History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with genealogical and biographical sketches, Part 113

Author: Futhey, John Smith, 1820-1888; Cope, Gilbert, 1840-1928
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1162

USA > Pennsylvania > Chester County > History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with genealogical and biographical sketches > Part 113

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" We were shown over the building and introduced to all the points ef interest by the obliging steward. The first department visited was that occupied by insane males. Of these the great majerity are not dangerous er troublesome, and are allowed to ge at liberty during the day, but there are a few who have to be kept in their cells, and one was so violent that he had to be chained to the floor, while acother peor fellew kept up an unecasing meaningless dance in bis bare feet around his cell, accompanying it by a wordless seng, interspersed by unearthly yells, in which latter amusement he was ably assisted by his neighbor of the chain.

" The hespitals are fine, large, well-lighted and ventilated rooms,

# Edwin James had served from March, 1880, by appointment, in place of Caleb Baldwin, resigned.

...

9240.00

...

6984.31

5760.32

...

....

PAUPERISM.

1815 .- Ebenezer Speakman and wife, Lydia .. 365

406

HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

whore the sick of the institution receive prompt care and careful nursing. There are two, one for the mien and another for the women. There is also a large and comfortable two-story hospital for contagious diseases, erected on the hill some distance back of the main buildings.

" There is a school kept up for the benefit of the children of the institution, which for the last five years has flourished under the able management of Miss R. E. Kinsey. Here we found abont twenty bright, intelligent-looking children, from four to nine years old, who seemed very quiet and attentive. These scholars never get any ulder here, for about this time they are adopted out, and leave the poor- house to make their way in the world for good or ill. Miss Kinsey is a patient, careful teacher in a particularly thankless situation, and is deserving of sympathy in her efforts to impart to those forlorn little waifs knowledge that may be useful in enabling them to avoid the home of their youth.

"The insane and idiotic females have a department in the west wing. Most of these are quiet and harmless. One is chained occasionally, to keep her from running away, while another has a penebant for beating the children, and has to be watched. One poor ereature stood outside in the yard, with one hand raised, as if to catch a fly, staring ot the hlaek wall within a foot of her nose, and never spoke or moved a musele for hours.

"The care of the insane is the most ardnone duty connected with the institution. Many of them are utterly helpless, without any in- stinet of order or cleanliness, and have to be waited on like children, yet their cells and garments are kept clean and fresh, and they are made in all things as comfortable as their situations will admit.

" In the sewing-room we found a number of women making up clothing for the inmates, directed by an employed seamstress. In the tailor-shops some men were at work on clothing for the male inmates, and the shoemaker-shop keeps up the supply of foot-coverings. One room is set apart for the use of the physician, and is supplied with a plentiful stock of drugs and medicines. Another room is filled with the stock of dry goods required, and yet another by stores of grocer- ies and other articles necessary to domestie economy.

" The main kitchen is supplied with a large range and coffee-boiler, capable of turning out cooked provisions for the family of from two to three hundred that come daily to the long tables in the dining-rooms. There are smaller kitchens where the cooking is done for the hospitals and the children, which latter have a dining room to themselves. In the cellar is a bake-house, with an oven of large capacity that turns out hread and pies by whulcsale. We examined the bread and found it of the best quality,-as good as comes upon any table in the land. An employed baker has charge of this department, and everything is clean and neat about it.

" In different parts of the building are sitting-rooms, where the in- mates can assemble for each other's society. That helonging to the men is called 'Congress Hall,' and is doubtless the seene of grave debates and the adjustment of knotty issues. It has the advan- tage of better order than some other legislative halls, and docs less harm.

" The whole building and its surroundings is, if possible, clean to a fault. The floors are serubbed until they are as white as the deek of a man-of-war, and there is » prevalent sense of fresh whitewash everywhere.

"The farm, which is also superintended by Mr. Conner, is in a very productive state, and yields a large percentage of the most import- ant provisions for the house. This year there are about 35 aeres in wheat, 20 aeres in oats, and a proportionate amount in corn ; II acres in potatoes, and 4 aeres devoted to different kinds of garden truck. There is also a very fine garden attached to the house, which is kept up in beautiful style, and promises ample store of strawberries, peas, salad, onions, and other choice luxuries. The stock consiste of 6 horses, 4 yoke of oxen, 2t eows, 17 feeding steers, and 60 hoge.

" The work is done by the able-bodied inmatos, assisted by three hired men in summer and two in winter. On the property is a quarry of limestone, where the men are employed in winter as much as pos- sible, and get out large quantities of stone ready for burning in the spring. This year the quarry and kilo is run on shares hy Geo. W. Conner, Esq., who expects to turn out about 40,000 bushels of lime, which is worth from 13 to 20 cents per bushel at the kiln.

"The whole number receiving support during the first quarter, 1873, was 356, of whom 146 were white malo adults, 22 colored male adults, 106 white female adults, 19 colored female adults, and 64 chil-

dren. Of the above number 19 are insane, 21 idiotic, 3 blind, and I deaf and dumb. The average number supported during first quarter was 316.1.

"The oldest inmate of the almshouse is Ann Miles, who is now in her eightieth year, and appears quite hearty. She was born in Down- ingtown, and is the daughter of James and Ruth Place, who for fifteen years lived in the tenant-house of Thomas Parker. She was married to Abram Miles, who, after some five or six years of married life, de- serted her, and she became an inmate of the poor-house in 1815, under the stewardship of Ebenezer Speakman, and has remained, with the exception of short intervals, ever since.

" In connection with what we have already said, we want to call attention to a matter that should elicit the help of every citizen of the county, and that is the need of a library at the poor-house. Some time ago, through the exertions of a few philanthropie individuals, a few books were collected, forming the nucleus of a library in the school- room, and it is now very desirable to increase the collection so that it may be useful to the whole institution."

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.

The degree and kind of punishment inflicted upon crimi- nals have varied very much at different periods. In very early times the infliction of fines for ordinary offenses was generally resorted to. From 1714 to 1759 most of the sentences embraced whipping as the chief or only item of punishment for such offenses, and usually consisted of " twenty-one lashes on the bare back well laid on." In some instances the number of stripes was a few more or less. Standing in the pillory was rarely adopted as a punishment during this period, and imprisonment not at all. The wearing of the Roman T ceased about the year 1720.

In 1715 occurred the murder of Jonathan Hayes, of Chester County, by Hugh Pugh, millwright, and Lazarus Thomas, laborer, also of the same county, who were imme- diately apprehended and committed to the county jail. They were not tried, however, until near the beginning of the year 1718, when the Supreme Court was so constituted as to hold a Court of Oyer and Terminer at Chester for their trial. They were found guilty and sentenced to be executed. May 8, 1718, the condemned petitioned the Governor for a reprieve until the pleasure of His Majesty the King could be known. They asserted three legal defects in their con- viction : 1st, that all of the seventcen of the grand inquest who found the bill of indictment, and eight of the petit jury who found them guilty, were Quakers, and were only qualified by an affirmation ; 2d, that the act for the proper qualification of judges, jury, and witnesses was passed after the murder was supposed to have been committed ; and, 3d, because said act was contrary to the laws and statutes of Great Britain. The Governor, who had attended the trial and was satisfied of its fairness, was so fully convinced of their guilt that he rejected the petition, and in so doing was sustained by a majority of his Council .* They were or- dered to be executed on the 9th of May, 1718, as appears from the following :

* " It appears from the discussion in Council that the condemned ' had for several years appeared at the head of a lawless Gang of Loose fellows, common disturbers of the public poace.' The crime had been committed three years before the trial, during part of which time the aceused, being out on bail, behaved in the worst possible manner. The appeal made to the Crown in this case is perhaps the only instance on record where any exception has been taken, by a defendant tried for murder, to the presence of Quakers on the jury." -Dr. Smith.

407

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.

" CHESTER 88.

" To the Sherif of the County of Chester

[SEAL.] " Whereas Hugh Pugh & Lazarus Thomas have this Day

[SEAL.] before us at a Court of Oyer & Terminer & Goal Delivery

[SEAL.] held fur the sd County been Convicted of the murder of One

[SEAL.] Jonathan Hayes & have received Sentance to be llanged by the neek untill they be Dead

"These are therefore in his majesties name by virtue of the Power to us Granted by the Governours Comission Comand you that upon Fryday the Ninth Day of Mny next betwixt the hours of Eight & Twelve in the forenoon of the same Day you Cause the sd Sentanee to be put in Exeeucon, ffor which this shall be your Warrant. Given under our Hands & Seals at Chester aforesd the Seventeeth day of April In the ffourth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George King of Great Britain &e Annoq. Dom, 1718

" DAd LLOYD "JASPEN YEATES " RICHARD HILL " WILLM TRENT"

Aug. 3, 1722, the Provincial Council had under consid- eration the case of William Hill, Mary Woolvin, and Wil- liam Battin, prisoners in Chester County jail, under sentence of death ; and it was the advice of all the members present, to which the Governor was pleased to agree, that the said William Hill and Mary Woolvin be reprieved for the space of twelve months, in case no orders shall come from the crown for the execution before the expiration of the said term; that the said William Battin, being convicted of divers horrid complicated crimes, be executed and hung in irons in the most public place at such time as the Governor shall appoint, and that the warrant for the execution be issued before the Governor set out for Albany.

Sept. 1, 1724, a bill of costs in the cases of Edward Murphey and Elizabeth Murphey (£2 6s. 6d. each), signed by Robert Assheton, was allowed by the commissioners and assessors. These were said to be capital cases.

In April, 1728, John Winter and Walter Winter killed an Indian and two squaws in the upper part of Chester County. Samuel Nutt, the iron-master, apprised the Gov- ernor of the affair in the following letter :

" MALANTON, May 11th, 1728.

"May it please the Governour :

"Just now I Rved the Disagrecable news, that one Walter Winter & John Winter &c have Murdered one Indian Man & two Indian Women without any Cause given by the sd Indians & that the said Winters have brought 2 girls (one of which is Criplod) to Geo. Boon's to receive some Reward. I Desire the Governour may see after it before he goes Down ; for most Certainly such actions will Create the greatest antipathy betwixt the Severall nations of Indians & the Christians.

"The bearer, John Petty, has heard the full Relation of this matter; to whom I shall Refer the Governour for a more full account & Remain the Governour's most hearty friend and Servant to Com- mand.

"SAMI NUTT."

Warrants were issued for their arrest, and they were soon after captured, and placed for security in the jail at Chester. "They could give no better reason for their barbarity than that there were reports of Indian depredations in the coun- try, and they felt they were justifiable in killing any of the natives with whom they might meet." In Pennsylvania Archives, i. 218, may be found the statement of Walter Winter, of Cucussea, county of Chester, in which he admits of shooting the Indian man, and says,-

"John Winter at the same time shott one of the Indian Women, and then run up and knocked another Indian Woman's Brains out,

that two Indian girls run away. . . . That this Examinant with Walter Winter and John Herbert took the Corpses of the two Indian Women & hauled them out of the Road & covered them with some leaves."

The Indian who was killed was an old man, called Toka Collie, who was friendly to the colonists. The following record of the trial is from the docket of the Supreme Court, in the prothonotary's office at Media :

" CHESTER 88.

"At a Court of Oyer & Terminer & Gaol Delivery held at Ches- ter for ye County of Chester the 19th day of June 1728.

" Before DAVID LLOYD,

RICHD. HILL, JEREMIAH LANGHORNE, 1 Esqrs

Dom. Rex. Who were Indicted for murdering an Indian

2 Woman for which they were arraigned, and

Jno. Winter & pleaded not guilty, and for their tryal put them-

Walter Winter solves upon God & ye country, and the Petty Jury being ealled, and appeared, to wit, llenry Hays, George Ashbridge, William Horne, Peter Worrall, George Wood, Riehd Jones, Abraham Lewis, Benjamin Clift, John Davis, Tho. Vernon, John Tomkins & Evan Howell, [who] upon their respectivo oath and affirmacon, do say that the afd John Winter and Walter Winter are Guilty of ye murder afd and must be hanged by the necks until they and eneh of thom be dead."

Governor Gordon issued a warrant June 26, 1728, for their execution, " for the murder of an Indian woman called Quilce, otherwise Hannah : the execution to take place Wednesday, 3d of July." Morgan Herbert, who was con- victed at the same time as an accessory to the crime, was recommended by the Provincial Council (August 6th) to the Governor, Patrick Gordon, for a reprieve; he was so reprieved, and finally pardoned and released by the crown.

Eleanor Davis and John Thomas were barbarously mur- dered, and Rachel James dangerously wounded, on Satur- day, Aug. 1, 1752, at the dwelling-house of the first named, in Tredyffrin, by three men who attempted to rob the house, and for whose apprehension the Assembly offered £150, and friends of the deceased £40. The murderers were Bryan Doran, James Rice alias Dillon, and Thomas Kelley. Rice and Kelley were soon after arrested, and tried November 27th of that year, the latter pleading guilty. They were convicted and sentenced to be hung. Rice was executed Dec. 9, 1752, and Kelley one week later (the 16th), he having been respited in order to identify Bryan Deran, who had been arrested in Maryland, but who proved to be another person of the same name .*

Among other high crimes committed in Chester County prior to the year 1789 may be named :

# Pennsylvania Gazette, Colonial Records, ctc. Thomas Kelley, in his confession, Oct. 4, 1752, said, "That Bryan Doran told him there was an old man, an old woman, and a young woman lived altogether where he had been and drank good Cyder; that the old woman had a great deal of moncy, he believed three or four hundred pounds, in the honse." Doran went to the house and asked for lodging, and at bed- time stepped outside and coughed onee as a signal that only the usual inmates were in the house. The others, who had blacked their faces with black earth, then went in with bin, and Dillon, drawing his hanger, said he was going to England and wanted some money, but receiving no answer, began to strike and stab, in which the others joined with sticks. The inmates escaped at the doors, but were fol- lowed and knocked down ; but the old lady continuing to scream, the robbers became alarmed and left without plundering the housc. Steal- ing two horses they rode to the Lancaster pike, and kept it to the White Horse .- ( This partly from the examination of Jumes Rice, Oct. 20, 1752.)

408

HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

1760, John Lewis, found guilty of the murder of his wife, and sentenced to be hung.

1762, Abraham Johnson, slave of Humphry Marshall, for murder of a negro man named Glascow, the slave of Alexander Boyd. " Adjudged not guilty of murder but of homicide se defendo ; discharged paying costs and to stand committed until paid."

1764, Phebe, slave of Joseph Richardson, convicted of burglariously entering the house of Thomas Barnard and stealing divers goods. Sentenced to be hung .*

1764, Jane Ewing, for murder of her bastard male child, April 3, 1763, received sentence of death. " It being re- ported to the Governor by the Justices of the Supreme Court that she discovered on her trial no kind of remorse," etc., and that her case was attended with aggravated cir- cumstances, the Council advised the Governor to issue a warrant for her execution on Saturday, Jan. 19, 1765.

1768, John Dowdle and Thomas Vaughan, for the mur- der of Thomas Sharp, on March 31, 1768, in Chester County, were hanged in the county jail, Sept. 17, 1768.

1770, Matthew McMahon was convicted June 11th of felony and murder, committed on James McClester, laborer, of Middletown township. He was ordered to be executed June 30, 1770.

1770, Martin, slave of Thomas Smith, for an attempt at rape on Anne Torton, was sentenced to 39 lashes, to be branded with " R" on his forehead, and be exported out of the province within six months ; to be imprisoned till ex- portation at master's charge and cost of prosecution.

1772, Dick, the slave of a mulatto, Dinah Jones, for an attempt at rape on Margaret Keepers, was sentenced in similar penalties as the last-named offender.

March 23, 1772, Patrick Kennedy, Thomas Fryer, Neal McCariher, and James Dever were respectively convicted of a rape committed Nov. 30, 1771, on Jane Walker, in Thornbury township, and each sentenced to death. Patrick Kennedy was ordered to be executed May 2, 1772, but the . others were reprieved.

Late in the same year Henry Phillips, laborer, was con- victed of the murder of Richard Kelley, and was ordered to be executed December 26th.

Aug. 23, 1773, John Jones, found guilty of felony and burglary, was sentenced to death, but the Governor subse- quently commuted it to transportation, on condition of his " never returning into the Province."

In the summer of 1775, James Willis was convicted of felony and murder, committed on Daniel Culin. Ordered to be hung Saturday, Sept. 30, 1775.

Sept. 16, 1775, John Faughnor, " late of Chester County, peddler," was robbed and inhumanly murdered on the high-

way near the Red Lion, in Uwchlan township. October 5th the Governor offered a reward of £50 for the appre- hension, and commitment to some jail in the province, of Fleming Elliott, charged with being the murderer.

In 1778, Benjamin Hammon was barbarously murdered in Chester County. Henry Skyles was charged with the crime, and Thomas Boyd, James Wilson, John Hastings, and Charles Caldwell, all of Lancaster County, with being accessories. March 24th, Thomas Wharton, Jr., president of the commonwealth, by advice of the Supreme Executive Council, offered a reward of £200 each for their apprehen- sion and delivery to justice.

James Fitzpatrick, the notorious outlaw, was convicted of burglary and larceny, for which he was executed Sept. 26, 1778.

In the fall of 1779, Jesse Jordan, of Chester County, who a few weeks previons had commenced an action in law against Gen. Benedict Arnold in the Philadelphia courts, was murdered in Chester County.

In May, 1780, William Boyd, while in the discharge of his duties as a tax-collector in Chester County, was mur- dered by John and Robert Smith, also of the same county. May 13th the president of the commonwealth (Joseph Reed) offered a reward of $20,000 for their apprehension. They were captured by David Furman, sheriff of Mon- mouth Co., N. J., while en route to join the British army. They were tried in Chester County June 26th, and exe- cuted July 1st.

Oct. 26, 1784, the Supreme Executive Council ordered a warrant to be issued to the sheriff of Chester County to execute the sentence of the court on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 1784, upon Joseph Chalk, John McDonnell, and John Varnum, alias Bensoa, convicted in Chester County of burglary.

Upon a similar warrant of the Council, dated Dec. 6, 1785, Elizabeth Wilson, convicted of murdering two female bastard children, was ordered to be executed Jan. 3, 1786.

The execution of Robert Wilson (under sentence of death in the Chester County jail for burglary) was deferred by order of the Supreme Executive Council from Jan. 21 to Feb. 11, 1786; but February 7th the Council ordered that he be pardoned, on condition. that " he transport him- self beyond the seas, not to return to the United States."+

On June 5, 1786, the Supreme Executive Council or- dered that John McDonough and Richard Shirtliffe, con- victed severally of rape in Chester County, be executed on Saturday, June 17, 1786, for which executions warrants were issued to the sheriff of Chester County. But it was further ordered that a reprieve be granted to Richard Shirtliffe until the further order of the Council, which the sheriff was directed not to make known to him until he had been taken under the gallows.

Since Chester County has been reduced to its present limits there have been eight executions therein ; of these, three were of white persons and five of colored, one of the latter a woman. Two were executed in public, and six semi-privately in the prison-yard.

The following is a list of the persons thus executed :

* She was valued at £55, which amount Mr. Richardson received from the provincial treasurer. This was in accordance with the act of March 5, 1725-6, which provided that negroes guilty of capital crimes should be valued, and the valuation paid to the owner, who otherwise might be induced to conceal the crime to save his property.

By an act passed in 1705 the trial of negrocs guilty of capital crimes was before a special tribunal, composed of two justices specially commissioned for the purpose and six of the most substantial free- holders of the neighborhood. This continued until 1770, or later, as in that year (Jannary 22d) William Parker and Richard Riley, and (Dc- cember 24th) John Morton and William Parker were commissioned for the trial of negroes.

t The name is given in the colonial records as Wilson and as Elli-

ott. One of the names may have been an alias.

409

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.

1. Hannah Miller, commonly known as Black Hannah, was tried at May Session, 1805, before Hon. John D. Coxe, president judge, and his associates, Walter Finney, James Boyd, John Ralston, and John Davis, for the mur- der of her infant child. The jury impaneled were Rob- ert Buffington, Thomas Downing, Joseph Pearce, William Sharpless, John Holmes, Philip Housekeeper, John Down- ing, Abraliam Wills, Isaac Haines, Jonathan Richards, John Fleming, Jr., and Samuel Geer. She was sentenced June 1, 1805, and executed in public on Thursday, Aug. 1, 1805, under the direction of Jesse John, sheriff. The place of execution was on the spot where the stone house now stands, at the forks of the Philadelphia and State roads, a short distance cast of West Chester, on what has since been known as "Gallows Hill." The case of the commonwealth was conducted by William Hemphill, Esq., the deputy attorney-general.

2. Edward Williams (colored), was tried at November Sessions, 1830, for the murder of his wife, Sarah Williams, before Hon. Isaac Darlington, president, and associate judges Cromwell Pearce and Jesse Sharpe. The jury be- fore whom the case was tried were John James, Caleb B. Cope, Thomas Spackman, Titus Chamberlain, David Gatch- ell, Solomon Conard, John Hickman, Thomas Lamborn, Joshua Ladley, James Williamson, George Garrett, and Richard Barnard. He was sentenced Nov. 15, 1830, and executed in public on Friday, Dec. 31, 1830, under the direction of Oliver Alison, sheriff, the place of execution being a small hollow about three hundred yards northeast of the place where Hannah Miller had been executed.

The trial was conducted by Henry H. Van Amringe, Esq., on the part of the commonwealth, and by William H. Dillingham and Townsend Haines, Esqrs., on the part of the prisoner, they having been assigned to that duty by the court.

3. Charles Bowman (colored) was tried at August Ses- sions, 1834, before Hon. Isaac Darlington, president, and associate judges Cromwell Pearce and Jesse Sharpe, for the murder of Jonathan McEuen, a blind fiddler. He was indicted with Patience McEuen, the wife of the murdered man, but the defendants, by permission of the court, were tried separately. Bowman was sentenced Aug. 25, 1834, and executed by Robert Irwin, sheriff, in the old prison- yard, then embraced within the limits of the present court- house yard, on Friday, Nov. 21, 1834.

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History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with genealogical and biographical sketches, Part 113

Author: Futhey, John Smith, 1820-1888; Cope, Gilbert, 1840-1928 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts Number of Pages: 1162

Author: Futhey, John Smith, 1820-1888; Cope, Gilbert, 1840-1928
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1162