Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 191?-19??, 1914-12-03

Aboos A40 ! W. SAA
last were William Taylor and james
Handley, and, following the lead o
Thomas Jefferson and Willie Jones
they voted against the ratification o
the Federal Constitution.
1 think it PROBABLE that some of hi.
descendants still live in this county
and in that part Of Wilson which was
formerly a part Of Wayne, though o.
this / have no distinct information.
In the Convention of 1889 the dele
gates from Wayne were Richard
McKinne, Burrell Mooring, Davi6
Cogdell, Joseph Jernigan and James
Handley, and of these, Mooring and
Cogdell voted against the ratification
of the Constitution, and McKinnne.
Jernigan and Handley voted for the
ratification. 1t was at this Conven.
tion that the Constitution was rati-
fed.
North Carolina refused at first to
ratify until a Bill of Rights had been
guaranteed, and the first ten admend-
ments to the Constitution assured.
There was no Superior Court held
in Wayne County until 1906. Prior
to that year Wayne was a part of a
district in which court was held at
New Bern, and all cases of Importance
were IT10u LII IuS OupOIlOT COuII O1
Craven. In 1906 Superior Courts
were established in each county,
and in 1918, the Supreme Court was
established. Before the organization
of the Supreme Court the judges of
the Superior Court met twice a year
to settle questions of law in what was
known as the Court of Conference"
All matters relating to the probate
of deeds and wills, the qualification
of administrators and guardians and
the settlement of estates, together
with the levying of taxes and the lay
ing out and working of roads, and the
trial of cases of minor Importance,
were cognizable in the Court of Pleas
n Quarter Sessions.
l find throughout the records the
appointment of overseers and hands
whose duty it was to remove logs,
trash, sandbanks, ETC., which obstruct-
ed the waters of the Neuse, over which
all the freight moved from New Bern
by flats, and afterwards by steam
boats. The Superior Court had sub
stantially the jurisdiction of the SUI
perior Court Of to-day. There were
two terms held annually, and many
of the famous lawyers of the State,
including CASTOR, Badger, Haywood
and others, attended this court from
time to time, and were entertained at
the village taverns. 1t is reported
they complained Of the fare, as
has occurred in the lives of numerous
eminent lawyers since that time, and
[ have heard of one of the most dis
lawyers Of the State who
was peculiarly bitter in his animad-
versions upon the taverns of Wayens-
Noro NOT ho1snuo fho& -yo1 fhn
tavern kept by DIR. Andrews, and am
kept by Isaac Hill, or his heirs, for
he reason that 1 am unable to locate
any of that family.
Although there was for the times a
arge business done in Waynesboro in
early part of the nineteenth en-
Jury, the town never grew much in
or population. 1t was the only
in the county and its leading
were people of refinement and |
a number of them being from
the Northern States, where they had
the advantages of education.
One of the reasons why the popula-
ion of Wayne did not increase more
vas the stream Of emigra-
ion to the Southern States which set
n about 1880, continued for nearly
,wenty years and deprived this coun-
y and other counties of the State of
many of their best citizens, to the
enrichment of Alabama and Missis-
sippi.
1t may be interesting to rccal1 that
1t the time of the organization of the
Court in Wayne County and for many
years afterwards the administration
Of the criminal law had not been
shorn of many of the barbarities which
distinguished the English common
aw, and punishments for crime were
Inflicted which shock the s~ensibilities
If more modern times.
I find among the old records a note
by one of the judges of the
Superior Court to the Clerk, which is
Is follows:
please draft the entry to be made
IN the minutes as follows: State VS..
H. Grant, upon conviction for forgery.
The defendant being put to the bar,
and having nothing to offer, where
lore the science of the law should not
be awarded against him, the court pro-
nounces the following sentence. That
The said H. Grant stand in the pillory
one hour, hat he receive 80 lashes
On his bare back and be imprisoned
I've mOnJnS. Snor1H OF wayne is Or
dered to carry out this sentence as
the corporal punishment this
day. It is ordered that he be com
to the jail of Lenoir county
I note hat it frequently occurs
prisoners are confined in the
jails of Lenoir and Wake counties,
md sometimes find the recital that
The Jail Of Wayne county is regarded
as insecure.
1t was customary at the time,
where the prisoner claimed the bene-i
of clergy, in addition to some other
punishment tt burn him in the hand
a red-hot iron. The benefit of
grew up under the Eng-l
fish law, when the authorities of the
Catholic Church demanded
the priests of that church should
not be tried by the secular courts,
but should be turned ove to the &C.
clesiastical courts for trial. At first
It seemed this demand was acceded
to without condition, but the secular
courts afterwards began to assert
their rights and a compromise seems
to have been effected, and clergymen
turned v e for trial to the
court, but only after having
been branded with a red-hot iron, in