Crimes and Punishments.

In April, 1728, a few Indians belonging to the Twetchtweys, a tribe without the borders of the province, made their appearance near the Warwick Iron Work, on French Creek, and, being well armed, created wide-spread alarm among the settlers. The air was filled with rumors of Indian outrages and murder. John and Walter Winter, two brothers, respectable farmers, it is thought under the apprehension of the savages, and believing that they were doing the State a service, fell upon a party of Indians at Cassea, when Walter Winter shot and killed an aged man named Toka Collie, who was friendly to the whites. John Winter, at the same time, shot one of the Indian women, and then ran and knocked out the brains of an old squaw, "Quilee," otherwise "Hannah." The Winter brothers, with Morgan Herbert, bore the corpses of the two Indian women from the road where they had fallen, and covered them with leaves. The two former men carried two Indian girls (one a cripple) before one of the county officers, demanding a reward for what they had done. Samuel Nutt, the iron-master at the forge, dispatched John Petty to the Governor with a letter informing him of the occurrence. The latter had warrants issued for the arrest of the men, and, on a "hue and cry," the two Winters, together with Morgan Herbert, their neighbor, were taken into custody and lodged in the jail at Chester, in all probability the old prison on Edgmont Street. John and Walter Winter were tried before David Lloyd, Richard Hill, and Jeremiah Langhorne, for the murder of the Indian woman, Quilee, June 19, 1728, and the jury found the defendants "Guilty of ye murder afd and must be hanged by the necks until they and each of them be dead."²

Governor Gordon issued the warrant, fixing Wednesday, July 3, 1728, as the date of the execution. Morgan Herbert was convicted at the same court as an accessory to the murder, but he was recommended in a petition numerously signed by citizens, as well as by the judges who tried the case, setting forth that "though in strictness of law Herbert's offence may be adjudged murder, yet it appeared to them that he was not active in perpetrating thereof, but unhappily fell into ye company of those that committed it." The Governor granted a reprieve to Herbert, who was finally pardoned. The Winters seem to have done the deed under the impression that the Indians were at war with the whites, "and they felt justified in killing any of the natives with whom they met." A reason which, considering the times in which they lived, takes from the act that wicked animus which constitutes morally the crime of murder.

At the Oyer and Terminer, held at Chester, "27, 7 ber, 1728," William Davis was indicted for murdering his master, William Cloud. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, "And ye sd William Davis being asked what he had or could say why sentence of Death should not pass against him says no more than what he has sayd before.

"Therefor it is considered by ye Court here that he be taken back to prison from whence he came and from thence to ye place of execution and there be hanged by ye neck untill he be Dead and his body at ye Disposal of ye Governor."³

On Saturday, Aug. 1, 1752, at the house of Eleanor Davis, in Tredyffrin, a brutal murder was committed by Bryan Doran, James Rice, alias Dillon, and Thomas Kelley. It seems that Rice and Kelley were told by Doran that Eleanor Davis, an old woman, John Thomas, an aged man, and Rachel Jones, a young woman, lived together in the house; that they kept good cider, and "that the old woman had a great deal of money, he believed three or four hundred pounds, in the house." It was thereupon arranged that Doran should go to the dwelling and ask a night's lodging. At bedtime he was to come to the door and cough once, which was the signal to the men outside that no persons save the usual inmates were there. Rice and Kelley, who had disguised themselves by rubbing black earth on their faces, loitered about the premises until the signal was given, when they, with Dillon, entered the house. The latter, armed with a short broad-bladed sword, then called "a hanger," declared that he was going to England, and demanded all the money the old people had. Receiving no answer, he began to strike and stab the parties who had given him shelter. Rice and Kelley, who were armed with sticks, joined in the base assault. The inmates succeeded in escaping at the doors, were followed by the assassins and knocked down, but the old lady continued to scream, which so alarmed the robbers that they fled without plundering the house, making their escape on two horses which they appropriated to their use. Eleanor Davis and John Thomas were killed, and Rachel Jones was dangerously wounded. The Provincial authorities offered a reward of one hundred and fifty pounds, and the friends of the slain man and woman forty pounds, for the apprehension of the murderers. Rice and Kelley were shortly afterwards arrested, and tried at Chester, November 27th of the same year, the latter pleading guilty to the indictment, while Rice was found guilty by the jury. James