Wednesday, January 20, 2010
In May 1744, Elizabeth Robinson was sentenced at the Old Bailey in London to transportation to the American colonies for her involvement in the theft of 104 China oranges from a warehouse. She was loaded onto the Justitia that same month and eventually landed in Virginia. She ended up in Maryland, where she reportedly continued [...]
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
All of you who read these Lines may see
The sad and dire Effects of Sin:
Therefore if Sinners still you’l be,
Leave off to read ere you begin. (from A Few Lines)
These lines form the opening of A Few Lines upon the Awful Execution of John Ormesby & Matthew Cushing, one of two poems written [...]
Monday, December 14, 2009
John Warren has just posted an article on his New York History blog about a new online exhibit by the New York Correction History Society. The exhibit chronicles the last execution to be carried out by hanging in the state of New York.
The hanging of John Greenwall for murder and burglary took place on December [...]
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
In the earliest days of colonial America, burglary was not considered much of a problem. Most people in the community knew each other, and strangers were quickly identified. As more people settled in America and cities grew bigger, however, burglary became a much more frequent occurrence, and it increasingly was treated with harsh punishment.
Massachusetts
Even [...]
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Outside of murder, which cuts to the core of who we are as human beings, burglary is perhaps the ultimate criminal transgression in America, because it violates two strong American principles at the very same time: the protection of property and the right to privacy. It also brings with it a potential for violence, since [...]
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies.
Samuel Ellard grew up in Spitalfields and was apprenticed to a butcher. He completed his time as an apprentice and worked in the Spitalfields Market for various people until he was arrested on March 9, 1741 for robbing a cheese shop [...]
Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies.
Lots of convict servants tried to run away from their owners in an attempt to escape harsh treatment from them or to regain their freedom and possibly return to Great Britain, or both. Almost as soon as the practice of convict [...]
Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies.
On July 15, 1751 the New-York Gazette, or Weekly Post-Boy reported that Onesiphorus Lucas was executed in Annapolis in a follow-up to a newspaper story that appeared two weeks earlier about how Lucas was found guilty of burglary and sentenced to [...]
Filed in 5. In the New World
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Also tagged Assault, Attempted Murder, Branding, Burglary, Convict Transportation, Counterfeiting, Forgery, Maryland, Pillory, Prisons and Jails, Robbery, Virginia
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The Massachusetts Superior Court celebrated its 150th anniversary on June 4, 2009 in Worcester, MA by reenacting the trial of Bathsheba Spooner. Everyone in the packed audience would surely agree that the performance was both entertaining and informative. Seeing real people play the parts of the historical actors in this colonial murder drama [...]
As part of the 150th anniversary of the Massachusetts Superior Court, the trial of Bathsheba Spooner will be reenacted on June 4, 2009 at the Worcester Trial Court on 225 Main St. in Worcester, MA. The original trial took place at Worcester’s Old South meetinghouse on April 24, 1778 and lasted all day. [...]
