"John Colyer is found guilty of petit larceny and it is ordered that the said John Colyer be taken to the stocks and that he there receive twenty lashes well laid on his bare back. From which judgment James Stewart, Esq., one of the justices dissents and enters his protest that he does not believe it to be Law."
This mode of punishment may be subject to criticism, but who shall say that the "dis senting opinion " is improved upon, as to force of diction, at this day? "Ordered that Wm. Cooper an orphan Child about ten years old be bound to Ezekiel Abell Blacksmith until he attains to the age of Twenty one years. And said Abell binds himself to endeavor to learn said boy his Art and Mystery and to provide for said boy agreeable to act of Assembly."
This entry shows that the waif of the set tlement was the ward of the court, — that the court was not too busy suppressing "toryism" to put the hand of the orphan in its own. "Joseph Culton came into court and proved by the Oath of Alexander Moffett that he lost part of his left ear in a fight with a certain Charles Young and prays the same to be entered of record."
It was the oath that the said Joseph desired to have entered of record; and this presuma bly that he might have a certified copy of the entry to take with him as he went farther westward, evidencing for him that his loss had been at the hands of Charles Young in open fight, rather than in some method despised by the frontiersmen. That the court was a social factor, and given to vouch ing for the good character of emigrants from its jurisdiction, is shown by the following: "Ordered that the Clerk certify that Edmond Williams, Esqr., is a person of good behavior and honest character and that he be recommended to the favorable notice of all to whom he may have occasion to cultivate an Acquaintance." "Chas. Robertson proved by the oath of John Sevier the conveyance of a certain tract or territory
of land as in the deed prescribed from Oconastoto the Tennessee Warrior The Breed Slave Catcher Artacullacullah and Chinatah Chiefs of the Chero kee nation and same is ordered to be recorded."
John Sevier, so often referred to in the quotations, was clerk of the court. He was a master-spirit among the settlers, and after wards became one of the greatest Indian fighters of the Southwest, and dreaded as "Nolachucky Jack " by the Cherokees. In 1788 another master-spirit, Andrew Jackson, came to Jonesborough, and entered upon a career that was destined to bring him into bitter rivalry with Sevier. Jackson had read law at Morganton, North Carolina, and upon coming to the bar set out for the coun try across the mountains, commissioned by the authorities of North Carolina as prose cuting attorney. One of his first contests at the bar was with Col. Waightsill Avery, men tioned above. It is quite likely that Avery appeared in defence of some person indicted under the administration of the young prose cuting attorney. Jackson's first duel grew out of this contest. It seems that Colonel Avery had the better side of the cause, and that Jackson foresaw defeat, and tried to break his fall by a bit of pleasantry in the perpetration of a practical joke on his oppo nent. Avery, as was the custom in those days of circuit riding, carried his few books and briefs in a pair of saddle-bags (lc. green bag was not for the frontier lawyer). Jack son knew that the authority relied upon by Colonel Avery to win the case was Bacon's "Abridgments," and knowing where the book was kept, he went to the saddle bags and extracted the book, substituting a piece of bacon of the same shape. When, in the course of his argument, Colonel Avery had occasion to appeal to his authority, he took from his saddle-bags the package and unfolded it before the court and jury. His precedent did not apply! Sus pecting Jackson of being the guilty person, Colonel Avery turned upon him and abused him without stint. Jackson was much an
