painted for the bank, never did him justice; the one at Woodsland, his own home, is better."

Resigning his colonelcy in 1816, he says that for nearly forty years he had been in "actual military service for his country." He married his first cousin, Anne Poage, a great beauty (described as still beautiful in extreme old age), daughter of Thomas, son of Robert before mentioned, and of Agnes McClanahan, his wife. She was daughter to Robert McClanahan, High Sheriff of Augusta till 1759 and Court Commissioner; and to Sarah Breckinridge, his wife, daughter to Alexander Brackenridge, who came over" in 1728, and to Virginia in 1738.

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Colonel Woods' grandson, the Hon. Joseph J. Woods, of Wheeling, has been Speaker of the House of Delegates and State Senator, and he had the distinction of being the only Democrat elected from his district since the civil war. Another grandson, Judge James Paull, was on the Supreme Bench of the State until his death. Several descendants are in the ministry, and three are missionaries in China.

Pantops, Va., February 17, 1897.

ORDEAL OF TOUCH.

A. E. S.

In a recent number (October, 1896) we published a long entry from the Accomac Records, giving an account of a coroner's inquest held in that county in 1680, in a case of infanticide, in which the "ordeal of touch," or bier test, was tried. The following notes on the general history of the ordeal of touch" are from the pen of Mr. Barton H. Wise: One of the most celebrated trials, at which the "ordeal of touch" was gone through with, was that of Philip Standsfield, at Edinburgh, in the year 1688, for the murder of his father, Sir Philip Standsfield. The prosecution was conducted by Sir George Mackenzie, the King's advocate, who was a celebrated prosecutor during the period of the covenanting prosecutions, and who was known as the "Bloody Mackenzie." In the course of his speech at the Standsfield trial Mackenzie thus alluded to the ordeal, to which the prisoner was subjected:

"God Almighty himself was pleased to bear a share in the testimonies which we produce. That Divine Power which makes the blood circulate during life has ofttimes, in all nations, opened a passage to it after death upon such occasions, but most in this case; for after all the wounds had been sewed up, and the body designedly shaken up and down, and, which is most wonderful, after the body had been buried for several days, which naturally occasions the blood to congeal, upon Philip's touching it the blood darted and sprung out, to the great astonishment of the chirurgeons themselves, who were desired to watch the event; whereupon Philip, astonished more than they, threw down the body, crying, O God! O God! and, cleansing his hand, grew so faint that they were forced to give him a cordial."

The Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. XVII, under the heading of "Ordeal," states that the bier test, which widely prevailed during the Middle Ages, appears to be founded on the "imagination that a sympathetic action of the blood causes it to flow at the touch or neighborhood of the murderer." Apparently the liquefaction of the blood, which in certain cases takes place after death, may have furnished the ground for this belief. On Teutonic ground, this ordeal appears in the Nibelungenlied, where the murdered Seigfried is laid on his bier, and Hagen is called on to prove his innocence by going to the corpse, but at his approach the dead chief's wounds bleed afresh. The typical instance in English history is the passage of Matthew Paris, that after Henry II's death at Chinon his son, Richard came to view the body: "Quo superveniente, confestim erupit sanguis ex naribus regis mortui; ac si indignaretur spiritus in adventu ejus, qui efusdem mortis causa esse credebatur, ut videretur sanguis Clamare ad Deum."

* *

*** At Hertford Assizes (4 Car., I) the deposition was taken as to certain suspected murderers being required to touch the corpse, when the murdered woman thrust out the ring finger three times and it dropped blood on the grass (Brand, Vol. III, page 231). Durham peasants, apparently remembering the old belief, still expect those who come to look at a corpse to touch it, in token that they fear no ill-will to the departed (W. Henderson, Folklore of Northern Countries, page 57).

My attention has been directed, by an address of R. T. Barton, Esq., of Winchester, Va., delivered before the Virginia State Bar Association, in 1893, on the “ Punishment of Crime," to an interesting work entitled "Superstition and Force," by Henry Charles Lea, LL. D., of Philadelphia. In this book there is an instructive discussion of the subject, and the author states that the belief was by no means confined to Great Britain, but existed in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and other countries during the Middle Ages. Several instances where the ordeal was applied in this country are given, the writer remarking that probably the last under judicial proceedings was that of a man named Getter, who was hung in Pennsylvania for the murder of his wife in 1833.

It will doubtless, however, be a surprise to most of your readers to learn that this same author informs us that, "In 1868, at Verdiersville, Virginia, a suspected murderer was compelled to touch the body of a woman found murdered in a wood;" and another instance of a similar kind is stated to have occurred at Lebanon, Illinois, in 1869. These last though, according to Lea, were not in conformity to judicial proceedings, but undertaken by the bystanders, with the idea of discovering the guilty person. This is the only reference I have ever seen to the Verdiersville case, an account of which would be very interesting. This place is located in Orange county, Virginia, and is chiefly known as the spot where General J. E. B. Stuart came near being captured during the

late war, his hat and cape having actually fallen into the hands of the enemy. It is highly probable that this old superstition still lingers among the country people in some localities in Virginia, and it is known to still exist among some of the negroes. The bier test, while generally treated as a mere superstition, seems to me to have contained, along with the former, a good admixture of common sense. The dread felt by the average murderer of the dead body of the victim is well known, and the Jeter Phillips case and Dean's case, in this State, furnish striking examples. The compelling of the murderer to come forward and touch the body was, doubtless, an ordeal under which he would betray evidences of his guilt, though it is needless to add that it is a most dangerous procedure, and one under which an innocent person might easily be held guilty. The two cases mentioned, as recorded in Accomac and Northampton, are the only ones I have ever heard of in Virginia where the test was regularly applied, though doubtless, the records of other old eastern Virginia counties contain similar instances. The ordeal suggests another which I have heard of as having been applied before the war in Virginia. Not long since, Judge Wm. J. Leake, of Richmond, gave me an account of an instance that occurred on his father's farm, in Goochland county, before the war. A theft had been committed by one of the slaves, and his father being anxious to discover the guilty ones, determined upon the following plan: A big iron pot was placed, with a live rooster underneath it, upside down, in a very dark room. Each of the negroes was made to pass through the room, one at a time and touch the pot, having been previously informed that, upon the guilty one touching it, that the cock would crow. As they came out, one at a time, their hands were examined, to see whether they were smutted from contact with the vessel, which was the case with all of them, except the guilty party. I believe a somewhat similar story is related in the Decameron of Boccaccio.

BARTON H. WISE.

THE FATE OF FRANCES MADISON.

Ambrose Madison of Orange, married Frances Taylor, daughter of Col. James Taylor and his wife Martha Thompson of Caroline, and afterwards of Orange county, Va.

The issue of this marriage, was Col. James Madison, Sr., father of the President, and Frances Madison, who married, 1st, Tavener Beale, and 2nd, Jacob Hite, son of Joist Hite. Elizabeth Madison married, 1st, John Willis, son of Col. Harry Willis, of Willis Hall, near Fredericksburg, and 2nd, Richard Beale, brother of Tavener Beale. Among the children of Frances Madison, was Col. Tavener Beale of the Revolution, who lived at Clifton Forge.

Before the Revolution, an Englishman named Pearis, bought ten thousand acres of land from the Cherokees, embracing the present site

of Greenville, South Carolina, and this purchase was confirmed by a grant afterwards Pearis was a wealthy man; he had two beautiful daughters, and built a house on the site of Greenville, and lived there surrounded by the Indians, who were very friendly to him, and over whom he had much influence.

Jacob Hite of Virginia, who married Miss Frances Madison Beale, bought land of Pearis, and moved with his family to South Carolina in or about 1773; he too lived in the midst of the Cherokees, and assiduously cultivated their friendship. His son, John Obanion Hite, became engaged to a Miss Pearis.

When the Revolution broke out, Hite sided with the Colonies, but British agents induced the Indians to take up arms against the Colonies. Hearing of the activity of these agents, Jacob Hite sent his son John Obanion with presents to some of the Indian towns, hoping to defeat the efforts of the English, for his son who was a lawyer, and much beloved by the Indians, expected to be able to influence them favorably.

Unfortunately however, he was too late, and met a large war party in march for the white settlements, he was at once killed and his mangled body was left on the banks of the Estote river, or buried there. The Indians proceeded to Pearis' house, but were friendly to him. Miss Pearis learned the sad fate of her lover, and that they intended next to destroy the Hites, who lived a few miles distant, and she at once started on foot through the woods, and reached them in time to save them, but they lingered, and would not believe that the Indians were hostile to them. The Indians did attack the Hites, killed Jacob Hite and probably others, but most of the sons escaped by flight. They captured Mrs. Hite and her daughters, and it is said by some, that they were killed on their way to the Indian towns. This however, is not probable, for after the war was over, in 1786, Col. Tavener Beale, who had married a daughter of Jacob Hite by his first wife, went to South Carolina and employed Pearis to visit the Indians, and ransom his mother and sister. If they had been killed by the Indians in 1776, Pearis most probably would have known about it. It seems that he was an old and trusted friend of the Cherokees, for one Pearis commanded a contingent of these Indians who were auxilliary to Virginia in the French and Indian war.

There is no note in the Beale papers in reference to the success of Pearis' mission, and information in regard to it is wished. The Hites who escaped massacre or capture, returned to Virginia. A. G. GRINNAN.

PETER JONES.

In the preceding number of this Magazine appeared an article by Mr. Lassiter, in which the will of Peter Jones, Sr., was given in full as proof that he was not the founder of Petersburg, Va. His argument was that as the city of Petersburg was founded 1733, and the will of Peter Jones

was probated in 1727, the testator and founder could not be identical. Meade (Vol. I, page 444, Old Churches) is everywhere quoted as authority for the statement that in 1733 Colonel Byrd and Peter Jones laid the foundations of two great cities-Richmond, at the falls of the James, and Petersburg, at the Appomattox falls. Hening (Vol. I, page 293, Act IX) gives a lengthy description of the establishment, in 1644-6, of a "fforte Charles" at the "Falls of James River,” on Colonel William Byrd's land.

Vol. I (Hening), page 315, Act XIII, years 1644-6, authorizes one fforte Henry att the Falls of the said Appomattock River." Vol. I, page 326, Act II, October, 1646 (Hening), shows a grant of 600 acres of land to Captain Abraham Wood and his heirs forever, “with all houses and edificies belonging to said fforte (Henry), with all boates and amunition belonging to said fforte, Provided that the said Capt. Wood do maintayne and keepe tenn men constantly upon the said place for the term of three years, duringe which time he the said Capt. Wood is exempted from all publique taxes for himselfe and the said tenn persons," &c.

Peter Jones, Sr., married (see Virginia Historical Magazine, Vol. III, page 252) Mary Wood, daughter "said Capt. Abraham Wood." He was the son of Margaret Jones (widow), who, in 1663, married Thomas Cocke (see Cocke Genealogy, Virginia Historical Magazine).

Hening's Vol. II, pages 326 to 328, gives as follows:

“At a grand Assemblie held at James Cittie By prorogation from the one and twentieth day of September, in the yeare of our Lord 1674, to the seaventh day of March, in the eighth and twentieth yeare of the reigne of our Soveraigne Lord Charles the second.

"ACT I.—An act for the safeguard and defence of the county against the Indians," &c.

Then follows a long preamble, and a declaration of war against Indians; charges of war to be borne by whole country; where troops shall be stationed; from what counties drawn; who shall command them. (Here, on page 328, comes first mention of Peter Jones. I will quote):

ffifty-five men out of James City county, to be garrisoned neare the ffalls of James River, at captain Byrd's, or at one ffort or place of defence over against him at Newlett's, of which ffort leut. coll. Edward Ramsey be captaine or chiefe comander; nineteene men out of Warwick county, nineteene men out of Elizabeth City Co., and nineteene out of Charles City Co, to be garrisoned neare the ffalls of Appamatux river, at major general Wood's, or over against him at one ffort or defensable place at―ffleets-of which ffort major Peter Jones be captaine or chiefe commander," &c.

Then follows several closely printed pages of instruction, as to powder, horses, provisions, and last, a set of rules for governing the conduct of officers and men. Amongst which are boring the tongue with a red hot