“So there is a final Issue of the Whole Affairs”

Yesterday I shared a letter from 1773 describing how a Barnstable goldsmith named Elisha Gray publicly whipped fifteen-year-old James Paine Freeman as punishment for a prank.

One of my questions was why Gray reacted so angrily to that boy’s joke at a local dance. The man’s life isn’t well documented. It looks like he was born in 1744, married Mary Crosby in 1769, and had small children soon after.

In 1771 the selectmen of Barnstable attested that Gray was a suitable person to take in a little girl from the Boston almshouse called Jane Wiseaker. The Boston Overseers’ paperwork for that transaction can be viewed here.

Perhaps it was exactly because Gray saw himself as a respectable luxury craftsman, a budding paterfamilias, that he reacted so strongly to young James making him look silly at a community event. James, son of a merchant, might have been from a slightly higher social class than Gray, who still worked with his hands, but was also a mere boy who deserved correction.

As recounted yesterday, Gray’s assault on James caused him to be convicted of breaching the peace and fined. But it was common in colonial New England for people to sue their assailants for monetary damages even after criminal cases.

In this case, Elisha Gray actually sued James Paine Freeman first, employing the young Barnstable lawyer Shearjashub Bourne. The boy’s uncle and guardian, Edmund Hawes, went before magistrate David Gorham to represent his side. Hawes reported the outcome to his cousin Robert Treat Paine:

The Proof was that one Witness Saw James tie the Button to the Chair & two Saw it was tied but did not know who tied it upon which the Justice Made up Judgment that James Should Pay Six shillings Dammage & Costs which was 17 Shilings more

Hawes appealed that judgment, but he also decided to get lawyers of his own. He called Paine in on the case. First, he wanted legal advice “whether I had Best Carry it to the Inferiour Court or Stop it where it is now.” In addition, he asked:

I Desire You to fill up a Writt for April Court for Elisha Gray Goldsmith of Barnstable for this Great Assault upon James Paine Freeman & State the Sum at your Discretion And Send it to Me in a Letter before the time of Service for sd. Court is Out. Also Please to Write me word if you Expect to Come to Barnstable at April Court or at the Superiour Court & I will Satisfy You for your Trouble.

Paine sent his cousin the writ he wanted. Hawes also consulted Pelham Winslow of Plymouth. Following those counselors’ advice, he convinced Gray to submit the mess to arbitration by three local gentlemen.

On 12 Apr 1773, Hawes reported to Paine:

it was Try'd & the Award Brought into Court at April Court & they found for Gray to Pay me three Pounds & for Each to Bear his Own Costs at Law & to Pay the Charge of the Arbitration Equally Between them: & so there is a final Issue of the Whole Affairs.

Elisha Gray died in 1776, leaving a widow and young children.

James Paine Freeman served most of that year in the Continental Army, standing guard on Dorchester Heights and participating in the retreat from New York. He returned to Barnstable, married twice, had children, and died in 1833, more than sixty years after being beaten on the streets of the town for tying a man’s button to a chair.