Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

150 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES.
William and John Casely, and Thomas Shaw, neither of
whom have any male descendants in the town or county of
Barnstable. John Crocker's crime was committed before he
came to Barnstable, and strictly cannot be charged as the
act of a Barnstable man. The charges against William
Casely were not criminal, and did not subject him to any
legal punishment. Though educated, he was a vulgar man,
and though a professor of religion, he did not live a Christian
life. He was weak-minded, vain, frivolous, and committed
acts that gentlemen are ashamed to have laid to their
charge. The sentence of ex-communication pronounced
against him was a righteous one ; and though he continued
to reside in Barnstable, he sunk into merited ignominy.
The crime for which John Casely was punished is not stated,
and as the laws are now administered he would not be held
liable in the manner he was two centuries ago.
The complaint against Thomas Shaw was that he went
into the house of his neighbor, John Crocker, on the Sab-
bath, and helped himself to something to eat. It was not a
justifiable act, neither was it very criminal. (See Matthew,
Chap, xii : 1 to 6.)
In these three short paragraphs I have given an abstract
of the criminal calender of a generation of men, the first settlers,
the ancestors of nineteen-twentieths of the present
inhabitants of Barnstable. If a parallel can be found in the
annals of any of our towns, I am not aware of it.