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Petition

William H. Calvert et al., to Beriah Magoffin

1861-07-16

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Citation

William H. Calvert et al., to Beriah Magoffin, 1861-07-16, Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Apprehension of Fugitives from Justice Papers, 1859-1862, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/KYR-0001-021-0035 (December 12, 2025).

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To his Excellency the Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky

Your Petitioners would respectfully represent unto your Excellency that at the present June Term of the Caldwell Circuit Court, the negro slave west, the property of the Estate of Jesse Williams which since the Indictment by division has fallen to James Williams, was tried upon an Indictment for the murder of Edmund Stevens and was convicted, and is under sentence to be hung on the 6^th day of september next:

Your Petitioners further state that a grudge and a malicious hatred existed between the family of Jesse Williams and the deceasd Stevens, and that the evidence in the case on the trial proved that Jesse Williams had ordered the Slave west to kill stevens and had given the slave the gun and started him off to do the act, and that the negro returned some three or four times without having perpetrated the deed, and he was asked by Williams why he had not done what he was ordered to do, and the slave informed him that the dog of stevens barked and he could not get a chance That Williams said to the slave that he had whipped him

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and by god he should kill stevens or he would kill or punish him the Comth proved the confessions of the Slave West in Court, that his master Jesse Williams had furnished west with poison to kill the dog, that west had some of the poison which was noxvomica in his pocket at the time he was imprisoned and showed it to the Jailor That he was directed by his master to put it in some meat and give it to the dog. That he did put some of the poison in some meat and threw it where he was satisfied the dog would never get it, that he did not want to kill Stevens, that he had nothing against him, That he went time and again with the gun under the order of his master to kill Stevens, of nights that he would not leave the farm of his master and would come in in the morning and tell his master he could not get a chance to kill stevens, That he put his master off in this way until the day that John Williams was to come out of Jail, on that morning his master made him take the gun and went with him to the place where Stevens was killed and made him do the deed, that his master was standing in six feet of

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him when the act was perpetrated. It was in proof in the case that Williams was a desperate ~~and~~ tyranical and overbearing man when under the influence of liquor and that he had not been sober for any length of time for three years before his death, It was further in proof that at the place from where the gun fired that killed Stevens that there was two distinct sets of tracks on a large and course set the other smaller and more delicate and the witnesses 4 in number Swore that from their knowledge of Jesse Williams and the Size of his foot that believed it to be the tracks of Jesse Williams. Under all these facts and circumstances as your Petitioners say that they feel that it is wrong that this slave west Should die for the act done by him. That he done it under the influence of fear and compulsion — That his act was not murder That he done it under the eye of his master and under the fear that he would be killed himself or great Bodily harm would be done him, if he failed or refused to obey the command of his master Your Petitioners therefore pray Your Excellency to Pardon him, or commute his punishment for life in the Penitentiary and

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State of Kentucky
Caldwell County

The affiant W H Calvert state that all the signers to the above petition was assigned by the persons whose names are subscribed to said petition or directed their names to be assigned by affiant

W H Calvert

sworn to by W H Calvert before me this 16^th day of July 1861

J. C. Barnes D C