1. Nathaniel Bradford of Accomack County, Virginia - Lower ...

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Henry Smith
In the year Nathaniel served on the grand jury and was appointed a representative of the county, all of
Accomack was witness to the trial of Henry Smith, who was brought before the court repeatedly for a series
of alleged crimes, including beating his wife, raping two of his servants, starving and excessively beating
other of his servants and even causing the death of one of them. The whole affair was particularly
sensational due to the serious nature of Smith’s alleged misdeeds and the sheer number of them, but it is
more than just a lurid tale. The Henry Smith affair was the first in a series of scandals on the eastern shore
in what amounted to two years of social and political turmoil, even violence, that finally culminated in the
dissolution of Accomack County and its reincorporation into Northampton County after less than a decade
of existence.
Henry Smith was a wealthy and well-connected planter who owned the 4300-acre plantation Oak Hall in
the north of Accomack, as well as a plantation on Occahannock Creek not far from Richard Smith’s old
plantation. He seems to have had some influence with the governor, who on a previous occasion allowed
him to escape the normal course of justice in the matter of his killing of a neighbor’s livestock. 154
Influence-peddling may seem bad enough, but Smith appeared guilty of far worse. Rumors of Henry
Smith’s domestic tyranny were in circulation throughout the county even before June 1668, when his
servant Jane Powell complained to Colonel Edmund Scarburgh of the severe whippings she suffered at her
master’s hand. 155 Even though the Justices knew about Smith’s reputation for excessive cruelty, they sent
him away with only a reprimand, since this was the first complaint against him. A few months later, in
October 1668, Smith’s servant Elizabeth Carter was brought before the court on the charge of murdering
her bastard child, since it had been found by two women who viewed it to be bruised about the head and its
flesh peeled off in places. 156 Elizabeth claimed that Henry Smith was the father, and her fellow servant Jane
Hill testified that Smith “did frequently lie with [Elizabeth] and gave her physic,” presumably to prevent a
pregnancy. In December there were more revelations, as several of Smith’s other servants as well as his
wife came forward with their own complaints. The court was occupied with Smith’s trial for three days in
early December of 1668, hearing the numerous accusations against him and attempting to determine what
to do about his various alleged crimes. 157 Word of the Smith affair must have by this time spread
throughout the entire county, so it’s safe to imagine that an even larger than usual crowd of residents
gathered at Fowkes’ Tavern to view the proceedings.
Though cleared of outright murder, Elizabeth Carter was found guilty of causing the death of her child and
was fined and condemned to a public lashing. She accused Smith in writing of “tempting and alluring her to
his bed by promise of marriage with other notorious and shameful imputations,” and declared that on some
occasions Smith’s first wife’s sister, a Mrs. Holbrooke, would join them in bed. It also came out at trial that
Smith had fathered a bastard child with another servant, Ann Cooper. Three other of Smith’s servants came
forward to complain of severe beatings and of not being given enough food or clothing. Joanna Smith and
others testified to the severe beatings her husband had given her. Believing Smith’s wife to be in danger,
the court drew up Articles of Pacification, what today we would call a restraining order. Joanna pleaded for
the court to take further action to secure her safety, since her husband had threatened to move to Maryland
where he could engage in “more licentious living and liberty of using his tyranny to all under his power.”
On top of all these revelations, it came out that Smith had publicly alleged the existence of a conspiracy
against him on the part of the Justices and was known to have “said that the court had proceeded illegally
and unjustly” and that he would “make them ashamed before the governor’s council.”
In February 1669, more accusations against Smith surfaced. Smith’s servant Mary Hues accused him of
rape, which she described for the court in vivid detail. Even worse in the eyes of the court, Smith’s niece
Rachel Moody testified that Smith had attempted to suborn perjury from her by forcing her to swear to a
pre-prepared deposition denying all the complaints she had made against him. It also came out that Henry
Smith’s servants Old John and Richard Webb had both died after a long period of ill treatment by him.
Furthermore, the court declared that Smith had “the mark of God’s desertion by his pride and arrogance,” a
reference to the recent drowning of some of his livestock as well as the burning down of his house, events
that were viewed as judgments of God. On top of all this, it was made known that Smith had petitioned for
an appeal to the governor against the proceedings of the Accomack County court in an effort to damage the
Page 30 of 74 Copyright 2008 Adam M. Bradford