The pilot. [volume] (Baltimore [Md.]) 1840-1840, 1840-04-23
From the N. Y. Morning Dispatch.
EX-SHERIFF PARKlNS.

A troubled spirit is at rest. Joseph w Par
kins, Ex-Sheriff of London, departed this llf,
suddenly, at Newark, on Sunday morning. He
had been i'll for some weeks, but was considered
as in the way of convalescence, when his sud
den decease put an end to the delusive hopes
which none more strongly than himself enter
taned of his entire recovery.
There was very much to admire in the con-
duct and character of this singular and original
genius, and as much to disgust but his very
ioibles, where a person did not happen to be
the victim of them, were an interesting study.
He was one of the most contumacOus and
pugnacious mortals that ever breathed the
breath of life. Quick in his affections, he was
the very creature of impulse, and as quick in
his jealousy and resentments. Misery in some
points, he was lavish in expenditures in the pur
suit of his hobbies one of which, it is due to
the character of the deceased 10 say, was chart
ty. In speech, he was very Ethan Allen, not
quite perhaps SO studiedly profane, but more
earnest. Any man could win the way to his
heart and TO his purse, by making cut case
of persecution, and then the old gentleman
would launch out whatever he had at COM
mand, to put his new friend above the reach of
the cd Internal and most horrible and afro
cious bloody villain who had injured his pro-
tege. The chance was, however, that in less
than month, he would include that friend in
the same "bloody'' category.
Ex-SheriH Parkins came TO this country
about ten years since, an English Radical, al
most, or at any rate strongly prepossessed in
favor OF the very largest liberty. He travelled
over some portions OF the country, delighted
with its enterprise, and caught with the rapidly
increasing value OF property. He made some
large investments, and was on the point of
making more, when he suddenly discovered
tx,b nt ha fhnurrbt IN, h
him. About the same time, he experienced
some difficulty about procuring the passage of
law TO enable him to hold real estate. As
his early life was spent among the Seepoys and
Coolies in the East Indies, and as he became
somewhat soured, and unreserved in the use of
his peculiar phraseology, il may readily be fan
ced that be did not get on very well in lobby
ing bill through the Legislature. Irritated
and provoked, he threw himself in the way of
legal prosecutions, and a series of suits, begun
and prosecuted against him in no very good
spirit, made the most of his faults and foibles,
and finally threw him into the debtors prison
III this city, on various verdicts for damages for
SANDER, assault and battery &C., &c., amount
ing in all, with costs, to five or six thousand
dollars.
These creditors, or portion of them, filed
a creditors bill in Chancery, and an order
from the Chancellor was issued, directing Mr.
Parkins TO surrender certain bonds, known to
be in his possession, for the liquidation of the
verdicts. Parkins summary issued a verbal
order to the Chancellor, TO lake himself to |
place where Spohr's Nbal stoves are not need
ed. For contempt of the Chancellor, and of
The Chancellors DEGREES, he went into Bride
well, as above related, with the bonds in his
pocket; and at the end of five years, came out
'f durance, with the same Identical papers in
lis possession. Once during the term of his
he was indicted and fined for
IN assault and battery on the keepers or some
II the inmates. An attempt was made to prove
lin insane, a defence which he most indig-
lantly discaimed, and disaproyed too, before