History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 43

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150

USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania > Part 43

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

163

CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS.

of a lawless Gang of Loose fellows, common disturb- ers of the public peace," and that for some reason they had been admitted to hail. The records of our county, however, are silent as reference thereto further than already given. April 17, 1718, before David Lloyd, chief justice, and his associates, at Chester, the

"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 May next hetwixt the hours of Eight & Twelve in the forenoon of the same Day you Cause the ad Sentance to be put in Exe- cucon, ffor which this shall he your Warrant. Given under Our Hands & Seale at Chester aforesd the Seventeenth day of April In the ffourth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George King of Great Britain &c. Annoq Dom. 1718.

The day previous to that fixed for their execution --- May 8th-the condemned men petitioned the Governor for a reprieve until the pleasure of the king could be known, they having appealed to the crown, alleging that the following legal errors invalidated the whole proceedings :

"Ist. Because seventeen of the Grand Inquest who found the bill of Indictment against them and eight of the Petty Jury who found them guilty were Quakers or Reputed Quakers, and were Qualified no other- wise than by an affirmacon or Declaracon contrary to a statue made in the first year of your Mat'ies Reign.

"2d. Because the Act of Assembly of this Province by which Judges, Jury & Witnesses were pretended to he Qualified was made & past the Twenty eight Day of May, in the first year of your Majesties Reign,2 which was after sd murder was supposed to be committed, and after another Act of Assembly of the same nature was repealed by her Late Majesty, Queen Anne.

"3dly. Because sd Act of Assembly is not consonant to Reason, but Repugnant & Contrary to the Laws, Statutes and Rights of your Majes- ties Kingdom."

The petition for a reprieve was rejected, and doubt- less the culprits were executed at the time designated in the warrant. Although the legal matter suggested in the prisoners' petition was never passed upon by a competent tribunal, for we have no record of any action of the supreme judges thereon, yet the points taken aroused such public alarm as to the legality of the proceeding, that in twenty-two days after the execu- tion of Pugh and Thomas-May 31, 1718-the law was passed, which adopted the fierce criminal law of

England in the province, simply in exchange for the right to use affirmations in place of " corporal oaths," the Assembly well knowing that the king would ap- prove and confirm the act, which was done early in the following year.8

At the Court of Oyer and Terminer, held at Chester, case was tried, resulting in a verdict of guilty. Dep- | June 20, 1722, by David Lloyd, chief justice, and as- uty Governor Sir William Keith was also present. The prisoners were sentenced to be hanged on May 9, 1718.1 The following is a copy of the death-warrant : sociates, the case of Rex vs. William Hill and Mary Woolvin, was tried on an indictment for murder. They were convicted, and as the sentence ran, " must be hanged by ye neck until they and each of them be SEAL. " CHESTER, 88 : dead." The case of these convicts, together with one " To the Sheriff of the County of Chester : William Batten, who was then in Chester jail under " Whereas Hugh Pugh & Lazarus Thomas have this Day before us at a Court of Oyer & Terminer & Gaol Delivery held for the sd County heen convicted of the murder of One Jonathan Hayes & have received Sentence to he Hanged by the neck until they be Dead. sentence of death, was considered by the Provincial Council, Aug. 3, 1722, "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 Batten, being convicted of divers horrid complicated crimes, be executed and hung in " DA'D LLOYD "JASPER YEATER " RICHARD HILL irons in the most public place at such times as the Governor shall appoint, and that the warrant for the " WILL'DI TRENT" execution be issued before the Governor set out for Albany." 4

Aug. 27, 1723, Edward Murphy was tried for mur- der and acquitted. "Same day Elizabeth Murphy was indicted for murder and found guilty by ye Petty Jury and must be hanged by ye neck until she is dead. And ye Sherif is ordered to Execute her accordingly on ye 13th of 7 month 1724."5 Sept. 1, 1724, the bill of costs in the above cases, amounting to £2 68. 6d. each, signed by Robert Assheton, was allowed by the commissioners and assessors.6

At a Court of Oyer and Terminer, held May 21, 1727, " John Hendricks who was indicted for shooting by misfortune one Albert Hendricks, late of the county

See also in confirmation of this statement "the humble address and representation of the Governor and General Assembly," the - day of May, 1718 (Proud's " History of Pennsylvania," vol. ii. p. 101), wherein the address to the king sets forth, "That for this end we have lahoured, more generally of late, to regulate the proceedings in our Courts of judicature, as bear as possibly could be done, to the constitution and practice of the laws of England.

"That, from many years experience, we are not only convinced that the solemn offirmotion allowed in Great Britain to the people called Quakers, doth, in all respects, and in every case, here answer the legal sud essential purpose of an osth."

4 The last case wherein I find that a man was gihbeted in Pennsylva- nis was that of Thodias Wilkinson, who had been found guilty of piracy April 23, 1781, and sentenced to be hanged. The Supreme Executive Council, May 17, 1781, directed the execution to take place Wednesday, May 25, 1781, between 10 A.M. and 2 o'clock P.M. that day, on Windmill leland, in Delaware River, and that " the body of the said Thomae Wilkinson be taken down to Mud Island, in the said river, and hanged in chains on the north end of the said island." (Colonial Records, vol. xii. p. 730.) Some doubt arising as to the legality of tha prisoner's con- viction, on May 22d Council reprieved Wilkinson for twenty-one daye (Ib., 732), after which the record is silent as to hie fate, except on Oct. 6, 1781 (Ib., xiii. p. 76), David Henderson was paid £17 IGs. Od. specie, "amount of his account for making a gibbet for Thomas Wilkinson."

5 Supreme Court Docket, Prothonotary'a office, Media, Pa.

6 Futhey and Cope's " History of Cheatar County," p. 407.

1 See for full particulars of the matter before Provincial Council, Colonial Records, vol. iii. pp. 40, 41.

2 1715. The act designated was "for the case of such as conscian- tiously sought to take the solemn affirmation formerly allowed in Great Britain." It was repealed July 21, 1719.

164

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

of Chester, Labourer and found guilty by his own con- fession, whereby ye Goods and Chattles of the said Jobn Hendricks become forfeited to our Sovereign Lord, ye King. Upon which he puts himself on the mercy of our sd Lord the King and produces in court his pardon from ye Governour of this Provence, under ye Great Seal of the said Provence and prays ye same may be allowed and ye same is allowed per cur."1 At the same court Rachel Lindley and Robert Box, in- dicted for murder, were acquitted.

In April, 1728, a few Indians belonging to the Twetchtweys, a tribe without the borders of the province, made their appearance near the Warwick Iron Work, on French Creek, and, being well armed, created wide-spread alarm among the settlers. The air was filled with rumors of Indian outrages and murder. John and Walter Winter, two brothers, re- spectable farmers, it is thought under the apprehen- sion of the savages, and believing that they were doing the State a service, fell upon a party of Indians at Cassea, when Walter Winter shot and killed an aged man named Toka Collie, who was friendly to the whites. John Winter, at the same time, shot one of the Indian women, and then ran and knocked ont the brains of an old squaw, "Quilee," otherwise " Hannah." The Winter brothers, with Morgan Her- bert, bore the corpses of the two Indian women from the road where they had fallen, and covered them with leaves. The two former men carried two Indian girls (one a cripple) before one of the county officers, demanding a reward for what they had done. Samuel Nutt, the iron-master at the forge, dispatched John Petty to the Governor with a letter informing him of the occurrence. The latter had warrants issued for the arrest of the men, and, on a " hue and cry," the two Winters, together with Morgan Herbert, their neighbor, were taken into custody and lodged in the jail at Chester, in all probability the old prison on Edgmont Street. John and Walter Winter were tried before David Lloyd, Richard Hill, and Jeremiah Langhorne, for the murder of the Indian woman, Quilee, June 19, 1728, and the jury found the de- fendants " Guilty of ye murder afd and must be hanged by the necks until they and each of them be dead." 2

Governor Gordon issued the warrant, fixing Wednesday, July 3, 1728, as the date of the execu- tion. Morgan Herbert was convicted at the same court as an accessory to the murder, but he was recommended in a petition numerously signed by citizens, as well as by the judges who tried the case, setting forth that "though in strictness of law Her- bert's offence may be adjudged murder, yet it ap- peared to them that he was not active in perpetrating thereof, but unhappily fell into ye company of those that committed it." The Governor granted a reprieve to Herbert, who was finally pardoned. The Winters

seem to have done the deed under the impression that the Indians were at war with the whites, " and they felt justified in killing any of the natives with whom they met." A reason which, considering the times in which they lived, takes from the act that wicked animus which constitutes morally the crime of mur- der.

At the Oyer and Terminer, held at Chester, "27, 7 ber, 1728," William Davis was indicted for murder- ing his master, William Cloud. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, "And ye sd William Davis being asked what he had or could say why sentence of Death should not pass against him says no more than what he has sayd before.

"Therefor it is considered by ye Court here that h be taken back to prison from whence he came an from thence to ye place of execution and there 1 hanged by ye neck untill he be Dead and his body ye Disposal of ye Governor." 3

On Saturday, Ang. 1, 1752, at the house of Elear Davis, in Tredyffrin, a brutal murder was commi. 1

by Bryan Doran, James Rice, alias Dillon, and Tho S Kelley. It seems that Rice and Kelley were told .y Doran that Eleanor Davis, an old woman, J‹ Thomas, an aged man, and Rachel Jones, a yor woman, lived together in the house; that they ' pt good cider, and "that the old woman had a grea al of money, he believed three or four hundred po. JS, in the house." It was thereupon arranged that Doran should go to the dwelling and ask a night's lodging. At bedtime he was to come to the door and cough once, which was the signal to the men outside that no persous save the usual inmates were there. Rice and Kelley, who had disguised themselves by r ng

black earth on their faces, loitered about the p until the signal was given, when they, with illon, .ses

entered the house. The latter, armed with short

broad-bladed sword, then called "a hanger," { clared that he was going to England, and demander all the money the old people had. Receiving no an wer, he began to strike and stab the parties who had given him shelter. Rice and Kelley, who were arı ed with sticks, joined in the base assault. The inm tes snc- ceeded in escaping at the doors, were follow 1 by the assassins and knocked down, but the old .dy con- tinned to scream, which so alarmed the ro vers that they fled without plundering the house, ma'-ing their escape on two horses which they appropria ' to their use. Eleanor Davis and John Thomas were killed, and Rachel Jones was dangerously wounded. The Provincial authorities offered a reward of one hundred and fifty pounds, and the friends of the slain man and woman forty pounds, for the apprehension of the murderers. Rice and Kelley were shortly afterwards arrested, and tried at Chester, November 27th of the same year, the latter pleading guilty to the indict- ment, while Rice was found guilty by the jury. James

1 Supreme Court Docket, Media, Pa.

2 Ib.

3 Ib.

165

CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS.

Rice was executed Dec. 9, 1752, and Kelley (who had been respited to identify Bryan Doran, as a person of that name had been arrested in Maryland, but subse- quently shown not to be the assassin) was hung Dec. 16, 1752.

At a Court of Oyer and Terminer, held at Chester, Ang. 25, 1760, John Lewis was convicted of the murder of his wife, Ann. The Provincial Council, Sept. 8, 1760, issued a warrant directing his execution.

In 1705 an act creating a special court for the trial of negroes was passed by the colonial authorities, and, although a Supreme Court for the trial of negroes was created and judges commissioned by Lieutenant-Gov- rnor John Evans, in February, 1706-7, our records "how nothing respecting any tribunal under that enact- hent until May 28, 1762, at which time a "Special Surt" was held at Chester, " before John Hannum and ihn Morton, Esqs., two of his Majestys Justices of the ace within the County aforsd particularly Commis- "Thed," with the assistance of six of the most sub- s Wntial freeholders of the neighborhood, who were " fly & legally summoned, returned, Sworn & af- filled well and truly to give their assistance and jeligment on the tryal of such Negro or Negroes as sı'' AI be charged or accused before them of committing an Murder, Manslaughter, Buggery, Burglary, Rapes, Fhipts of Rapes or any High or Heinous offence con.thitted acted or done within the sd county." The first case was that of Negro Abraham Johnson, a slave of Humphrey Marshall, who was arraigned on an in- formation exhibited by Benjamin Chew, attorney- general, charging the defendant with "murdering a certo' 3 negro man named Glascow, the slave of Alex- an"'"Boyd." The court assigned Joseph Galloway, Esq:" "} defend the accused. "The court find de- fendar' not guilty of murder, but that he is guilty of homichle se defends," and thereupon discharged the prison ?? from arrest on the charge, but held him for payment of costs.

At a fi'ke special court held March 2, 1764, Phobe, the slav's of Joseph Richardson, was tried for " Felo- niously' Burglarily breaking and entering the Man- sion ho 'se of Thomas Barnard, and stealing there- out diveas Goods and Chattles, the property of the said Thomas Barnard." ... "And now on hearing proof in this Case It is considered and adjudged by this Could that the said defendant Negro Phoebe is Guilty ofthe Felony & Burglary aforesaid in Manner and form &c. And thereupon it is further considered and adjudged by this Court that the said defendant Negro Phobe be led to the prison from whence she came and from thence to the place of Execution and there be Hanged by the Neck till she be dead." By the act of March 5, 1725-26, negro slaves convicted of capital offenses were to be valued, and such valua- tion was to be paid to their masters out of the colonial treasury. In this case Phobe was valued at fifty-five pounds, which it seems was paid to her master, Joseplı Richardson.

On Nov. 30, 1754, Chief Justice William Allen and Alexander Steadman, the latter commissioned that year one of the puisne judges of the Supreme Court, presided at the Oyer and Terminer, at Chester, at which Jane Ewing was tried and found guilty of the murder of her bastard male child, on April 3d of the previous year, and was sentenced to death. " It being reported to the Governor by the Justices of the Su- preme Court that they discovered on her trial no kind of remorse," and that the evidence showed that her crime was an aggravated one, a warrant for her exe- cution on Saturday, Jan. 29, 1765, was issued.

Aug. 15, 1768, John Dowdle and Thomas Vaughan were tried for having, March 31, 1768, murdered Thomas Sharp. The prisoners were convicted and sentenced to be hung. The Provincial Council or- dered that they be executed in the county jail on Sat- urday, September 17th, of the same year.

At the Court of Oyer and Terminer, held by the justices of the Supreme Court at Chester, June 11, 1770, Matthew McMahon was tried and convicted of the murder of John McClester, laborer, of Middle- town. A warrant directing his execution on Saturday, June 30, 1770, was issued.

At a similar court held at Chester, March 23, 1772, Patrick Kennedy, Thomas Fryer, Neal McCarther, and James Dever were tried on a charge of rape, com- mitted on Jane Walker, of Thornbury, in November of the year previous. They were all convicted and sentenced to death. Patrick Kennedy was ordered to be executed on Saturday, May 2, 1772, but the others were reprieved during the pleasure of the Lieutenant- Governor, Richard Penn.

On Saturday, Dec. 26, 1772, Henry Philips, a la- borer, who had been convicted of the murder of Rich- ard Kelley, was executed at Chester by order of the Provincial Council.

John Jones, Aug. 23, 1773, was convicted of burg- lary and sentenced to death, but Lieutenant-Gover- nor Richard Penn commuted his sentence to trans- portation, conditioned that he should " never return unto the Province."

In the summer of 1775, James Willis was convicted of the murder of Daniel Culin, and Governor John Penn ordered his execution to take place Saturday, Sept. 30, 1775.

During the gloomy days of the Revolution several murders appear to have been committed, the perpe- trators of which, so far as the records show, were never discovered, or at least not brought to justice. On Sept. 16, 1775, John Faughnar, a peddler, was brutally murdered and robbed on the highway, near the Red Lion Inn, in Uwchlan township, in the county of Chester. Suspicion pointed to Fleming Elliott, who could not be found, and the Governor offered a reward of fifty pounds for his arrest, appar- ently without success. Early in 1778, Benjamin Harmon was murdered under aggravating circum- stances in Chester County, and Henry Skyles was

166

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

charged with being the principal in the crime, while Thomas Boyd, James Wilson, John Hastings, and Charles Caldwell, all of Lancaster County, were said to be accessories thereto. They all escaped arrest, although Thomas Wharton, Jr., president of the Ex- ecutive Council, on March 24th of that year, offered a reward of one thousand pounds for the appre- hension and delivery to justice of the men named, or two hundred pounds for any one of them. In the fall of the year 1779, Jesse Jordan, who had brought suit in Philadelphia against Gen. Benedict Arnold several weeks before, was found murdered in Chester County, the place of his residence, and again the perpetrators of the act escaped "unwhipped of justice."

James Fitzpatrick .- The character of "Sandy Flash," in Bayard Taylor's "Story of Kennett," is founded on the adventures and the deeds of a sturdy freebooter, who for more than a twelvemonth kept the good people of the county of Chester in constant alarm and dread by his audacious and frequent crimes. The name of James Fitzpatrick in Chester and Delaware Counties is still surrounded with that peculiar glamour of crime which is so often associated with the acts of bold, bad men, and to this day his deeds are recalled by the representatives of the old families of this section with no little local pride, for the subject of their theme was, at least, no ordinary desperado.

James Fitzpatrick was born in Chester County, and when quite a lad was indentured by his father, an Irish emigrant in indigent circumstances, to John Passmore, of Doe Run, as an apprentice to the trade of blacksmithing. His early life was distinguished by no unusual incidents. He worked faithfully at the anvil until he attained his majority and acquired some local prominence as a shoer, and was known the neighborhood round as an excellent judge of horses. His bodily strength is said to have been enormous, his physical endurance noticeable, and he conspicu- ously excelled all the young men of the locality where he resided in athletic sports. Personally he was hand- some; above the average height in stature, he was erect and graceful in carriage, his complexion florid, his features well formed, his eyes a clear bright blue in color, and his hair sandy and luxuriant. On sev- eral occasions he had exhibited extraordinary per- sonal courage, circumstances which, subsequently re- membered, increased the alarm of the Whigs when Fitzpatrick became an active, unscrupulous partisan of the cause of the king.

After serving the full term of his apprenticeship with Mr. Passmore, he worked as a journeyman at several forges in the county until the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, when he enlisted in the military service of the province. Subsequently, in the shaping of events, he became attached to the Flying Camp, and accompanied that organization to the city of New York. There, for some slight breach of military dis-

cipline, he was punished by flogging. The penalty imposed for his dereliction was more than he would bear, and deserting in the night-time, he swam the Hudson River, and made his way across New Jersey to Philadelphia, intending to proceed to his home in Chester County. In the latter city he was recognized, apprehended, and being absent without leave of his commanding officers, was lodged in the old Walnut Street prison, whence he was released on consenting to re-enter the Continental army, for at that time men were eagerly sought for to bear arms. The imprison- ment was resented by Fitzpatrick as a wrong that had been done him; therefore, at the first opportunity which presented itself, he again deserted and returned to his home in Chester County, where, for a time, he worked honestly at his trade and in odd jobs at har- vesting for the farmers in the neighborhood.

During the summer of 1777, Fitzpatrick, with sev- eral other men, was mowing in the field of his late master, John Passmore, in West Marlborough town- ship, when he was taken into custody as a deserter by two Continental soldiers, who had been sent from Wilmington to arrest him. Fitzpatrick having been captured by surprise, was compelled to resort to sub- terfuge to recover his liberty. By a plausible story respecting clothing that he would require, and a re- quest to be permitted to bid good-by to his aged mother, he prevailed upon the soldiers (who were in- structed to bring their captive to Wilmington) to ac- company him to his mother's residence, a tenant- house on Mr. Passmore's land. When they reached the dwelling, Fitzpatrick opened the door and quickly grasped his rifle from behind it, where he was ac- customed to keep that firearm, leveled it at the sol- diers, and swore that he would kill them if they did not leave immediately. They had learned suffi- ciently of the determination of character of their prisoner to believe that he would not hesitate an in- stant to make his threat good; hence, acting upon the better part of valor, they hastily retreated. Fitz- patrick, as soon as the men had fled, returned to the meadow where he had been at work, and renewed his labor as coolly as if no unusual incident had occurred to disturb the placidity of his every-day life.

The implacable hatred to the patriot cause which was engendered in the mind of Fitzpatrick as the re- sult of corporal punishment inflicted on him while with the Continental army in New York soon had the opportunity to vent itself upon the Whigs of Chester County, whom he believed had betrayed his whereabouts to the colonial military authorities. On the 25th of August, 1777, the British forces, eighteen thousand men, under Gen. Howe, landed at the head of the Elk, in the movement against Philadelphia which resulted in the capture of that city. Fitzpat- rick promptly repaired to the camp of the British army, was subsequently present at the battle of Bran- dywine, and accompanied the victorious enemy to Philadelphia, from which city he made many petty

167

CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS.

plundering excursions into Chester County, in which them for their money. From the boastful Capt. Mc- Gowan, one of the collectors, he took his watch, but | as the latter said it was a family relic, doubly valuable predatory expeditions he was accompanied by Mor- decai Dougherty, a Tory from the same neighborhood whence Fitzpatrick came. The latter had been ; to him on that account, he returned it promptly. reared in the family of Nathan Hayes, residing near Doe Run, and, as supposed, the two worthies had known each other in their youth. Atter Fitzpatrick joined the Englishi forces, he always spoke of himself as captain, and dubbed Dougherty with the title of lieutenant ; but whether either of them were ever commissioned as such by Sir William Howe is very doubtful.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 43

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150