THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 28, 1996 TAG: 9606260104
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Olde Towne Journal
SOURCE: Alan Flanders
LENGTH: 101 lines
TODAY, THE U.S. CONSTITUTION PROTECTS citizens against ``cruel and unusual punishment'' and guarantees the right to a trial by a jury of peers.
But there was a time when punishment was tailored to fit the crime in what could be described by today's standards in the most ``cruel and unusual'' manner possible.
During the 17th century, even a little loose talk could get you into some real trouble.
Take the case of a Southeastern Virginia man who was found guilty of just making a ``detracting speech'' about the governor. Having been found guilty as charged, the governor's critic was disarmed and arrested, after which his arms were broken and his tongue bored through with an awl.
If that weren't enough, he was forcibly passed through a gauntlet of 40 men who ``butted'' him until he reached the ``head of the troop.'' There, he was ``kicked down'' for good measure and banished from the county. The fact that the accused was punished publicly and humiliated hardly would have raised an eyebrow in those days as justice was usually quick and physically severe.
For something such as public drunkenness, one hapless fellow was sentenced to stand at the door of a church ``with a great pot tyed about his neck, thereby signifying the merit of his offense for being drunk ...,'' according to Norfolk County court records. Considering the number of local taverns there were around the seaports of Hampton Roads, it's a wonder anyone had a pot to cook in much less to tie around the neck of a public drunk.
Next to the governor and his council, and the court, the Colonial church had the most to say about the costs of transgressions, particularly when they were under the heading of social crimes.
Penances frequently were ordered by the county court, and often church services were given a new dimension with the appearance of people dressed in white sheets standing before the minister and congregation to ask forgiveness.
Other times, after services, you literally might trip over an offender who was ordered to ``lay by neck and heels'' at the church door. But woe be to those guilty of ``ye grevious sinne of adultery or fornicacon.''
In May 1643, Batholomew Haymos and Julienne Underwood were convicted of adultery. They then were ordered to ``stand both in white sheets in ye parish church and their in ye face of ye Minister and Congregation in ye time of Divine Service betweene ye first and Second Lessons in ye fore noone make a publique acknowledgement of their fault, and aske All mighty God forgiveness.
When the minister of Elizabeth River Parish, Samson Calvert, pleaded guilty to the ``sinne of adultery with Anne, ye wife of Lamon Phillips,'' it was ordered ``that hee doe make ye same Confession'' for the next two Sunday services and chapel meetings.
Some verdicts carried a far less public embarrassment if it suited court officials. For ``fornicacon'' Michael Lawrence was forced to ``pay half ye charges towards ye building of a bridge over ye Creek betweene Capt. Sibseies and Mr. Conquest plantacon. ...'' An interesting footnote to the case was the fact that Captain Sibsey was the presiding Justice of the Court, and Mr. Conquest was the county's High Sheriff as well Captain Sibsey's son-in-law.
Obviously, the scales of justice were tipped to and fro in Colonial Norfolk, Portsmouth and Norfolk County according to social position as in the case of a wealthy merchant and ship owner named Capt. John Hatton. He appeared in court on Sept. 18, 1695, to face charges for adultery.
The court hearing his confession issued the following:
``Whereas Capt. John Hatton hath been presented to this Court by the Grand Jury for Entertaining another's Wife, contrary to lawe, the Woman being the wife of Batholmew Sheepard, blacksmith late of this county, who hath been Sometimes absent out of the county and the Said Capt. Hatton, this court hath thought fitt and doe Order that the Church Wardens of Elizabeth River parrish doe repaire forthwith to the Said Capt. Hatton house and Admonish him and the Said Woman Not to frequent or be Seene in Each Other's Company for the future and that the said Capt. Hatton put her away from his house Imeadiately after Such Admonicon and make report of theire Soe dowing at the Next Court and that they Doe Not frequent Each Other's Company. ...''
Hatton got off pretty light when you consider the popular use of the stocks - defined then as ``a machine, commonly made of wood, with holes in it, in which to confine persons accused of or guilty of crime,'' and the pillory, ``a wooden machine in which the neck of the culprit is inserted.'' Adding to the mischief, schoolchildren and bees and flies could play on a person in such a state.
Those who have frolicked about Colonial Williamsburg's stocks and pillory for a souvenir photograph might do well to hear the case of Thomas Garnett, Capt. William Powell's servant. Garnett was found guilty of ``extreme neglect'' of his work, ``wantoness with a woman servant'' and accusing his master of ``Drunkenness and Thefte.'' For his transgressions he was sentenced to ``stand fower days with his ears nayled to the pillory ... and every one of these fower days should be publiquely whipped.''
Perjury was considered a very serious crime for which one could have both ears ``nailed to the pillory, and cut off, and receive thirty nine lashes on your back, well laid on at the county's common whipping post.'' Other crimes list caning, dismembering, riding the wooden horse, quartering, cropping, iron collars, running the gauntlet, ducking and dragging at boats' sterns as suitable punishment. Of course, for murder there was hanging.
In 1784, Jim, alias ``Bristol'' was given the death penalty for the murder of Sarah Prescott. His sentence reads that he be ``hanged by the neck until dead and that the head of the said Jim be severed from his body and be stuck on a poll to be erected for that purpose at the same place.''
If Colonial punishments didn't do you in, there was a good chance a night or two in Norfolk County's first jail would. During the night a prisoner slept in leg irons, handcuffs and chains on a matting of straw. His diet was simply described as salt beef damaged and Indian corn meal.''
Colonial punishment methods were not fully erased from the books until the middle of the 19th century, but no doubt they made their mark. by CNB