“Is this You, Ens. Johnstone,” says I, “who behaves so rudely.”
“You ly,” he says, “I am a gentleman.”
I made answer that his rude behavior betrayed the contrary in the eyes of good men.
Then he swore bloodily in the height of Rage, he would shew me that he was a gentleman & immediately fell upon, attacked & pelted me violently in my naked bed, he & his abbettor Oaks. The room being dark all my attempts of defence were rendered ineffectual by Oaks’s exerting his outmost strength to entangle me in my sheets & bed-Cloathes out of which I struggled to extricate myself like a fish entangled in a net. They pelted me pell-mell with incessant blows repeatedly, on the face, left breast, &c., to the Effusion of my blood. Before I could recover myself out of the jeopardy into which I was involved, my shirt, sheets & pillowcase [were] all bespattered with gore & blood in my naked bed untill Sergt. McMurray & Arthur Ross, soldier, with the assistance of my servant, John Forbes, turned them out of the Room. Otherwise it is [hard] to know where the consequences would end. William Maxwell, the Commissary, & Christian Burgy, trader, came in who saw my face bruised all over, besmeared [with] Blood.
In the meantime Forrest Oaks had the impudence to come back again, & upon a rehearsal of my bad useage, very unmannerly gave me the ly twice or thrice, in my own house. To this Sergt. MacMurray, Mr. Maxwell & the abovesaid Christian Burgy was present, who can testify in this, as well as other Circumstances. I imagined he intended this insult as a provocation to stirr me up to do something rash, of which he might make a handle to invalidate my pretensions to Justice on account of his being accessory to the violent attack upon my person as abovesaid.
Whether there were more accomplices [who] acted in conjunction with Ens. Johnstone & Forrest Oaks at the breakeing of my house &c., I cannot positively determine (the room being dark) except what may be inferred from a chain of Circumstances. For John Chinn (whose mind it seems was so replete with the dregs of his former menaces abovesaid, as if he intended to make his menace good) he, the said John Chinn, was met by Isaac Todd on his way to my house, with a great Hatchet in his hand. Mr. Todd asked where he was going. The said John Chinn answered, to break down the Doctor’s house. Upon which Mr. Todd, partly by persuasion, & partly by dint of strength, brought him home to his lodgeing.
Whether it was before this, or after, I cannot say, my servant John Forbes catched the said John Chinn at the porch before my broken door, with a large Hatchet, while the assailants abovesaid, to wit, Ens. Johnstone & Oaks, were perpetrating their malicious designs against me. He, the said John Forbes, asked the said John Chinn what was he going to do with that Hatchet. John Chinn replyed, to break down the Doctor’s house. After a little altercation my servant persuaded him to deliver up the Hatchet.
No sooner the assailants abovesaid was expelled the house, as above mentioned, then the said John Chinn entered my house abruptly, as straight as a rush, & with an air of authority, impudently (tho’ he saw my face &c. all over with blood besmeared) minding his belly more than my hard treatment asked if I should give him a bowl of Toddy, in presence of Mr. Maxwell & Mr. Burgy.
When these irregular proceedings perspired [sic!] the most considerable gentlemen in the Garrison came to see me, to wit, Capt. [Beamsley] Glazier [commandant, 1768-70], Lieut. Nordberg, Lieut. [John] Christie, Ens. Strickland, Mr. Todd, Mr. Main, Mr. [Charles?] Morison, Mr. Maxwell & Christian Burgy, who can all & one of them attest they plainly saw that the door of my house &c. were forcibly broke open as abovesaid, & that my face &c. was all over besmeared with blood & gore, & my shirt, sheets, pillowcase, were plentifully bespattered with blood also.
John Chinn, upon Recollecting what he had done, [realized he had] forgot his Hatchet, which he was very impatient to have in his possession once more, as it was then in custody of my servant John Forbes for about half one hour. The said John Chinn employed Christian Burgy, abovesaid, to bring it back to him. I did not chuse to give it, but upon the said Christian Burgy’s earnest Expostulations I complyed, & ordered my servant to deliver it. At the same time [I] told Christian Burgy it was to the same purpose, as he & my servant could testify with Isaac Todd, [to] the maliciousness of his [Chinn’s] unwarrantable intentions as abovesaid.