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Crime Poems: Richard Wilson’s Burglary

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

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Late Sunday night on August 14, 2011, four burglars entered a Big Ed’s Restaurant in South Brunswick, NJ. Their cars parked outside the restaurant drew the attention of the police, and when the officers arrived they discovered an open door that led to the basement of the building. When they started to investigate, three of the burglars attempted to run away. Two of the men were captured, including a man named Richard Wilson, but one of them remained at large.

After the police secured the two suspects, they returned to the restaurant to survey the area. They found a considerable amount of copper piping that the burglars had cut out from the building and had piled up in preparation to load into their vehicles. As the officers continued to investigate the scene, they began to hear loud snoring noises coming from the top of a large refrigeration unit. When they looked up, they discovered another burglar from the group, who had fallen asleep after he went into hiding when the police first arrived.

(You can read the full story and see a picture of Richard Wilson and the other two suspects on the television affiliate website, New York NBC: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Snoring-Burglar-Tips-Off-Cops-127754393.html)

Almost three hundred years before Richard Wilson and his snoring companion broke into the Big Ed’s Restaurant, another Richard Wilson was caught committing burglary in Boston. While news of Richard Wilson’s burglary in New Jersey was reported on many websites–and his story may have even been broadcast on local television stations–only a few newspapers carried brief reports about the burglary committed by Boston’s Richard Wilson.

From these accounts, all that we know about the earlier Wilson and his burglary is that he was Irish and that he tried to steal “sundry Goods from Abiel Walley, Esq.” sometime in or around August, 1732. The Superiour Court sentenced him to death for his crime that month, and he was executed at Boston Neck on October 19, 1732.

The American Weekly Mercury reported that Wilson behaved penitently at the gallows. Before his execution, Wilson also confessed his guilt, and “advis’d the Spectators to take Warning by his untimely Death, and particularly cautioned against evil Company, and the Sins of prophane Swearing and Drunkenness, which had led him on to commit the Sin for which he was to die.” And finally, he “beg’d his Wife and Children might not be abus’d, for they were innocent.”

But along with these few reports, news of Wilson’s burglary and subsequent execution also appeared in one more media source: a poem in broadside form that was “Printed and Sold at the Heart and Crown in Cornhill” (a location that is now occupied by City Hall Plaza in Boston). The poem does not fill in much more of the details of Richard Wilson’s burglary, but at the time it did help to disseminate news of his crime and punishment.

Detail from "The Wages of Sin" (American Memory, Library of Congress)


The Wages of Sin;
OR,
Robbery justly Rewarded:
A
POEM;
Occasioned by the untimely Death of
Richard Wilson,
Who was Executed on Boston Neck, for Burglary,
On Thursday the 19th of October, 1732.

THis Day from Goal must Wilson be
conveyed in a Cart,
By Guards unto the Gallows-Tree,
to die as his Desert.

For being wicked overmuch,
there for a wicked Crime,
Must take his fatal Lot with such
as die before their Time.

No human Pardon he can get,
by Intercession made;
But flee he must unto the Pit,
and by no Man be stay’d.

The fatal sad and woful Case,
this awful Sight reveals,
Of one whom Vengeance in his Chase
hath taken by the Heels.

Here is a Caution in the Sight,
to wicked Thieves, and they
Who break and rob the House by Night,
which they have mark’d by Day.

We see the Fall of one that cast
his Lot in by Decree,
With those that wait the Twilight past,
that so no Eye may see.

That wicked Action which he thought
by Night would be conceal’d,
By Providence is strangely brought
thus far to be reveal’d.

By which we see apparantly,
there is no Places sure,
Where Workers of Iniquity
can hide themselves secure.

There is no Man by human Wit,
can keep his Sin conceal’d
When he that made him thinks it fit
the same should be reveal’d.

He that gets Wealth in wicked Ways,
and slights the Righteous Rule,
Doth leave them here amidst his Days,
and dies at last a Fool.

Here we may see what Men for Stealth
and Robbing must endure;
And what the Gain of ill got Wealth
will in the End procure.

Here is a Caution high and low,
for Warning here you have,
From one whose Feet are now brought to
the Borders of the Grave.

He does bewail his mis-spent Life,
and for his Sins doth grieve,
Which is an hopeful Sign that he
a Pardon will receive.

He says, since he forsook his God,
God has forsaken him,
And left him to this wicked Crime,
that has his Ruine been.

He calls his Drunkenness a Sin,
with his neglect of Prayer,
The leading Crimes have brought him in
to this untimely Snare.

All you that practice cursed Theft,
take Warning great and small,
Lest you go on, and so are left
to such untimely fall.

Repent of all your Errors past,
and eye the Stroke of Fate,
Lest you thus come to Shame at last,
and mourn when ’tis too late.

Remember what the Scripture saith,
a little honest Wealth,
Is better far than mighty Store
of Riches got by Stealth.

This Warning soundeth in our Ear,
this Sentence loud and Shrill,
O Congregation, hear and fear,
and do no more so ill.

FINIS.

"The Wages of Sin" (American Memory, Library of Congress)

Sources

American Weekly Mercury, Thursday, November 2, 1732, issue 670, p. 4. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.

“Boston, Aug. 21.” Weekly Rehearsal, August 21, 1732, issue 48, p. 2. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.

“Boston, Aug. 31.” Boston News-Letter, Thursday, August 31, 1732, issue 1492, p. 2. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.

“Snoring Burglar Tips Off Cops to Hiding Spot.” Website: NBC New York (http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Snoring-Burglar-Tips-Off-Cops-127754393.html). Accessed on March 26, 2012.

The Wages of Sin; Or, Robbery Justly Rewarded: A Poem; Occasioned by the Untimely Death of Richard Wilson. Boston: Printed and Sold at the Heart and Crown in Cornhill, [1732]. Database: American Memory, Library of Congress: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbpe.03402200.

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Early American Criminals: Elizabeth Wilson’s Secret

Wednesday, March 21, 2012
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Near the beginning of the year in 1785, a traveler paused while walking through the countryside near Chester, PA to watch as his dog began to sniff and scratch among some brush. The man’s curiosity soon turned to horror when his faithful companion emerged from its feverish digging with the separated head of an infant in its mouth. The man rushed to the spot and uncovered the bodies of twin infants who had been killed and buried there not too long ago.

The murderer of the infants was obvious. Elizabeth Wilson had recently given birth to twins out of wedlock, and eight weeks before the grisly discovery she had left for Philadelphia with the two babies in her arms. The Independent Gazeteer of Philadelphia additionally reported that Wilson had been seen nursing the children at that same spot back around the time when the murders took place.

Wilson was arrested and was eventually brought to trial on October 17, where she was easily found guilty and received a sentence of death. But throughout all of this time, Wilson maintained her innocence in the murders.

“The subtilty of Satan”

Wilson was born in East Marlborough, PA in Chester County to “honest, sober parents.” She lived a religious life up until the age of 21, when “thro’ the subtilty of Satan and corruptions of nature was led away to the soul-destroying sin of fornication.” The power of Satan must have been strong, because under his influence she had three unlawful children.

At some point around 1784, Wilson left her hometown and secured a room in Philadelphia at the corner of Chestnut and Third Street. When she met Joseph Deshong that same year, she believed she had finally found her man, and Deshong’s single status and his repeated promises to marry her made her comfortable enough to “consent to his unlawful embraces.”

Wilson became pregnant. When she presented her situation to Deshong, his talk of marriage suddenly ended. He insisted that Wilson stay in town and assured her that he would take care of all her expenses. Wilson moved to a room on Union Street and provided for herself over the next several weeks, because Deshong never once showed up to visit her. As the time of the birth drew near, Wilson became desperate for money. She searched all over Philadelphia for Deshong only to realize that he had completely abandoned her.

No longer able to support herself in Philadelphia, Wilson moved back to Chester County, rented a room, and delivered twins.

The Secret

Even though Wilson maintained her innocence in the murders of the infants, she kept the story of what really happened a secret throughout her trial. As she waited in prison for her execution, she asked her younger brother to visit her. When he arrived, she attempted to tell him the real story of what had happened in the woods, but he refused to hear her confession until he could gather some other witnesses. Once Wilson’s brother and the people he gathered heard his sister’s story, he rushed to Philadelphia to appear before the Supreme Executive Council and plead her case.

While her brother was in Philadelphia, Wilson met with two Baptist ministers at ten o’clock in the evening on December 6, 1785 to prepare for her execution the following day. In their presence, she repeated what she told her brother.

Joseph Deshong, not surprisingly, was not who he said he was. In fact, later investigation showed that the name he used was not even his proper name. Wilson told the ministers that after she delivered her twins in Chester County, she went to Philadelphia to track down her “deceiver.” When she found him and informed him that she had delivered twins, he exclaimed, “the Devil! you have?” Wilson threatened to seek legal recourse if Deshong did not help her. But he said that there was no need to bring in the Law and agreed with Wilson’s plan to give up one of the infants and keep the other on condition that Deshong would provide the two with financial support.

Deshong gave Wilson enough money to cover her travel expenses back to Chester County and asked her to return to Philadelphia with the twins on an appointed day so that he could fulfill his promise to her. When that day arrived, Wilson unexpectedly met Deshong a couple miles down the road from where she was living. He asked her to follow him into the woods, which she did, and she sat down on a rotten log with her two children in her arms.

Deshong took hold of one of the infants “to see if it look’d like him.” He asked Wilson what she planned to do with the children, and she repeated their previous agreement to give one away and keep the other with his financial support. Deshong placed the child in his hands on the ground. He took the other from Wilson’s arms, placed it next to its sibling, and declared, “I have no money for you, nor your bastards neither.” He then ordered Wilson to kill the infants.

Wilson begged Deshong to allow her to take the babies away with her, but he pulled out a pistol and told her to be silent. He then “wickedly stamped on their dear little breasts, upon which the dear infants gave a faint scream and expir’d.” Continuing to point the gun at Wilson, he forced her to vow never to reveal what had just happened. He carved out a hole in the ground with his feet, placed the bodies of the children in it, covered them up with leaves and some brush, and took Wilson to Philadelphia.

Respite

The ministers were dumbfounded upon hearing Wilson’s confession. They hastily prepared to make the trip to Philadelphia to present what they just heard to the Council, even though the hour had just turned past two o’clock in the morning. But when they learned that Wilson’s brother would be returning from a similar mission in the morning, they thought it best to wait for him to appear.

The ministers wrote up the story that Wilson told them, and an hour later Wilson’s brother arrived armed with a respite that delayed Wilson’s execution until January 3rd.

The month went by quickly, and once again Wilson faced execution. When she heard that no respite had arrived to save her this time, she took the news with composure. But upon learning that her brother had once again traveled to Philadelphia on her behalf, she expressed concern for his aching heart and fell into a fit.

At the place of execution, Wilson requested that the sheriff read her confession to the crowd, and she afterward confirmed its veracity as a dying woman. Her brother had yet to arrive from Philadelphia to witness her end, so the authorities dragged out the ceremonies as long as they could. Finally, they could wait no longer. The sheriff asked Wilson once more about the truth of her confession, and through the hood that covered her face she said, “I do, for it is the truth.” And with these final words, Wilson’s life ended at the age of 27.

Scene of Elizabeth Wilson's execution, from "The Pennsylvania Hermit" ca. 1838. Note the arrival of Wilson's brother in the background.

Twenty-three minutes after Wilson was executed, her brother arrived on the scene in haste from Philadelphia. His trip met with “unexpected and unavoidable hindrances on the road,” and when he saw his sister dangling from her neck, he “beheld her motionless, and sunk in death.” In his possession was another letter and reprise from the Honorable President and the Council to delay his sister’s execution.

The brother took Wilson’s body home, and some vain efforts were made to restore her to life. A large crowd of people showed up to pay their respects when she was buried honorably the next day.

Legend has it that after the traumatic execution, Wilson’s brother withdrew from society. He lived in a cave for the rest of his life and became known as the “Pennsylvania Hermit.”

Sources

  • “1786: Elizabeth Wilson, Her Reprieve Too Late.” ExecutedToday.com, January 3, 2011 (http://www.executedtoday.com/2011/01/03/1786-elizabeth-wilson-her-reprieve-too-late/”).
  • A Faithful Narrative of Elizabeth Wilson. Hudson, NY: Ashbel Stoddard, 1786. Database: America’s Historical Imprints, Readex/Newsbank.
  • “A Letter from Charleston, of December 14.” Independent Gazetteer, January 8, 1785, issue 167, p. 2. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.
  • “On Monday the 9th Instant.” Independent Gazetteer, January 14, 1786, vol. V, issue 220, p. 3. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.
  • “Philadelphia, March 15.” Providence Gazette, April 1, 1786, vol. XXIII, issue 1161, p. 2. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.
  • Williams, Daniel E. Pillars of Salt: An Anthology of Early American Criminal Narratives. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1993.
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Crime Poems: Elizabeth Smith and John Sennet

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

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On March 10, 1772, Elizabeth Smith appeared before the Massachusetts Superior Court and for a second time was found guilty of theft. Her first conviction came almost a year ago, when she received 20 lashes as punishment for the same crime. This time, Smith was sentenced to sit on the gallows for one hour with a halter around her neck and to be whipped 20 times once again. Her conviction would have been unremarkable had it not been for another criminal, John Sennet, who received a similar sentence during that same court session.

Sennet was found guilty of bestiality for attempting to perform sodomy with a mare. The Boston Gazette reported that he committed the “Unnatural crime” on Saturday, August 31, 1771 on the “Boston Common in the Face of the Sun, in it’s Meridian Lustre, and in the sight of several People.” Not surprisingly, Sennet was reported as being drunk at the time. The newspaper article went on to say that he had a wife and children.

Boston Common - 1768 (NYPL Digital Gallery)

Sennet was sentenced to stand next to Smith at the gallows with a halter around his neck and to receive 39 lashes. But his sentence was mild when compared to the one handed down to the mare, who was immediately put to death by its owner after the event took place.

Smith’s and Sennet’s sentences were carried out on Wednesday, May 13, 1772, and the Boston News-Letter reported that the two were “severely pelted by the Populace.” Their punishment was clearly an attempt to shame them and to hold their example up as a warning to others. But at least one person in the crowd did not get the message.

John Bryan, who also went by the name John Baker, meandered in front of the gallows while the spectacle was taking place selling handkerchiefs. People soon suspected that the goods he was peddling were stolen, because only the day before, Bryan was let out of jail after receiving a whipping for theft. When the authorities closed in on Bryan to arrest him, he pretended to faint. But the tactic did nothing to help his cause, because he was simply placed on a board and carried off to jail on the shoulders of several men.

After Smith and Sennet served their hour on the gallows and received their whippings, Smith, who lacked the funds to compensate the owners for the goods she had stolen, was sold into servitude.

One enterprising author and publisher took advantage of the attention generated by the mock hangings and printed in poetic form a dialogue between Smith and Sennet as they stood at the gallows. Judging by its content, the broadside was probably available for sale at the event, along with Bryan’s stolen handkerchiefs.

A DIALOGUE
BETWEEN
ELIZABETH SMITH, and JOHN SENNET,

Who were convicted before his Majesty’s Superior Court, Elizabeth Smith for Thievery, and John Sennet for Beastiality! and each sentenced to Set upon the Gallows for the space of one Hour, with a Rope round their Necks Elizabeth Smith to receive Twenty Stripes upon her naked Back, And John Sennet, Thirty-nine.

Smith. SEE here the knave expos’d to publick view,
And for his wickedness receives his due:
While all the crowd behold him with disdain,
And laugh to see him thus expos’d to shame.

Sennet. No doubt you thought your crimes would lie
Forgot and hidden from the partial eye;
But now you know that “Ropes and Lines can see
Crimes of a small, though not a large degree.

Sennet. Though Murd’rers pass with crimes of deeper hue,
Thieves and house-breakers always have their due.
Cushing* has eas’d the former from their fate,
But vengeance always does on Villains wait.

Smith. You know your fault is far more base than mine,
The most unnatural of any crime;
A deed of Beastiality you know
Is what exposes you to publick show.

The laws divine and human you have broke,
And took upon yourself a heavy yoke:
For know, O man! The Lord your maker faith,
He that lies with a Beast shall suffer death.

Sennet. O dare you lift your head to sensure me,
You know your crime is of the first degree;
Convicted twice of theft, you have your due,
If all the croud spare me to punish you.

A thief, the most detested of mankind,
How can you e’er a moment’s comfort find?
Your guilt will follow you where e’er you go,
And turn your joy into most deadly woe.

Smith. You know, O Sennet, you deserve to die,
According to the laws of God most high:
You have expos’d your wife and children dear,
To sorrow, to disgrace, and black despair.

Sennet. You cease your talk, think on one scene that’s past,
Behold your husband struggle out his last!
Frail wicked breath, when drove unto despair,
The Gallows eased him of all his care.

Both as one. Now both of us not only set a show,
But we must hugg the post that stands below;
Let therefore young and old be warn’d by us,
Lest when it is too [late, for crime’s] a curse.

* A reference to William Cushing, who replaced his father, John Cushing, on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1771.

Note: The words in brackets in the last line are cut off in the extant copy and represent my best guess as to what they were.

Sources

  • “Boston, April 1, 1771.” Boston Gazette, April 1, 1771, issue 834, p. 3. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.
  • “Boston, March 16.” Boston Gazette, March 16, 1772, issue 884, p. 3. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.
  • “Boston, May 14.” Boston News-Letter, May 14, 1772, issue 3480, p. 2. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.
  • “Boston, September 1.” Boston Gazette, September 2, 1771, issue 856, p. 4. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/Newsbank.
  • A Dialogue between Elizabeth Smith, and John Sennet. [Boston, 1772?]. Database: America’s Historical Imprints, Readex/Newsbank.
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Early American Criminals: Rachel Wall’s Fall From Grace

Wednesday, March 7, 2012
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Rachel Wall knew exactly what to say and how to say it in her Life, Last Words and Dying CONFESSION, where she eloquently appealed to God and her “dear Savior and Redeemer JESUS CHRIST, who is able to save all those that, by faith, come unto him, not refusing even the chief of sinners.” After all, her parents had instructed her “in the fundamental principles of the Christian Religion” and properly taught her “the fear of God.”

Wall was born in Carlisle, PA in 1760. Her father was a prosperous farmer “of a serious and devout turn of mind.” Every day, he gathered his family together in the morning and in the evening for prayer, and on every Sabbath he spent the night quizzing his children on the Holy Scriptures and other pious books that he read out loud to them.

Wall found this environment to be oppressive and ran away at a young age. She returned a prodigal daughter and stayed with her family for two more years. But she left her family once again when she eloped with George Wall and never saw them again.

“An Entire Stranger”

Wall followed her new husband to Philadelphia. After a short stay, they moved to New York City for three months, and then relocated to Boston. Soon afterward, Wall’s husband ran off and left her “an entire stranger” in the new city. Wall had little choice but to become a servant. She later said she “lived very contented” in this position–that is, until her husband returned and convinced her to follow him once again and “take to bad company.”

At one point, Wall’s husband landed in prison for theft. Wall baked him a loaf of bread that contained a saw, a file, and some other tools. The jailor unsuspectingly passed the bread to Wall’s husband, who then used the hidden tools to fashion an escape. Unfortunately for him, he was caught before he could carry out the couple’s plan to free him.

Not long after this episode, Wall’s husband abandoned her, and she never saw or heard of him again.

Too Numerous to Mention

Even though Wall was no longer under her husband’s influence, her fall from grace at this point was complete. She later admitted that during the period immediately after her husband left her, she was “guilty of a great many crimes, such as Sabbath-breaking, stealing, lying, disobedience to parents, and almost every other sin a person could commit, except murder.” Indeed the crimes she committed were so numerous that she could not mention them all in her confession.

In 1785, Wall pled guilty to stealing goods from attorney Perez Morton. As punishment, Wall was ordered to pay triple damages of eighteen pounds, receive fifteen lashes, and pay court costs. Unable to pay the fines, Wall was sold into servitude for three years to help cover the amount.

Through the course of her servitude, Wall conducted “nocturnal excursions” where she crept aboard ships moored in the Boston harbor, entered the cabins of the officers, and plundered their possessions while they slept. She would then spend the money she acquired “in company as lewd and wicked as myself.” Many years later, these acts of theft may have had a hand in building her modern-day reputation of being a female pirate, even though no evidence is ever cited to verify the fact.

In 1788, exactly three years after she was sold into servitude, Wall was caught attempting to rob the house of Lemuel Ludden along with two other accomplices. Wall pled guilty to housebreaking and theft and was sentenced to pay Ludden 24 pounds, sit on the gallows for one hour with a noose tied around her neck, and be whipped. Wall was once again offered up for sale as a servant, since she was unable to pay the fine.

Herald of Freedom - September 22, 1788 (From Early American Newspapers, an Archive of Americana Collection, published by Readex (Readex.com), a division of NewsBank, inc.)

In her Dying CONFESSION, Wall also admitted that at one point she allowed Dorothy Horn, who was disabled and lived in the Boston Alms-House, to be convicted for a theft that Wall had carried out at a house in Essex Street. As a result, Horn “suffered a long imprisonment, was set on the gallows one hour, and whipped five stripes therefor.”

Highway Robbery

On March 27, 1789, seventeen-year-old Margaret Bender was walking down a Boston street to a friend’s house when she felt someone try to grab the bonnet off her head. But the bonnet held tight, so the person hit Bender in the face and stuffed a handkerchief in her mouth. Upon hearing the commotion, Thomas Dawes and Charles Berry rushed to help the girl. While Dawes attended to Bender’s bleeding mouth, Berry ran after the attacker and eventually seized Wall. He brought her back to Bender, who said, “She appeared to be the same person.”

Wall now made her third appearance in front of the Supreme Judicial Court, although unlike the other times, she pled not guilty. Nine people testified that they witnessed Wall’s capture and saw Bender’s bloody mouth, but only Berry positively identified Wall as the attacker who was running away from the scene. Wall’s court-appointed attorneys argued that Wall was not holding the bonnet when she was taken, so the charge against her should at least be reduced to attempted robbery, a noncapital crime. But the jury rejected the lawyers’ arguments and found Wall guilty of highway robbery. In one of his last judgments before becoming a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, William Cushing sentenced Wall to hang by the neck until dead.

On October 7, 1789, the night before her execution, Wall dictated her Dying CONFESSION to Joseph Otis, the Deputy-Goaler, and to William Crombie, his assistant. In it, she continued to maintain her innocence in the robbery and said that she had never seen Miss Bender and that the witnesses who testified against her were “certainly mistaken.”

Massachusetts Centinel - October 10, 1789 (From Early American Newspapers, an Archive of Americana Collection, published by Readex (Readex.com), a division of NewsBank, inc.)

Wall was hanged the following day in the Boston Common. She was the last woman executed in Massachusetts, and along with the two other criminals next to her, the three were the last to be executed in Massachusetts for highway robbery.

Sources

“Boston, Sept. 19.” Pennsylvania Packet, September 28, 1785, issue 2074, p. 2. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/ Newsbank.

“Boston, September 22.” Herald of Freedom (Boston), September 22, 1788, vol. I, issue 3, p. 3. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/ Newsbank.

Massachusetts Centinel. September 12, 1789, vol. XI, issue 52, p. 205. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/ Newsbank.

Massachusetts Centinel. October 10, 1789, vol. XII, issue 8, p. 31. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Readex/ Newsbank.

O’Toole, James M. and David Quigley. Boston’s Histories: Essays in Honor of Thomas H. O’Connor. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004.

Wall, Rachel. Life, Last Words and Dying CONFESSION. [Boston, 1789]. Database: America’s Historical Imprints, Readex/Newsbank.

Williams, Daniel E. Pillars of Salt: An Anthology of Early American Criminal Narratives. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1993.

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Jeremiah Swift, Convict and Child Murderer by Robert Barnes

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Note: This week Early American Crime welcomes historian and genealogist Robert Barnes as a guest author. Even though Robert’s guest post is a first for him on this website, it is not the first time his work has appeared in this space, since his book, Colonial Families of Maryland: Bound and Determined to Succeed, served as an important source for my research on convict transportation to America. Robert has also written and compiled a whole series of genealogy books on Maryland marriages, deaths, and biographical data.

On 20 February 1749, Miles Man, Clerk of the City of London, certified that Jeremiah Swift and a host of other convicts had been sentenced to be transported to “his Majesty’s Colonies and Plantations in America” for the term of seven years. He also certified that Swift and the other convicts had been “Conveyed Transferred and made over unto Andrew Ried [sic] and James Armour of London Merchants and their Assigns or the Assigns of one of them for the Term afs.d in order to their being Transported.”

In April 1750, Swift and 130 other felons were shipped on board the Tryal, with Captain John Johnstoun in command. The ship arrived in Annapolis in June 1750, and it was the Tryal’s first voyage carrying convicts to Maryland and Virginia. The last voyage made by a ship of that name was made in April 1769.

In Maryland

Swift arrived in Maryland and found himself working on the plantation of John Hatherly, a well established member of the community. A native of Elk Ridge Hundred in Anne Arundel County, Hatherly was the son of John and Elizabeth (Ewings) Hatherly. He was married and had seven children, and he had once joined his neighbors in sending a petition to the Governor and Assembly asking that Elk Ridge be created a town. He had also been granted patents on several tracts of land totaling 500 acres.

Maryland tobacco field (Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

On 14 March 1747 while John Hatherly and his wife were at a funeral, Swift was at work in the fields with two of his master’s children, John and Benjamin, one aged twelve and the other aged ten. John asked Swift if he could make a thousand hills of tobacco before the end of the day. Swift replied that he would let the boy know before night, and then without any provocation struck him on the head with his hoe and knocked him down. Swift repeated his blows until he killed the child.

Benjamin tried to run away, but he was stopped by a fence. Swift caught up to him, knocked him down, and left him for dead. Benjamin later recovered from the attack, but he had a dent on the back of his head as big as a saucer. Jonas Green, who had taken over the defunct Maryland Gazette back in January of 1745, later reported in his newspaper that the boy healed up so well that he was able to appear in court to give evidence.

After leaving Benjamin at the fence, Swift went into his master’s house and repeatedly stabbed Elizabeth Hatherly, the fourteen-year-old daughter. Another child, Benedict Leonard Hatherly, aged 9, came to the aid of his sister and grabbed the knife, which was dull. In the process, the boy was cut in the hand in several places. Swift then gave Elizabeth several blows on the head with an axe, which eventually killed her, but the girl was amazingly still alive when her parents returned home.

Swift ran off and traveled a few miles before he was captured and secured in jail. He was arraigned on one indictment only, which was for the murder of Elizabeth. At his trial, Swift pleaded not guilty, but the evidence against him was so full and explicit that the jury did not spend more than two minutes before bringing in a guilty verdict.

Sentencing and Execution

On Friday, April 26, 1751, Governor Samuel Ogle and his Council met and ruled the following:

His Excellency having communicated to this Board a Report made to him by the Justices of the Provincial Court of their having passed Sentence of Death at April Term on a Certain Jeremiah Swift a Convict Servant of a certain John Hatherly of Ann Arundel County for the barbarous Murder of Elizabeth Hatherly Daughter to the said John, and that It appeared to the said Court the Murder was perpetrated with all imaginable Circumstances of Horror and Cruelty; It is ordered by his Excellency with the Advice of this Board that the said Jeremiah Swift be hung in Chains as near as may be to the Place where the Fact was committed.

When the day came for Swift’s execution, he was carried from the jail in Annapolis to Elk Ridge to be executed and then hanged in chains. Jonas Green reported that Swift had been born at Braintree in Essex to “credible” parents. He was about 21 years of age and had been well educated. Before his execution, Swift expressed concern for the discredit he had brought to his parents, and he was afraid that the news of his unhappy end would kill his mother. Green went on to report that Swift was shocked to see the irons in which his body was to be hanged fastened to the back of a horse as he headed to the place of execution.

After these events, John Hatherly continued to be an active member of the community. He was called on to appraise several estates of neighbors who had died. In 1778, he took the Oath of Fidelity to the State of Maryland and was called on to give testimony in several cases where the boundaries of properties were in question. In one case in 1782, the “land commissioners” kept the investigation open because they were waiting to hear Hatherly’s testimony, and they had heard that he had been ill. Word soon came that Hatherly had died.

In his will, Hatherly left his property to his surviving children. One of his descendants was a Captain in the War of 1812, and another one became Examiner General of the Western Shore of Maryland.

Notes

I am indebted to Justin Demski of the Maryland State Archives for bringing the “Dead Warrants” to my attention.

Swift’s order to be transported is from the Archives of Maryland Online: Volume 701 – Provincial Court Land Records, 1749-1756: Accessed at: http://aomol.net/000001/000701/html/am701–65.html.

Information on the Tryal is from Peter Wilson Coldham’s The King’s Passengers to Maryland and Virginia (Westminster: Family Line Publications, 1997). Coldham cites PRO: TI/340/20 as his source.

Data on John Hatherly was taken from Anne Arundel County land, court, probate, and church records, and from the Black Books in the Calendar of Maryland State Papers series.

The meeting of the Governor and Council is from the Archives of Maryland 28: 507. Accessed at: http://aomol.net/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000028/html/am28–507.html.

For the account of Swift’s crime and execution, see issues of the Annapolis Maryland Gazette for 10, 17, and 24 April 1751.

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