Retribution
It was past sunrise on Saturday morning ere the
boats were espied, from "Sentinel Hill," rounding
the point in the river, and approaching the
Landing at Derby.
Already some of the people were gathered, and
waiting to hear the news of the pursuit. Loud shouts
from the crews, as they drew nigh, announced the
success of the expedition, and before they had landed,
a joyful peal from the meeting-house bell sent the
glad intelligence throughout the town. In a very
brief time, hundreds had assembled to express their
pleasure at the result, and aid, if there was need, in
any measures that might be adopted to bring the criminals
to justice. It is a significant testimony to the
habits of self-control to which the law-abiding people
of Connecticut were accustomed, that these were not
snatched from the hands of their captors, and hanged
upon the nearest tree.
It being impracticable, from the absence of witnesses
and other circumstances, to hold the requisite legal
examination that day, the prisoners were handcuffed,
and placed under a strong guard until after the Sabbath.
They were then arraigned before Joseph Hopkins
and Thomas Clarke, Esqs., of Waterbury, justices of
the peace for the county, and with the exception of
Graham, were all committed for trial at the Superior
Court, to be held in New Haven in May following.
Graham was ascertained to be both a deserter from
the American army and under a commission from
General Howe to recruit soldiers from among the
tories for the British service. On searching him, the
commission was found in his pocket; and finding his
case desperate, he no longer made a secret of his career,
but acknowledged his true character and designs.
It was concluded by the magistrates that the case
properly came under the jurisdiction of military law,
and they ordered him sent, under a strong escort, to
the headquarters of the army, then at Morristown, to
be tried, under the orders of Washington, as a deserter
and a spy. This was accordingly done, and he was
found guilty and executed, agreeably to the rules of
War.
We have no information as to the manner or circumstances
of his death. The fact only is attested by
tradition, and agrees with the inherent probabilities
of the case. It is probable, also, that he died hardened
and reckless, as he had lived. For not in the
natural world do the laws of cause and effect operate
more surely than in the moral, decreeing the certain
connection between a life of sin and a death of infamy
and hopelessness. It is not alone an enactment of divine
justice, but a result following in the normal workings
of his own nature, that whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap.
The remaining robbers having been dispatched to
New Haven for confinement in the jail, Chauncey,
accompanied by his brothers and other friends, was
taken to his home. Of the warmth and tenderness of
his reception there we can have no doubt. And he
needed all the care which the most assiduous nursing
could afford. He had endured hardships which were
enough to crush one much stronger than he. Indeed,
he was, for several days, partially insane. The shock
to his nervous system, from the repeated imminent
prospect of death, increased by his severe bodily sufferings,
had completely broken him down. Often
would he awake from a sort of stupor in which be lay,
and cry, Hurrah for King George! imagining
himself to be in the power of his abductors still. During
their flight down the river and across the Sound,
he had been wholly unprotected from the wind, and
had almost perished from cold. His hands, from
holding the bayonet, had been frost-bitten, and some
of his fingers remained stiffened and crippled for life.
It was believed by his family that the strength of his
constitution was impaired by these hardships so that
he never recovered from it, but continued in delicate
health until his death.
On the first Tuesday in May, a special term of the
Superior Court, consisting of the Hon. Matthew Griswold,
chief judge, and Eliphalet Dyer, Roger Sherman,
and William Pitkin, assistant judges, was held
at New Haven for the trial of the robbers, to which
was joined that of six other persons as accessories,
viz., David Wooster, Sen., Noah Candee, Daniel
Johnson, William Seeley, Francis Noble, and Lemuel
Wooding. The character of the offense, the number
and prominence of the accused, and the romantic
story of the abduction and maltreatment of young
Judd, excited a profound interest throughout the
county, and the sessions of the court were crowded
with spectators. The counts of the indictment were
two-fold – first for burglary, and secondly for treason,
the latter consisting in joining or attempting to join
the enemies of the state by going to Long Island,
which, by a recent law of the state, had been expressly
declared to constitute that crime. The accessories
named were charged with countenancing, harboring,
and aiding the active criminals in so doing.
In the lack of sufficient independent evidence to secure
the conviction, – for it will be remembered that
Chauncey could not testify to the fact of the burglary,
– two of the accused, Scott and Cady, who were believed
to be least conspicuous in the transaction, were
permitted to turn witnesses for the state. All the
others were found guilty, and received sentences as
follows;–
The three burglars, David and Henry Wooster, Jr.,
and Samuel Doolittle, each to pay a fine of fifty
pounds, and be imprisoned four years in the Newgate
State Prison.
David Wooster, Ben., and Noah Candee, to pay a
fine each of five hundred pounds, and be imprisoned
nine months in the Hartford jail.
Daniel Johnson, two hundred and fifty pounds fine,
and imprisonment in the Hartford Jail nine mouths.
Francis Noble, a fine of fifty pounds, and imprisonment
in Hartford Jail one year.
William Seeley, twenty-five pounds, and Hartford
Jail nine months.
Lemuel Wooding, twenty-five pounds, and Hartford
Jail six months.
In addition to these sentences, civil suits for damages
were instituted by Captain Dayton against all the
responsible parties that had been implicated in the affair
– first for assault and battery upon Mrs. Dayton
and the children; secondly for the damage done to his
house and furniture, the destruction of his liquors,
etc., and thirdly for the loss of his goods which they
had carried away. In all these suits but one, he recovered
judgment, awarding him, in the aggregate,
many thousands of pounds. The excepted case was a
suit against Captain John Wooster, his wife and
daughter, for harboring and concealing the robbers,
which, for some reason not stated on the record, was
decided against Dayton.
Mr. Judd also sued David Wooster and his son,
Candee, Johnson, and Jobamah Gunn, for the abduction
of Chauncey, and injuries done to him, and recovered
a verdict of eight hundred pounds, lawful
money.
These heavy fines and payment for damages, together
with all the costs of the trial, it may well be
believed, were the pecuniary ruin of many of the
tories. Mr. Wooster, indeed, was stripped of all his
property. His homestead was attached and confiscated
to the state, and he was reduced to absolute poverty.
Many traditions remain to this day of the straits
to which his family were reduced. Candee also, and
Gunn, notwithstanding all the endeavors of the latter
to conceal his knowledge of the transaction, suffered
heavily. It is said that, when paying to Mr. Judd the
eight hundred pounds awarded for the abduction of
Chauncey, he brought out the coin from his house in
his beaver hat, and made delivery of the money in
that mode.
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