Return to Province of Georgia

Crime and Punishment in the Province of Georgia

The notes below record documentations of crimes and punishments found in records from the Province of Georgia beginning in 1733. (Key: NS=Not stated)

• DATE|LOCATION|SEX|COLONIST NAME|PROFESSION|CRIME|PUNISHMENT
• 25 Mar 1734|Savannah|Male|NS|NS|Inciting others & other vices|300 lashes under the gallows 1st hundred received today. On 27 March, 50 more lashes given & an Indian intervened. The judges ended the affair and remitted the remainder of the punishment.^[1]
• Dec 1736|Georgia|Female|Widow Cheesright|NS|Cut child’s back with knife|30 lashes^[2]
• 30 Jan 1742|Georgia|Males|Messers Barbers & Habershams Tryals|NS|Insult of Mr. Orton|Fine 5 marks each to the Trustees and £50 Sterling sureties for 1 year.^[3]
• 29 Jan 1743|Georgia|Male|Joseph Barker|NS|Fraud|Fined 20 marks, imprisoned until paid & to find sureties for his behavior for 3 years^[4]
• 11/12 Jul 1743|NS|Male|John Wright|Public Official|Contempt/Scandalous aspersions/etc.|Fined ^[5]
• 7 Aug 1743|Frederica|Male|NS|Surgeon Apothecary|Sodomy|Execution^[6]
• 3 Dec 1811|Bulloch County, Georgia|Male|Cornelius Price|NS|Larceny and horse stealing|Removed from court and placed in the Common Jail until Wednesday 4 Dec, then at 10 AM to be placed in the public pillory for an hour. At the end of an hour on his bare back at the public whipping post to receive 39 lashes then returned to the common jail. On Thursday 5 Dec then at 10 AM to be placed in the public pillory for an hour. At the end of an hour on his bare back at the public whipping post to receive 39 lashes then returned to the common jail. On Friday 6 Dec at 10 AM to be placed in the public pillory for an hour. At the end of an hour on his bare back at the public whipping post to receive 39 lashes then returned to the common jail of Chatham County and to remain there until 25 Dec because the Common Jail of Bulloch County is insufficient for the safekeeping of Cornelius Price. To be discharged after payment of costs.^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ The Travel Diary of the Two Pastors Messrs. Boltzius and Gronau Which the Two Have Kept from Halle to Georgia and for Some Time After Their Arrival in That Land, Part 1 and Part 2 p67 https://ugapress.manifoldapp.org/read/detailed-reports-on-the-salzburger-emigrants-who-settled-in-america-edited-by-samuel-urslperger-volume-one-1733-1734/section/4e88a654-fc63-411e-b391-9ca84682b50b
2. ↑ Egmont, Manuscripts of the Earl of Egmont Vol 3 1739- 1747 database with digital images image page 65 of 284, page 115 https://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/guan/rbko/pdfs/rbko-814.pdf
3. ↑ Stephens, William, The Journal of William Stevens, 1741 to 1743, ed. by Coulter, E. Merton, University of Georgia press, Athens, Georgia 1958 database with images pages 36-37 https://books.google.com/books?id=r8wBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=journal+of+william+stephens&source=bl&ots=uNSATUvD6c&sig=ACfU3U2kKoYpUM1nuyiUoIxRi83HPF_Eog&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjUgqKZ3oKBAxUikmoFHdyBCtc4FBDoAXoECAUQAw#v=snippet&q=Fined&f=false
4. ↑ Stephens, William, The Journal of William Stevens, 1741 to 1743, ed. by Coulter, E. Merton, University of Georgia press, Athens, Georgia 1958 database with images pages 165-166 https://books.google.com/books?id=r8wBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=journal+of+william+stephens&source=bl&ots=uNSATUvD6c&sig=ACfU3U2kKoYpUM1nuyiUoIxRi83HPF_Eog&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjUgqKZ3oKBAxUikmoFHdyBCtc4FBDoAXoECAUQAw#v=snippet&q=Fined&f=false
5. ↑ Stephens, William, The Journal of William Stevens, 1743 to 1745, ed. by Coulter, E. Merton, University of Georgia press, Athens, Georgia 1959, p123-124
6. ↑ Stephens, William, The Journal of William Stevens, 1743 to 1745, ed. by Coulter, E. Merton, University of Georgia press, Athens, Georgia 1959, p3
7. ↑ Bulloch County, State of Georgia Superior Court Minutes, 1806-1824, digital database with images, image page 48-51 of 146, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSYC-13MW-S?i=47