Early American Crime

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Even though William Huggins and John Mansfield were both born into good families, their backgrounds couldn’t have been more different. Huggins was raised in New York, served in the army, and then worked the land as a farm laborer. Mansfield was born in the Province of Maine and traveled the sea as a sailor. But after the two met in Stockbridge, MA in the summer of 1782, the fates of this unlikely duo became one.

William Huggins

William Huggins was born in Fish-Kill, NY in 1759. He was educated and grew up in a religious household. At the age of 18, Huggins enlisted in the army for five months and then returned home to live with his parents. While in the army, Huggins gained a love of gambling, cheating, and drinking. His parents tried to reform him, but to no avail. After two years, Huggins became anxious to be out on his own again and left his parents to become a farm laborer.

His plan didn’t last long. Unhappy with the amount of work farming required, Huggins enlisted in the army again, and when he received his discharge after six months, he returned to his parents a prodigal son. Huggins’s latest engagement in the army was hard, and this time he resolved to reform his ways and listen to his parents. But once again he became unsatisfied with life at home and left his parents one last time. His father died soon after.

Huggins traveled to Stockbridge, MA and returned to farming. He fared well, but he spent money as fast as he earned it. Around this time, he met John Mansfield, who had traveled west seeking work as a laborer.

John Mansfield

John Mansfield was born in Maine in 1761 to parents with a good reputation and influence in the community. One of his relatives commanded a ship and took a liking to him, so at the age of twelve Mansfield went to sea. After two years, Mansfield returned to his parents, but he missed life on board the ship, so at the age of 15 he left his parents for good and became a sailor.

Mansfield prospered in this profession. He saved 400 dollars in cash and built up a wardrobe of clothes worth 300 dollars. In September 1781, Mansfield signed up for a voyage in Salem, MA and took all that he had in the world with him. A day after setting sail, an English man of war seized Mansfield’s ship and took it to Halifax. The English locked Mansfield away in a prison-ship in the harbor and seized all of his possessions, down to the buckles on his shoes.

Mansfield spent the long winter in the prison-ship, but in May he escaped. Lacking money or suitable clothing, Mansfield set out through enemy territory in bare feet. He stuck to the woods for fear that he would be captured and spent five days without food, except for a fowl that he caught and ate. He finally arrived at St. Mary’s Bay, where he was rescued by a Dutchman, and made his way back to Beverly, MA.

Mansfield was too prideful to return to his family and friends in destitution, so he headed into the country to make his fortune. He soon discovered that he could not earn as much money working as a farm laborer as he did as a sailor. He continued looking for work until he reached Stockbridge, which is where he met William Huggins. Since the two of them had little money to their names, they decided to leave Stockbridge and travel to Salem to go to sea together.

Their Journey

Without food, clothing, and other supplies, Huggins and Mansfield had to beg for food as they went along–until they arrived in Pelham, MA. That evening they knocked on the door of Mr. Gray, who graciously let them in. Seeing that Mr. Gray, his wife, and a few young children were the only ones at home, they tied up Mr. Gray and put him on his bed. They locked Mrs. Gray in the cellar and, at her request, provided her with clothes and a candle. With the family secured, Mansfield and Huggins ransacked the house. They took a watch and some clothing before leaving.

Huggins and Mansfield headed for Harvard, MA and went to the inn of Mr. Packhurst. They purchased some liquor, and while they sipped their drinks they spotted a watch hanging in the adjoining bedroom. They also observed how Mr. Packhurst took a box out of a nearby closet to make change for the drinks they bought. Upon leaving, the two decided they should return to steal the watch and the money, so they traveled two miles to another tavern, where they ate dinner and waited for nightfall.

Between midnight and one o’clock, Huggins and Mansfield returned to the Packhurst inn. Mansfield entered the house by lifting up a window and made his way to the bedroom. The room was so dark that the only way that Mansfield knew that Mr. Packhurst and his wife were nearby was by the sound of their breathing while they slept. Nonetheless, Mansfield located the cash box, pocketed the fifteen dollars in it, and grabbed the watch. He then escaped out of the house undetected.

Their Last Stop

The day after they committed the Packhurst burglary, Huggins and Mansfield were pursued and captured in Concord. They were questioned and held in the Concord Gaol for 13 days until they were transferred to Worcester, where they appeared before the Supreme Judicial Court. They were both found guilty of burglary and were sentenced to be executed on June 19, 1783.

The day before their execution, Huggins and Mansfield attempted to escape from the Worcester Gaol. They secured a crowbar by reaching through the grate of their prison door and used it to wrench the iron staples that held their chains to the floor. They then broke open the casing of the prison vault and after entering it attempted to break through the wall.

As soon as the prison-keeper awoke in the morning, he discovered the two prisoners missing and sounded the alarm. The guards suspected that the two had entered the vault, so the floor of the prison was ripped open, and the two prisoners were found lying next to the wall “in a miserable condition.”

While they were held in the Worcester Gaol, the two wrote their autobiographical Last Words. Huggins’s account offers few details about the two burglaries and leaves the impression that they were simple cases of breaking and entering. Only when readers get to Mansfield’s account does the truth emerge of how calculated and sinister their acts really were.

Their Last Words also notes that while their given names were indeed their true ones, the surnames under which they were tried and convicted–“Huggins” and “Mansfield”–were not. They each gave different last names in order to protect their families from the shame of their actions.

Sources

Last Words of William Huggins and John Mansfield. Worcester, MA: [Isaiah Thomas, 1783]. Database: Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans (1639-1800), Readex/Newsbank.

“Worcester, April 24.” Massachusetts Spy. April 24, 1783, Vol. XIII, Issue 626, p. 3. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.

“Worcester, June 19.” Massachusetts Spy. June 19, 1783, Vol. XIII, Issue 634, p. 3. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.

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Isaac Frasier was colonial America’s most prolific burglar. In his Brief Account of the Life, and Abominable Thefts, of the Notorious Isaac Frasier, he recorded over 50 acts of burglary and theft and stated that he committed many more that he could not specifically remember. He toured all over New England and into New York, covering hundreds of miles at a time and committing burglaries all along the way. Even though Frasier was an itinerant burglar, he tended to revisit the same towns over and over again and even stole from the same people two or three times.

The Windup

Isaac was born on February 9, 1740 in North Kingston, RI to John and Martha Frasier. At the age of five, his father died in the Siege of Louisbourg (1745) during King George’s War. Frasier’s mother was too poor to educate him properly, so he only learned the alphabet and how to write his name. In time, he even forgot how to do that, so at the end of his life he dictated his Brief Account and signed it with an X-mark.

Frasier’s first act of theft was taking some ears of corn from a neighbor’s field. When his mother found out, she punished him and forced him to return the corn to its owner. At the age of eight, she placed Frasier in an apprenticeship with a shoemaker, where he learned more about theft than about making shoes. His master mistreated him and fed him so little that Frasier was forced to steal food to satisfy his hunger. The mistress of the house also contributed to Frasier’s education in theft. She would regularly send him off to steal snuff from a nearby snuff mill to satisfy her desire and encouraged him to pocket trifles for her from neighboring businesses. Frasier left his apprenticeship at the age of 16 when the shoemaker’s business began to fail.

In 1756 Frasier followed in his father’s footsteps by joining the army. He participated in several campaigns in the French and Indian War until he settled in Newport, RI in February 1760. Not long afterward, Frasier stole a watch and between 600 and 700 pounds from a Mr. Gent. After being arrested on suspicion, Frasier confessed to carrying out the crime. As punishment he was whipped at the cart’s tail and sold to a privateer. Frasier participated in one successful voyage before slipping away to Boston. He enlisted in several more military campaigns until he contracted small pox while living in Norton, MA.

The Pitch

Frasier’s poor health put an end to his military career. He moved to Newtown, CT, where he worked for Hezekiah Booth as a laborer for five months and then hired himself out to surrounding farmers for another two years. Throughout this time Frasier was accused of numerous thefts and lost his reputation, so he moved on to Goshen, CT and then to Canaan.

While in Canaan, Frasier lived an honest life and built up his reputation as an industrious worker. He even bought some land, met a young woman, and got married. But Frasier grew impatient with the slow progress of putting together their house, so he traveled to Woodbury, where he broke into the shop of Trueman Hinman and took 70 to 80 pounds worth of goods. After Frasier was caught, he privately settled the matter with Hinman, but word of his crime made it back to Canaan. His wife now refused to associate with him and his friends abandoned him.

Strike One

Stripped of his family and friends, Frasier became destitute, but he resolved to find some way to become rich and went on a crime spree. His career in crime had an inauspicious start. Frasier was apprehended and thrown in jail three times–in Goshen, NY, Litchfield, CT, and Fairfield, CT–although in each case he escaped. Frasier was turning out to be a terrible burglar, but a prodigious escape artist.

Not easily deterred from his goal, Frasier broke into the shops of Mr. Tomlinson in Woodbury and of Joseph Hopkins, a goldsmith, in Waterbury, CT. He fled to Rhode Island, but he was picked up with the stolen goods in his possession and transported back to Connecticut. He appeared before the Superior Court in New Haven, where he was tried and convicted on his first offense for housebreaking. As punishment, Frasier was whipped, cropped in the ear, and branded.

Strike Two

After receiving his punishment in New Haven, Frasier traveled to Massachusetts, where he broke into shops and houses all over the colony. At one point, he found himself in the Cambridge gaol, where he was whipped. At another time, he was committed to the Worcester gaol and broke out with three other criminals.

Frasier returned to Waterbury, CT, found a key in the door of the same goldsmith shop that had led to his first major punishment, and used it to let himself in. He took three silver spoons, some buckles, and a few other items. He then returned to Newtown, where he entered a shop he had robbed twice before. This time, he did not find much cash or items of value. Disappointed with the results, he broke into yet another shop that same night, but was caught.

Frasier was placed in the Fairfield gaol to await his trial by the Superior Court, which found him guilty of burglary once again, sentenced him to the same punishment as he received in New Haven, and warned him that his next burglary offense would result in his execution. After receiving his punishment, Frasier was recommitted to the Fairfield gaol, but he broke out and headed back to Boston.

Foul Ball

In a replay of his earlier tour of Massachusetts, Frasier committed burglaries and thefts throughout the colony, was recommitted to both the Cambridge and Worcester gaols, and escaped from each. Frasier broke out of the Worcester gaol with “Arthur, a Negro Man”–who one year later was executed for rape–and another criminal. The three jailbirds proceeded to commit a string of petty thefts in various towns between Worcester and Boston before parting ways.

Frasier returned to Connecticut, where he committed four burglaries in one night, and then went to New York, where he claims he did not commit any thefts and possibly married another woman under a different name.

In March 1768, Frasier broke into the shop of Samuel Bradley in Fairfield, CT and set out to return to New York. He stole a horse from a pasture and then stopped at a house a few miles down the road to look for a saddle, but he was discovered by the family and thrown in the Fairfield gaol.

Frasier conspired to break out with a fellow prisoner named Hoit, who was being held for debt. Hoit was imprisoned in an adjoining room, but he delivered an ember to Frasier under the door that separated them. At about eleven or twelve at night, Frasier used the ember to light a fire in an attempt to burn a hole in the side of the jail. The fire quickly grew out of control. Frasier and Hoit would have suffocated from the smoke were it not for one of the jailer’s family members hearing their cries and raising an alarm.

The fire continued to burn so high and furious that it moved from the jail to the adjoining court house, and the two buildings, along with the jailer’s apartment, burned to the ground. Before the jail was completely destroyed by Frasier, it had been newly built and was considered the strongest place of confinement in the colony. The two prisoners were transferred to the jail in New Haven.

The Superior Court sentenced Frasier to be hanged for the Bradley burglary and for his disastrous escape attempt. The judges, loathe to put someone to death, delayed the warrant of execution by 4 months. Frasier took full advantage of the delay. On July 28, 1768 he acquired a small saw and knife, and with them he broke out of his irons and escaped.

Stephen Munson, the New Haven jailer, offered a twenty dollar reward for his capture and return, and a newspaper carrying the story described Frasier as being “of middling Stature, black Hair, pitted with the Small-Pox, has both his Ears cropt, and branded twice on his Forehead with the Capital Letter B, his Fore-Teeth gone, aged about Twenty-Eight Years; had on a brown Great Coat, a Pair of old Homespun Breeches, and a Check Shirt.”

After escaping from the New Haven gaol, Frasier made his way to Boston. While on the road he met an Irish girl, and the two traveled together until they came to a tavern near Roxbury where they got a room together. The girl somehow gained possession of Frasier’s money, but when he tried to get it back, she was protected by the landlord and several other ruffians staying in the house. In the end, she gave 19 of the 40 dollars back to him after he pleaded his case with her.

The Travels of Isaac Frasier throughout New England and New York.

Strike Three

The watering trough and the flagstone at the base are all that remains of Beaman's Tavern, which is now under water.

Frasier made his way to Beaman’s Tavern in Shrewsbury, MA, where he stayed two days and then left in the night with a waistcoat, a watch, a silver cup, and 14 pounds. He was captured, though, and held in the Worcester gaol. Frasier settled the affair privately with Beaman, but he was given ten stripes for another theft he had committed. While he was being held in custody, word of his involvement in the affair in New Haven reached Worcester, and he was transferred back to Connecticut to face his execution. Upon his arrival, the Superior Court in Fairfield ordered Frasier to be loaded with chains and the jail to be guarded every night until his execution.

A large number of people showed up in Fairfield on September 7, 1768 to witness Frasier’s execution. He showed little concern throughout the proceedings, which made people think that he held hope that he would at some point receive a reprieve. But as his final hour drew near and it became increasingly apparent that there was no escape, he began to display anxiety over his fate.

Frasier did not give a public speech, but he requested Noah Hobart to give a sermon at his execution. Hobart ended his address to Frasier and the spectators in dramatic fashion:

You are now on the very brink of an awful, and endless eternity; in an hour or two you must enter on the unseen world; and your everlasting condition will be fixed and determined. This is the last sermon you are to hear,—these are the last offers of pardon and salvation through CHRIST that are ever to be made you. O! accept them immediately, for your eternal happiness depends upon it.

At the time of his execution, Frasier did not know if his mother was still living in Rhode Island or was dead. He attributed the start of his thieving ways to his lack of education and his treatment while an apprentice. In his Brief Account, he beseeched parents to educate their children and to be careful when employing others to educate them. He also advised masters to instill principles of virtue and religion into their charges, since they were essentially filling the shoes of their parents.

Sources

• Arthur, A Negro Man. The Life, and Dying Speech of Arthur, a Negro Man; Who Was Executed at Worcester, October 20, 1768. For a Rape Committed on the Body of One Deborah Metcalfe. Boston: 1768. Database: Documenting the American South, http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/arthur/arthur.html.
• Cohen, Daniel A. Pillars of Salt, Monuments of Grace: New England Crime Literature And the Origins of American Popular Culture, 1674-1860. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2006.
• Connecticut Journal. August 12, 1768, issue 43, p. 4. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.
• Frasier, Isaac. A Brief Account of the Life, and Abominable Thefts, of the Notorious Isaac Frasier. New-London, [CT]: Timothy Green, [1768]. Database: Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans (1639-1800), Readex/Newsbank.
• “Hartford, August 1.” Boston News-Letter. August 4, 1768, issue 298, p. 2. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.
• Hobart, Noah. Excessive Wickedness, the Way to an Untimely Death. A Sermon. New Haven, [CT]: Thomas and Samuel Green, [1768]. Database: Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans (1639-1800), Readex/Newsbank.
• “New-Haven, April 8.” Connecticut Journal. April 8, 1768, issue 25, p. 2. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.
• “New-Haven, April 29.” Connecticut Journal. April 29, 1768, issue 28, p. 4. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.
• “New-Haven, July 29.” Connecticut Journal. July 29, 1768, issue 41, p. 2. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.
• “New Haven, August 26.” Connecticut Courant. August 29, 1768, p. 3. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.
• “New Haven, Sept. 9.” Connecticut Journal. September 9, 1768, issue 47, p. 4. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.