Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-07-16
RELICS,
Two Ancient Documents Picked Up in Old
Virginia During the War.

Two Ancient Documents Picked Up in Old
Virginia During the War.
Oscar z. 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 vencr-
able and interesting relics of Il time
when the principal battle-ground of the
South was indeed old Virginia. They
came to him in much tie 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
a part of the present city of Petersburg.
Each is about the size of a h~alf-page Of
cap paper, about half written and half
printed form; the ink is black, and as
leglble as ii written yesterday. The
date OF the older of the two will Justify
me in transcribing it verbatim.
George the Second, by the Grace of God of
Great Britain: France, and Ireland, King,
\ DeI6nuCr OF the Eltth. &c,
To the Sheriff of Prince George County.
greeting: We command you that you take
elizabeth Mallory, If she be found in your
bailiwIck, and her safely keep, so that you
nave her Body before the Justices.Of our
said County Court, Mt the Court-IIouseo of the
said county, on the second Tuesday in April
next e, to satisfy Thomas Hyam tile sum of
current money. and Seventy-one pounds OF
nett Tobacco, : Seven shillinys and six
pence for an Attorneys Fee, which the said
recovered against her for Debt, and for his
Costs about this suit in this behalf expend.
ca: whereof the said Elizabeth Mallory is
convict, as appears to us, of Record. And
have then there this writ.
Witness. William Hamlin, Clerk of our said
day Of March, l745, s in the Nineteenth year
of our Reign.
VIM. HAML1N.
The sheriff's return, written on the
back OF the writ, shows that the unfor-
inmate 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,
DR., to the sheriff of the same county,
on which he returns that he has .slevied
oiA e pow Wi oPOOu. Liz SliGG Is Nlty
6, 1874. 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 new"
A brief reference to- a few contcmpo-
rary events will make us better under
stand the great age of a document which
is dated in March, 1745. Benjamin
Franklin was then less than forty years
old. George Washington was a boy OF
thirteen, m%editating nothing more than
the destruction of cherry trees. The
battle of Culloden, which assured the
title of George H., by the grace o:
God, etc." to the throne, and which for
ever crushed the hopes of Stuart, wa
not fought until a year later. And thu
great Napoleon did not see the light un
til t%wenty-four years after. The Declar.
alton of Independence came thirty-one
years after, and we read that the docu-
ment has become well nigh illegible; but
here is the writ from Prince Georges
county, one hundred and forty years
old, carrying us far back into the
yGood old colony, times
When We were under the King.
and as plainly to be read, both print an6
writing. as the types that place it before
the reader.-Lockport (N. ~ Cor. ~
Y. Times.