Abstracted by Keddie/Keddie
Worcester County Land Records
Liber L
Folio 410
Depositions taken at Snow Hill Town on 7 April 1786 to be read as evidence in a suit between Benjamin Purnell plaintiff and John Ayres defendant
George Purnell of lawful age deposes that some time in September or October last as well as this deponent can recollect he saw William Holland, John Ayres and a Negro fellow in the neck near Benjamin Purnell’s and inquired of them concerning their business there. Holland told him that they had been looking for a deer which John Ayres shot at the night before and that they had the Negro fellow with them to carry the deer away if they found it. This deponent inquired of them what was the meaning of so many guns being fired as he had heard that morning. Holland told him that John Ayres had been shooting ducks and Ayres told him that Holland has shot at a fawn in the Neck; that he does not remember any further conversation ; shortly afterwards they left him. In a little while Mr. Isaac Purnell came up to him and while they were talking Benjamin Purnell joined them and asked this deponent to walk with him into the neck for that he had reason to believe that some of his tame deer had been shot and that he wished to find it out and that they accordingly walked into the Neck and after walking some distance they discovered what is commonly called a buckscrape and blood on the ground which they tracked some distance but lost the track. They walked about the neck two or three hours in search of the deer but could not find it upon which this deponent left and returned home. That late in the afternoon Benjamin Purnell came to this deponent again and told him that he had found one of his tame deer killed (which was in the mark of his hogs) and covered up with leaves. That this deponent went with Benjamin Purnell into the neck in company with William Campbell and his son and came to the deer covered with leaves, which deer was marked apparently with an old mark as the ears were well. The mark as this deponent has on his memory but can not be positive as to his being exact was cropt and under the left ear and over the right a bit; but he remembers that the said Purnell and William Campbell both said at the time that it was the mark of said Purnell’s hogs. This deponent further says that there appeared to be the marks of horses having been tied the night before at the place where the deer was found; that after having taken particular notice of the place where the deer lay, they retired and that about two or three hours in the night they saw two men on horseback coming by at the mouth of the lane between Mrs. Marchment’s and this deponent’s plantation, going up the road, that after they had been gone about half an hour, two men whom this deponent took to be the same returned coming towards Snow Hill and the men this deponent took to be a white man on a white horse with a gun in his hand and the other appeared to be a Negro with a deer on his horse before him. That William Campbell spoke to the white man asking him some question and called him Mr. Ayres and that the man answered and from the voice this deponent believes it to be John Ayres. That after the man parted. This deponent and his company went back to the place where they left the deer and that the deer was gone and further this deponent saith not
Before: John Selby
William Campbell of lawful age saith that on or about the 15th of
November last at the request of George Purnell he went over to the said Purnell’s
house where he found Benjamin Purnell who appeared to be very uneasy and told
this deponent that somebody had killed his old deer in the Neck, that this
deponent and his son, Benjamin Purnell and George Purnell went into the Neck and
found a deer lying dead, that the deer was stiff and that on turning her up
there appeared shot holes in her side, in a thicket covered over with leaves and
trash. That this deponent examined the ears and found the deer was marked with a
crop and slit on the left and over bit the right which this deponent believes
that he has seen on some of Mr. Purnell’s creatures. This deponent saith that
there appeared the marks of two or three horses having been tied a short time
before near the place where the deer lay. This deponent saith that about two or
three hours in the night of the same day, this deponent being at the mouth of
the lane between Mrs. Marshment and George Purnell’s plantation in company
with Benjamin Purnell, George Purnell, his son and Ryly Marshment also being at
a little distance, two men came up the road from towards Snow Hill and one a
white man and the other a Negro, the white man on a white horse carrying a gun
whom this deponent knew to be John Ayres and the Negro on a brown horse. That
they passed and turned out into the Neck round a pond of water and after having
been a quarter of an hour or something more the same two men returned and when
they came opposite to this deponent, this deponent spoke to the white man and
said how fare you Mr. Ayres, the man reply How are you Billy and rode on. This
deponent jumped into the road and there being some space between the white man
and the Negro he got between and took hold of the deer which the Negro had on
his horse and felt one of the ears, the mark of which was the same as the deer
that he had seen in the woods. That he asked the Negro whose deer it was and he
said Mr. Ayres’s and that he rode on after the white man. That sometime
afterwards this deponent went with Benjamin Purnell and George Purnell to the
place and the said deer was gone
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