– “A piece of whalebone or rawhide about fourteen inches long, with an oval-shaped lump of lead at each end, one larger than the other, the whole being covered with backskin or india-rubber.â€
. New York: George W. Matsell, 1859.Note: See “Cant: The Language of the Underworld” to learn more about the background of the American Malefactor’s Dictionary.
Francis Uss handed a manuscript to a visitor a “day or two before his suffering.†The manuscript was an account of his life and crimes, and it gives a remarkable picture of a man waiting to be hanged.
Uss said that he was born in 1761 to “reputable parents,†who lived in Strasburg in the province of Alsace in northeastern France. In 1770, his family moved to Philadelphia, and at the age of twelve he was bound as an apprentice to a tailor and served three years.
Around the time that Uss turned sixteen, his father died. Uss traveled back overseas to Amsterdam and then returned to Strasburg to live with an uncle. After nine months Uss began to feel restless, so he left his uncle and traveled through France until he met up with a company of dragoons, who convinced him to sign on with them. Soon after, France joined America in its revolutionary fight against Great Britain, so Uss’s regiment was sent to America.
Uss and his company sailed on the St. Clara, a transport ship, but they became separated from their convoy at sea and were seized by a British frigate. The British carried them to Pensacola, FL and imprisoned them there. The heat and humidity of the region oppressed the men so much that they offered to enlist in the British army to get away from the area. The British officers granted their request, but before their oaths of allegiance could be administered, Uss and twenty other men ran away.
The group headed up the eastern shore through the wilderness. While crossing a river, three of their company drowned. They also lost in the water the few guns they carried with them and any means of kindling a fire. As they traveled on, their circumstances deteriorated rapidly. They resorted to eating unpalatable plants and an occasional land tortoise, which they were forced to consume raw.
After traveling north for about 400 miles, they met a tribe of Creek Indians. Unfortunately for them, the Creeks were aligned with the British. They seized the weary travelers and turned them over to the English army, who forced Uss and his companions to retrace their steps back to Pensacola. The group feared harsh punishment for their unsanctioned excursion, but they were instead traded back to the French.
Uss and his new French unit went up to Rhode Island, where he learned that his former regiment was now in Petersburg, VA. He raced southward and in a matter of days rejoined his fellow soldiers. Uss saw a fair amount of action during the war, including the final battle at Yorktown, where he received two wounds. At the finish of the war, his regiment embarked for France, but Uss did not want to re-cross the Atlantic, so he deserted the army and went to his mother, who still lived in Philadelphia.
Uss worked as a tailor for three years in Philadelphia until he ran into trouble with John Hummel. Uss does not indicate what transpired, but he was thrown into prison with “a large number of criminals; among whom no additions were made to my virtue.†Upon his release from prison, Uss moved to New York and got married.
Uss’s downfall began when he traveled to Poughkeepsie and committed several small thefts along the way. After he arrived in town he visited the shop of Major Andrew Billings. Uss became so enamored of the items on display that he broke into the shop at night and robbed it. This act proved to be a big mistake, because he was arrested and found guilty of burglary.
Uss initially claimed that he was a mere accomplice in the burglary, but once it became clear that his sentence was going to stick and that he had no hope for a pardon, he confessed that he was the sole perpetrator of the crime.
After recounting his life and spelling out the reason he faced execution, Uss’s narrative suddenly shifts to the present tense as he chronicles his thoughts during his remaining time on earth:
Ah! me unhappy what shall I do? Writhing in agony, and convuls’d with grief, I fall amid the clanging of my chains prostrate on the floor of my dungeon and WISH a supplication to my maker, for my poor distracted mind is incapable of coherence, and the half-form’d syllables die upon my tongue.
If groans unutterable, and sighs from the inmost soul have a language, mine is most pathetic.
The terrors of the approaching awful Friday rise up in fearful anticipation before me! I have realized them so often that they cease to be ideal. Once more I will indulge them and, hand in hand with horror, once more walk over the gloomy stage.— —
Albany Gazette, August 6, 1789 - From Early American Newspapers, an Archive of Americana Collection, published by Readex (Readex.com), a division of NewsBank, inc.
After a night spent in disturbed slumbers and terrific dreams, I rise from the floor and see the gleamings of a rising sun which I never never more will see go down. The birds hail in cheerfullest notes the new-born day—but music to me has lost its charms, and to me the new-born day brings woe unutterable. Food is set before me; but I turn with loathing [from(?)] nourishment, for what connexion is there between life and me? My pious friends surround me, and retire not, till they have wearied Heaven with the most fervent supplications in my behalf. Oh that I felt their fervor, had their faith, and enjoyed their consolations?—The day fast advances—I hear the din of crouds assembled in the streets—Again there is a noise at the prison door! The massy key grates upon the wards of the lock, and grates too upon my very soul. The door recoils, and enter the ministers of justice. Pity is painted on every countenance. The sounding file is applied, my chains drop to the earth, and my limbs are once more free, only soon to be bound in never-ending obstruction.
Heavens! What are my feelings while the suffocating cord is adjusted to my throat! Death is in the very touch and I think with unutterable . . .
Uss’s story essentially ends here, because the last page of the only extant copy of Uss’s narrative is vertically ripped in half.
Uss was publicly hanged in Poughkeepsie on July 11, 1789 at the age of 29. The last two legible words of his published narrative read, “—no more.â€
– a pointed instrument.
From Bilbao, a city in Spain known for making excellent swords and blades.
. New York: George W. Matsell, 1859.Note: See “Cant: The Language of the Underworld” to learn more about the background of the American Malefactor’s Dictionary.
John Sheehan saw the purchase of the bundle as his ticket to independence, but what he bought was more than he bargained for.
Sheehan was born in Cork, Ireland in 1763 to “reputable and honest†parents. He worked as an apprentice for seven years until his brother, who was living in America, wrote to ask Sheehan to join him. Sheehan jumped at the chance, although he failed to inform his parents, his sisters, or his friends that he was leaving Ireland.
Sheehan arrived in Boston on November 11, 1786, but he could not locate his brother. Unable to find work, he enlisted in the American army. After serving four and a half months, an order of Congress led to a general discharge of soldiers, so Sheehan received his pay, found his brother, and stayed with him.
One morning, Sheehan met Edmond Miller carrying a bundle of goods, which included some silver plate. Miller offered to sell the goods to Sheehan at a cheap price. Sheehan figured he could sell the contents of the bundle close to their true value and use the proceeds to support himself as he struck out on his own. He purchased the goods with part of the money he received from his discharge, ate breakfast with his brother and his family, and then set out to find work and sell his newly acquired commodities.
Not long after setting out, Sheehan ran into Miller and another man, Thomas Whitnell, sitting by a stream. Each of them was carrying a bag of goods, and they said that they were traveling to New London. Sheehan, who was heading to Providence, joined them for part of the journey. Whitnell claimed he had an acquaintance in Providence, so he remained with Sheehan when Miller split off from the threesome. As they arrived in the city, Whitnell asked Sheehan not to disclose where he got the items he was going to sell, and Sheehan agreed.
Sheehan took his bundle to a silversmith, and in the course of negotiating a price, the smith noticed that the marks on the plate had been rubbed off. Two justices of the peace were called, and they started questioning Sheehan: How did he get the goods? Where did he come from? Where was he staying, and who was with him? Sheehan’s answers landed both him and Whitnell in jail.
Sheehand and Whitnell were transferred back to Boston, where Sheehan was tried by the Supreme Judicial Court, found guilty of burglary, and condemned to die.
But Sheehan had friends in high places. General Jackson, Sheriff Henderson, and other officers he knew from his time in the army convinced the legislature to create a committee to look into the possibility of pardoning Sheehan. The commission concluded that the legislature did not have a constitutional right to commute a punishment after sentencing. The governor, who did possess the authority to grant pardons, put Sheehan’s case before a council, but they did not rule in Sheehan’s favor either.
Independent Gazetteer, December 6, 1787 - From Early American Newspapers, an Archive of Americana Collection, published by Readex (Readex.com), a division of NewsBank, inc.
Up until the end, Sheehan maintained that he did not rob the two people who originally owned the goods in his possession. But he did acknowledge that when he purchased the bundle from Miller he assumed that its contents were stolen. At most, Sheehan should have been found guilty of receiving stolen goods. Such a conviction could have ended with the same result, though, since under a 1785 Massachusetts statute receivers of stolen goods were subject to the same punishment as the thief. But since neither Miller nor Whitnell were convicted of burglary, Sheehan most likely would have avoided a death sentence were he charged with his true offense.
Sheehan was executed by hanging on the Boston Common on Thursday, November 22, 1787. In its report on his execution, the Independent Gazetteer noted that “except in the burglary for which he suffered, [he] does not appear, by his life, to have been guilty of any atrocious offences.â€
– being allowed to pay a gambling debt at a later time, after one has lost all of his or her money.
– a “sucker†who watches a game of chance but does not bet.
. New York: George W. Matsell, 1859.Note: See “Cant: The Language of the Underworld” to learn more about the background of the American Malefactor’s Dictionary.
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