Mercy Leroux

Trigger warning for this post.

Sometimes you read things so upsetting you want to jump through the page/screen and scream, and reading about revolutionary Boston’s gaolkeeper did that to me.

The Boston gaol was rebuilt in 1768, and by 1770 its keeper was one of several men in Boston named Joseph Otis.

According to A Genealogical and Historical Memoir of the Otis Family in America, this particular Joseph was married to Mercy Little, and if I may impart some snark, it seems her name was a perfect description of Joseph’s approach to gaolkeeping. (I mean no insult to Mercy Little herself; she may have been perfectly lovely).

Otis shows up briefly in Peter Edes’ diary during the Siege of Boston, handing a prayer book from one of the Bunker Hill prisoners over to British Major Harry Rooke, but otherwise he doesn’t really appear. Edes and Leach’s diaries focus far more on the “ill usage” (abuse) they received at the hands of Provost William Cunningham and his deputy, Samuel Dyer.

But it seems this was a precedent that Joseph Otis also partook in, if we consider two petitions filed on March 28, 1770.

At this time, the gaol held five men implicated in an armed burglary ring that focused on fabrics and alcohol. Staymaker Richard Smith, laborer George Ogilvie, and painter George White formed the main trio of robbers, and their occasional partners were Charles Lee (no, not the General) and a man called John Newingham Clark or John Pond (several gaol records indicate that “Clark” was his alias).

The thefts seem to have begun in the summer of 1769. On June 6, the main trio made off with 13 beaver hats, 96 silk caps, and 150 yards of lace, and on June 15, Smith allegedly involved his wife Susanna in yet another theft. The next robbery charge was for October 19, and the three escalated on November 6, when Smith, Ogilvie, White, and Clark stole valuable ribbons, satin, and thread. Two days later, on November 8, the main trio teamed up with Lee to steal claret and an assortment of fabrics.

Shortly thereafter, the men were confined to Boston’s gaol, awaiting trial. Susanna was also summoned to court and, according to a petition dated December 19, 1769, confined for refusing to give testimony against her husband. A judge, however, consented to discharging Susanna, writing that they considered Richard’s confinement binding enough to ensure she would appear at trial.

Their trial was not held until April, so the five men still languished in gaol by late March 1770. (Smith ultimately pled not guilty to the count involving Susanna and two others; to the November 6 incident, he and Clark pled guilty. White joined Smith in a guilty plea for the October 19 robbery.)

It wasn’t uncommon for wives to visit their husband in gaol and bring food and supplies, and Susanna Smith and Mrs. White were no exception. (As an aside, I suspect Mrs. White’s name was Elizabeth, because an Elizabeth White is summoned to court as a witness in a charge specific to George White breaking and entering a home without his usual posse, but I can’t be sure.)

Unfortunately, although they cared for their husbands, Susanna and Mrs. White suffered much in return.

Smith’s complaint reads as follows:

“[My] Wife Came into the Goal[sic] yard, and went on an Errand for one of the prisoners that was close confined, when she returned with the Errand shee met with Anthony,{?} the Owner of the Goal, which he went and through her down in the Mud and Dirt and afterwards used her in a Barbarous Manner Unhuman like.”

He goes on to add that his wife was “big with child” and “by her Discourse afterward, I believed it will cost her, her life.” Smith finishes by pleading with the Judges to intervene, and lists sixteen witnesses, several of which may be familiar:

George Ogilvie, William Whems, William Warren, Daniel Balding, John Clark, Hugh Anderson, Charles Lee, Patrick Freeman, Ebbinneaser Richardson, William White, James Hatrican, Hew White, Elisha Richards, William Benjamin, John Gaant, and George Willmott.

Yep – four of the Massacre soldiers witnessed this attack and had their names added to this petition: Cpl. William Wemys, William Warren, James Hartigan, and Hugh White. (Why not the others? We don’t know, but prisoners were typically four or five to a cell; the other four may very likely have been in a different cell, unable to witness this. Capt. Preston, as a gentleman, would also have been in a different cell.) Not only them, but Ebenezer Richardson and George Wilmot, both confined for shooting Christopher Seider, are also listed.

I’m not sure why Smith seems to refer to the keeper as Anthony, as the keeper was Otis, who is correctly identified per the next petition. Because, unfortunately, it seems Susanna was not the only woman to suffer at his hands. On the same day, George White submitted the following:

“Yr Poor Petitioner Humbly Beegs that you would be so good as to have me & my poor Distressed Loving Wife Justly Rrighted for God knows it is a Great Heart Braking to me that Mr. Otis Goaler should use my Wife in such an Unjust manner for to hinder her from giving me what Provisions she can gett for me to Subsist on…

I think it is very hard that when my wife wanted to come Last Fryday, Mr. Otis would not Let her come into the Goal Yard because she told him she would Complain to his Superior he Pushed her down and Yoused (used) her very ill… so that she Could not Come out of her house… I was told she Was Hurted by Mr. Otis very Much which gives me a great deal of trouble this is not the first nor Second Time that Mr. Otis & his Son both has Yoused (used) my wife very ill… Last Fryday he told me the Damned Bitch should never Come to me no more & if I had said one word In her Behalf he would have Kept me in the Dungeon during is pleasure.”

White lists no witnesses, but given the conjunction with Smith’s petition, I’m inclined to believe him. Unfortunately, I’m not sure anything significant came of these complaints, seeing as Otis still kept the gaol five years later.

Ill usage was generally a term for abuse. It could mean anything from cruel words to beatings, as in the case of Edes and Leach. However… it could also mean sexual harassment/assault. Given the descriptions provided (“he would have Kept me in the Dungeon during [h]is pleasure“), I have concerns Susanna Smith and Mrs. White suffered more than just punches and kicks. Either way, these ladies deserved better.

Presumably, Susanna and her baby survived (or I speculate something more severe would have happened to Mr. Otis, but again, that’s just speculation). Ultimately, the five men were convicted in mid-April, and on May 2nd, two boys of Richard and Susanna were taken into the Boston almshouse, presumably because their mother could not afford to keep them with her.

I tried to look up what happened next, but there’s a number of Richard Smiths in Boston at this time. There only possible mention I found was a child named Richard Smith who indentured himself out of the almshouse on June 6, 1770, to Seth Loomis of Westfield until May 22, 1783. Whether this was the son of the convicted Richard Smith is unknown.

The Smith children weren’t the only ones who had to rely on the almshouse. Per the almshouse records, George White was still in gaol when his two children were received into the almshouse July 16, 1771. Which is just… very sad.

To Mr. Otis and his son (he had several, so I’ve no idea which one participated): may you be remembered forever in great infamy. One might say, with Little Mercy.

Next week we’ll discuss a separate incident prior to the Massacre, in which a soldier was arrested, but his fellow soldiers said “nah, I don’t think so” and broke him out of jail.