Speaker 1: Chisel raised his sword and leaned across and ran Routledge
Speaker 1: through the heart and immediately said he deserved his fate.
Speaker 1: I aimed for his heart and I hit it, and
Speaker 1: then asked for his slave boy to clean the sword,
Speaker 1: and he then ordered some toddy and sat down and drank.
Speaker 1: I mean just unbelievable that scene and the feeling of
Speaker 1: ut of righteousness on his part, that he wronged me
Speaker 1: verbally and I've put that right, and in front of many,
Speaker 1: many witnesses, it must have been an incredible and ghastly spectacle.
Speaker 2: It was June of seventeen sixty six, more than a
Speaker 2: week after Colonel John Chisel stabbed Scottish merchant Robert Rutledge
Speaker 2: to death with his sword. The sheriff drove Chisel toward Williamsburg,
Speaker 2: about one hundred miles away, which would have taken at
Speaker 2: least a day. Having spent a week locked away in
Speaker 2: the Cumberland County jail, Chisel was exhausted. He had been
Speaker 2: dragged to court, and he had demanded that the justices
Speaker 2: release him on bail so he could avoid the spectacle
Speaker 2: of being jailed in Williamsburg, where his family lived, But
Speaker 2: the justices had declined to offer bail. Murderers were virtually
Speaker 2: never offered bail, no matter their status. The judges were
Speaker 2: also likely nervous about the case, so they sent Chisel
Speaker 2: to Williamsburg to appear before the General Court. Historian and
Speaker 2: interpreter Nicole Brown explains what happened as Chissel's carriage rambled
Speaker 2: along the country road.
Speaker 3: So he's on his way to Williamsburg, and all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, the sheriff in question is intercepted by several
Speaker 3: gentlemen of Williamsburg, also including his attorney, John Wales.
Speaker 2: John Wales was a terrible person. Let's just say that upfront.
Speaker 2: He was a plantation owner and a slave trader. He
Speaker 2: was also a lawyer, and he was connected to a
Speaker 2: future president, Thomas Jefferson, because Jefferson had married Wales's daughter, Martha.
Speaker 2: John Wales was not a good person, but he was
Speaker 2: a good attorney.
Speaker 3: He's an attorney at this time, and not a very
Speaker 3: popular one by all accounts in the newspaper. But he
Speaker 3: ends up being Colonel Chisel's attorney and either takes depositions
Speaker 3: or the depositions from the individuals in the tavern are
Speaker 3: collected by him to be brought in front of three
Speaker 3: of the justices of the peace.
Speaker 2: Let's go back a bit for some context. While Chisel
Speaker 2: was in jail in Cumberland County, Wales had been gathering
Speaker 2: information about his case. What exactly had happened that afternoon
Speaker 2: in Moseby's tavern? Who saw what? And what exactly do
Speaker 2: they think they saw? Once it seemed like there could
Speaker 2: be room for reasonable doubt, Wales came up with the
Speaker 2: defense Ruttledge had threatened Chisel. Chisel armed himself with a
Speaker 2: long sword. Then Rutledge lunged forward and essentially threw himself
Speaker 2: on the sword, killing himself accidentally. To Wales, this seemed
Speaker 2: like a reasonable explanation. Wales also knew that it would
Speaker 2: be unacceptable for a member of the gentry class to
Speaker 2: be jailed in the center of Williamsburg. It would be humiliating,
Speaker 2: not just for Chisel, but for any member of the
Speaker 2: upper class in the thirteen colonies. So Wales approached the
Speaker 2: three Justices of the General Court in Williamsburg. This was
Speaker 2: the highest core for the Colony of Virginia. It was
Speaker 2: meant to preside over felony cases or civil cases that
Speaker 2: were financially more notable big cases. These three men would
Speaker 2: be presiding over Chisel's case and they would decide if
Speaker 2: John Chisel would receive bail.
Speaker 4: These individuals are all appointed to serve for life by
Speaker 4: the Crown. The Royal governor is coming from England or Scotland,
Speaker 4: so he's not going to be familiar with the customs
Speaker 4: and the traditions of the Virginians. And that's why the
Speaker 4: Crown has appointed these Virginians, for the most part, native
Speaker 4: born Virginians, to assist the governor with his responsibilities. They
Speaker 4: serve as the upper house of the colony's legislature, they
Speaker 4: serve as the executive administration for the colony's government, and
Speaker 4: they serve as the justices in the highest court in
Speaker 4: the colony.
Speaker 5: So three men from the Governor's council. It's John Blair,
Speaker 5: Presley Thornton and William Bird. The third who had they
Speaker 5: mentioned of earlier.
Speaker 2: You've heard of William Byrd the because he was a
Speaker 2: business partner of Chisel and John Robinson. The three men
Speaker 2: owned Chisel's leadmine. John Chisel also owed William Byrd some
Speaker 2: money and Bird had borrowed money from John Robinson. Now
Speaker 2: you see how things went in the colonies.
Speaker 6: The gentry, you know, the good old boy system, and
Speaker 6: they were all partners.
Speaker 2: Chisel's lawyer, John Wales approached the three justices of the
Speaker 2: General Court and explained what happened in the tavern that day.
Speaker 2: The trio of men panicked. They all had personal connections
Speaker 2: to Chisel, and it would certainly be detrimental to the
Speaker 2: gentry class to have one of their own seen behind
Speaker 2: bars in the center of town. So, while Chisel was
Speaker 2: at a bail hearing in Cumberland County, the three judges
Speaker 2: came up with a plan.
Speaker 3: In Williamsburg, Let's go talk to these three attorneys, one
Speaker 3: of whom is George With, to see if you can
Speaker 3: find precedent to give Colonel Chisel bail.
Speaker 2: The justices of the General Court were searching for a
Speaker 2: legal way to justify giving jo On Chisel bail.
Speaker 5: They approach some learned lawyers, one of whom is George With,
Speaker 5: to ask if it was possible for Colonel Chisel to
Speaker 5: receive bail.
Speaker 2: That's incredible. The judges of the General Court were supposed
Speaker 2: to remain unbiased, but they weren't. They knew it would
Speaker 2: be detrimental to send another member of the gentry class
Speaker 2: to jail. But it wasn't just Chisel's reputation that was
Speaker 2: at stake. Let's talk about what Chisel would face if
Speaker 2: he were locked up in Williamsburg, and public humiliation would
Speaker 2: be the least of his troubles. Lots of photos, ladies.
Speaker 7: Okay, yeah, you'd like you could get a picture of
Speaker 7: one of y'all unlocking us.
Speaker 8: Get the key.
Speaker 6: It's a weird key.
Speaker 3: Thanks Cash, I got the key.
Speaker 9: So belocks of pretty.
Speaker 2: Finny cashier Hearts and Nicole were kind enough to give
Speaker 2: my daughters and me a tour of the jail where
Speaker 2: Chisel would serve his time.
Speaker 9: There we go, all right, I'll turn it counterclockwise, keep going,
Speaker 9: I'll go in.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Is this a jail cell? Now, why doesn't Cash explain
Speaker 3: that to you? What this actually is?
Speaker 4: So right now we are in the jail keeper's living quarters.
Speaker 4: This is where the jail keeper and his family would
Speaker 4: have resided. There would have had a kitchen on site
Speaker 4: as well, and probably some other living space also, So
Speaker 4: it's a pretty comfortable space compared to what most Virginians
Speaker 4: would reside in. Most Virginians free or enslaved, they'd probably
Speaker 4: live in a structure that has a dirt floor, no
Speaker 4: glass in the windows. It would have an earthen fireplace,
Speaker 4: whereas this structure, it has a wooden floor. It's a
Speaker 4: brick building on a raised foundation, it has glazed windows,
Speaker 4: and the fact that it has multiple rooms is another benefit.
Speaker 2: It was an important job that required the jailer to
Speaker 2: stay on the premises most of the time, so it
Speaker 2: makes sense that the quarters would be nice. But we
Speaker 2: were curious about what it would be like for a prisoner.
Speaker 3: So I know, the night before his trial was to commence,
Speaker 3: Chisel was supposed to stay in the jail. Do you
Speaker 3: have any idea of what cell he likely would have
Speaker 3: stayed in.
Speaker 4: They don't seem to have had assigned jail cells.
Speaker 2: Perhaps John Chisel would eventually be taken to the gallows.
Speaker 2: Certainly at that time the public seemed to support the
Speaker 2: idea that a murderer deserved it. But first he'd need
Speaker 2: to go on trial, and he'd have to spend some
Speaker 2: time in one of those cells.
Speaker 4: They're pretty spartan conditions. You would not have had furniture
Speaker 4: in the cells.
Speaker 9: You would have.
Speaker 4: Had a couple of palletts. That's sort of like a
Speaker 4: cloth bag that's been filled with straw or corn husks
Speaker 4: to sleep on. The jail keeper is responsible for providing
Speaker 4: you food and for keeping you healthy. But if you
Speaker 4: wanted better treatment or better food, or furniture or lodging,
Speaker 4: you could have it, but only if you could afford
Speaker 4: to pay for it.
Speaker 2: Like so much of society at that time, even in jail,
Speaker 2: it paid to be a member of the gentry. Did
Speaker 2: the gentry like Chisel know about all of these conditions, Oh?
Speaker 4: Absolutely. Chisel's son in law is the speaker of the house.
Speaker 4: His friend serve on the council, who are the justices
Speaker 4: of the court, so he would be very familiar with
Speaker 4: the circumstances that folks in the jail are staying in.
Speaker 8: As far as you know, in the history of this
Speaker 8: jail in Williamsburg, had anybody at his caliber had been
Speaker 8: here for any reason, debtors or anything else.
Speaker 4: There were instances previously where individuals in high station in
Speaker 4: society had gotten in trouble with the law, but I'm
Speaker 4: not aware of anyone that had ever progressed to the
Speaker 4: point of about to be kept in the jail under
Speaker 4: the accusation of murder.
Speaker 2: Jail was a perilous place, and anyone who spent time
Speaker 2: there was likely at risk, no matter their social status,
Speaker 2: or maybe especially at risk because of it.
Speaker 8: The public jail that you've been in is the place
Speaker 8: where anybody who committed a murder is to be held
Speaker 8: before their trial. And I certainly cannot think of anybody
Speaker 8: who received the privilege of getting to go back to
Speaker 8: his own house to await trial.
Speaker 2: But Chisel's attorneys, including George with did find that precedent.
Speaker 2: He pointed to a murder case where the coroner had
Speaker 2: not declared that the death was a murder at the inquest.
Speaker 2: Remember that in religious case, the coroner had said that
Speaker 2: he had died from a sword stabbing, but Chisele was
Speaker 2: not named.
Speaker 5: Then Colonel Chisel can receive bail. This man received bail
Speaker 5: because of a coroner's inquest.
Speaker 3: They do find precedent to give Colonel Chisel bail or
Speaker 3: the attorneys due although it's dubious at best, and Colonel Chisel,
Speaker 3: rather than being ushered away to the jail in Williamsburg,
Speaker 3: which will be very hot and dark in the middle
Speaker 3: of the summer, is sent to his beautiful town home
Speaker 3: in Williamsburg, two streets over.
Speaker 2: The three judges, all friends of Chisel, convened privately. After
Speaker 2: the attorneys presented their findings and they made their decision,
Speaker 2: John Chisel could receive bail and they were in the
Speaker 2: right technically. Cash Erhart takes Nicole Brown and me on
Speaker 2: a tour of a historic building where the council had
Speaker 2: once met.
Speaker 4: One of one conversations were taken place. Yeah, in this
Speaker 4: room after Colonel Bird and the other members of the
Speaker 4: council pretty much took it upon themselves to secure bail
Speaker 4: for or Chiswell.
Speaker 2: This seemed to be eighteenth century privilege on display, and
Speaker 2: Robert Rutledge was essentially dismissed as a victim whose life
Speaker 2: had little value. Instead, rut his position as a merchant
Speaker 2: was threatening.
Speaker 5: We're talking about somebody who outright murdered his friend, and
Speaker 5: then his friends tried to give him a privileged position.
Speaker 10: So these two guys, when we talk about Colonel Chisel,
Speaker 10: who of course is an aristocrat's aristocrat, he is as
Speaker 10: gentry as they come.
Speaker 4: He is kind of a jerk.
Speaker 10: No one seems to particularly care for the guy, but
Speaker 10: is wealthy, well connected. And then you've got someone like Rutledge,
Speaker 10: who is making his way in the world in a
Speaker 10: time where people making their way in the world is
Speaker 10: making the wealthy elites uncomfortable, because yeah, so we've got
Speaker 10: our status quo guy who's representing sort of old school,
Speaker 10: and then you've got Rutledge is sort of the people
Speaker 10: who are up and coming. And this bigger question always
Speaker 10: is is who's in charge, who matters, and who gets
Speaker 10: to make those decisions.
Speaker 2: The justices had never interviewed any of the witnesses themselves.
Speaker 2: They just accepted the lead advice. That day on the
Speaker 2: country ride, when the sheriff was stopped from continuing on
Speaker 2: to Williamsburg, the three judges, as well as Chisel's attorney
Speaker 2: were there to offer Chisel bail and deliver him to
Speaker 2: his home. He thanked them for their assistance, but now
Speaker 2: he had to pay the bill. They couldn't release Chisel
Speaker 2: from that onerous obligation, and it was an incredibly large
Speaker 2: sum of money, a total of six thousand pounds that's
Speaker 2: more than one point five million dollars in today's money, two.
Speaker 5: Thousand pounds for himself, with four gentlemen vouching for him
Speaker 5: at one thousand pounds each, six thousand pounds a wild
Speaker 5: amount of money. I mean, one thousand pounds in Virginia
Speaker 5: for a working class person is considered an insurmountable debt.
Speaker 8: Ah what he has to pay two thousand and then
Speaker 8: he's got four other people paying one thousand pounds ease.
Speaker 5: And who are these other gentrymen, his friends who are
Speaker 5: doing what everyone else is doing? Hence the credit society.
Speaker 5: It's the scratch of a pen.
Speaker 2: Robert means that all five of these men, including Chisel,
Speaker 2: are just signing their name for credit and promising to
Speaker 2: pay the note someday.
Speaker 5: They're not going back to a bank right in withdrawing
Speaker 5: one thousand pounds. No. No, they are signing their name
Speaker 5: to a piece of paper, just like you do for
Speaker 5: many transactions, if not most transactions in Virginia.
Speaker 2: That was another good illustration of why the colonists in
Speaker 2: all thirteen colonies were always in debt. It was so
Speaker 2: easy to borrow money at high interest rates, regardless of
Speaker 2: the expense. John Chisel had avoided the jail for now,
Speaker 2: and for him that was certainly worth the price. After
Speaker 2: Chisel headed home with his lawyers, Sheriff Jesse Thomas turned
Speaker 2: the carriage around and headed back west alone in Williamsburg,
Speaker 2: Colonel Chisel's attorney, John Wales, and his colleagues began building
Speaker 2: their case for self defense. The first part was picking
Speaker 2: a jury. It's the right of a defendant to be
Speaker 2: judged by a jury of his peers.
Speaker 4: So since Colonel Chisel lives hearing Williamsburg, but he's accused
Speaker 4: of murder out in Montgomery County, Virginia, near Blacksburg at
Speaker 4: Mosby's Tavern is where the crime took place, would Chisel
Speaker 4: object to having six jurors come from out west to
Speaker 4: come and sit on the jury hearing Williamsburg. Because the
Speaker 4: idea is that who better to know whether or not
Speaker 4: someone might have committed a crime than that person's neighbors,
Speaker 4: someone who would be familiar with the circumstances of the crime.
Speaker 2: Chisel was a resident of Williamsburg, so half of his
Speaker 2: jury would come from the countryside out west he owns property,
Speaker 2: and the other half would come from where he lives
Speaker 2: most of the time. Here's the problem. The wealthy men
Speaker 2: from the countryside would also be unlikely to convict a
Speaker 2: member of the gentry. But in the city a juror
Speaker 2: might be a middle class person who would be less sympathetic.
Speaker 4: But you're not likely to find some of the same
Speaker 4: sorts of gentlemen coming from out west as you would
Speaker 4: find in paneled on a jury hearing Williamsburg.
Speaker 2: And that revelation began to make people in Williamsburg very angry.
Speaker 2: A mysterious writer with the pen name d K. Philos
Speaker 2: began submitting anonymous articles to the newspaper the Virginia Gazette.
Speaker 2: D K Philos is the Greek phrase for lover of justice.
Speaker 2: The writer questioned the General Court's decision to grant Chisel bail.
Speaker 2: They accused Chisel of being privileged, of taking advantage of
Speaker 2: his high station. The writer was concerned that justice would
Speaker 2: be derailed, that Chisel would get away with murder, that
Speaker 2: the jury would be tilted toward Chisel.
Speaker 5: I'll just read a couple of lines from this di
Speaker 5: K Felos. He says, some persons have ungenerously surmised that
Speaker 5: the influence of mister Chisel's friends will prevent the truth
Speaker 5: from being published. But who of his friends have so
Speaker 5: little sense and honor as to desire the suppression of
Speaker 5: truth and the violation of justice and.
Speaker 2: Government suppression of truth? This phrase might not seem incendiary,
Speaker 2: but in the eighteenth century it's a big accusation against
Speaker 2: the gentry.
Speaker 5: He's not mincing words here, right, this is a different quote.
Speaker 5: He says. Patriots, however, are alarmed on this occasion. Foreigners
Speaker 5: are alarmed. The middle and lower ranks of men who
Speaker 5: are acquainted with the particulars are extremely alarmed. But have
Speaker 5: they reason for much uneasiness? Ought they not to believe
Speaker 5: that the persons in power will always act rightly.
Speaker 2: A few weeks later, the lead Justice John Blair responded
Speaker 2: to the accusations made by the anonymous writer in the newspaper.
Speaker 2: Blair had penned the reply earlier because he realized just
Speaker 2: how unpopular the court's decision was. Judge Blair said he
Speaker 2: believed it to be quote an unhappy, drunken affair, and
Speaker 2: so bail could be offered. It was not. Blair believed murder,
Speaker 2: and he said that English judges were allowed to grant
Speaker 2: bail to murderers if they wished, And that argument goes
Speaker 2: back to the fundamental argument for liberty. We colonists no
Speaker 2: longer want to follow English law. Our system of government
Speaker 2: will be different. Politics was grafted onto crime once again.
Speaker 2: The government of Virginia was being called into question. Remember
Speaker 2: in the last episode when we talked about America's first
Speaker 2: murder diagram, the sketch that pinpointed each man's movement, it
Speaker 2: was Decay Fellow who drew up that map to be
Speaker 2: printed in the newspaper. Who was this anonymous writer, We
Speaker 2: don't know for sure. Some scholars have speculated that he
Speaker 2: was a printer with a grudge against the gentry. During
Speaker 2: our tour, cash Earhart reveals the most popular theory.
Speaker 4: And it was the Reverend Jonathan Boucher. That's what is suspected,
Speaker 4: and Boucher was the tutor of George Washington's stepson, John Park.
Speaker 9: Custis.
Speaker 2: If the author were really Reverend Jonathan Boucher, then that's
Speaker 2: a little surprising given his political leanings.
Speaker 3: The interesting thing about Decephalos and those articles too, especially
Speaker 3: if it was Jonathan Boucher who wrote it, is you know,
Speaker 3: in hindsight everyone saying, well, he's a loyalist, so you
Speaker 3: would think maybe he would side with that old guard
Speaker 3: as we perceive it. And yet he is the loudest
Speaker 3: protester of what's happening with the Chissel Rutledge affair. So
Speaker 3: I think it speaks this idea of patriot and loyalist
Speaker 3: as we know them in the seventeen sixties don't exist.
Speaker 2: I asked Cash what Boucher was hoping to accomplish by
Speaker 2: publishing the articles.
Speaker 4: He sounds like someone who wants to see the world
Speaker 4: as he would wish it, instead of the world as
Speaker 4: it is when this happens. He's publishing those articles under
Speaker 4: the name of Decephalus pointing out the inconsistencies. This is wrong.
Speaker 4: You aren't supposed to grant someone bail. The crown's attorney,
Speaker 4: the attorney general, he should have been here instead of
Speaker 4: being out of town when this is happening.
Speaker 2: That's right. The Attorney General made sure he was out
Speaker 2: of town when the depositions were taken, and then when
Speaker 2: Chisel was granted bail. And here's why he left. The
Speaker 2: attorney general's name was Peyton, Randolph Chisel's brother in law.
Speaker 2: Peyton was the brother of Chisel's wife, Elizabeth. Do you
Speaker 2: see now how well connected John Chisel.
Speaker 4: Was, So you're beginning to see those fissures that I
Speaker 4: was talking about. The status quo is in danger, Yeah,
Speaker 4: the status quo is under siege.
Speaker 2: These essays purportedly from Reverend Boucher, were read by people
Speaker 2: of all classes across the thirteen colonies and across the
Speaker 2: ocean in England.
Speaker 4: The newspaper in Maryland picks up the entire story after
Speaker 4: it's published in the Virginia Gazette. Here in Williamsburging, it
Speaker 4: would have not been unexpected that leaders throughout the different
Speaker 4: colonies subscribed to each colony's newspapers. Taverns also would often
Speaker 4: subscribe to newspapers from the different colonies, and it was
Speaker 4: a common practice to lift entirely what we would think
Speaker 4: of as copying paste articles from other colonies newspapers and
Speaker 4: published in yours. That way, these incidents would have become
Speaker 4: pretty well known pretty quickly throughout North America and ultimately
Speaker 4: back in London.
Speaker 2: In ten years, Thomas Pain would write the essay Common Sense.
Speaker 2: It was printed half a million times. In Common Sense,
Speaker 2: Pain argued for independence from England, and it alone convinced
Speaker 2: many colonists that it was time to be free from
Speaker 2: the king. Boucher and his articles were just as powerful
Speaker 2: as Thomas Paine and his essay. Finally, someone explained to
Speaker 2: the masses why John Robinson and John Chisel were the
Speaker 2: avatars for English greed in the Colonies. The abundance of
Speaker 2: information about Rutledge's murder, as well as Chisel's privilege, caused
Speaker 2: incredibly vicious debates and accusations in the papers. Members of
Speaker 2: the Old Guard were actively attacking each other in print.
Speaker 3: Everything's just bandied about in this messy, nasty, juicy kind
Speaker 3: of way, in the way that I think we all
Speaker 3: still relate to things with news. Right, the dirtier it
Speaker 3: is or the messier it is, the faster we click
Speaker 3: on it.
Speaker 2: Right, same thing, Right, Remember the name of this season
Speaker 2: entitled The theme of this season is someone with privilege
Speaker 2: in America escaping justice. It's something we debate in newspapers
Speaker 2: today in the media. When is enough enough for a society?
Speaker 2: When do they stop being entitled and start being held accountable,
Speaker 2: regardless of their political affiliation. I often talk about how
Speaker 2: lessons resonate with people now, and I'm sure that this
Speaker 2: is one of those lessons. The colonists were incensed over
Speaker 2: the details about Chisel's threats towards Rutledge, especially his abusive language,
Speaker 2: and then Chisel claimed that Rutledge was the aggressor and
Speaker 2: that his death was a tragic accident. The public was incredulous,
Speaker 2: but of course they never protested over the fact that
Speaker 2: Chisel threatened to kill his enslaved manservant just for refusing
Speaker 2: to bring him a sword.
Speaker 3: When you look at the reports of this case, the depositions,
Speaker 3: what's in the newspaper, no one bats a eye about
Speaker 3: him threatening to kill his enslaved manservant. That level of
Speaker 3: violence is expected. So in that kind of world where
Speaker 3: in Williamsburg, where he spends a great deal of time,
Speaker 3: over half the population is black, the majority enslaved, and
Speaker 3: you have laws essentially saying that if you kill your
Speaker 3: enslaved individuals in the process of correction, it's not a felony.
Speaker 3: How much longer does it take until you start to
Speaker 3: escalate towards violence of other members of your community. It's
Speaker 3: a matter of time.
Speaker 2: The enslaved man servant had been a witness, He had
Speaker 2: been standing right there when Rutledge was killed. He was
Speaker 2: friend to neither man. Perhaps he was an unbiased opinion
Speaker 2: that could be valuable in the murder case. No, said
Speaker 2: Virginia's government.
Speaker 3: Would he have testifying, No, because no person of color
Speaker 3: is allowed to testify against a white person. In a
Speaker 3: court of law, wow in the eighteenth century.
Speaker 2: So this is so if it doesn't affect them.
Speaker 3: That's correct. Yeah.
Speaker 2: As the summer months waned and the autumn of seventeen
Speaker 2: sixty six approached, so did Colonel John Chisel's murder trial
Speaker 2: in Williamsburg. It was set to begin on August sixteenth,
Speaker 2: and John Chisel was very restless.
Speaker 3: I think as we move further into this very hot,
Speaker 3: sticky summer, and we know it was a hot, sticky
Speaker 3: summer because of some of the other reports in the
Speaker 3: newspaper that year along with his murder case. You know,
Speaker 3: they mentioned at one point in late July, beginning of August,
Speaker 3: he's come back from his lead minds.
Speaker 2: Newspaper writers had followed Chisel since the story had broken.
Speaker 2: The papers reported that he had visited his lead mines
Speaker 2: in late July, and at the beginning of August, Nicole
Speaker 2: Brown says that was outrageous. Why was he allowed to
Speaker 2: go anywhere?
Speaker 3: So not only was he brought to Williamsburg and then
Speaker 3: given bail, he was allowed to go back out to
Speaker 3: the western part of Virginia to check his minds. And
Speaker 3: they said, well, we hope you just come back by
Speaker 3: October sixteenth, When your trial.
Speaker 2: Is It was almost as if Chisel had been allowed
Speaker 2: to simply return to business as usual. John Chisel greeted
Speaker 2: his wife Elizabeth inside their home on East Francis Street.
Speaker 2: His bedrooms and dining room were filled with valuable objects
Speaker 2: that demonstrated his wealth and power. He had hosted some
Speaker 2: of the most important people in the colonies and England.
Speaker 2: They had dined on oysters, sheep's head, and curried chicken.
Speaker 2: Spices were a luxury good. They sipped chocolate drinks and
Speaker 2: told old stories over elaborate multi course meals. Chisel was
Speaker 2: free of shackles, but the working class people in Williamsburg
Speaker 2: had heard that he was offered bail, and he took it.
Speaker 2: The people also remembered that Chisel's son in law, John Robinson,
Speaker 2: had stolen a fortune and caused Virginia to sink further
Speaker 2: into debt. Chisel had broken their trust. In all the while,
Speaker 2: the King of England was tightening his grip on the colonies.
Speaker 2: Parliament had taxed them, their rights were being taken away,
Speaker 2: and now John Chisel had been released on bail by
Speaker 2: his powerful friends. He was free, and they were furious.
Speaker 2: People stalked his house, and those who protested his release
Speaker 2: were certain that he would get away with murder. Chisel
Speaker 2: was free, but miserable. He still maintained that it was
Speaker 2: just an accident.
Speaker 8: I mean, I think he's racked with guilt, but whether
Speaker 8: it's entirely guilt for the murder or guilt for what
Speaker 8: he has done to his family's reputation, yeah, I am
Speaker 8: not comfortable separating those strains of guilt. But I think
Speaker 8: they're interconnected, and I don't know which one is stronger.
Speaker 8: And that's one of the really intriguing things about the
Speaker 8: history and getting all the pieces of information that other
Speaker 8: historians may want to say something more definitive than I'm saying,
Speaker 8: but that's, you know, that's interpretation, and that's part of
Speaker 8: why learning about the people, not just the dates, is
Speaker 8: intriguing to me.
Speaker 2: Angry crowds gathered outside Chisel's large home in Williamsburg and
Speaker 2: demanded vengeance. He and his family could hear them outside
Speaker 2: as guards patrolled their property. Historian Robert Weathers says that
Speaker 2: the colonists were compelled to protest they believed that it
Speaker 2: was the only way to force a change with the gentry.
Speaker 5: Precedent needed to be found so the Colonel Chisel could
Speaker 5: be brought out on bail. And you see the dangerous
Speaker 5: slippery slope effect that actually can have, which is part
Speaker 5: of the reason why when you protest against a stamppack,
Speaker 5: you're doing so so that it doesn't set a precedent.
Speaker 2: Nicole Brown is sitting with us during my interview with Weathers.
Speaker 11: And that's also why people get so upset with the
Speaker 11: Chibel Rutledge murder, because if they don't protest it, it
Speaker 11: could become precedent that the elite basically can't be tried
Speaker 11: for murder.
Speaker 2: In the newspapers, the anonymous writer de Kay Pillows described
Speaker 2: the sentiment of most colonists, and it wasn't good. They
Speaker 2: say that one atrocious murder has already been cleared by
Speaker 2: means of great friends, and they are apprehensive that it
Speaker 2: will not be the last Cobrius stain of the kind
Speaker 2: in our colony. In other words, John Chisel was going
Speaker 2: to get away with murder. The anonymous writer also reported
Speaker 2: that a reliable source had confirmed that several witnesses at
Speaker 2: the tavern had been tampered with. The Colonists in Williamsburg
Speaker 2: screamed that the law was being ignored. If one of
Speaker 2: them had murdered someone, they would have been hanged. Yet
Speaker 2: John Chisel was convinced that he would walk free, and
Speaker 2: so was much of the lower class. The writer explained
Speaker 2: in the newspapers, Patriots are alarmed on this occasion. Foreigners
Speaker 2: are alarmed. The middle and lower ranks of men who
Speaker 2: are acquainted with the particulars are extremely alarmed. In Prince
Speaker 2: George County, where Robert Rutledge lived, there was outrage while
Speaker 2: John Chisel sat comfortably at home. Their friend was dead.
Speaker 2: They demanded his blood, an eye for an eye. The
Speaker 2: anonymous author pleaded with them in the newspapers to wait
Speaker 2: until the trial. Reutligi's friends agreed, but they made it
Speaker 2: clear in letters to the paper that they would seek
Speaker 2: revenge if Chisel were acquitted. Robert Rutlige's friends assumed that
Speaker 2: John Chisel was lounging at home with few worries because
Speaker 2: of his powerful friends, but that really wasn't true. John
Speaker 2: Chisel was extremely worried, and he couldn't bear to spend
Speaker 2: the rest of his life in prison. Mobs of people
Speaker 2: in Williamsburg wanted him hanged. One way or the other.
Speaker 2: There would be no police protection, and he and his
Speaker 2: friends would be lynched if they were caught tampering with witnesses.
Speaker 2: But perhaps he might escape the gallows with attorneys who
Speaker 2: could prove it was an accident or self defense. Or
Speaker 2: perhaps John Chisel and his family could simply disappear. It
Speaker 2: was a big new world with limited communication, after all,
Speaker 2: and historian Nel Darby says people vanished all the time
Speaker 2: in the eighteenth century. You know, men who deserted their wives.
Speaker 8: You know they could haply go and disappear and start
Speaker 8: new lives afresh.
Speaker 2: Julie Richter wonders about the expectations of both the gentry
Speaker 2: and the upper class in Virginia. After all, Colonel John
Speaker 2: Chisel was an honorable gentleman. Abandoning his family and leaving
Speaker 2: town would have been disgraceful.
Speaker 8: There may have been a small bit of belief, or
Speaker 8: maybe hope, that he would do the honorable thing, that
Speaker 8: he would go home and then return for his trial,
Speaker 8: being a man who is again supposed to display honor
Speaker 8: in his actions, in his deeds, and in his words.
Speaker 8: And if any of the men who agreed to bail
Speaker 8: did it believing that he would act honorably. Disappointment against
Speaker 8: probably not a strong enough word, but they would have
Speaker 8: felt that he had violated the trust they placed in him.
Speaker 2: Perhaps something completely unplanned, even by him, might happen to
Speaker 2: John Chisel. He was fretful, concerned about jail, about a
Speaker 2: likely guilty verdict, and about the shame he had brought
Speaker 2: on his family, and he was in danger. So on
Speaker 2: June twenty third, seventeen sixty six, Chisel sat down at
Speaker 2: his desk in Williamsburg and picked up a pen. He
Speaker 2: glanced over the paper as he wrote it. It was
Speaker 2: his last will and testament, and it included the most
Speaker 2: important asset in his name, his coveted business, the Lead
Speaker 2: Mining Company. The assets of the mining company included land, carts, wagons, utensils,
Speaker 2: and not surprisingly, enslaved people. Chisel had a minority interest,
Speaker 2: and he was deeply in debt. He owed his partner,
Speaker 2: William Bird the third, thirteen hundred pounds, and he owed
Speaker 2: the estate of John Robinson more than eight thousand pounds.
Speaker 2: As he opened his desk drawer to secure the document,
Speaker 2: he thought carefully about the names of the people who
Speaker 2: had agreed to be his executors, there was Richard Randolph,
Speaker 2: his wife's cousin, who was a wealthy planter. He also
Speaker 2: named Charles Carter, a rich plantation owner who had married
Speaker 2: his daughter Elizabeth. But the final two executors were the
Speaker 2: interesting ones, William Byrd and Presley Thornton. These were two
Speaker 2: of the three justices of the General Court who had
Speaker 2: granted him bail. Now did this mean anything? At best,
Speaker 2: it seemed unethical. Even more importantly, their inclusion in his
Speaker 2: will illustrated the depth of their relationship with Chisel. Historian
Speaker 2: Carson Hudson says that the governor of the Colony of
Speaker 2: Virginia was in a terrible position.
Speaker 6: You know what could the governor and this is another
Speaker 6: person I would have hated to have been with the governor.
Speaker 6: You know what do you do, because if the case
Speaker 6: comes to trial and you find i'm him innocent, you're
Speaker 6: literally going to have riots in the colony. If you
Speaker 6: find him guilty, then that's going to make you and
Speaker 6: all your friends and buddies and all that look really,
Speaker 6: really bad, and that's going to lower the respect that
Speaker 6: the lower classes have of you.
Speaker 3: So by the time we get to October, Colonel Chisel's
Speaker 3: case is supposed to occur on October fifteenth, sixteenth, and
Speaker 3: I cannot imagine the level of stress he was under
Speaker 3: or the level of stress the city was under. I
Speaker 3: can imagine that the tension was palpable and in this muddy, messy,
Speaker 3: icky sort of October in Virginia, because having lived in Virginia,
Speaker 3: October's are sort of bomby sometimes but often still atrociously humid.
Speaker 3: You have this palpable feeling in the air, I would
Speaker 3: imagine of what is going to happen.
Speaker 5: Chisel, no doubt is well aware of the insults he's
Speaker 5: receiving in the new papers.
Speaker 8: So if he knew about financial problems after his son
Speaker 8: in law died, and you find out about the debt
Speaker 8: in addition to your finances, it's sort of like a
Speaker 8: self performance has a lot of little elements and debt
Speaker 8: and not being able to perform as an elite man,
Speaker 8: it's going to be a mental burden, an emotional burden.
Speaker 2: Who would get justice and who else would end up dead?
Speaker 3: We can never really know. But when you look at
Speaker 3: all of these things compounding at the same time, in
Speaker 3: addition to the fact that he's being held accountable for them,
Speaker 3: I think that's where the stressor is.
Speaker 2: On the final episode of this season of tenfold More
Speaker 2: Wicked on exactly right.
Speaker 3: To have a gentleman not just behave this way, but
Speaker 3: then the law bend in his favor is such a
Speaker 3: violation of trust.
Speaker 6: Gentlemen don't do those things, and gentlemen are not found
Speaker 6: guilty of murdering peasants.
Speaker 5: It is hard for me to overstate to you how
Speaker 5: important this individual decision is to the era of the
Speaker 5: American Revolution.
Speaker 4: In some ways, I would liken it to the United
Speaker 4: States in nineteen sixty eight. There are these incidents that
Speaker 4: inspire individuals to protest.
Speaker 3: To jump between what happens with the Stamp Act all
Speaker 3: the way to declaring independence is a chadismic shift. The
Speaker 3: only metaphor I can think of is if you're standing
Speaker 3: between two tectonic plates and they start shifting.
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