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Writ of arrest issued for Jenney Burlington, "a Black woman," in Sterling, Windham County, Connecticut : manuscript
Title
Writ of arrest issued for Jenney Burlington, "a Black woman," in Sterling, Windham County, Connecticut : manuscript, 1802 May 4.
Production
Sterling, Connecticut : Samuel French, Peter Burlingame ; 1802.
Physical Description
1 sheet ([2] pages) : paper ; 33 x 20 cm.
Language
English
Local Notes
Hicks classification: MssB W7235 no.1 xtall.
Lillian Goldman Law Library Rare46 22-0003 copy purchased from Garret Scott, Bookseller in November, 2019.
Notes
Manuscript in English.
Title devised by cataloger.
Bibliographic description primarily based on the information provided by the book dealer.
Written in two different hands.
The writ begins: "To John Gaston Esq. Justice of Peace for Windham County Comes Samuel French of Sterling in the County and to you ..." Writ of attachment issued in the name of the Justice of Peace, John Gaston, of the Windham County, Connecticut, by the clerk Samuel French and the constable Peter Burlingame, authorizing Burlingame to interrogate and arrest the African American woman Jenney Burlington of Sterling for assaulting James Dorrance of Sterling.
Summary
A document dealing with law, violence, and an African American woman. Samuel French takes out a complaint, "... that he your Complaint was in the Peace of God and of the State of Connecticut in the[?] Sterling in the house of James Dorrance in the[?] Sterling on about the 3rd day of May about his Law full Business and one Jenney Burlington so called a Black woman and then and there Did an assault make on the Body of your Complainant with force and armes by Pulling him Backward by the hair Down on the floor and then Biting him on his thumbs and fingers and other ways Very much abused him" ([page 1]). French signs the complaint with mark. The writ is annotated by the constable Peter Burlingame, who executed the writ the same day. The 1800 census shows a Prim Burlington in Plainfield, Windham County (a few miles down the Plainfield Pike from Sterling) with a total of two "All other Free Persons" i.e., non-white) in her household; a poorly machine-read census entry for Lemuel Dorrance, Esq. of Sterling in the 1800 census suggests the Dorrance family in Sterling may also have owned a slave as well as having Burlington as a domestic.--Bookdealer's description.
Format
Archives or Manuscripts
Added to Catalog
July 14, 2022
Subjects
Genre/Form
Writs.
Also listed under
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