1685.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 157 



Jeremy Collett held the oflfice of Sheriff this year. Robert 

 Eyre was continued as Clerk. The office of "peace makers" 

 was held by Caleb Puscy, Randall Vernon and Walter Faucit. 

 Their sittinf^s had become such a regular business that it was 

 known as '•'•the montluij Court." 



Heretofore the usual punishment inflicted by the Court for 

 criminal oflences, had been the imposition of a fine ; imprison- 

 ment was out of the question, for want of a jail. This desidera- 

 tum being now supplied, a reasonable hope might have been en- 

 tertained that our Quaker Justices would have been satisfied 

 with the incarceration of the violators of the law. But impri- 

 sonment was an expensive mode of punishment that the early 

 settlers, most of whom were in straitened circumstances, could 

 not have borne. Hence the law of necessity prevailed over the 

 pleadings of humanity ; and we find our County Court, for the 

 first time, resorting to Corporal punishment, just as they had 

 been provided with the means of carrying into effect the more 

 mild and humane sentence of imprisonment. The first sentence, 

 directing the infliction of Corporal punishment, was passed by 

 the February Court of this year, and what is remarkable, the 

 place of its execution was not at the seat of justice.' With the 

 omission of the name, the following is the sentence pronounced : 



" , being convicted of stealing money out of 



the house of William Browne, was ordered twelve stripes on his 

 bear backe, well laide on att the Common Whipping post at 

 Chichester,' the^th Instant, between the 10th and llth hours in 

 the morning." 



In the next case both modes of punishment are resorted to, 

 being the first sentence of imprisonment : 



" , being lawfully convicted for abusing and 



menacing the magistracy of this county, was ordered twenty-one 

 lashes att the publick whipping post on his beare backe, well 

 laid on, and 14 days imprisonment at hard labour in the house of 

 Correction." 



This sentence very clearly illustrates the ideas prevalent at 

 this time, of the necessity that existed for maintaining the inde- 

 pendence and dignity of the judiciary. Evidence of this feeling 

 pervades the Court records, from those of the Upland Court, for 

 more than half a century. At the same time another person 

 " was fined, for his contempt of the Court, 40s., in not appear- 

 ing when lawfully summoned, and for abusing the officers of the 

 Court. ' 



' It appears probable that mean* were proTided in several places within the county 

 for the infliction of corporal punishment, authorized to be inflicted by a magistrate. 

 As late as 1732 a pair of stocks were authorized to be built in Lower Darby. (See 

 Upper Darby Township Book.) 



