Saturday, May 16, 2015

Newspaper Tidbits: Crime and Punishment

Alexandria Gazette (Virginia)
10 October 1810

Prince William County, to wit.

ALEXANDER HENDERSON, one of the Commonwealth's Justices of the Peace of the said County, to all Sheriffs, Mayors, Baliffs, Constables and Headboroughs, within the Commonwealth of Virginia.

WHEREAS complaint is made to me this day, upon the oath of Samuel Davis, that James Cornwell, laborer, who was lately committed to the jail of the said county of Prince William, by warrant from Henry Washington, a Justice of the Peace for the said county, on suspicion of felony, did on the night of the twenty-sixth instant forcibly escape from the said jail, and is now going at large: These are therefore, in the name of the Commonwealth, to require you and every of you, in your respective counties, cities, towns and precincts, to make diligent search, by way of hue and cry for the said James Cornwell, and having found, to seize and retake, and safely convey, or cause him to be safely conveyed, to the jail of the said county of Prince William, there to be kept until he shall be thence discharged by due course of law.

Given under my hand and seal this twenty eight day of September, 1810.

A. Henderson (Seal)
Dumfries, Sept. 30-Oct. 3. d2w

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Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia)
9 February 1905

WHITE BOYS WHIPPED

Twenty-five Lashes Laid on by the Sheriff for Stealing.

Manassas, Va. Feb. 8 -- In the Circuit Court of Prince William county Judge C. E. Nicol presiding, Harrison Brammel and G. Robert Hales, two white boys, aged twelve and thirteen years, respectively, were to-day ordered to be given twenty-five lashes for committing larceny.  The parents of the boys who reside near Occoquan, were willing that they should be whipped, the boys having entered a plea of guilty to the indictments agains them.

The boys were carried from the courthouse to the county jail, where Sheriff F. C. Rovabaugh executed the order of the court.



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