The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-07-14
COLONIAL RELICS.
Two Ancient Documents Picked Up In Old
Virginia During the War.


Virginia During the War.
Oscar F. Richards, of Akron, Erie
County, N. Y, was a member of the
One Hundredth regiment New York
volunteers, and lost an eye by a musket
ball at the battle of Fair Oaks, for
which he was discharged. He has left
with the Times correspondent two veneer.
able and interesting relics of time
when the principal battle-ground Of the
South was indeed old Virginia. They
came to him in much the same way that
hundreds of such document were picked
! up as waits and estrays during the war.
These papers are writs issued out Of
the county court to the sheriff of Prince
George County, which county embraces
part of the present city of Petersburg.
Each is about the size of half-page OF
cap paper, about half written and half
| printed form; the ink is black, and as
legible as if written yesterday. The
! date of the older of the two will Justly
me in transcribing it verbatim.
| George the Second by the Grace of God OF
| Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King,
! Defender Of the Fa til, sc.
| To the Sheriff of Prince George County
greeting; We command you that you take
| Elizabeth Mallory, II she be found in your
! Baillw'ck, and her safely keep, so that you
| have her Body before the Justices of our
! said County Court, at the Courthouse of the
said county, on the second Tuesday in April
| next to satisfy Thomas Hyam the sum OF
Three pounds eight shillings and four pence
current money and seventy:one pounds OF
r. lSrNrc nd ~
| pence for an Attorneys Fee, which the said
Thomas Hyam hath lately ut our said Court
| recovered against her for Debt, and for his
| Costs about this suit In this behalf eSpend
| ed: whereof the said Elizabeth Mallory Is
| convict, as appears to u.s. OF Record. And
have then there this writ.
Witness, William Hamln, Clerk of our said
s9e IT.
! of our Reign.
VIM. IIAML1N.
The sheriff's return, written on the
back of the writ, shows that the unfor-
innate lady was arrested and held to
satisfy the same; but whether the un-
chivalrous Thomas Hyam ever obtained
his money and tobacco from her does
not appear.
The other writ is an execution against
the property of one Thomas Lovesay,
Jr., to the sheriff of the same county,
on which he returns that he has 'levied
! on pewter SPOON The date is May
6, IVA. Both of these relics are, in ex-
| cellent preservation. Except some
fractures in the creases of the stiff paper
where folded, they may be said to be
"as good as rew.'
| A brief reference to few contempo-
rary events will make us better under.
! stand the great age of q document which
/ is dated in March, 1745. Benjamin
Franklin was then less than forty years
old. George Washington was boy OF
/ thirteen, meditating nothing more than
the destruction of cherry frees The
battle of Culloden. which assured the
title of George H., by the grace OF
God, etc. to the throne, and which for.
ever crushed the hopes of Stuart, was
not fought until a year later And the
great Napoleon did not see the light un-
til twenty-four years after. The Declar-
alton of Independence came thirty-one
years after, and we read that the docu-
ment has become we'll nigh illegible; but
here is the writ from Prince Georges
county, one hundred and forty years
old, carrying us lar back into the
Good old colony times
When we were under the King.
and as plainly to be read, both print ano
writing, as the types that place it before
the reader. -Lockport (M W Cor. N.
Y. Times.