The intersection of 7th and Edgmont now Avenue of the States is where early hangings took place. This was outside the city till the 1850's. |
Delaware County early Hangings
The list of hangings within the territory now Delaware
County, shows that Friday has not been, as a rule, the day designated for the
infliction of the death penalty. Those
cases included in the list were those on which the day and date of execution
could be definitely ascertained from the records. Yet by and over sight one case where that
could be done was omitted from the list.
Elizabeth Murphy, together with her husband, Edward Murphy, were tried
August 27, 1723, for murder. The jury
acquitted the man and convicted the woman.
She was executed Thursday, August 13, 1724. The costs in that case were 1b2 6s 6d, or
about eight dollars, for it was in Colonial money, in which a pound was only a
little more than half the value of the pound sterling.
There
are three other cases of the infliction of the death penalty at Chester in
Colonial times, which were not included in the list published in the Times,
because the exact date of execution has not been ascertained. The first was in 1722, when William Batten,
who had “been convicted of Divers horrid, complicated crimes,” was on August 3
of that year, ordered by the Provincial Council to “be executed and hung in
chains in the most public place at such time as the Governor shall appoint, and
that the warrant for the execution be issued before the Governor set out for
Albany.” I cannot fix the exact date
when execution was made. This is the
only instance in the criminal history of Chester and Delaware Counties when
after execution, the body of the convict was gibbeted – that is, suspended in
any iron frame work until the elements slowly destroyed the body.
At the
court held September 27, 1728, William Davis was convicted of murdering his
master, William Cloud, and was sentenced to be hanged “and his body at ye Disposal
of ye Governor.” I cannot fix the date
when Davis was executed.
At a
special court held for the trial of negroes under the act of 1706, Phoebe, the
slave of Joseph Richardson, was on March 2, 1764, convicted of burglary in
entering the house of Thomas Barnard – that adjoining to the north Jonathan
Pennell’s dwelling on Edgmont Avenue, facing Fourth Street. John Morton presided at the trial. Richardson her master, lived in his then new
residence – the present Steamboat Hotel – and the Colonial treasury paid to him
fifty-five pounds, the sum at which Phoebe was appraised, for the act of
assembly providing that when a slave was executed the province must make good
the loss to the owner of the Negro.
FIRST
HOMICIDE TRIAL – The first homicide in our county was in the consequences which
followed the execution, the most momentous in the history of the Colony and
State. Hugh Pugh, a wheelwright, and
Lazarus Thomas, a laborer, were hanged in Chester, Friday, May 9, 1718, for the
murder of Jonathan Hayes, a resident of Marple Township and one of the judges
of the county court. The crime was
committed three years prior to the execution of the culprits.
The case
was one which excited the public to that extent that in October, 1715, the
Court instructed Henry Worley, Robert Carter and James Sandelands, the younger,
to procure a place “more Convenient than the Court House for holding the
Supreme Court for ye Tryail of these persons ye are holden in ye Jail of ye
County on Suspition of murder.” We learn
from the minutes of the Provincial County that for some reason the accused
parties had been admitted to bail, “and through the indolence of a former
administration,” that of Governor Charles Godin, the men were not brought to
trial until April 17, 1718, when Chief Justice Lloyd and the four associate
justices of the Supreme Court were present as was Governor Sir William Keith, who
occupied a place on the bench.
It seems
that the prisoners were leaders of a “Lawless Gang of Loose fellows, Common
Distrurbers of the public peace,” and “were so hardened and became so audacious
as still to continue in their publick Rioting, Caballing and fighting.”
Boasting openly that it was not within the power of the Government to try any
capitol case, according to the common and statute laws of England, which the
prisoners claimed as a right, they being English subjects.
On May
8, the day previous to the time set for the hanging, Hugh Pugh and Lazarus
Thomas petitioned Sir William Keith for a stay of execution, until the pleasure
of the King could be ascertained and at the same time formerly lodged with the
Governor and council their appeal to George, the lst, in which they assigned
three reasons rendering their conviction illegal. First, because seventeen of the Grand Jury
and eight of the Petit Jury were Quakers, who had not been sworn. The Act of Assembly permitting affirmations
by Governors and witnesses was enacted in violation of the Act of Parliament,
passed in the first year of his majesty’s reign; second, because the Act of
Assembly permitting affirmation to be made in all legal proceedings, was not
enacted until “after said murder was supposed to be committed,” hence was
expost facto and not applicable to their case, and third, because the Act of
Assembly was repugnant to reason and in conflict with the laws and statutes of
England, and therefore void.
The
Governor and council refused to reprieve the prisoners and Sheriff Nicholas
Fairlamb was instructed to execute the two men according to the death warrant,
which, signed, by Chie justice Lloyd and the associate Justices of the supreme
Court, had already been placed in his hands.
The men were hanged and the public excitement ceased.
It was
then the authorities began to question the legality of the execution, for the
appeal to the King had not been forwarded, although it accompanied the petition
for a stay of execution, or reprieve, and just at that time the King and his
ministry regarded with no favor the mild criminal code framed by Penn which was
then recognized in the province, and had repeatedly urged the colony to adopt
that of the mother country. Only a few
days elapsed when the legal reason which were urged by the hanged men to set
aside their conviction, aroused such alarm among the leading class in the
providence, as to the legality of the trial and subsequent execution of
judgment, that in twenty-two days after May 31, 1718, the Assembly passed the
act which substituted the fierce criminal code of England, which its then
seventy odd offense punishable with death, in the colony, simply in exchange
for the right to use affirmations in place of corporal oaths, the Legislature
feeling assured that the little matter of illegally executing two “bad men,”
would not weigh with the King if it accomplished his policy of substituting a
rigorous system of punishment for crimes in Pennsylvania. The King approved and confirmed the Act of
the Assembly early in 1719. The legal
points raised by the accused in their petition was never made the subject of
judicial consideration and decision, but the effect of their petition was to
wholly change the criminal code of the province, and today the consequences of
that trial, to a large extent obtain in our penal laws.
THE CASE
OF SHIRTLIFFE – In the case of John McDonough, convicted of rape and executed
Saturday, June 17, 1786, at Gallows Hill, was indicted jointly with Richard
Shirtliffe and sentenced to be hanged at the same time and place with
McDonough. A few days after the death
warrant was delivered to Sheriff Gibbons, the supreme Executive Counsel, with a
refinement of cruelty difficult to understand, considering the high character
of the individuals then composing that body, ordered Richard Shirtliffe
reprieved, but directed the Sheriff not to notify the man of the fact until he
had been taken under the gallows and the rope placed under his neck. What became of Shirtliffe afterwards, how
long he was detained in prison or formally pardoned, I do not know, but certain
it is he was not hanged.
Thirty
persons have paid the death penalty in Delaware County, four of whom were
women.
That picture is 6th and Edgmont.It's the building Lee's record shop was located in.Before they elevated the tracks..
ReplyDelete