Legal records provide more vivid portrayals of some of our ancestors, both notorious and innocent.
Wingfields
Thomas Garnett (1585-aft.1625)
master servant dispute
Thomas Garnett arrived in Jamestowne, Virginia aboard the Swan in 1610, and later married Elizabeth (Powell) who arrived in 1618 aboard the Neptune. They lived in Elizabeth City, later part of NC.
After the "starving time" in the winter of 1609-1610, the first settlers were discouraged and ready to abandon the enterprise. However, the arrival of Lord Delaware with new colonists and fresh supplies convinced them to remain. Thomas Garnett was a part of this company. Elizabeth's arrival in 1618 made her one of the first women in the colony. A year later, a boat full of women destined to be wives for the settlers was brought to Virginia.
In the records of the first sessions of the elected assembly at Jamestown Thomas Garnett's conflict with his master, Capt. William Powell is recorded on August 3, 1619. One wonders if Elizabeth is the widow cited in the action below.
This done, Captaine William Powell presented to the Assembly a pettiton to have justice against a lewde and trecherous servante of his who by false accusation given up in writing to the Governor sought not only to gett him deposed from his government of James citty and utterly (according to the Proclamation) to be degraded from the place and title of a Captaine, but to take his life from him also. And so out of the said Petition sprang this order following:
Captaine William Powell presented a pettition to the generall Assembly against one Thomas Garnett, a servant of his, not onely for extreame neglect of his business to the great loss and prejudice of the said Captaine, and for openly and impudently abusing his house, in sight both of Master and Mistress, through wantonnes with a woman servant of theirs, a widdowe, but also for falsely accusing him to the Governor both of Drunkennes and Thefte, and besides for bringing all his fellow servants to testifie on his side, wherein they justly failed him. It was thought fitt by the general assembly (the Governour himself giving sentence), that he should stand fower dayes with his eares nayled to the Pillory, viz: Wednesday, Aug. 4th, and so likewise Thursday, fryday, and Satturday next following, and every of those dayes should be publiquely whipped. Now, as touching the neglecte of his worke, what satisfaction ought to be made to his Mr for that is referred to the Governour and Counsell of Estate.
Proceedings of the Virginia Assembly, 1619 Tyler, Narratives of Early Virginia, 268.
Robert Hewitt (Huitt) (abt. 1606- by 1650) and Hannah [--?--] (1612-1675)
bankruptcy and embezzlement
Robert Hewitt was at Crany Neck on Kent Island in the Chesapeake Bay in 1636. It is unclear whether he came to the Island somewhat earlier with the Claibourne party that established a trading post there, and then settled the Island in 1631 and 1632; or came to the island after the royal charter for the island was granted to Lord George Calvert, baron of Baltimore. The conflict over control of the island was between the two entrepreneurs personally, between Virginia and Maryland, and between the Protestants and the Catholics. If he was in fact related to the Reverend John Huett who established the first parish of the Church of England in Somerset Co. on the Eastern Shore a generation (or two) later, as has been suggested, then he was probably a Protestant settler from Virginia who tried to make a go of it even as conflicts flared over control of the island.
He and Henry Bellamy petitioned to have 400 acres in Crany Neck patented to them which "they are possessed of" in 1640. He sold a small portion of this in 1641 and was on the tax rolls in 1642.
In 1643 and 1644 Robert Hewitt suffered bankrupcy and fled back to Virginia to avoid the consequences. In January 1643/44 Giles Brent sued him for 1060 pounds of tobacco which was owed him and John Lewger sued for 700 lb. of tobacco. The judge ordered him to pay Brent 386 pounds, and respited the remainer for 6 weeks, and Lewgern was awarded 531 pounds, and in addition there was a total of 120 pounds assessed as court fees. By April he had fled. "Robt. Clerk complained against Robt. Huett now of Chickacoan for unlawful carrying away his servant Henry Wroughta out of the Prov. about the first of this month without his privity, to the damage of the plt. to the value of 1000 lb. tob."
Northumberland County, Virginia was originally known as Chickacoan. This was the Indian name of the district on the Northern Neck lying between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers, tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. In 1648, the "Mother County of the Northern Neck" was organized and named Northumberland. The first white settler to make a permanent home in the county was Col. John Mottrom sometime between 1635-1640, so it would have still been largely unsettled in 1644.
Robert Hewitt remained in VA, and was living in Chiacone, Northumberland Co. in 1649, but had died by April 1650 when his widow remarried. His estate apparently did not include any land. He and his wife Hannah had married in Yorkshire, England and their daughter Elizabeth was born in 1633 in England.
Hannah Hewitt was married three times. When Robert died she was 38 years old, already old by the standards of the times, and she remarried quickly to Hugh Lee, a planter and innholder. He died in 1662, leaving a more substantial estate than Robert Hewitt had, including 800 acres of land. By then she was 50, and again remarried quickly, this time to her servant, William Price. He was about 25 years old, and apparently a man with some charisma. He is referred to once in the records as a gentleman, and managed to embezzle money from St. Mary's City. Hannah Price was imprisoned in 1665 because he took money to build a state house and didn't do it. William was later murdered by Walter Pake in 1667/8.
Hannah died in 1675, still living in Northumberland County, Va.
Despite the the scantiness of the records in the 17th century, legal records give us some interesting details on the life of this couple, and life in early Virginia.
Lunds
Laurens "Grootschoe" (Big Shoe) Duyts (1610-1666/7)
indentured laborer and wife-seller
Laurens Duyts came to New Netherland from Denmark as a farm laborer in 1639.
Before me, Cornelis van Tienhoven, Secretary in New Netherland and the undersigned witnesses, appeared Sr. Jonas Bronck [as in the Bronx], of the one part and Pieter Andriessen and Laurens Duyts of the other part, who amicably agreed and contracted as follows:
First: Sr. Bronck shall show to the said parties a certain piece of land, belonging to him, situate on the mainland opposite to the fiats of the Manhates; on which said piece of land they shall have permission to plant tobacco and maize, on the condition, that they shall be obliged to break new land every two years for the planting of tobacco and maize and changing the place, the land, upon which they have planted to remain at the disposal of said Sr. Bronck. They shall also be bound to surrender the land, every time they change, made ready for planting corn and ploughing...
Pieter Andriessen and Laurens Duyts further pledge their persons and property, movable and immovable, present and future, nothing excepted, for the payment of what Sr. Bronck has advanced to them for board on ship 'de Brant van Trogen', amounting to 121 fl. 16 st., of which Pieter Andriessen is to pay fl. 81.4 and Laurens Duyts fl. 40.12. They promise to pay the aforesaid sums by the first ready means, either in tobacco or otherwise and in acknowledgment and token of truth they have signed this respectively.
This is the mark of Laurens Duyts.
Ancestry Incorporated. Immigration Library. Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Incorporated, 1996.
The records further record several incidents where he did not make payments required by rental agreements. He even sold land he did not own. But the most serious infraction is the following.
Duyts's moral life does not deserve mention. But in order to show how Laurens "Big Shoe" trampled upon the laws of decency and how such a lawbreaker was punished, we relate that Laurens of Holstein received a most severe sentence from Stuyvesant on November 25, 1658. For selling his wife, Ytie Jansen, and forcing her to live in adultery with another man and for living himself also in adultery, he was to have a "rope tied around his neck, and then to be severely flogged, to have his right ear cut off, and to be banished for fifty years."
Danish Immigrants in NY 1630-1674, p.194
He died 7 years later in Bergen, New Jersey.
Mary (Perkins) Bradbury (1615-1700)
witch
Mary (Perkins) Bradbury, wife of Capt. Thomas Bradbury, was tried and convicted (but not executed) for the crime of witchcraft. At the time she was 77 years old, and had lived most of her irreproachable life with her husband in Salisbury, Massachusetts. Accused in early July 1692, she and five other woman were tried and condemned for witchcraft on 9 September 1692 in Salem. The four who were hung on September 22nd were among the last witches executed. Dorcas Hoar avoided execution by confessing her witchcraft, but no record is preserved explaining Mary's stay of execution. Doubts about the trials were becoming strong, and Gov. Phipps banned the use of spectral evidence only 2 weeks after the hangings, and stopped arrests and trials, and released many of the accused 3 weeks after that.
Much has been written about this trial. Mary was charged even though her husband was a prominent man in the colony. She denied the charges.
I am wholly inocent of any such wickedness. ...For the truth of what I say as to matter of practiss I humbly refer my self, to my brethren & neighbors that know mee and unto the searcher of all hearts for the truth & uprightness of my heart therein.
Mary Bradbury, Essex County Archives, Salem -- Witchcraft Vol. 2 p. 35
Public opinion of her character seems overwhelmingly positive. Besides the testimony of her husband and the minister James Allen and others, there was a petition signed by one hundred and eighteen of Mary's acquaintances, both men and women.
Wee the Subscribers doe testifie; that it was such as became the gospel shee was a lover of the ministrie in all appearance & a dilligent attender upon gods holy ordinances, being of a curteous, & peaceable dispostion & cariag: neither did any of us (some of whom have lived in the town w'th her above fifty yeare) ever heare or know that shee ever had any difference or falling oute w'th any of her neighbors man woman or childe-but was allways, readie & willing to doe for them w't laye in her power night & day, though w'th hazard of her health: or other danger: more might be spoken in her comendacon but this for the pr'sent
Essex County Archives, Salem -- Witchcraft Vol. 2 p. 40
Testimony was presented accusing her of bewitching Timothy Swan so that he "was and is Tortured Afflicted Consumed Pined Wasted and Tormented", and John Carr so that he became crazed and prematurely died (though this was denied by his brother, William, in testimony). Other accusations of her "or her apperance" tormenting themselves or others were made by some of the young girls who started the hysteria, including Mary Walcott, Ann Putnam (11 years old), and Marcy Lewis (17 years old).
...sence that time I have seen mist. Bradbery or hir Apperance most greviously afflecting Timothy Swan and I beleve that Mis Bradbery is a most dreadfull wicth for sence she has been in prison she or her Apperance has com to me and most greviously afflected me ann putnam ownid before the grand Inquest this har evidens to be the truth one the oath that she hath taken: this: 8 day of September 1692
Essex County Archives, Salem -- Witchcraft Vol. 2 page 37
Mary was also accused of startling the horses of some neighbors in the form of a blue boar; and causing a whole litany of mishaps on a sea voyage eleven years earlier, attributed to her and her supernatural powers because she sold the captain two firkins of butter which "after wee had been att sea three weekes our men were nott able to eat itt, itt stanck soe and runn wi'th magotts."
The Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, posted by the University of Virginia, gives access to surviving primary sources, including the above.
Hannah (Emerson) Dustin (1657-1737/8)
hostage & Indian killer
On March 15, 1697 in one of the last of many actions by native Americans incited by the French as part of King William's War, a band of Abnaki Indians raided the outskirts of Haverhill, Massachusetts. They captured Hannah Dustin, her week old infant daughter and her nurse, Mary (Corliss) Neff, among others. (Mary Neff was the sister of John Corliss (1336) and Johannah (Corliss) Hutchins (665), both also ancestors.) Hannah's husband managed to escape with their seven other children, aged 5 to 17. Captives that lagged behind were killed, and the infant was prefunctorily killed early in the journey by having its head smashed against a tree, but Hannah and Mary managed to keep up on a forced march of more than 100 miles through the wilderness from Haverhill to a camp on Penacook Island (near present-day Concord, New Hampshire).
Hannah and Mary here came to live with a native family. In a detailed account of their capture written by Cotton Mather, who interviewed the women extensively after their return, we learn that this family was Christian.
These two poor women were now in the hands of those whose "tender mercies are cruelties;" but the good God, who hath all "hearts in his own hands," heard the sighs of these prisoners, and gave them to find unexpected favour from the master who hath laid claim unto them. That Indian family consisted of twelve persons; two stout men, three women, and seven children; and for the shame of many an English family, that has the character of prayerless upon it, I must now publish what these poor women assure me. 'Tis this: in obedience to the instructions which the French have given them, they would have prayers in their family no less than thrice every day; in the morning, at noon, and in the evening; nor would they ordinarily let their children eat or sleep, without first saying their prayers.
Magnalia Christa Americana, the Ecclesiastical History of New England, by Cotton Mather, 1702.
Driven by fear of the gauntlet and being traded further afield, they decided to attempt to escape at any cost. Early on the morning of April 30 Hannah, with some assistance from a young boy named Samuel Lennardson, also a captive, armed with the Indians' hatchets, killed the family where they lay. Two, a boy and an old woman, escaped, but ten were killed, and then Hannah collected the scalps as proof of the exploit. Six of the ten killed were children.
The three Europeans fled in Indian canoes down the river to the falls, and then walked overland back to Haverhill. They testified to the General Court in Boston and the exploit became a cause celebre. In response to a petition filed by her husband, Thomas Dustin was awarded 25 pounds bounty, and Mary and Samuel each were awarded half that. Note that Hannah's name is never cited in this petition, and the award is made to her husband, reaffirming her feminine status, while rewarding her brave resistence.
Norman Clark (1743-1842)
accused of treason
Capt. Norman Clark, a true patriot, served in the French and Indian Wars and the American Revolution. He was a minuteman from Princeton called to the Battle of Lexington in 1774 (although his company, commanded by Capt. Moore, arrived after the Battle had occurred 19 Apr 1774). He was a member of the Mass. Militia and volunteered to serve in a company sent to protect New York City from Princeton in 1776, of which he was made Lieutenant. This service led to his injury at the Battle of Harlem when he took a musket ball through his thigh. After his recovery, he served further in 1777. He commanded a company under Gen Starks, stationed to cut off any attempted retreat by Gen. Burgoine near Saratoga, "until the surrender of his army of which he was a witness" (17 Oct 1777).
The American Revolution ended in 1783, but the young republic had many economic problems. Nowhere was this more evident than to the farmers of Western Massachusetts. A severe economic depression forced people unable to pay their debts first into court, then into jail. These troubles were viewed as arising from the greed of the mercantile powers of Eastern Massachusetts, especially Boston, who demanded hard currency to pay foreign creditors. The farmers, after years of frustration, reacted with an armed uprising known as Shays Rebellion that lasted for six months at the end of 1786 and start of 1787.
Norman Clark was "charged with the crime of treason" for his participation in Shays Rebellion. In The New-Hampshire Mercury and the General Advertiser of March 7, 1787 (V. III, iss. CXVII, pg.[1]) is printed a proclamation of the "President" of New-Hampshire, His Excellency John Sullivan, Esq., concerning men charged "with having been principals in, and supporters of a wicked and unnatural rebellion" against Massachusetts who have "secreted themselves in this state." All New Hampshire officials and citizens are enjoined and encouraged to help apprehend any of the 27 men listed so they could be turned over to the Massachusetts authorities. Norman Clark of Princeton is fifth on the list.
I have not found a record of the disposition of these charges, but accounts of the rebellion say that Shays' followers were granted amnesty, although banned from voting, elected office and service on juries for three years.
John Clark Haynes (1763-1854)
counterfeiter
John Haynes was born in Grafton Co., New Hampshire. His father, Joseph Haynes, jr., held land in Concord, NH as early as 1797. The earliest newspaper reports for John Haynes refer to him as an innkeeper in Concord in 1802. Further newspaper references show he served as a state senator in 1804, and was on the ballot in 1807.
On 22 Oct. 1808 we find a report in the Portsmouth Oracle that "At the late session of the Superior Court of Judicature in the county of Grafton, John Haynes, Esq. late a member of the New Hampshire Legislature, was convicted of dealing in counterfeit money, and sentenced to pay three hundred dollars fine, and suffer one year's imprisonment." He was 45. Five years later he is reported as arriving in the newly settled Pittsburg, NH from Lisbon.
Another John Haynes appears in records of the period, but he lived continuously in Haverhill, MA and died in 1822 at age 49. This makes it improbable that there is any confusion with John Clark Haynes later found in Lisbon and then in Pittsburg.
John Haynes's name appears as "Haynes" until his appearance in the records of Coos Co., at which time the name starts appearing as "Haines." His grandson, Moody Bedell, reverted to the "Haynes" spelling.
© 2007 Footie Lund