by Paul Collins
2 “Did you see the face of Elma?”: Ibid., 48.
3 “aged and very infirm”: Ibid., 46.
4 “I live opposite Ezra Weeks’s”: Ibid.
5 “When was this?”: Ibid., 47.
6 testified in the estate hearing of a late veteran: Scisco, “Onondaga County Records—1793,” 77. A May 4, 1793, deposition in an estate case “by Susannah Broad of New York City” is quoted under the entry for Henry Hawkey.
7 “Her memory” … “was not very tenacious”: Longworth, Brief Narrative of the Trial, 7.
8 Sent by John Wesley in 1769: Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, 5:266.
9 “watch-night” services, some of which could stretch to midnight: Baker, From Wesley to Asbury, 191.
10 “I and my boy were coming home from Meeting”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 48.
11 A leather worker by trade: Longworth’s American Almanack (1800), 121. Longworth’s lists his name as Berthrong Anderson, not “Buthrong,” as listed in Coleman’s trial transcript. The street address given in the directory and the transcript make it clear that this is same person, and while there are other examples of Berthrongs and, indeed, Berthrong Anderson on record, I find no others of “Buthrong Anderson.” I have corrected Coleman’s spelling accordingly.
12 “I had been to Mr. Pilmore’s church”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 49.
13 fellow parishioners dutifully confirmed his testimony: Ibid., 50.
14 Henry Orr was a cartman: Longworth’s American Almanack (1800), 293.
15 “On the 22nd of December, after dark”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 52.
16 Union Furnace was a large iron smithy … “jambs, cog-wheels, gudgeons”: NYDA, 22 September 1791.
17 “I stayed there, I should judge, about an hour”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 52.
18 a doomed attempt a few years earlier … needed to sell three thousand one-dollar tickets: GNDA, 27 June 1796.
19 behemoth balloon sporting French and American flags: “Balloon to Be Seen,” NYDA, 27 August 1796.
20 workshop was destroyed by a strong windstorm: Massachusetts Mercury (Boston), 27 September 1796. The following spring, after bickering with his partner, museum promoter Gardiner Baker (see Baker’s letter on page 2 of NYDA, 14 November 1796), aeronautical pioneer Jean-Pierre Blanchard did manage a Manhattan launch of a “miniature balloon” with live animals inside. According to the Minerva for 6 March 1797, “Blanchard’s miniature balloon had a beautiful ascension; but the parachute, in its descention [sic], did not prove sufficiently strong to let the quadrupeds down with safety, for one of them was killed.”
21 a quiet spot for getting drunk: Minerva, 26 December 1796. The ill-fated site on upper Broadway was known as the Balloon House for years afterward, and during this period there is reference to a “Balloon Tavern.”
22 “It was” … “the voice of a woman”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 52.
23 “I got out of bed to see what I could”: Ibid., 51.
24 whose property line ran near the well: Ibid., 52. Orr’s testimony on this page noted that “I got near Lewis’s fence.” 140 “I discovered the track of a one-horse sleigh”: Ibid., 49.
25 the prosecutor could, if he chose, call upon Levi’s own attorney: Jacob and Tomlins, “Evidence II.i,” Law-Dictionary, vol. 1.
26 “The sleigh drove so near the wall”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 49.
27 Three young boys: Ibid.
28 “Eleven” … “Thirteen.”: Ibid.
29 did not accept testimony from children under the age of discretion: MacNally, Rules of Evidence on Pleas of the Crown, 149.
30 Those unable to understand the spiritual import … were incompetent witnesses: Ibid., 151.
31 “Idiots, madmen, and children”: Jacob and Tomlins, “Evidence II.i,” Law-Dictionary, vol. 1.
32 Some children did not know their own exact ages: Census of the United States, Compendium of the Tenth Census, Part 1, lxvii. As late as 1880, the U.S. Census found this persisted among many African Americans and poorer whites. A similar phenomenon was noted in Britain in the 1848 Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the State of Education in Wales (32).
33 “Thirteen?”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 52.
34 led the boy through some crucial questions: Ibid.
35 “Pray, sir” … “What is your son’s age?”: Ibid., 53.
36 plea from Levi’s table, perhaps an adjournment: Ibid.
37 It is ordered … that the jury empanelled have leave: Chitty, Reports of Cases Principally on Practice and Pleading, 1:403ff. The wording of the judge’s order, rendered here in italics as a paraphrase, is taken almost exactly from this passage of Chitty, which contains the judge’s 1796 impanelment order in the high treason case of King v. Stone.
38 discretion in misdemeanor and felony trials to allow a jury to go home … “prisoners until they are discharged”: Chitty, Reports of Cases Principally on Practice and Pleading, 1:401.
39 denied jurors “food, drink, or fire”: Ibid., 1:414.
40 Finding accommodation for twelve men together was not easy: “Hardy’s Trial,” 719.
41 unroll mattresses in courthouses: Ibid.
42 told to go walk on the rooftop: Sampson, Trial of Robert M. Godwin, 37.
43 their makeshift quarters for the night: Longworth, Brief Narrative of the Trial, 13.
44 featured Trumbull’s famed portrait of George Washington: Howard, Dr. Kimball and Mr. Jefferson, 67.
14. ASLEEP, SEEMINGLY
1 in this very same courtroom in October 1793: [Wyche], Report of the Trial of Henry Bedlow, 3.
2 admitted the false name and the brothel visit: Ibid., 20.
3 she’d already known he was the infamous Henry Bedlow … “willing to be deceived”: Ibid., 23.
4 “cloud of witnesses”: Ibid., 22.
5 “Who are these witnesses?”: Ibid., 36–37.
6 “Gentlemen, I stand here”: Ibid., 24–25.
7 Angry mobs rampaged: New-York Diary, 15 October 1793.
8 menaced Livingston’s far more respectable house: Isenberg, Fallen Founder, 465.
9 one man had been shot dead, and the mayor himself was injured: New-York Diary, 15 October 1793.
10 Lanah quickly sued Bedlow: Hardie, Impartial Account of the Trial, 24.
11 bankrupted the young man: NYDA, 4 January 1796. Daily Advertiser notices announce Bedlow as an insolvent debtor on at least two other occasions as well, on 29 August 1815 and 27 June 1820.
12 he landed in debtor’s prison: Hardie, Impartial Account of the Trial, 24.
13 the former Miss Sawyer confessed: NYG, 5 October 1798.
14 Colden couldn’t sleep: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 94.
15 a false alarm: Bleecker, Diary, 1 April 1800.
16 a bailiff keeping watch: Chitty, Reports of Cases Principally on Practice and Pleading, 1:404.
17 prisoners and jurors could flee from a conflagration—but not, perhaps, from a windstorm: Ibid., 1:402.
18 local grocer James Lent: Barrett, Old Merchants of New York City, 2:300. Coleman specifically identifies the witness as James W. Lent—that is, James Webber Lent, the subject of Barrett’s account above.
19 not contending with troublesome Federalists: Public Advertiser (New York, N.Y.), 16 November 1810. The involvement of both Lent and his namesake son in Republican politics is mentioned in a number of sources, including in the above notice of his running as a Republican candidate for Sixth Ward assessor.
20 “I, together with Mr. Page”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 56. Coleman’s account (from pages 56 to 59) is the source of the remainder of the testimony in this section.
21 a gold watch from Paris, a walking stick, and a scarlet cloak: NYCA, 4 November 1802.
22 “Dr. Skinner”
… “are you not a surgeon”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 54.
23 For years Skinner had been advertising … “the only operator in America that sets artificial eyes”: NYCA, 23 October 1797.
24 install artificial ears, noses, and legs: Ring, “Benjamin Franklin and the Dentist,” 64.
25 “I am a dentist”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 54.
26 hitting up Benjamin Franklin for a twenty-dollar loan: Ring, “Benjamin Franklin and the Dentist,” 64.
27 picking a fight with George Washington’s dentist: Kirk, “Pioneer Dentistry in New York,” 990.
28 selling gold teeth at four dollars apiece: NYCA, 23 October 1797.
29 dental tincture for a half guinea per bottle: NYDA, 20 April 1797.
30 yanking out teeth at four shillings: NYCA, 23 October 1797.
31 “I have made the subject of surgery”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 54. Coleman’s account (54–56) is the source of the remainder of the testimony in this section.
32 Dr. James Snedeker, a young doctor with a practice on Barley Street: Ibid., 59.
33 “There were many discolorations”: Ibid. The grammar is from the rendering in this original court transcript; the mixing of “was” and “were” appears common throughout.
34 Hosack had only narrowly avoided a law career: Robbins, David Hosack, 18.
35 friend of Aaron Burr’s … Hamilton’s friend and family physician: Hosack, Memoir of the Late David Hosack, M.D., 300.
36 he’d awoken to find Hamilton kneeling by his bedside: Ibid., 307–8.
37 “Upon looking at the neck”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 60. Coleman’s account (60–61) is the source of the remainder of the testimony in this section.
38 hiring a man to ride a horse: Ibid., 62.
39 “Circumstantial evidence is all that can be expected”: Ibid. Please note that Colden’s quotation from Morgan is taken from Coleman’s transcript of the trial, not from Morgan directly. An important discrepancy between the two versions is discussed in my notes for chapter 16.
40 “The prejudice entertained against receiving circumstantial evidence”: Ibid., 63.
15. THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE
1 “Gentlemen of the jury”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 64.
2 Colonel Burr’s duty to begin the defense’s counterattack: Longworth, Brief Narrative of the Trial, 10. Coleman’s transcript of the trial does not note Burr specifically here (though he does distinguish him from Hamilton as “one of the prisoner’s counsel”), but Longworth’s trial account does; so does a newspaper account immediately afterward (NYDA, 3 April 1800).
3 Burr was known for speaking slowly and precisely: Memoirs of Aaron Burr, 2:21.
4 “Extraordinary means have been adopted”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 64.
5 “Notwithstanding testimony of an intimacy”: Ibid., 65.
6 “The story, you will see”: Ibid., 66.
7 “Even in this city a case had occurred”: Ibid., 67.
8 “it was one of the most eloquent speeches we have ever heard”: Longworth, Brief Narrative of the Trial, 10.
9 “Now it comes out that the accusation”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 67.
10 “We shall show you”: Ibid., 65.
11 “Demas Mead” … “Do you live with Ezra Weeks”: Ibid., 86.
Coleman’s transcript renders his last name as “Meed”; as is often the case with William Coleman, he appears to have misspelled the name. I find no “Meed” in local records. However, there are later records for a Demas Mead—listed as a carpenter, which makes sense given his apprenticeship with Weeks: for example, Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, 1784–1831, 17:413; and Longworth’s American Almanac (1837), 428.
12 his own recollection of the evening matched: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 86–87. The remainder of this section is drawn from this passage in Coleman.
13 Mrs. Forrest quickly confirmed where Levi had heard about the muff: Ibid., 70.
14 “In cases depending on a chain of circumstances”: Ibid., 67.
15 “I was called upon by a constable”: Ibid., 77.
16 “I was called together with Dr. Prince”: Ibid.
17 scarf skin was a term: Hooper, Compendious Medical Dictionary, n.p.
18 “Near the instep there was a small spot”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 77–78.
19 Formerly a trustee of Columbia: Stookey, “Nicholas Romayne,” 580.
20 he had completed his training in Britain: Ibid., 578.
21 died in convulsions on his genteel estate in Warwickshire in 1780: Trial of John Donnellan, Esq., 7–8.
22 to the horror of medical professors around the country: Davis, “George Edward Male M.D.,” 117.
23 Dr. Hosack had once been among Romayne’s most promising students: Hosack, Memoir of the Late David Hosack, M.D., 292.
24 “are chiefly discovered by the facts”: Farr, Elements of Medical Jurisprudence, 87.
25 “Is there any way” … “in which the testimony”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 79. The remainder of this section is drawn from Coleman’s account. Hosack’s testimony also goes on to briefly touch upon the work of “Coleman”—not the court clerk, but rather Dr. Edward William Coleman, an English surgeon who authored A Dissertation on Suspended Respiration, from Drowning, Hanging, and Suffocation (London: J. Johnson, 1791). Coleman’s experiments make for grim reading; many of its chapters commence with the words “A cat was drowned” or “A dog was suspended by the neck.” But his work was highly regarded, and sustained experimentation in the postmortem effects of drowning was still a relatively new area of medical research.
16. LOOK UPON THE PRISONER
1 “at the bar he is more remarkable for ingenuity”: Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, 193.
2 “He delighted in surprising his opponents”: Memoirs of Aaron Burr, 2:15.
3 hammering nails and tongs for New Yorkers for years: NYWM, 28 May 1791.
4 “Do you remember” … “any thing in the conduct of Mr. Ring”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 71. In Coleman’s transcript, Watkins says that Elma’s bed stood “within four inches of the partition”; after being corrected by James Hardie, Coleman retracted this particular phrase in his letter to the NYAC of 30 April 1800. Apparently it was the partition itself that was four inches thick, but as Coleman did not indicate the revised quote’s exact wording in his correction, I have left it out of the quotation.
5 “rustling of beds, such as might be occasioned”: Hardie, Impartial Account of the Trial, 27–28.
6 “It continued some time”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 72.
7 an affidavit from Watkins’s ailing wife: Ibid., 74.
8 “I heard her say” … “the Thursday after she was missing”: Ibid., 73.
9 Betsy, had heard similar sentiments: Ibid., 76.
10 one of Levi’s own coworkers—had heard by that fourth day: Ibid., 83.
11 “Did you ever speak of this noise”: Ibid., 73.
12 “When did you first mention to Croucher”: Ibid., 74.
13 Hugh McDougall, a Broadway glazier and sign painter: NYCA, 27 October 1800. Longworth’s American Almanack for 1800 (265) also notes McDougall as running an oil and paint store at the same 92 Broadway address.
14 “I have been acquainted with this Mr. Croucher”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 82.
15 “I told him I thought it was wrong”: Ibid., 83.
16 a Greenwich Street grocery: Longworth’s American Almanack (1800), 203.
17 “On Friday last, Croucher came running to the store”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 80–81.
18 Alexander Hamilton snatched up a candle from the table: Ibid., 82.
19 �
�Did you ever publish the handbills about apparitions?”: Ibid., 93.
20 “I saw a young man, the week before the girl was missing”: Ibid., 90.
21 she had lost her husband to yellow fever back in the outbreak of ’98: Hardie, Account of the Malignant Fever, 83.
22 “On the 22nd of December” … “being my little boy’s birthday”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 92.
23 Several others … were not witnesses of great public reputation: Ibid., 93. Specifically, of the four other witnesses noted by name in Coleman’s transcript, three are not even listed in any edition of Longworth’s American Almanack. The only witness at the Ashmore party with any public profile, Jacob Hopper, does not exactly speak to the moral character of the gathering. He is listed on page 233 of the 1800 edition as a cartman, but later went on to become well-known indeed—as a swindler who absconded with substantial sums of money from Manhattan banks and merchants. He was to be captured soon afterward in Cuba. Essex Register (Salem, Mass.), 26 November 1807.
24 Colden had used an impressive quote … “Circumstantial evidence is all that can be expected”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 62.
25 “Positive and direct proof of fraud is not to be expected”: Morgan, Essays, 1:208.
26 the fraudulent policy on a £110 cargo of oats: Park, System of the Law of Marine Insurances, 238. The Morgan quotation is itself drawn from this passage in Park.
27 testimonials by local worthies: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 90.
28 “In some cases, presumptive evidences go far”: Ibid., 93.
29 It was now 2:30 A.M.: Ibid.
30 “sinking under the fatigues he had suffered”: Longworth, Brief Narrative of the Trial, 13.
31 “Really” … “he had not the strength to proceed”: William Coleman, Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, 94.
32 “was obliged to at five or six in the morning to enter a reply”: Longworth, Brief Narrative of the Trial, 13.
33 at least one was quietly teetering on the edge of insolvency: NYG, 8 August 1801. The reference is to a notice of insolvency for juror Richard Ellis. He had also been listed as insolvent on at least one previous occasion, in Diary; or, Loudon’s Register (New York, N.Y.), 27 September 1797.