost nothing was attained. It was certainly once a diminutive concern, compared with the present, when all the courts managed their business in the chambers of the small court house on Second and High streets, now used for city watchmen. This building was used for some of the courts long after the present state-house was built, and afforded some of the bar a more enlarged and genteel ac commodation.
The earliest names of attorneys which have come to my know- ledge, as pleaders or counsellors in the primitive city, were Samuel Herset, David Lloyd, P. Robinson, Thomas Clarke, Nicholas and John Moore. Judge Mompesson, and Pickering. This last I have suspected to have been the same person. called Charles Pickering, who was prosecuted for uttering base money. I supposed he was
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The Philadelphia Bar.
the same person who owned lands at Pickering creek, in Charles township, in Chester county, and a large city lot in Front street, be- tween High and Chesnut streets. If it was he, he was drowned at sea in going to England, and has left no posterity among us. The Patrick Robinson above-named was also clerk to the Provincial Council, and owner of the first hired prison. In 1685 he gave offence to the council, and they resolved, " that the words spoken by him concerning the impeachment against Judge Moore was drawn hab nab, which expression of his we do unanimously declare to be un- decent, unallowable, and to be disowned." Soon after it was further resolved, that Patrick Robinson could not be removed from his clerk's office until he was legally convicted of the offence. They, however, determine " that he shall be readily dismissed from any public office of trust in this government." The same was eventually done. He appears afterwards named in suits in Bucks county.
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