[2] 1688, average value of horses was £5 sterling.—Clayton.
Ten or twelve pounds was the value of a very good horse in 1782.—De Chastellux.
[3] It is also a matter of tradition that Anne Fleming was the wife of John Payne. Colonel John Payne's first wife died about the time the following trial took place. The punishment inflicted could scarcely be for a less crime than murder.
Bedford Co., Va., May 24th, 1756.—Court assembled "to hear and determine all Treasons, Petit Treasons, Murders, and other Offences, committed or done by Hampton and Sambo belonging to John Payne of Goochland Gent."
"The said Hampton and Sambo were set to the Bar under Custody of Charles Talbot [then sheriff], to whose Custody they were before committed on Suspicion of their being Guilty of the felonious Prepairing and Administering Poysonous Medicines to Ann Payne and being Arraigned of the Premises pleaded Not Guilty and for their Trial put themselves upon the Court. Whereupon divers Witnesses were charged and they heared in their Defence. On Consideration thereof it is the Opinion of the Court that the said Hampton is guilty in the Manner and Form as in the Indictment. Therefore it is considered that the said Hampton be hanged by the neck till he be dead, and that he be afterward cut in Quarters, and his Quarters hung up at the Cross Roads. And it is the Opinion of the Court that the said Sambo is guilty of a Misdemeanor, Therefore it is considered that the said Sambo be burnt in the Hand, and that he also receive thirty-one Lashes on his bare Back at the Whipping-Post.
"Memo: That the said Hampton is adjudged at forty-five Pounds, which is ordered to be Certified to the Assembly [that his owner may be remunerated according to law]."
Thomas Walker Page, "Atlantic Monthly," Dec, 1901.
Slaves were not tried by jury, but before five justices, and cannot be condemned unless all the justices agree.
On examination, instead of an oath being administered, the black is charged in the following words:
"You are brought hither as witnesses, and by the direction of the law I am to tell you, before you give your evidence, that you must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; and if it be found hereafter that you tell a lie, and give false testimony in this matter, you must for so doing have both your ears nailed to the pillory and cut off, and receive thirty-nine lashes on your bare back, well laid on at the common whipping-post."
This punishment is administered by nailing one ear to the pillory, where the culprit stands for one hour, when that ear is cut off, and the other nailed, which is in like manner cut off at the expiration of another hour, and after this he receives thirty-nine lashes.—"Historical Register," 1814, page 65.
[4] From John Coles and Mary Winston are descended the Coles family of Philadelphia. His grandson Edward, secretary to President Madison, married Sally Logan Roberts, of Philadelphia, and settled there. Major John Coles was engaged in merchandizing in Richmond; his residence, a frame house recently demolished (1871), was situated on Twenty-second Street, between Broad and Marshall. When torn down, many of the timbers, though more than a century old, were found to be in a perfect state of preservation.