Execution of Thomas Carter. —The first execution occurred when George the Second was king. At this time Thomas Carter, a native of Newport, was hung in chains May 10th, 1751. The three justices were Jonathan Randall, John Walton and B. Hazard. The hangman's bill 50 pounds was paid to Beriah Brown, sheriff, for executing the prisoner. The second execution took place a short distance west of Kingston hill, in the road, four or five rods west of a large chestnut tree. The tree was cut down in 1877. Mr. Thomas Mount was the victim. He was buried a few rods west of that place at the foot of a large cherry tree which blew down in 1869. Two rude stones mark the grave.

Mr. J. Wilson thus speaks of Thomas Carter:  In the year 1751 Thomas Carter had his trial for the murder of Jackson, and was sentenced to be hung in gibbets; which took place on the training lot at the foot of Tower Hill near the Pettaquamscutt river. The body of Carter swung there many years by the winds ; but finally the gallows rotted down, and the irons, with the bones attached to them, were carried to the blacksmith shop of Joseph Hull, the man who made the irons, and they were removed from the bones. One of the scholars who attended the school of Master Ridge kept one of the bones under his seat in the school house to crack walnuts with.

Jackson was not a dealer in furs as has been sometimes stated. He sold buckskin leather, and carried it on horseback behind him. He belonged to Pennsylvania, and in his peregrinations about the country had been in the habit of passing this place for several years in the latter part of autumn on his way to and from Newport. The leather was made up into overalls, which were worn by many of the inhabitants, more especially when they were engaged in wall making; it was also made into mittens.

Carter was a seafaring man, and overtook Jackson on his way and pretended to be sick; Jackson sympathized with him on account of his unfortunate condition, rendered him assistance, and suffered him to ride his horse most of the way, whilst he himself traveled on foot. Many times Carter pretended to be very sick in order to delay the time of their arrival, and they stopped many times on their way. They stopped at a Mrs. Combs, who was called upon at the trial. This woman was the first who recognized Jackson when he was found, by a button that she had noticed on his vest and by a gray spot on his head.

In this connection another writer, speaking of one place where they stopped for the night, says: "The widow Nash lived in a house on the east side of the old Post road, about one mile from Dockray's corner. Sometime during the winter of 1751, two travelers stopped late in the afternoon at the house. That night Mrs. Nash had the kindness to dress their hair, and playfully remarked to the smaller of the two, whilst so engaged, that if he was murdered she could identify his person by a round block of his hair that marked his head.

" About sunset the two men proceeded on their way, being desirous of reaching Franklin Ferry and passing over to Newport that night. The smaller of the two men before mentioned, whose name was Jackson, had started from Virginia with a horse load of deer skins which he intended to convey to Boston, and he was joined on the way by Captain Thomas Carter, an old privateers-man of Newport, Rhode Island, who had been shipwrecked somewhere on the sea-coast south of Chesapeake, and was making his way home on foot. After these two men left the house of Mrs. Nash, it appears they passed over the southern portion of Tower hill in the evening, at which place and time Carter knocked Jackson from his horse by hitting him with a stone. Jackson, however, recovered himself and ran to an old uninhabited house near by which was the only semblance of a habitation within a mile and more of the spot, where he was pursued and beaten to death by Carter. After the murder Carter then proceeded on his way with Jackson's horse and pack, having previously dragged his victim down the hill to an estuary called Pettaquamscutt cove and shoved the corpse under the ice. A few days after this transaction, a man while spearing for eels fished up the body, which was afterward identified by Mrs. Nash as the stranger with the black spot on his head and to whom she had spoken so ominously before.

" The place where Jackson was knocked down by Carter is still marked by a .stone at the base of the road wall directly west of the exact spot, with the figures 1741 engraved upon it. This stone, near the junction of the road and the north line of the lot, is where the ruins of the old Carter and Jackson chimney stood. Nicholas Austin subsequently erected a house on this very-same site."

The following is a copy of the writ issued in the year 1751, for the execution of Thomas Carter:

" Rhode Island, Kings County, Sc.

King George the Second, by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc. To Our Sheriff of our County of Kings County, or to his Deputy: Greeting:

" Whereas, at our superior court of Judicature Court of Assize and General Jail Delivery ; Began and held at South Kingstown in and for our County of Kings County, on the first Tuesday of April, in the twenty-fourth year of our reign, A. D. 1751, Thomas Carter late of Newport in our County of Newport marriner; was legally convicted of murdering William Jackson late of Virginia, Trader ; and was also convicted of robbing the said William Jackson and feloniously taking and carrying away from him his money to the value of one thousand and eighty pounds of the old tenor, and,

" Whereas, Our aforesaid Court held as aforesaid Did Pass and pronounce Sentence against the Said Thomas Carter in the words following, viz.: You Thomas. Carter being legally convicted of murdering William Jackson late of Virginia, trader, and also convicted of robbing him of a horse, leather and money to the value of 1080 pounds, O. T., wherefore this the Sentence of this Court that you be carried to the jail from whence you came and closely confined till Friday the lOth of May, A. D., 1751, and then be drawn to the place of execution and there Between the hours of Eleven o'clock forenoon, and two in the afternoon to be hung by the Neck till you are Dead and then your body to be cut down and Hanged in Chains near the place of Execution till consumed, of which Execution Remains to be done,

" We therefore strictly Charge and Command you to Prepare and Provide a Suitable Gallows to be erected in South Kingstown in or near the place called the Training Field and in some Convenient Time before the day of Execution appointed in the above Said Sentence being the Tenth Day of May, A.D., 1751; and also to provide suitable and proper materials in order to hang the body of aforesaid Criminal in Chains according to the aforesaid Sentence and on the aforesaid Tenth Day of May You are hereby Commanded to take proper and sufficient aid, and then You are to Proceed and Execute Said Sentence at the time therein appointed for the Same to be Done, And for so doing This Shall be your Sufficient Warrant.

"Given under the Hands and Seals of three Justices of said Court at South Kingstown aforesaid the Sixth Day of April, in the Twenty-fourth year of our Reign, A.D., 1751.

Jonathan Randall, John Walton,  B. Hazard.

Trial of Daniel Harry. —Daniel Harry, a Narragansett Indian, was tried for the murder of Toby Ross's son. Toby Ross at that time was by far the most influential man in the tribe. Ross was killed in the evening at an Indian dance. This was in 1839. Albert C. Greene was then the attorney general of the state. Wilkins Updike and the late Nathaniel F. Dixon were the counsel for the prisoner. Job Durfee was the chief justice who presided at the trial, Levi Haile and William P. Staples were the associate justices, Powell Helm was the clerk, and Francis B. Segar was the sheriff. The jurors were as follows: John P. Whitford, William B. Robinson, Robert Gardiner, Jr., Albert W. Clarke, William Steadman, Joseph P. Babcock, Niles Potter, Elisha Watson, Jr., Samuel Underwood, Daniel Sherman, James Greene and Alfred Bicknell.

The court was two days in getting the jury. There were over eighty jurors called before a panel was obtained. The proof adduced was that Ross had alienated the affections of Harry's wife and during this drunken frolic in the night, the lights were blown out and Ross was stabbed and killed. It was well understood also by the counsel that there was a white man in Charlestown who had a great enmity against Ross, and wanted to get him out of the way, and it was believed he had incited either Harry or another Indian to commit the deed. After a protracted trial the jury returned a verdict of guilty.

Harry had not a relative or friend near him during the whole trial. He was a pure Indian and a fine specimen of his race. He sat calm and unmoved as a statue from the beginning to the end of the trial, and when he was brought into the court room to hear the verdict of the jury and listen to the death sentence from the court, he did not exhibit the slightest evidence of emotion.

The court was lighted and filled with people, when he was ordered to stand up and receive his sentence. Judge Staples, who was a true Quaker in his religious beliefs, retired from the bench and when Judge Durfee delivered the sentence, he utterly broke down, the tears coursing down his cheeks ; but the little friendless Indian stood there calm and unmoved. When the sheriff took him from the court house to the jail Mr. Hazard, who assisted the attorney general in the case, walked beside him. He said, " As we walked along Mr. Harry looked up at the moon and remarked :”The moon looks pleasant, I haven't seen it before since I was put in jail.”

He was of course sentenced to be hanged, but the court mercifully gave time enough for an application to be made to the general assembly for pardon or a change of sentence, and when the legislature met, Mr. Dixon presented a petition for a change of sentence, in the prosecution of which Mr. Hazard aided him all he could, being at that time clerk of the House of Representatives. The result was that his sentence was commuted to solitary imprisonment for life.

After he had spent ten years in one of those little cells in the old state prison, Mr. Dixon and Mr. Hazard petitioned for a full pardon. It was granted and for the next succeeding thirty-five years he lived with his family in South Kingstown, an honest, respectable and well-behaved man. It was not at the time of the trial believed he committed the murder, and this fact was substantiated before his death; and in view of his approaching dissolution he said he did not do it but that he knew who committed the deed, and Indian like he would not give his name. He would not betray him to save his own life.

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