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Notes for Gershom Lockwood and Ann Millington

1717 On September 3, Ann Lockwood was convicted of altering a Rhode Island bill and sentenced to stand in the pillory for a half hour on three days. [1]

Ann Lockwood

When the Superior Court met at Fairfield on September 3, 1717, it had the task of determining who had altered a 2/6 Rhode Island bill to 10/6. Three persons were involved, Lieutenant Richard Higgenbotham, Sergeant Richard Lockwood and Ann Lockwood, the wife of Gersham Lockwood, Jr., of Greenwich. Higgenbotham was cleared by proclamation and it was ordered that the charges of prosecution be paid out of the public treasury.23 Richard Lockwood gave bail for his appearance in the amount of £100 but did not come into court, sending a note to the effect that he was too ill to attend because of pains in his neck. His bond was declared forfeited, and a scire facias was issued for his appearance before the next sessions in March. At that time he was brought into court, when his case was continued until September. He appeared then but his case was apparently dropped, and there is no further notice of it.24

Ann Lockwood was the real culprit. It was revealed that about the beginning of July Mrs. Richard Higgenbotham went from Cos Cob with four pairs of stockings for Mrs. Lockwood to sell in Greenwich. While in Greenwich Mrs. Higgenbotham sold two pairs of the stockings, one to Joseph Knap for Indian corn and another to Mr. Jessup for four shillings. She left the money and the remaining two pairs of stockings with Mrs. Lockwood. A few days later Lieutenant Richard Higgenbotham and his wife went to Ann Lockwood and gave her a 2s. bill and a 2/6 Rhode Island bill. She was to add this to the 4s. she already had from them and was to purchase for them some wool. When Mrs. Lockwood looked at the Rhode Island half crown bill,
she remarked that it was a fair opportunity to change the 2 to a 10 because of a vacancy in the paper. At this Mr. Higgenbotham told her not to do so and she said that she would not.

The temptation, however, proved too strong. She altered the bill and paid it out, together with three 2s. bills, to Benjamin Hobby for nine and a quarter pounds of wool. But soon Hobby found that the altered bill would not pass and returned it to her. Ann, thoroughly frightened, on Saturday, July 13, took the altered bill to the Higgenbothams. She told them it was the way the apple tempted Mother Eve and that she would never do such a thing again. She talked with them for about an hour under a green tree, asking them to take back the bill and to stretch the truth by saying that they had the bill of a stranger. If they would do this, she promised them £20 and said they could live at one end of her house and have the use of her cows. Her husband knew of her crime and so did his brother Joseph, who had informed her that he had a good mind to knock her on the head because her husband was like to be ruined by her confounded tricks.

Subsequently Gersham Lockwood begged Higgenbotham to burn the bill and to say nothing about Ann's confession.

Eventually Ann was taken into custody by Constable Joshua Reynolds. In September she was indicted for having altered the bill, pleaded not guilty, was tried, convicted and sentenced to stand in the pillory on three several lecture days or days of public meeting for a half hour each day. She was further to be disabled to give any evidence before any court, magistrate, or justice of the peace and was to pay costs of prosecution amounting to £6/13/6. On Saturday, September 7, she was discharged on bail provided by her husband on condition that she would appear at Fairfield on the public days appointed by the Deputy Governor to receive such parts of her punishment as had not yet been executed.25

23 S.C. Records I, Sept. 3, 1717.
24 Ibid. I, Sept. 3, 1717; Sept. 7, 1717; March 4, 1718 and II, Sept., 1718.
25 S.C. Files, Fairfield, 1712-1719, G-L, Sept., 1717; S.C. Records II, Sept. 3 and 7, 1717.

[Note: S.C. Records I and II refer to Records of the Court of Assistants and Superior Courts, 1687-1749, see Connecticut State Library. S.C. Files refers to Superior Court Files, manuscripts in the Connecticut State Library.]

Research Notes:

Donald Line Jacobus, citing a Ferris family memoir, states that Stephen Ferris born about 1740 remembered his grandmother Ann (Millington) Lockwood. The Ann Lockwood who married Samuel Ferris was the granddaughter of Robert Lockwood's son Gershom Lockwood and his unknown first wife. Jacobus' quote or paraphrase of the the Ferris memoir states, [2]

Samuel Ferris, born 1706 [hence probably the Samuel son of James Ferris Sr. recorded in Greenwich, Conn., as born 21 Sept. 1706], married Ann Lockwood, daughter of Gershom and Ann (Millingon) Lockwood, and sister of Betty Lockwod who married a Mead of Horseneck and of Gershom Lockwood Jr. who died early leaving a son Millington and a daughter who married a Hendrie. Ann (Millington) Lockwood was remembered by her grandson Stephen Ferris [born 1740, see below] as a round-faced, short, stout woman. Children of Samuel and Ann (Lockwood) Ferris:
. . .
vi. Stephen, b. 27 Dec. 1740. It was he who remembered seeing his grandmother.
. . .

From Jacobus, Donald Lines. History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield vol.1. The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company. Connecticut. 1930:
Gershom, Deputy for Greenwich, May and Aug. 1710, Oct. 1715, May and Oct. 1719, Oct. 1720, Oct. 1721, May 1723, May and Oct. 1724, May and Oct. 1726, Sept. 1727, May and July 1728; Justice; m. Mary [perhaps dau. of John Weed, born at Stamford, 21 Apr. 1684].
Correction in vol. 2Gershom m. Mary (???) (not Weed).


Footnotes:

[1] Kenneth Scott, Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut (New York: The American Numismatic Society, 1957), 23-24, [HathiTrust].

[2] Donald Lines Jacobus, "A Ferris Family Record," The American Genealogist 31 (1955), 218-219, at 218, [AmericanAncestors].